ADVERTISING: Advertorial — GEORGE BALLING: An evening with Garzon

We just completed our events for March that featured a wine dinner at Fleur de Sel and a tasting at our shop with Mele Sosa from Bodega Garzon Winery. Garzon is located in Uruguay and Mele after a long and accomplished career in winemaking now works as the North American Brand Ambassador for Garzon. It was an extraordinary pair of events that revealed some great insights into wine consumption here in North Idaho.

Both evenings could not have been better, with great and enthusiastic attendance from our customers. Fleur de Sel did their usual outstanding job with spectacular food and perfect service. Mele could not have been a more charming and knowledgeable host; it is one of the best sets of events we have held.

As for the insights, here are some of the things we learned. Wine consumers here in North Idaho really do crave diverse choices. The wines we featured were some of the most well received, as we mentioned, and the portfolio was different and diverse than most of the domestic wineries we invite for our events. The two best selling wines from Garzon were two reds: their Marselan and their Tannat. Right now I suspect that most readers are thinking, “I have never heard of those grapes.” They are unique and the attendees loved them.

The Garzon Marselan ($24, $21.60 Wine Club) is a lovely wine. The grape is a hybrid between Grenache and Cabernet, developed in France. The flavor and aromatic profiles are truly unique with prominent fruit driven aromatics and loads of fruit mid-palate. On the finish the wine takes on a truly Cabernet essence, with firm tannins framing all the fruit and lengthening the finish.

Tannat is known as the “lost Bordeaux varietal.” The grape was wiped out by the phylloxera epidemic in France many centuries ago. Some cuttings were later found and taken to South America where they were grafted onto phylloxera resistant rootstock. The grape has taken hold there, and it is the national grape varietal of Uruguay. It is a very thick-skinned grape, extracting substantial tannins into the wine. The varietal also shows a distinctive cocoa aroma. The Garzon Tannat ($40, $36 Wine Club) is from their Single Vineyard collection and is delicious wine with tons of blue-fruit flavors, complimenting the ample structure.

Also, a best seller at the events was the Garzon Albariño ($23, $20.70 Wine Club). Albariño is widely grown in Spain, but the grape also does well in South America. Albariño has a natural saline minerality to the wine in the aromas. Fermented dry, it shows lovely citrus flavors and great texture.

While this diverse varietal portfolio shows how much wine consumers here at home enjoy the unusual, it was no doubt enhanced by Mele’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the wines and the winery. Over the years of hosting our monthly events we have found that nothing can replace winery representatives with the charm and enthusiasm that Mele exhibits. But more importantly, consumers want to know the back story. The history of the winery itself and how they make the choices they make is what allows all of us to connect at a deeper level to the wines and the entire brand.

We also witnessed at the dinner that wine consumers are more willing than ever to open their minds and palates to unique arrangements of wine. Working with chef and co-owner Laurent Zirotti’s menu at Fleur de Sel, we juggled what would have been the traditional lineup of wines. We served the bone dry Garzon rosé or Pinot Noir with dessert, which was built around an unusual kind of chocolate called “Ruby Chocolate.” We moved the Cabernet Franc to the front of the menu following the Albariño and before the lighter bodied Marselan because it worked better with a delicious beef empanada. Everyone loved it! Like the diversity in the wines, the fun and mildly mis-ordered menu excited the diners.

Finally, our wonderful events, that combined attracted over 80 folks, showed how resilient our community here in North Idaho is. Everyone was ready to be out and about and enjoy a great social atmosphere. There is always room for and a way to socialize and enjoy our friends over great wine and food. We are thrilled we held the events, loved the enthusiasm and sincerely thank all those who attended these two great events. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without our charming host Mele. We will have her back soon.

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George Balling is co-owner with his wife, Mary Lancaster, of the dinner party, a wine and gift shop in Coeur d’Alene by Costco. The dinner party has won the award for best wine shop in North Idaho twice, including for 2018. George is also published in several other publications around the country.

After working in wineries in California and judging many wine competitions, he moved to Coeur d’Alene with Mary more than 10 years ago to open the shop. You can also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.