Wine Dinner Featuring Freemark Abbey
Thursday night February 22, Freemark Abbey decanted its famous wines for this restaurant’s monthly wine dinner. The menu’s starter was a crostini di bresaola, a cured beef on a crust wedge, served with Freemark Abbey’s 2002 Cabernet. The Napa Valley vineyard’s 2004 Chardonnay accompanied a truly angelic broth of prawns and angel hair. The winemakers’ 2004 Viognier was extremely well received when it was served along with an artichoke salad dusted with Parmesan.
Guests were amazed to sample the desert of strawberries sweetened by a marinade of balsamic vinegar. The Edelwein Gold dessert wine was a sublime companion. But when Freemark Abbey Assistant Winemaker Ryan Kosi said that the dessert wine being sampled was the last of its vintage and was not going to be produced again for a few years, a sigh of disappointment rose from the tables.
Freemark Abbey’s history goes back to 1881 when it was started by Josephine and John Tychson on 147 acres north of St. Helena. There have been several owners in the intervening decades and the winery has recently been sold to Kendall Jackson.
Kosi assured that the large conglomerate of spirits would allow Freemark Abbey ample latitude in managing its affairs.
