by contributor Donna Shor
Photo credit: Len DePas
Thomas Jefferson had a dream; Luca Paschina made it come true. Our third U.S. President had spent time in the French vineyards and longed to re-create in the New World the wines he had enjoyed there.
Monticello photo courtesy of history.com
At Jefferson’s vineyards near Monticello, his Virginia home, he planted European vitis vinifera grape varieties hoping to get the same results European growers did. He was repeatedly disappointed, planting and replanting the vineyard. In seven attempts, Jefferson could not produce a single harvest from these transplanted grapes.
Country Vintner’s Bill Hajjar, The Hay-Adams Pastry Chef Josh Short. Barboursville Vineyard Winemaker Luca Paschina, and The Hay-Adams Chef Jaime Montes De Oca
Luca Paschina, a young man from Turin, Italy and a third-generation winemaker had produced his first wine when he was only 14 years old. After studying winemaking at the famed Instituto Umberto I, he left his home to put in stints at wineries from Switzerland to New York’s Finger Lakes and the Napa Valley before joining his father and his uncle full-time.
Meanwhile, Gianni Zonin (a large scale wine grower in Italy from a seven generation wine family) had settled in Virginia’s Charlottesville area near the Blue Ridge Mountains. He bought a 900-acre property once owned by James Barbour, a former Governor of Virginia who was Secretary of War under President John Quincy Adams. Barbour was a friend and neighbor of the multi-talented Thomas Jefferson who designed a home for him there, one of three Jefferson did for friends..
It was received wisdom that vitis vinifera vines did not do well in Virginia soil. Zonin knew this, but he took a chance and planted them; taking a second chance, he invited young Paschina to Barboursville for a one-year consultancy.
Invited to remain, Luca asked him to invest in new trellising and other improvements and “You will have the finest wine that can be grown on th East Coast.”
Barboursvillle Vineyards wines
Zonin listened. Twenty-one years later, Luca is still there and his wines have won more than 35 medals and awards, were served at the White House, have been declared the “best red wines in Virginia,” and he has been dubbed “Wine Person Of The Year.”
His wines were showcased at a recent Barboursville Wine Dinner at Washington’s handsome Hay-Adams Hotel, itself a historic setting. Jaime Montes de Oca, Jr., chef of the hotel’s Lafeyette Restaurant, served a sumptuous and innovative five-course beautifully plated dinner, but that was no surprise – he is a graduate of the Los Angeles Art Institute and learned his culinary craft from prestigious chefs.
The Hay-Adams team
Paschina’s Barboursville wines were stunning and paired excellently with the dishes. All wines were under varietal names of the grapes used except for the Octagon bottles which carried on their label an outline of the octagon element in Jefferson’s design system. His house for James Barbour was destroyed in a 19th century fire, but the dramatic ruins are on the property and people stroll over to see them from the winery’s 1804 Inn on the property, or its Palladio Restaurant.
Luca Paschina, David and Jayne Alexander from Dovetail Agency Great Britain, The Hay-Adams General Manager and Vice President Hans Bruland, Gina Adams from FedEx, and Sandy Dickey from FedEx Texas
Chef Montes discussed the menu briefly and things started with marinated salsify sauced with a Gribiche herbed vinaigrette mounted with egg and oil, mayonnaise-style, topped with a baby pullet egg. It was paired with a Vermentino 2012, a crisp, lightly citrus-y white wine that was a foil for the creamy sauce.
Chesapeake Bay rock fish came escorted by a 2 inch high cylinder carved from black tea smoked potato bearing a small heap of shiny black pearls of white sturgeon caviar. The Viognier 2012 wine accompanied it, slightly yellower in color than the Vermentino and a little fuller-bodied, with a definite floral note.
Morsels of “crispy sweetbreads” in browned butter sauce with flat little cipollini onions had a puree of pumpkin-like Kabocha squash beside it. The brilliant ruby Cabernet Franc 2011 paired with it was redolent with berry notes.
Then came the evening’s triumph, the much-lauded Octagon, a 2009 wine blended of classic Bordeaux varietals, garnet-red, beautifully in balance with the smooth tannins you would expect, offering a spicy nose, full dark fruit on the palate and a lingering farewell – a beautiful wine with balance, structure and race.
Vaudavan Spiced Lamb Chop
The splendid lamb chop that was perfect with it was vadouvan-rubbed, using the spicy Indian-by-way-of-France mixture that has as many versions as its name has spellings. Fenugreek and cardamom are standard, sometimes crushed fried onions and crushed curry leaves figure among the laundry list of possible ingredients. Roasted cauliflower with almonds, dried cranberries and a hint of crushed lavender made this dish outstanding.
The Hay-Adams pastry Chef Josh Short commented on the dessert course, which ended in glory for a marvelous dinner: Poached pear with Gorgonzola Dolce Ice Cream atop a delicious small cake, garnished with candied walnuts. The dessert wine embodied a rush of tropical fruit and a suave richness.
Capital Cooking Show’s Lauren DeSantis and Tara Lumetta
The Malvaxia Passito 2007 dessert wine was vinified by a European method Luca Paschina introduced to Virginia winemaking. A passito is made by hand-selecting the grapes, then drying them slowly and long on open racks. As the water evaporates, the concentrated sweet liquid remaining emphasizes the qualities of the grapes which are then pressed, not crushed. It is an expensive method because of the loss of volume to the winemaker, but it makes a heavenly wine. Similar methods are used in many other areas, best known in Sauternes.
You might think he could now rest on his laurels, but for Luca Paschina, a quick-to-laugh handsome man, he is ever striving onward with a passion for excellence. It has been said he pours that passion into every bottle he produces.
Thomas Jefferson would have loved it.
