Mez Announces a March Wine Dinner, Featuring Chatham Hill Winery

“Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost; united and well matched they are as body and soul, living partners.” - Andre Simon

"Wine should be eaten, it is too good to be drunk." - Jonathan Swift

Over the past four or five years, I've developed the opinion that wine dinners are one of the pinnacles of fine dining experiences. Enjoying multiple courses of gourmet, chef concocted dishes paired with unique wines often creates a stimulating, memorable, educational and relaxing experience. A wine dinner can be a beautiful marriage between a cutting edge restaurant and a formidable winery; the subtle characteristics of a precisely crafted wine emphasized and exploited by the bold creativity of a chef's vision.

With that in mind, we'd like to announce that Mez Contemporary Mexican Restaurant will be hosting its very first wine dinner, March 12, 2011! Five creative courses will be prepared by Mez culinary team, Aaron Stumb, Jeff Robinson and Michael Barnes. Each course will be paired with a unique varietal wine from local winery, Chatham Hill Winery! We're proud to collaborate with Chatham Hill Winery in this endeavor.

A big thanks to Chatham Hill Winery Sales Director Steve Simmons who dropped by Mez Contemporary Mexican Restaurant last Thursday afternoon (1/13/2011) to talk with us about the winery and let us sample a few of their wines. A Viognier, a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Cabernet Franc were poured, sampled and discussed by Mr. Simmons, the CHRG Catering team and the Mez culinary team. Can North Carolina wines be properly paired with contemporary Mexican dishes? After tasting a few of Chatham Hill's North Carolina varietals, we emphatically believe that our guests will not be disappointed!

Just twenty-four hours after our tasting session with Steve Simmons, a draft of the wine dinner menu was completed and placed in my hands by a very excited Chef de Cuisine, Jeff Robinson. The menu features seven courses, including a preliminary Amuse Bouche course and an Intermezzo course to transition from the lighter courses to the heavier courses. Stay posted for the menu details. We'll publish it to this blog in just a few weeks!

Being North Carolina's first urban winery, and the first winery in the Triangle, Chatham Hill Winery is well established as a community and industry cornerstone in our area. Their line of Sweet Carolina Fruit Infused Wines are available at most Triangle grocers, and their varietal wines are available by the glass at many Triangle venues. Most of their wines are created from grapes grown in Western North Carolina, a majority from the Yadkin River Valley. True to their philosophy of using local products whenever possible, Chatham Hill Winery commissions a North Carolina glass company to manufacture their bottles and a company in Zebulon, NC to make their synthetic corks. We're looking forward to working with Chatham Hill Winery, winemaker Marek Wojciechowski, Steve Simmons!