Eating at Dos Brisas

My sweet ever lovin’ and I spent a night out of town last week at a place called the Inn at Dos Brisas. It is a 330 acre property with four “casitas” and an excellent fine dining restaurant run by Jason Robinson. The meal itself is reason enough to leave town, but the relaxing setting (and horseback riding!) made it all the more worthwhile.

While making the reservations I opted for the tasting menu (Chef’s Grand Collection) with accompanying wine selection. It was the right thing to do, but if we were going to spend more than one night there, I don’t think that our stomachs could take two nights of such adventure.

The dinner started with the most amazing wine for an aperitif. It was a sparkling Riesling from Lingenfelder called the Sekt Satyr. It was a nicely acid, rather dry, minerality sparkling wine that you would not have guessed was a Riesling. Well, maybe a little. An excellent drink. The Amuse Bouche that they brought with this was a collection of local small tomatoes from the garden. Red, Yellow, Black, and two toned small tomatoes with greens and a light vinaigrette. My bouche was amused.

For the appetizer, they brought us two different dishes. As a matter of fact, they brought us different dishes and wines for each course. I will try to do them justice. Doreen started with a Sake cured sea trout in its own row, detailed with garden microgreens. Wow! What a fish. The roe just popped in your mouth and the trout was very subtle. I had sesame tuna martini, with wasabi tobiko and sesame soya. Great, rich flavors jumped out of my martini glass (set in ice). For wines, I had a Palacio de Menade Verdejo from 2002 (!). IT held its age well, and had some nice rich undertones. Doreen had a White Burgundy – Domaine Fèvre Montmains 1er Crue. Top quality, crisp chardonnay.

Next we had two Foie Gras dishes. I started with sear Foie with brûléed banana and chocolate ganache (yes, bananas and chocolates!). Doreen started with the same seared foie, but with poached rhubarb and burnt honey ice cream. We had a Madeira from The Rare Wine Company as our wine. Doreen was a little put off by the wine, and though the chocolate was too early in the meal. I agreed, but though the wine was fine. The foie, however, was delicious.

The soup course was next, and this may have been the highlight of the meal. I had a caramelized lobster bisque, which was wonderful, but Doreen had a truffled garden vichyssoise. Oh! That vichyssoise brings tears to your eyes! The black truffles just leapt up and grabbed you, kissed you, and have you a back rub. It was just great. We had no wine with the soup. I am not sure if that was by design or by accident. It did make us concentrate, I can tell you that.

Next was the fish course. (Wait, didn’t we already have a fish course? I guess that was the appetizer) Doreen was served a roasted LaBell Rouge salmon, with garden arugula, sunchoke purée and olive dressing. I had a seared Alaskan halibut with organic sweet pea purée, yellowfoot chanterelles, and red wine essence. The wines were an Austrian Riesling (Berger, from Steingraben) and a German 1996 (again !) Riesling from Kloster Eberach. I think that the German Riesling was better, but they were both great.

The meat course was next – a roasted venison loin, chickpea purée, with garden chard and some Texas Akaushu Beef Filets, with garden Brussels sprouts and a rutabaga purée. The wines were a 1998 Del Dotto Sangiovese from Napa and a 1988 Bairrada from Luis Baga (that is Portuguese). It had been aged in chestnut barrels which gave it quite an interesting aromatic aroma. Both wines were extremely bold considering their age. The meats were perfect – the beef was almost raw and the venison had a deep roasted wild flavor.

Next (no, we’re not done yet!) we had some local Dos Brisas cheeses – a goat and a milk cheese aged on premises along with a raspberry flavored beer (Liefmans Frambozenbier from Belgium). An odd, but remarkably tasty combination.

We finally ended with a chocolate covered bombe. Oh! It was almost too much. We had more mareira (from 1922!) to go with it. Then we staggered back to our casita and swore we would never eat again.

Or at least until breakfast…