The CoolVines Experience - Domaine Agape Wine Dinner

"Wine Mania (and some Beer too)" by Faith Bahadurian, Princeton Packet

I am getting more and more emails each week about wine dinners and tasting events in the Princeton area. These events are all the rage, and many of them seem to sell out quickly, even in this economy. I think it’s the “value added” aspect of them. Not only are you enjoying several courses of well-prepared food, but also specially paired wines to go with each course. Often the winemaker is there, too, which adds a lovely personalized aspect to the experience.

Such was the case at a recent wine dinner at Blue Point Grill I was invited to by Mark Censits who owns CoolVines (in Princeton and Westfield). Working with Michael Messenie of Savio Soares Selections (the distributor), they had brought in Isabelle Boxler-Sipp, of Domaine Agape in Alsace, France, where her husband Vincent is “vigneron” (grower).

From the sparkling Cremant d’Alsace through the Grand Cru Riesling, all five wines I sipped that evening were delicious, as was the wonderful dinner Blue Point Grill Chef Steve Murray put out (I especially liked the Icelandic Artic Char and the Chilean Sea Bass).

If you go to Alsace, Isabelle also owns a cooking school in Colmar named Cardamome (her favorite spice), where, she reports, the locals increasingly want to learn to make ethnic dishes, but the tourists, of course, want to learn traditional Alsatian dishes.

Click here to see the entire article.