Valentine’s Feast Features Superior Red

I write to extend the warmest greetings at mid-Winter, with our invitation to a sumptuous feast on Valentine’s Day, a season and an occasion calling for red, red wine of the boldest excellence. While our List in that category is too lengthy for any one evening, we’ve created a celebration around the two co-captains which have carried our name world-wide, through the brightest decades of our history – Cabernet Franc and Octagon – both arising from our premier Goodlow Mountain vineyards, and matching the highest rankings of their careers. What love’s got to do with it, is what this extraordinary night is about.

This year’s Valentine’s Note is also our way of celebrating the highest ratings in the region, bestowed on four of our wines, from the extensive, State-wide Virginia tastings published this January at JamesSuckling.com, as well as Platinum Medal Director’s Awards, announced last weekend at the San Diego International Wine & Spirits Challenge.

2019 Nascent 92 Points

2020 Octagon 93 Points

2020 Nebbiolo Reserve 94 Points

2021 Cabernet Franc Goodlow Mountain 94 Points

2021 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 95 Points, Best in Varietal, SD

2019 Paxxito 95 Points, Best Dessert Wine, SD

All of the creative energies of our commitment to fine food and wine converge, naturally, in our annual feasts at Palladio Restaurant. I collaborate with Sommelier Alessandro Medici and Chef Michael Clough in their composition, and on this occasion I would like to take you further into our thinking in the selections. Valentine’s Day is the least solemn of all our celebrations, where affection and delight should emanate from every dish. Please reserve for February 14th online or, if you prefer, by telephone at (540) 832 – 7848, to share our best with yours.

Sparkle and depth, lushness and vitality light up the First Course. A salad of local greens, featuring bright red sweetness of strawberries and the stark white tanginess of chèvre, dressed in our own cellar resources to stimulate the palate and afford a luxurious finish. Our intensely fragrant Sauvignon Blanc Reserve from 2021 – Platinum Medal at this year’s San Diego International, Gold Medal from last year’s Virginia Governor’s Cup, and Double Gold Medal from the San Francisco International – carries the signature of freshness through the entire course.

One of the most visually captivating pasta creations at Palladio Restaurant is our roasted squash ravioli, a Venetian classic, enriched by abundant shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano, and vitalized by toasted pumpkin seeds in a sauce of crispy sage and brown butter. In this traditional dish, an Amaretto-almond cookie is embedded in each of these plush pasta pillows, which draw the exuberant pink blush of a Tiepolo canvas from our 2022 Allegrante Rosé, berry fruit-forwardness in a firm and bracing acidic balance. Armida Enchanted by Rinaldo, 1742_._

The first of our two central courses of the Valentine’s feast will introduce one of our rarest wines, the single-vineyard, very low production, and closely held Cabernet Franc Goodlow Mountain 2021. “This standout wine gets to the essence of Cabernet Franc,” declares the tasting note at JamesSuckling.com, awarding 94 Points. Here we reveal the gorgeous versatility of Cabernet Franc as a varietal, as well as the excellence it can attain, in a pairing with seared wild rockfish, served with a flan of celery root, roasted Brussels sprouts, and sautéed guanciale, with black trumpet mushrooms and crispy leeks. The most culinarily important fish of the Chesapeake, from our resource for the finest catch, is selected for its shimmering, yielding texture, to partner with the lusciousness of the guanciale and the mushrooms, and the earthy qualities of the vegetables. The irresistible approachability in even a comparatively young Cabernet Franc positions it to illuminate the qualities of every ingredient in this dish, with the structure to carry its complexity with aplomb.

The experience of enjoying a well-partnered Octagon is not so far beneath that of a well-partnered heart. In pairing the 2019 Octagon – named last month by Wine Enthusiast among the Top 100 Wines of 2023 – we zero in on the acknowledged core of its pairing range with a shameless extravagance — Wagyu Ribeye Beef from a superior resource of ours, grilled and served with the classics, rosemary roasted new potatoes and asparagus. Here a pairing of compatible textures, a theme throughout this feast, matches the depth and richness of flavor to be extracted from the plate and the glass for the greatest contentment. Octagon 2019 has been so showered by the widest praise, we know you know it well already — 94 Points from JamesSuckling.com in 2022, and Gold Medals in California in 2022 and 2023. Soon, it will be retired to our Cellar List, yielding its place of availability to Octagon 2020, awarded 93 Points by JamesSuckling.com.

For dessert we turn to our non-vintage and brilliant, Moscato-based wine — Philéo — to illuminate a strawberry/white chocolate cheesecake with sauce of Valrhona milk chocolate. Long palate length and depth in the sweet, with strawberry returning from the first course, and brightly shining acidity in the fruit of the wine, to mark an evening where nothing more needs to be said.

If you cannot join us for Valentine’s Day, but still wish to enjoy an intimately personal feast with us on your own calendar, we now open our Octagon aging cellar for one private party for 2 to 8 persons, every Friday and Saturday of Palladio’s operating year. Menu choices include the full range offered in our main dining rooms, and our entire List of cellared vintages is open to your selection, expertly served by Sommelier Alessandro Medici. (540) 832 – 7848

Please expect to join us at 7:00pm on Valentine’s Day, for a celebration of affection in which we all truly share. And to all our friends in Florida, I hope you will join me in Miami on February 29th or March 1st, for James Suckling’s “Great Wines of the World 2024” exhibition of 900+ selected wines from all the “key wine regions,” where we’ve been invited to pour our best.

Cordialmente ~

Luca Paschina Winemaker