Since we had just received some limited good news from my surgeon, we decided to go out for the New Year’s Eve dinner, that we had to cancel.  I had even bought a new dinner jacket for New Year’s Eve and my Bride wanted to wear one of her new outfits that she found at a boutique in Stratford, Ontario, which I will eventually write about.

We had originally planned on going to Chicane, a restaurant in Plymouth that we go to periodically, since they have live music and a small dance floor.  It was going to be an evening of experiments to see how I felt, as the restaurant is not far from the house and I would be wearing a hernia brace or girdle.  The funny thing was that our waitress had handled our reservation call, as that we wanted to make up for our cancelled dinner and wanted a table near the dance floor and band.  We started off with an order of Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with house made sauce with a good serving of horseradish. 

We also started with a bottle of Prosecco, one of my Bride’s favorite style of bubbles.  We had a bottle of Cantina Colli Euganei Prosecco Dozaggio Zero Veneto NV. Cantina Colli Euganei is a cooperative of 680 winemakers across the protected area of the Euganean Hills Nature Hills Reserve.  The cooperative was formed in 1949 and began production in 1951.  Today, they produce over two million bottles of wine.  The soil of the region is clay with volcanic and alluvial origins. The wine is made from pure Prosecco grapes (if not from a recognized Prosecco region, the grapes would be Glera).  The sparkling wine is produced with the Traditional Method, with Zero Dosage.  The sparkling wine was straw colored with a tinge of greenish gold with small bubbles.  On the palate this light-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of Granny Smith apples and pears in a very crisp and dry style, ending with a medium-count finish of fruit and minerals.  My Bride continued with the wine with her entrée choice of Scallops in a Coconut Curry Broth with Basmati Rice, a Root Vegetable Medley and accompanied with Chutney and crispy celery.  I had an order of Braised Short Rib with Rutabaga and Celeriac Mash, Maple-glazed carrots and Red Wine demi-glace and topped with Giardiniera.  I also had a glass of Celani Family Vineyards “Robusto” Proprietary Red Wine Napa Valley 2020, which is pure Merlot with no trace of “smoke” damage.  I have written several times about this wine and our waitress, said that this is a very popular wine at the restaurant.

We did get up to dance a few times, but alas we were the only ones dancing, the band featured a guitarist, a trombonist, a big bass player, a drummer and a singer, though it was the first time, that I can remember hearing a man sing “Love for Sale.”  My Bride and I shared a dessert of a mixture of caramel, sea salt and bananas, but I forgot to photograph the dessert menu.  We also had our decaf coffees and shared a glass of Porto Calem Dacosta Tawny Porto NV; the restaurant only had this wine by the glass for after dinner.  Porto Calem was founded in 1859 in the Douro Valley of Portugal.  During the early years, the wines were mostly produced for export to Brazil in exchange for local woods.  In the late 19^th Century, they focused on the production of Port wines.  Porto Calem was family-owned until 1998 when the Sogevinus Group bought the company and all of its holdings and vineyards.  Their vineyards are basically from the Cima Corgo and Douro Superior regions of the Douro Valley and planted basically with Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Cao. They offer a wide range of Tawny Ports.  This fortified wine had a deep purple color and offered notes of dried fruits, raisins, caramel, chocolate and baking spices.  On the palate, though thick and syrupy, I found the wine on the lean side, but it did display tones of dried fruit and toffee and ended with a medium-count finish of spiced fruits and nuts.