Le Cadeau - Pinot Noir

Price: $30
Region: Oregon
Year: 2007

This is not going to be my typical review. I'm going to branch out a bit this week and write about the restaurant my wife & I visited last week. While I'll highlight a great wine I tasted, I'll also touch a bit on some of the other wines, all of which I enjoyed very much. Since our two boys had an overnight stay at summer camp, my wife and I had a night to ourselves, and we surely weren't about to just sit around the house. While we had visited this particular wine bar in Wilmington, DE once before with friends, it had been quite a while, so we thought it a good time to visit again. I thoroughly enjoyed it last time, and wasn't expecting anything different this time around.

To describe the entire evening could get kind of lengthy, so to make a long story short, we decided to order the 6 course, chef's special tasting. This was basically leaving our food choices to the chef's descretion, most of which was not on the menu. We just told our server a couple of items we were not overly fond of, and the rest was up to them. Each course was really a tasting, and not a full serving, but with 6 courses, we surely weren't going to go hungry. With each course, our server would give us a few different wines that he thought paired well with what was being served, and we could either choose a 1.5 oz., 3.0 oz., or 5 oz. serving. Most of the time we just had a small taste, especially with the whites, but when we got to my favorites reds, that paired with the main course, I figured a full glass was the way to go.

We started off with a taste of some sparkling wine (CastellRoig Cava Brut) from Spain. Sparkling wine isn't my favorite, but it really wasn't a bad way to start off the evening. Next, we had a delicious fig, stuffed with some kind of cheese. With this, I tried a Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. If Sparkling wine isn't my thing, Chardonnay is even further down on the list, but again, not a bad wine at all. Maybe I'm starting to broaden my horizons, who knows. The next was a wonderful lobster salad, with which I tried a taste of a fairly sweet German Riesling (Fritz Windisch). A couple of more courses found their way around, including an absolutely wonderful piece of filet mignon. As one would expect, I went straight to the Cab for this course, and this one did not disappoint. I had a glass of Carl Roy "East Side Cuvee" 2007 Cabernet. This wine had a wonderful aroma, and a very smooth finish, the was just an excellent companion for the filet. With another course, I gave the Bodega Rejadorada (Tempranillo) a try, and this was the only wine that seemed a bit off. While it was not a bad wine, I was just hoping for a little more. Finally, we decided to skip dessert, and instead had a cheese tray brought out with 6 or 7 different kind of cheese. I was torn between the cheddar & the blue cheese as my favorites, but both went great with my final wine choice. I had a glass of the Le Cadeau "Red Label" Pinot Noir (2007), and enjoyed every minute of it. It is just one of those wines you can tell a lot of care and attention went into making. While I will be the first to admit I always favor the big, bold red wines, it definitely seems to me, that when you pay a little extra for a good Pinot Noir, they are simply hard to match. This wine had a great unique flavor, with a finish of soft tannins & great berry aroma. A wonderfully complex wine, that just topped off a spectacular evening. Although a little pricey in the end, I think you just have to treat yourself every now and again when the opportunity presents itself.

Rating: 4.5 corks (A great wine, a great Wine Bar, and great evening)