The Deconstructed Old-Fashioned

Last night, the Chophouse held a Fritz Maytag dinner, which was a multi-course affair, where each course was paired with a different beverage from Maytag’s empire. Now I had never heard of Fritz Maytag before last night, but he’s apparently famous throughout the food and beverage industry. In the early 70s, he bought the Anchor brewery in San Francisco, to save it from bankruptcy; recreated Anchor Steam as a quality beer; and in the process kicked off the whole microbrewing craze. In the years since, he bought vineyards in Napa and Sonoma, started the York Creek winery, and opened the Anchor Distillery, which apparently inaugurated the current craze for artisanal spirits in this country.

So somehow, Jeannine met Fritz, worked at his vineyard, and put together this dinner, which was a blast, because instead of the more typical wine pairings, we had pairings with beer, wine, and spirits. And those pairings accompanied about six courses from the Chophouse kitchen, including slow roasted pork served over kale and smoked onions, and Buffalo rib eye steak.

But the best course of the evening, at least from where I sat (right at the bar, schmoozing with Ben all night long), was the intermezzo. They served a scoop of cherry sorbet, and a scoop of orange sorbet , and a tiny scoop of lemon sorbet (all homemade of course), along with two little gelatin cubes made from a bitters and sugar mixture. All of the above came in a martini glass. And then on the side, they served a snifter of Old Potrero rye whisky (from the Anchor Distilling Co.). And so the idea was to take a taste of all the sorbets, and a tiny bit of the bitters gelatin, and then wash it down with the Potrero – the combination of tastes recreating the Old Fashioned, not in the glass but right inside your mouth. And they called it, appropriately, the Deconstructed Old-Fashioned. What a fun idea! And how often is the intermezzo the star of the evening?

Jeannine served the 18th century Potrero along with the sorbet mixture, and if I had any criticism of this course, it would only be that we should have watered the Potrero, because it comes out of the bottle at cask strength, over 63 percent. However, Jeannine also brought me a pour of Potrero’s single malt rye, bottled at ninety proof, much mellower, but also much more flavorful, perhaps the best tasting rye I’ve ever had. (I think all the Potrero’s are actually single malts, but this one whisky carries the name Single Malt Rye, and whether that’s merely for marketing, or describes some difference in the distillation or aging process, who knows? Whatever the distinction, it was a superior whisky.)

For the record, the three York Creek wines they served were all wonderful. The best of the table wines was a Meritage called MXB. Jeannine says it’s made from a blend of obscure grapes, many no longer grown commercially, that Maytag found growing on the land he purchased for his vineyards. Instead of uprooting all these old vines, and replanting with something more popular such as cabernet, he kept everything he found there, and then created a big luscious blend – a wonderful steak wine, in my humble opinion. We finished the evening with York Creek port which was delicious, even if I was a tad bit loaded by then. Susan drove us home.