Tomasello Winery has been doing a Comfort Food Friday menu every week in Hammonton (and Cranford). I chose this past Friday because the menu in Hammonton sounded scrumptious and because their weekly wine sale highlighted their Palmaris wines. If you are reluctant to eat indoors now and don’t enjoy eating outdoors in the cold, you can have a full dinner put in your trunk and even add some wine to your hands-free transaction. I only had one of their wines (Palmaris Reserve Merlot) in my cellar, so I took advantage of their sale (25% off)! I picked the bottles shown above (2016 Palmaris Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2017 Palmaris Reserve Pinot Noir, 2016 Palmaris Reserve Petit Verdot, and 2018 Palmaris Reserve Chardonnay). If you have not had any of the wines in the Palmaris line, you really should check them out ASAP!
A couple of years ago my wife and I had the opportunity to meet Charlie and Jack Tomasello, sample their Palmaris Label wines, and taste some delicious food prepared by their chef. You can read more about that here: https://wp.me/p74VSa-iY
After the stressful week we all endured, we were more than ready for an evening of comfort food and wine. I am glad that I did not make a commitment to doing a “Dry January.” Our comfort food menu consisted of the following: a salad, a braised short rib entree, and a chocolate torte for dessert. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Salad
The salad consisted of spring mix, dried fruits, candied walnuts and Tomasello Winery Cranberry Wine Vinaigrette. I have to check and see if they sell the salad dressing. It’s terrific.
Entree
Braised Short Rib in a red wine reduction; green beans and bourbon horseradish mashed potatoes. Truly comfort food, but with some panache.
Dessert
Decadent Chocolate Torte-An amazing finish to our meal. We only added the whipped cream because we happened to have it handy.
Wine
Pictured below are the Tomasello Winery Palmaris 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (L) and Tomasello Winery 2014 Vintage Port (R). The Cabernet Sauvignon was a perfect match with the entree. It is actually 75% Cab, 20% Petit Verdot and 5% Cab Franc. The wine is a full-bodied, fragrant wine with notes of cassis and chocolate. It spent three years in oak and was bottled in April, 2020. This Cab was awarded 93 points by the Beverage Tasting Institute. Some good things did come out in 2020!
The Vintage Port was a nice accompaniment to the chocolate torte, with some chocolate notes of its own. The 2017 was a blend of their Chambourcin and Petit Verdot. I believe this 2014 was also.
Check out their website, sign up for their emails about their menu, wine, sales, and events. Tomasello has numerous tasting rooms and outlets for their wines. Two of them (the main one in Hammonton and one in Cranford) also offer these comfort food Fridays and other goodies.
Cheers!
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