Remem­ber that time that I went to Cap­it­ol for a Seris­en wine din­ner that cost $85 and was frick­ing amaz­ing? Well it turns out that there’s some­thing sim­il­ar hap­pen­ing every month at Cel­lar-Vate, but for only $35! Holy crap! So, in order to invest­ig­ate this phe­nomen­on for you, my dear read­er, my fear­less din­ing com­pan­ion Kar­en and I sub­jec­ted ourselves to six courses of food matched with Clear­view wines last night. Oh the human­ity.

It’s such a hard­ship to sit down to dine with new people just wait­ing to become your friends, Rachel from Cel­lar­vate who took the time to explain her menu selec­tions, and two people from the winery to chat to. Food was served on com­mun­al plates, and while it was­n’t huge amounts of any­thing, even Kar­en and I, who do like our food a lot, left sat­is­fied. You need to go to Cel­lar Vate on Moles­worth and ask them to put you on their mail­ing list so you can come along to the next diner. The menu after the jump.

Clear­view Estate Semil­lon 07 – Artichoke and green bean salad, chive and lime vinai­grette There isn’t a huge amount of Semil­lon avail­able by itself (not mixed with Sav), but with wines this nice, there really should be. People said that the food really brought out the cit­rus fla­vours in the wine, but I was too busy being happy eat­ing artichokes that wer­en’t all briney like hearts nor­mally are.

Clear­view Estate Gewürztram­iner 07 – Tast­ing spoon of seared scal­lop, asi­an vin­eg­ar with fei­joa essence The Clear­view reps were a little hes­it­ant about how the fei­joa would sit with the wine, but it turned out to be bril­liant match, but the con­sensus was that there was a little too much vin­eg­ar, which did­n’t reflect well on the wine. I’m nor­mally a big gewurzt fan, but this was a tiny bit too mild for my lik­ing. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still very drink­able, but I like my gewurzt to have a bit more ooomph.

Clear­view Estate Beach­head Chardon­nay 07 – White fish and potato cake in oat­meal crumb, pre­served lem­on, tartare This was the second-best match of the night, and oh my god it was divine. The fish­cakes were fluffy and full of life, rather than the chewy things you might have had at Thai res­taur­ants, and the wine was lightly oaked, and oh so sub­lime. Mmmmmm.

Clear­view Estate Reserve Caber­net Franc 06 – Peppered lamb fil­let (medi­um rare), black­berry jus Some argued that the lamb was a little too pep­pery, and that it could have been a little pinker, but the black­berry sauce was out­stand­ing, so much so that each piece of lamb had to be double-dipped into it. The Caber­net Franc was scrump­tious too, really really smooth for a 2006, and without any puck­ery tan­nins. I went to the bath­room at this stage, and when I came back there was more wine in my glass, which tasted com­pletely dif­fer­ent without the food, so I thought we’d moved on to the mer­lot. But no, it was just a dif­fer­ent nuance to the Caber­net Franc. Splen­did.

Clear­view Estate Mer­lot Franc 06 – Ven­ison pas­tie, onion-tomato chut­ney Nom nom nom. Filo pastries filled with minced ven­ison? Yes please. I thought the wine match was abso­lutely per­fect too, although some ques­tioned the sweet­ness of the chut­ney. Some people talk too much, I think. I wish I could have had a thou­sand more pastries.

Clear­view Estate Sea Red dessert wine 06 – Chilli chocol­ate Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God. Kar­en tried say­ing some­thing about this, but I held up my hand in her dir­ec­tion (I had my eyes closed) and told her to leave me alone with my mouth. Oh my god. Ser­i­ously, wow. Just, wow. The Sea Red was a rich rich sweeter wine, for­ti­fied with brandy up to 17.5% alco­hol, and it was ever so slightly salty. The chilli chocol­ate from Shoc was also rich and smooth and with just a little bit of a kick. The two togeth­er in your mouth was like the most awe­some thing I’ve had in there all year, and I’ve had a lot of good things in my mouth this year. Again, wow, just wow. This will be what the McLeods are eat­ing for Xmas this year, even if the Sea Red is $37 for a half bottle. See you at the next din­ner!