Burgundy dinner

[Thomas]

Well, I was afraid you would ask. In general, the dinner was fine. Only two incidents when I felt the food and wine match failed, but it was because the food prep was mediocre at best. The crostini was overbearing--too much flavor for the wine, and the mushroom ravioli didn't quite make it to the wine's level.

A few of the reds were a little too New World for me--I like Burgundy when it tastes like Burgundy--especially the Volnay was a disappointment to me; none of the silky, subtleness that Volnay should be.

But the real failure was in the idea. is-wine, my shop, sponsored the dinner in the hope that we would sell some wine. The distributor/importer gave the wine free to the dinner and we subsidized the dinner. He and we lost a few hundred dollars, since the diners took advantage of the bargain, but only for the dinner and not for the reduced prices for the wines. I believe our mistake is that we teach our customers to seek value, and so they are hard-pressed to spend Burgundy dollars...

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 03-12-2002).]