I love to go to restaurants. With their endless variety of menu, atmosphere, sophistication, price, and style, eating out is always entertaining. When restaurants put on special events, the experience has a different dimension – even more focused, social, and fun.

The table is set for a wine dinner

Wine dinners are the most common special event, offering an evening of carefully chosen wines with a multi-course dinner menu. Sometimes you’ll see other events like beer or cheese dinners, guest chef events, cooking classes or meals organized around a particular food. Recently Strada 18 in South Norwalk offered a special seafood menu for a week-long “pop up” restaurant in their regular space. Brick + Wood in Fairfield has a guest chef series – bringing in chefs from other venues to cook in their kitchen. Fat Cat, on Wall St., has occasional wine dinners in partnership with Fountainhead wines.

For me, the social aspect is as important as the menu. I’ve never been to one of these evenings where I didn’t meet interesting people and make new friends. In addition to the food and wine conversation, there is usually lively discussion covering music, travel, languages, books, sports, and food cultures around the world. It’s always a fascinating and friendly group.

For example, we were at Paloma (palomagrill.com) in Stamford’s Harbor Point recently for a winemaker dinner. The group of about two dozen wine and food fans gathered in a private second-floor dining room for water views, a spectacular pink, blue, and gold sunset, seven wines, and a six course menu. Paloma, the creation of celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez
celebrates the cuisine of Latin America with a creative menu in a stylish space along Stamford’s harbor.

The event was built around the high-value wines of Los Vascos (lafite.com) from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. Making the evening even more special, winemaker Marcelo Gallardo had abandoned springtime to personally present his wines.

The Los Vascos winery is a big operation, making about 300,000 cases of high-quality wine a year. The production is focused on red wine, particularly Cabernet. Part of the Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR) family of wineries, the worldwide organization also includes the famous first growth Chateau Lafite and other Bordeaux properties, along with operations in Argentina and China as well as Champagne and Corbieres in France. DBR set up shop in Chile in 1988 to take advantage of Chile’s remarkably salubrious wine-growing climate. You can find the wines at BevMax stores in Norwalk and Stamford bevmax.com.

Winemaker Marcelo Gallardo, a charming host as well as a skilled winemaker, is the descendant of Chilean wine-growing families on both sides. His love of grape growing, winemaking, and Colchagua is clear, even if his excellent English doesn’t quite equal his enthusiasm. In keeping with our wine dinner expectations, we talked with him about music (he’s a big jazz fan), the culture of Chile, wine travels, his family, and the wines he makes. The conversation around the table was sprinkled with German, Spanish and Portuguese.

We gathered with a lovely dry Champagne (from a DBR property) and Snapper Tia Tiradito, a cross between sushi and ceviche with chunks of raw snapper in a citrus and yellow pepper marinade – lovely with the Champagne.

Avocado with seafood.

The first course, avocado with octopus, shrimp and crab with pico de gallo, was paired with Los Vascos Sauvignon Blanc. Bursting with tropical fruit aromas and flavors and just enough acidity to be refreshing, it was a welcome match to the seafood and avocado. At about $8 a bottle, this could be the new favorite at casa Whitman.

A rosé, dark pink and loaded with fresh berry aromas, and Mexican Street Corn were the next combo. The corn, richly seasoned with smoky chipotle peppers, cotija cheese (a salty cow’s milk hard cheese) and a mix of herbs stood up to the refreshing, full flavored cabernet-based wine.

Garganelli with chorizo paired with Cabernet and Carmeniere

Garganelli pasta sauced with chorizo, snap peas, carrots and Mexican olive oil was a spicy foil to a pair of reds. Grande Reserve Cabernet, the flagship Los Vascos wine could easily be mistaken for a boutique California Cab with dark fruit aromas and deep rich flavors. The Carmenere, a rarely seen Bordeaux grape with its spicy nose and peppery flavor was my preferred drink with the zesty pasta. At around $17 both wines are excellent values. The Carmenere may be a little hard to find but is in stock at BevMax in Stamford.

Winemakers like to make special cuvée, showing the best their property has to offer. Le Dix, from El Fraile, the oldest vineyard at Los Vascos, uses hand-selected grapes, long soaking, and 18 months in new french oak barrels to make Marcelo’s best wine. The complex and inviting aromas jump out of the glass. With the first sip of the toasty, nutty, spicy flavors it’s clear this is a world class wine. At $65 it’s costly, but a California Cab of similar quality would easily be twice the price. Paloma’s richly flavored Short Rib and Wild Mushroom Arepa was great with the wine.

Le Dix, the prestige cuvee of Los Vascos

Coffee Flan for dessert was accompanied by Château de Cosse Sauternes, a semillon based Bordeaux dessert wine from the DBR collection. Dessert wines are often the great surprise at wine dinners, showing how a sweet wine is balanced with brisk acidity to make a seductive, fruit-driven, and unexpectedly delicious end to the meal.

Get on the mailing list of your favorite restaurants to find out what they’re doing for special events. Try one that appeals to you for a new dimension to your restaurant experience. Maybe I’ll see you there!