My favorite summer restaurant, The Market at Lobster Cove, serving some traditional local foods in new ways with sincere emphasis on local – like moist, house-smoked haddock on a bed of tender shaved fennel and radishes - has a wine list.
The same way Nico and Amelia celebrate their vendors on a large chalkboard map, this summer they will be having a series of dinners celebrating wine-maker friends.
Tonight, June 2, Sonoma winemaker, Carl Sutton, will be at The Market. Sutton Cellars wines are single varietal, single vineyard, low alcohol, low oak, balanced, cool climate, wild yeast (a favorite of mine right now), the descriptive list. Sutton began his winemaking operation in 1996 with 300 handcrafted cases. As Howie, The Market’s new sommelier and wine guy, says, “Real wine, small scale, hand bottled and tasty.”
Sutton will be pouring a sparkling rose which Nico and Amelia will pair with brandade, and later the ’06 and ’07 Carignane – “from 70 year old vines in rocky red soil” - with braised brisket. A limited amount of syrah dessert wines are available to taste with handmade-in-Gloucester Turtle Alley Chocolates for dessert. For everyone, Vin de Pampemousse will be poured to start.
The Market is best at making us re-appreciate, even fall in love again with, New England food – from our tender first greens to our haddock. This summer there’s a wine list which, like the menu, is concise but surprising. And then there’s the view.
