Dinner at 622 North

My girlfriend and I decided to go all out for the last wine dinner and went to 622. We had both been there before but weren't prepared or knowledgeable enough to appreciate the good wine. This restaurant is on Main Street but is easily missed since it is not near the true "downtown" area and is right next to El Rods. It has become my favorite restaurant in Blacksburg.

 

I decided to get the wine flight (4 wines) and try to match the appetizer, my main course, and my girlfriend's main course with a different wine, with one wine as a wildcard. I matched the potato rounds with a sweet Riesling to balance the saltiness of the potatoes and sourness of the blue cheese. Second, I matched a Pinot Grigio with the Polenta Shrimp Carbonara because the Pinot and Carbonara are both from Italy and I was hoping it would go well with shrimp. Lastly, I paired a Pinot Noir with my girlfriends salmon because Pinot Noir is a salmon's best friend. For the wildcard wine I got the Rhone Blend special because I was love specials.

 

The first wine we tried was the Gabriella Veneto Pinot Grigio 2015. It had 12% alcohol and is from Veneto, Italy. The color was a light yellow and on the first taste it seemed to hit hard with the alcohol, though it was only 12%. There were some peach aromas, but not much else. This wine was very light and delicate after tasting it more but didn't reveal a whole lot.

 

The second wine was the Be. Radiant Riesling 2015 from Columbia Valley in Napa, California. It had 11.5% alcohol. The color was straw yellow.  The smell of this wine I thought was syrupy on the first sniff, but couldn't figure out any other way to say it. But then it started to smell like rubber (exactly how freshly opened racquet balls smell like) which was super interesting. The taste was sweet with a full body and had some rubber to the taste as well.  I liked this wine and the rubbery smell got be excited.

 

The next wine was the Brandborg Pinot Noir 2012 from Elkton, Oregon (Umpqua Valley) with no alcohol content listed. The color was a nice red and you could see your fingers through it. I thought there were some cherry aromas and my girlfriend said plum.  There were not a lot of tannins but the wine was acidic. There were some really good low key barrel flavors (vanilla and coconut) and the body was medium plus. This was the best Pinot Noir we have had. On a side note, I thought it might be good chilled a little even though it is a red. 

 

The last wine was the Domaine Vindemio Regain 2010 Rhone Blend. It was from Votes de Ventoux in France and contained 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah.  The color was a deep dark purple with red edges. On the nose there was definite tobacco/cigar box (which I kept reading about but never smelled in a wine until now) and some black cherry/blackberry/dark fruit. When tasting I got a lot of tannins and could not make much out because my tastebuds were so shriveled. I don't know if it was my palate or the wine or that it wasn't aged enough but there were some serious tannins going on. Still a great wine to smell and have with food.

 

For the appetizer, we got the potato rounds which came with a blue cheese sauce and bacon. They were delicious; salty and sour, creamy and crunchy. Top notch stuff. With the Riesling, the sweetness countered the saltiness and gave some more rubber taste. The Pinot Grigio got overpowered and was not a good match. The Pinot Noir tasted like it had more alcohol and was not a good match. The Rhone blend got a little more fruit action and was an adequate match.

 

The salmon was stellar and cooked to perfection with a raspberry sauce on it. The Rhone blend actually went really well with it, showing more fruit. The Pinot Grigio was "pretty good" with it (I rushed through that one to get to the Pinot Noir so didn't take many notes). The Pinot Noir went perfectly - everything in both the salmon and the wine became more pronounced and the barrel flavors were really good.

 

By this time, there was not much wine left to drink with the polenta. The polenta carbonara itself was great; it was pretty light even though polenta is generally dense. Very interesting dish. The Pinot Grigio went well with it (whew!) and had more snap than before. It was not good with the Rhone blend, however.

 

I would rate this experience 11/10 and would definitely do again if I have money burning a hole in my pocket.