Aquavino at Georgia Aquarium - Thursday October 13

Georgia Aquarium will be holding its 6th Annual Aqua Vino this Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. Enjoy and sample more than 200 fine wines from around the globe, gourmet fare from Atlanta's premier restaurants, a live, silent and wine auction and live music. All proceeds from Aqua Vino support the Aquarium's Veterinary Services through the Correll Center for Aquatic Animal Health. Click here for more information or to purchase tickets.

For a limited time discount tickets ($150) are available here.

Check back after the event for full coverage by Amy on Food.

Vinings Jubilee Tower Stage + The Grape

A comedy show at Vinings Jubilee's Tower Stage.

In honor of Vinings Jubilee's 25th Anniversary, a new stage has been erected to host entertainment events. The Tower Stage will host community and family events. I was invited to watch an improv show by Relapse Comedy Theater while sampling drinks and nibbles from The Grape.

Vinings Jubilee opened in 1986 and contains fine boutiques, restaurants and specialty shops. Read more about all that Vinings Jubilee has to offer on their website.

Tasty salmon tartar crackers at The Grape.

The Capital Grille's Generous Pour Event

The featured wines.

I was recently treated to a preview of The Generous Pour wine event at The Capital Grille in Buckhead. The event is going on right now at all CG locations and lasts through September 4. Here's the deal: for $25 you can try as many of the nine features wines as you'd like with your dinner. This is an exceptional value for wine drinkers as the wines represent a wide price range and hail from several countries including Spain, Italy, France and Australia. The Capital Grille's master sommelier George Miliotes travelled the globe to pick out the perfect nine wines for this showcase and at the event we enjoyed a live webcast with him, including a question and answer segment. Click here to see all the featured wines as well as a short video clip featuring Mr. Miliotes. My favorite wines include the Marquis de la Tour, Cremant de Loire Brut, a sparkling wine that paired wonderfully with the appetizers we tried. I am also a huge fan of the RL Buller, The Portly Gentleman port, which I enjoyed more than any other dessert wine I've ever tried.

The food was wonderful as well. I especially enjoyed the calamari, the steak (of course) and the ice cream with strawberries. This is a wonderful way to enjoy a variety of high quality wines without buying nine entire bottles. You can have as much as you'd like of these fabulous wines for $25.

Proscuitto wrapped housemade mozzarella with vine ripe tomatoes.

Pan fried calamari with hot peppers.

Cedar-planked salmon - lovely presentation and tasty as well.

Lobster mac & cheese - heavenly and rich.

Sauteed spinach with garlic - great to have something green on the table.

Ice cream with strawberries and port reduction - so delicious with the port served as part of The Generous Pour.

Flourless chocolate cake.

Buddy, sommelier and waiter extraordinaire.

I love this port!

Meehans Hosts Special Dinners

Make your reservations now!

On July 21 the Sandy Spring location of Meehan's Public House hosts "40 Shades of Green" a five course dinner with beer and wine pairings honoring Johnny Cash, beginning a series of music-inspired dinners. Click here to learn more and see the menu.

On July 26 Meehan's Downtown hosts its second summer dinner, "All About Peaches" featuring a peach-filled four course dinner menu paired with microbrews from Jailhouse Brewery. Click here to learn more and see the menu.

Meehan's has a third location in Vinings.

Cellar 56

Strawberry Salad paired with Les Jamelles Sauvignon Blanc and Spinach Salad paired with Stuhlmuller Chardonnay.

I was recently invited to a wonderful tasting event at Cellar 56 on East Andrews Drive in Buckhead. I really enjoyed this event and it is clear that this place tries very hard to deliver good customer service. The strawberry salad was a bit bland but the spinach salad, with bacon, boiled egg and dried cranberries more than made up for it. I also enjoyed the seared tuna - I love sushi so anything close usually appeals to me. We tasted a blackened salmon dish (not pictured) which was fine but the tuna was better in my opinion.

Seared Ahi Tuna paired with Burgans Albarino.

I was pleasantly surprised by the BBQ pork egg rolls. At first I thought there would be too much going on with this dish, or that it would be too greasy, but it was great, wonderfully accented by vinegar slaw and BBQ sauce. The spicy mac & cheese was my favorite dish of the evening. Cheesy, creamy with just the right level of spice. I definitely recommend adding it to your order.

All of the wine pairings were really nice as well. I especially liked the Gruet Brut Blanc de Noirs served with the decadent desserts. Krispy Kreme bread pudding: need I say more?

Cellar 56 is a fun, well-executed restaurant where you don't have to spend a fortune. Tapas range from $5 to $7.50 for plates and $10 - $16 for larger share dishes. They have a very diverse wine list. Definitely a place for a fun evening for couples, friends or groups.

BBQ Pork Egg Roll paired with Montoya Cabernet Sauvignon with Spicy Mac & Cheese paired with La Postaa Malbec-Cocina Blend



Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding and Flourless Chocolate Cake paired with Gruet Brut Blanc de Noirs.

Mirrasou Wine Dinner at Woodfire Grill

Crisp fried laughing bird shrimp with confited shrimp salad, ginger, chile, meyer lemon vinaigrette.

I was recently invited to a dinner event sponsored by Mirassou Winery and held at Woodfire Grill. This was a wonderful event and gave me the opportunity to try famous Top Chef Kevin Gillespie's creative cooking. The first course, shrimp paired with the winery's 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, was my favorite. The neat thing about the dinner was that the winery asked Chef Gillespie to create special dishes to go with 6 different wines. Before tasting the pairings, Chef came to talk with us about his choices. We also dined with and heard from David Mirassou, who is from the Mirassou family's 6th generation and knows lots about wine.

Mirassou is one of America's oldest winemakers, going back 6 generations to France. During the gold rush of the 1800's the family originally immigrated to the US, bringing grape vines with them in their suitcases! Hope you enjoy the photos.

We had lots of glasses.

Woodfire's Chef Kevin Gillespie explains how each dish pairs with each wine.

Amuse of charred local peach, spicy pepperonata, pecorino di puglia.

The Mirassou label. Overall I really enjoyed the wines, especially the Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noir. These wines can be found at your local grocery store and are reasonably priced.

Pan roased day boat scallop, sweet potatoes, winter squash, black lentils, pear and cashew salad, green chile jus, paired with 2009 Pinot Grigio.

Border springs lamb crepinette (sausage), cured olive tapenade, lemon cream mint, paired with 2008 Pinot Noir, the winery's best selling wine.

Wood grilled local bob quail and smoked pork belly, roasted local okra, hakurei turnips, lacinato kale, chicken jus, paired with 2008 Merlot.

Wood grilled border springs lamb leg, roasted pac choi, mixed young beets, parsnip puree, cardamom lamb jus, paired with 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Peach streusel cake, almond mascarpone mousse, peach puree, peach ice cream, feulletine crumble, paired with 2009 Riesling.

Artesa Wine Dinner at Bone's

Chilled seafood platter.



Artesa Chardonnay.

Back in January I was invited by Mark Beringer and Artesa Vineyards and Winery to a special dinner at Bone's Restaurant featuring wines from their Napa vineyard and winery. This was a great dinner, and an opportunity for me to try one of Atlanta's premier steakhouses while trying some fabulous wine I might never have otherwise known about.

Mr. Beringer was there personally to tell us about the vineyard and to explain the details of each wine. We tasted a total of eight wines, two of which were quite outstanding. With the chilled seafood platter (outstanding crab legs and colossal shrimp!) we tried two chardonnays. The 2007 Estate Reserve paired beautifully with the seafood and was one of my favorite wines we tried.

Menu - we ordered dessert too!



Kobe beef carpaccio.

Next we had this tasty beef carpaccio with shaved Parmesan and greens; I lov the way the tastes and textures work together here. You can really tell the difference with the high quality Kobe beef. I believe this is on Bone's regular menu and I recommend it even for those who are not big fans of red meat. With the carpaccio we were treated to two kinds of Pinot Noir. At this point, I'm already getting a bit tipsy!

Filet mignon, cooked rare - the way I like it!



Swordfish.

Entree choices were filet, NY strip steak or swordfish. I tried the filet even though I rarely eat steak - I figured, while at Bone's one must try the steak. It really was delicious and cooked rare to perfection. I tried a bite of the swordfish, which was also very tasty. With our main courses we tried Artesa's two 2005 Cabernet Sauvignons.

Side dishes - the mashed potatoes and mushrooms were fabulous.



Pecan pie.



Dark Chocolate Torte - I forgot to take a photo until after we'd already dug in!

Although dessert was not on the provided menu, Mr. Beringer told us to order whatever we liked and most of us did! I tried bites of both the pecan pie with ice cream (my top choice) and the dark chocolate torte (very rich). To really end the meal with a bang, Mr. Beringer pulled out two Cabernets from other vineyards - the Lone Pine was excellent.