October 16, 2024
A special day at Spruce Farm & Fish, part of the Hotel Boulderado, one of Boulder's oldest establishments. Hotel Boulderado opened with a Gala Ball on New Years Eve 1908. Their downstairs bar is (literally) License #1.
Tonight, Joseph Drouhin Winery has sent Laurent Drouhin to host the dinner. He was delightful, said that you need to talk about wine in French! He’s part of the 4th generation to take part in running the winery, founded in 1880.
Wow! That’s quite a menu. We were a bit surprised because Spruce is a pretty informal place. They went all-out with this one and pulled it off beautifully.
The start. There is really only room for the 1st 3 flights of wine at the small tables on the 2nd floor.
We were surprised by the 1st course! It was just served on napkins, since it’s a stuffed puff pastry with crudités as a topping. This was really neat, it turns out that mushroom pâté and brie are a really neat combo.
There were enough of us at the event so that the staff had to hurry a bit with each flight and Martin couldn’t get pictures of each wine. The description on the menu of the wine paired with this doesn’t exactly match Joseph Drouhin’s web site, but it was probably the Chablis Réserve de Vaudon 2022 (https://www.drouhin.com/en_US/wine/chablis-reserve-de-vaudon/2022) Their description of it was right on:
“An elegant wine. Brilliant colour, with hints of green. Typical Chablis nose, where aromas of citrus (lemon) fern and even salty sensations predominate. On the palate: vigorous and lively, but in a soft mode. A lot of finesse and balance.”
The white balsamic vinegar glaze and apples went went perfectly with the rich scallops, Bright vinegar and earthy scallops is a neat combo. The microgreens added a nice accent.
The chef described it as “an apple salad, Fuji and Granny Smith, mixed with pea micros and cilantro.” Chefs just say “micros” not “microgreens”
This was paired with Rully Blanc 2022. We found these 1st two wines to be similar, with this one being a bit fuller and more complex. We agreed with their description:
“A wine full of charm! The colour is a beautiful white gold, with a ravishing purity and brilliance. The aromas are fresh and fruity, with nuances of broom shrub, almond and delicious preserved citrus notes. On the palate, it is fresh and elegant. A long and delicious aftertaste makes for a lasting impression.”
The third course, a wonderful Roasted Duck on Potatoes Dauphinoise. The potatoes dauphinois are made was a very mild cheese. The slowly cooked wine sauce is fairly sweet. The sharp Endive was a delightful contrast to the sweet sauce. The wine sauce perfectly complements the duck.
The Chef, “This is the duck course so you’ve got a roasted duck that is served with a pan, seared Belgian endive and a potato dauphinois so the sauce on the bottom is a very slow cooked red wine sauce, and we use the wine from this course to make the sauce for the duck.
This was paired with the Côte de Beaune Rouge, a fresh and bright red. We didn’t make any notes ourselves, but their description is perfect:
“A true delight and a great harmony! A beautiful purple colour. On the nose, delicate and fruity aromas such as strawberry and red currant. On the palate, the tannins are refined and lend a nice roundness to the body. Elegant aftertaste.”
The fourth course, lamb chops on a bed of Parmesan and Truffle Risotto. The shitake mushrooms in the lamb and veal sauce were Martin’s favorite part of this course! The truffle in the risotto did the usual truffle trick of making the parmesan bigger, which was neat.The lamb should really have been a bit more on the rare side, but like the Chef said:
“With a risotto truffle risotto on the bottom and then the sauce is actually a lamb stock and veal sauce with roasted shiitake, cured black olives and roasted shallots and then we finish it with a little bit of seared chard on top. I hope you enjoy and I know that we probably cook this one maybe a little more than what we normally would. A lot of times we do get it sent back so we did shoot for a more medium to medium well enjoy”
The wine pairing was Vosne-Romanée and it started out with a massive berry hit, Bill caught a bit of spice on the nose, then it opened up a bit to a hint of strawberry. Here’s what they say about it (we just don’t speak wine!):
“Supreme elegance! Beautiful colour, with intense and bright reflections. The diversity of the aromas is striking: wild cherry, nutmeg, camphor wood, fine leather... Later on, the wine takes on a subtle aroma of truffle, producing the most varied palette. With its perfect balance between tannin and acidity, the wine has a fleshy, sturdy body. Powerful and long aftertaste. A wealth of harmonious sensations characterizes this great Burgundy.”
The fifth course is a truly amazing dessert. The mango and passion fruit sorbet is simply amazing, just wow! It is surprisingly bright, a blast of citrus!! There are four small piped bits of it at the top as well as the main portion in the middle.
The creamy cheesecake is like nothing we’ve ever had. It’s really, really creamy, not like a cheesecake, but with cheesecake flavor.
Martin had to savor this slowly!
Chef:
“With a vanilla cheesecake, so the two white mounds are vanilla cheesecake and then with that we’ve got a passionfruit mango sorbet but it’s a passion fruit so the little stars are passion fruit curd and then it’s topped with an oat butter crumble and then pistachios.”
The dessert pairing is a potent Maison Massenez Golden Eight Pear Liquor. The rep says it takes 20 pounds of pears to make a bottle. It was a perfect pairing!