So I go to a wine dinner to meet a new winemaker who specializes in red wines, and I end up falling in love with a white…

Invited to taste some of the mega-hip Plumpjack Group wines, at the mega-famous Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger Restaurant, I was nevertheless cursing the whole event while driving there: it was dark, I was late, the streets were slippery, the roadside snowbanks too massive for on-street parking. The temperature was in the single digits when I stepped out of the car and tried to glide along the ice-sheeted pavement to the restaurant without a major casualty.
Everyone stared at me while I was being seated because Chef Ming had already begun speaking. Luckily he has a magnetic personality and all of our attention was drawn right back to him. Ming was shining brightly that night: relaxed, amusing and enjoying the evening — while giving brief but well-though-out descriptions of the complementary and contrasting flavors of dishes he had created to go with the wines.
Sometimes it’s more fun to taste and sip without analyzing what you’re eating and drinking; unfortunately I rarely get to do this. Except this time. As soon as I had made notes on the first wine, I started eating without consulting the menu. And was amazed at the complementary flavors here – in a dish I normally don’t order: ceviche. This was Grapefruit-Scallop Ceviche with Crispy Rice Cucumber Salad, extremely well matched with the 2013 CADE Sauvignon Blanc. The wine had tart citrus notes (grapefruit) and it was overall a great balance of florals, fruits and fresh herbs in both aromas and flavors.

Then I turned to my right to talk to the winemaker, who turned out to be very friendly and casual, despite his accolades. Jeff Owens, founding winemaker at Odette Winery, is the first winemaker to have a debut wine scored 100 points by prominent critic Robert Parker. Odette Winery is owned by the prominent Plumpjack Group: partners Gordon Getty, Gavin Newsom and John Conover, who also have Plumpjack and CADE wineries as well as several hotels and restaurants. (This prestigious group is also known for innovation in products, design and green initiatives.)

Winemaker Owens’ 100-point wine was the Odette Reserve Cabernet, which we did not taste this night, apparently because the new vintage won’t be released till September. Owens had worked at both CADE and Plumpjack Wineries before helping to found Odette, and we did taste the 2013 Plumpjack Napa Valley Reserve Chardonnay (not my favorite), as well as the 2012 Plumpjack Napa Valley Merlot, full of good, juicy dark berry fruit and soft tannins. Owen’s “regular” 2012 Odette Estate Cabernet Sauvignon — which retails around $100, not $300 like the reserve — had big, very sweet fruit and soft tannins. It’s 75% cabernet sauvignon, 11% cabernet franc and 14% merlot. With elements ranging from red berries to minerality and good acidity, I found it paired best with the cheese course.
Unfortunately, by that time I was limited to the tiniest sips because I knew I’d have to drive home once dessert was over. Orange Cream Cake with Citrus Gastrique and White Chocolate Panko bookended the meal nicely, recalling the grapefruit flavors in the first course. It energized me nicely for the icy walk to my car. And it reminded me how much I liked the CADE Sauvignon Blanc.