On February 18, the Boise Hotel and the Castle Ranch Steakhouse, held a fantastic and delicious Wine Dinner featuring wines from the Sawtooth Winery, an Idaho winery located in Nampa, Idaho. The Castle Ranch Steakhouse is by far, the best place in Boise to get a fantastic steak. They use only local beef from the Double R Ranch.
The wine pictured here is their  award winning 2010 Gewürztraminer. This is definitely a great wine. Make sure you have some in your cellar. Look what we had for dinner. Enjoy the photos!

Seared Winter Spiced Scallops
cranberry jam, beurre blanc

2010 Gewürztraminer
The scallops were awesome and the paring of this wine with the appetizer was well done, as were the parings of each course prepared by Chef Jack Charles. Winemaker Bill Murray did a great job in selecting the wines. They make a great team! Thanks to both for a job well done. The wine is $8.00, if you can find it.

Poached Garlic Soup
balsamic reduction and chives

2009 Chardonnay
The soup was made from chicken stock, poached garlic and then reduced. Potatoes were used for thickening and then a reduction of balsamic was added. The soup was then finished by a sprinkle of fresh chives.  Tended to be a little spicy, but delicious. And no, the garlic was not over powering. The only drawback that I found with this dish, I had no bread to “clean” my bowl. That’s a German thing! Bread was lacking with the meal. The soup and the wine were both well balanced. Cost of the wine is $10.00.

Mixed Green Salad
pickled cucumber napkin rings, blue cheese crumbles, roasted beets, apple cider vinaigrette

2008 Reserve Chardonnay
The little yellow beet in this salad were delicious.Great blends of the vegetables with the wine, which had overtones of dark chocolate and a slight bitterness. However, the earthiness of the beets, even though they were small, did tend to over power the wine. 

Duck Breast
pomegranate walnut sauce with quinoa.

2008 Reserve Tempranillo
Great paring!! This dish is actually the Mid-East version of the Asian sweet/sour. Quinoa is a complete and very ancient food. This was delicious. Sawtooth Winery makes only 200 – 300 cases of this wine, so if you want some, and you should look hard. $22.00 per bottle.

Champagne Grapefruit Sorbet
Great for clearing the palate. An awesome dish.

Double R Ranch Fillet Oscar
petite filet with béarnaise and Dungeness crab
butternut squash gratin
asparagus bundles

2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
There are not many wines that hold up to asparagus – among some other vegetable – but this cab certainly did without overpowering the delicate flavor of the asparagus. The beef and the crab also pared extremely with the wine. Another great job in matching the food and the wine. A bottle of this wine will cost you $12.00.

Thomas Keller’s Molten Chocolate Tart
raspberry sauce with crème anglaise

2006 Gewürztraminer Ice Wine
Sink your taste buds into this one, but don’t burn your mouth. Rich and awesome warm chocolate tart with the tartness of the raspberry hidden in the background. Then add to that a fine glass of the Ice Wine and you have an epicurean delight! This is one of Chef Jack’s favorite desserts and it shows.

There is just not much else I can say. Except that it was a well deserved and spent $118.00 meal for two. And then they gave us an option of spending the night in the hotel for $39.00 a room, which we gladly accepted. A great finish to the Valentine’s Week celebrations. Left-Click any of these photos to see them larger. And when you are in Boise, be sure to visit the Castle Ranch Steakhouse. Look for the link in the sidebar. It is a 5-Star restaurant along with Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida. There were others there at the dinner that agreed with our assessment. Cheers!