I’ve long thought of Alamos wines as a culinary chum. Food friendly. Good character. Exceptional value.
In fact, I have recommended Alamos often to fellow shoppers in the liquor store at Costco, a trusted resource for wines and spirits.
So I was happy to be invited to a five-course tasting of Alamos wines and dishes at Ela, the hip and innovative bistro in Philadelphia’s Queen Village whose edgy chef, Jason Cichonski, is as hot as his grill.
It was a memorable night for the noshing press as Jimena Turner, a charming and knowledgeable ambassador for Alamos, guided diners through four reds and a white produced by Argentina’s most prolific winemakers.
Chef Jason created a stellar menu of pairings, starting with Alamos 2012 Torrentes, a fresh white with citrus notes, teamed with spruce smoked amberjack with preserved lemon, capers and brown butter. (I’m now in the process of preserving lemons at home in the hope I can pull together a dish even half as memorable as complex melange of freshness, savory and salt.)
The 2012 Malbec, my go-to red at Costco, played nicely with an earthy tartare of roasted beets with celery root, creamy house ricotta and crisp pumpernickel pita chips. It tastes way more expensive than its price tag of $7 and change, especially with an expert pairing.
Homemade spaghetti with bone marrow and wild mushrooms served with a hearty 2012 Red Blend proved a rhapsodic and rustic twosome.
Our favorite of the Alamos offerings is the 2011 Seleccion Malbec, whose round, lush and sophisticated fruit was an ideal match for the richness of wagyu beef with pumpkin, smoked potato and black garlic. It’s deep garnet color is so lovely you might be tempted to take it straight to the paint store for a match. (At less than $20 a bottle, it’s the most expensive and an affordable splurge.)
The mocha notes of the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon were a natural with dessert, a soft mound of chocolate with rosemary, raspberry and pistachio.
Chef Jason, who showed us the elaborate Ela tattoo recently inked onto his mightily muscled thigh, is focused, intense and even hunkier in person than he is on the current season of Top Chef, set in New Orleans.
I’d root for him naturally, simply because he grew up in Northeast Philly, right across the Delaware from Palmyra, N.J., my home town. After tasting his food and his skill at coaxing the best notes from the wine, I’ll stand up and cheer.
At our house, we are uncorking a memorable bubbly from J Winery & Vineyards in California’s glorious Sonoma Valley. We first visited the winery outside Healdsburg about 10 years ago, a pleasant jaunt from San Francisco, where we were visiting my brother-in-law, the artist Daniel Dallabrida. We brought back a bottle of J Cuvee Brut for a party he was giving to introduce his East Coast kin to West Coast friends.
