National Culinary Review - November/December 2010

menu. To those mild cheddar grits, he added shrimp, Granny Smith apples, bourbon/ sorghum veal demi-glace and country ham.

“We bake the grits to a nice firm consistency, almost like a grit cake but with a lot more moistness. To serve, we scoop them out and flatten the ball and pour everything over the top for a nice rustic look,” Doering explains.

Eubanks Bundy
Lemaire

“It’s also low in alcohol, which makes it pair
well with the country ham. Salty doesn’t
work with high-alcohol wine.”
Harper, who maintains a “value-driven and
eclectic” 60-label wine list with 40 wines
by the glass and a 40-wine reserve list at
the Jeffersonville location, admits it can
be difficult to pair wine with shrimp and
grits. He found the right match in the 2008
Allram Gruner Veltliner (glass, $6.25, bottle,
$21). “The Gruner Veltliner is a medium-
bodied, food-friendly wine,” he says. “Its
acidity and fruit cut through the demi-glace
and cleanse your palate for the next bite.

Free-range egg tortelloni stuffed with goat cheese, carrots, peas, tomato purée and yellow pepper coulis, crafted by Walter Bundy, executive chef of Lemaire in The Jefferson Hotel, is paired with a local Chardonnay by Ben Eubanks, the hotel’s director of restaurants/wine.

Gruner Veltliner is becoming more familiar and popular, Harper notes. “But it can be a hard sell. Once people try it, though, they generally like it.”

CHARDONNAY AND TORTELLONI Ben Eubanks, director of restaurants/wine for The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., searches the world for wine to add to his lists. Sometimes he finds what he wants close to home. An example is the 2008 Montdomaine Chardonnay (glass, $8, bottle, $32) made 70 miles down the road in Monticello.

herbs grown in Bundy’s restaurant garden. The tortelloni is parboiled and tossed in butter, and the vegetables are blanched with butter. The dish is plated in a pyramid, with concentric rings of the sauces. The pasta is surrounded with the vegetables and garnished with local micro greens.

“The flavor profile is herbaceous,” Bundy says. “It’s rich and light at the same time. It’s satisfying and fulfilling and a good vegetarian dish.”

Doering

Harper Bristol Bar & Grille

He paired the wine with free-range-egg tortelloni stuffed with Goats R Us (Blackstone, Va.) goat cheese and served with baby carrots, English peas, slow-roasted tomato purée and fire-roasted yellow pepper coulis. The dish was created by Walter Bundy, executive chef of Lemaire, the hotel’s fine-dining room. (Blackstone, Va.) goat cheese and served

The wine is one of 250 labels on the wine list and 10 wines by the glass. “It is lightly oaked, with ripe, fresh fruit flavors and a tremendous texture that matches up with several of the elements in the dish. It has great structure and a very persistent finish,” Eubanks says.

The dish begins with fresh housemade
pasta prepared with free-range local eggs
and stuffed with local goat cheese and
The 2008 Montdomaine Chardonnay and
Bundy’s tortelloni dish are in keeping with
the restaurant’s commitment to serving
and promoting Virginia products.

Scott Harper, wine director/partner at Bristol Bar & Grille, found the right wine to pair with executive chef Richard Doering’s signature shrimp and grits in a Gruner Veltliner.