La Vigne en rose
September 1, 2005 | 12:00am
If you enjoyed the movie Sideways, you’ll love La Vigne Bistro. Sideways wasn’t just a movie about wine; it was about appreciating wine with good food. La Vigne Bistro is for people who are not only serious about wine, but also serious about good – possibly great – food.
This three-month-old restaurant on Yakal St. in Makati is a partnership between chef-patron Jose Sotto and wine maven Tita Trillo (of Anthony’s Wines & Spirits). The duo have worked together before, conceiving the popular Beluga Bar and Bistro in the late ’90s.
I first met Sotto when he was consultant chef at Tribeca in Shangri-La Plaza in 1998. Fresh from New York and his "tall food" days with Alfred Portale at Gotham Bar & Grill, he’s come a long way since then. Today, Sotto says his menu at La Vigne Bistro is the closest he’s ever come to a "dream" menu.
Like Beluga before it, La Vigne is built around a clever concept. Trillo’s daughter came up with the idea of dividing the menu into two parts – Old World and New World, each consisting of six starters and six main courses. For example, a classic dish like bouillabaisse is meant to be paired with an "older" French or Italian wine, while a fusion dish like lamb with garbanzos and cardamom would be perfectly enhanced by a "new" and sassy upstart wine from California or Chile.
And what choices await. While Sotto has pared down and distilled the dinner menu to 12 essentials, Trillo offers over 200 types of wine imported by her Titania Wine Cellar Inc., which forms the heart of the restaurant.
Located close to the SLEX side of Yakal St., La Vigne has a rustic charm provided by this wine cellar and the unfinished floors. Rows and rows of perfectly chilled bottles line the walls of this oenophile’s library, where the lighting is dark and warm and the table accoutrements are refreshingly modern.
La Vigne Bistro is the kind of place where people end up buying two or three – sometimes eight or 10 – bottles of a particular wine that strikes their palate. A person could go a little wine-crazy here: a quick mental calculation suggests there are about 3,000 bottles lining the walls. The Bordeaux section is particularly popular, as is the large Robert Mondavi collection, and the Chilean Caliterra Aventuras sell big. (They’re actually the featured wines in the nightly "Wine Galore" promo, where you can drink your fill of red or white Aventurra for P495 from 6 to 8 p.m.) Some of the pricier numbers on the wine list are a Napa Opus One 2001 (P24,500 a bottle); Chateau Haut Brion ’95 (P26,990); and a Chateau Lafitte Rothschild ’95 (P31,980).
Sotto was eager to prepare a dinner that encompassed practically half the menu. While our hearts were definitely in it, the question was, were our stomachs up to the test?
Our attentive waiter Jay first poured out a sparkling Italian wine, Prosecco Il Grigio, to go with an Old World mushroom salad that Sotto is particularly proud of. While waiting, we devoured slices of the house’s hot, crusty bread spread with a fresh pesto that was liberal with the melted Parmesan. It’s good to know that here, even the little details count.
The mushroom salad arrived, a mixture of fresh shiitake, oyster and button mushrooms drizzled with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, Parmesan and truffle oil. Sotto is justifiably proud; this salad achieves simple perfection in the freshness of its ingredients and the purity of its flavors.
Next came a New World dish Sotto has revived from his old Beluga days, tuna tartar scooped into a rice-cracker cone, which was accompanied by a Mouton Cadet Sauvignon Blanc ’98 from Bordeaux, which one reviewer described as having "a refined fresh nose on which distinctive floral aromas combine, leaving the impression of roundness in the mouth." One taste and we were transported and reminded of why it was so popular back then. This is definitely a signature dish that Sotto should always serve.
The lovely golden flavor of a Baron Philippe de Rothschild went well with the ravioli and risotto La Vigne. There’s nothing worse than starchy, undercooked risotto, but La Vigne’s version with cépes mushrooms, melted leeks and Parmesan was perfect – al dente and full of flavor, with unusual hints of lime. The ravioli filled with ricotta and mascarpone was, to put it bluntly, orgasmic. We just wished we had a spoon on hand to scoop up the savory tomato broth with seared mushrooms and truffle oil it was nestled in.
But the smorgasbord of starters wasn’t quite over yet. Next came braised bone marrow to spread on sourdough toasts, which was very generously portioned. The natural flavor of the marrow was brought out by the salty sweetness of an oxtail marmalade. Closely following was foie gras, sauteed duck liver with dried fruit barley, minted papaya and a cider reduction. This was definitely heading toward cholesterol central, and we tried not to picture clogging arteries, but both dishes were absolutely worth all the saturated fat.
All the wines being poured were overseen by the knowledgeable maitre d’, August, who actually took a short course in Bordeaux to learn about wine.
Already well-lubricated by the succession of fine spirits, we sat in anticipation of Sotto’s main courses, like huge, plump scallops seared and served on crisp crab-noodle cakes with a sea urchin sauce.
This was followed by large prawns that Sotto simply grills, letting the natural flavors do the talking. Served with paper-thin popadums, pineapple relish and jasmine rice, the smoky flavor of the prawns is surprisingly juxtaposed with a yellow curry sauce, a very pleasing contrast.
A Mouton Cadet Cabernet Sauvignon Rouge 2002 ushered in the meat entrees. Again, we resort to the experts on this one: "A bright, sweet raspberry fruit, silky and smooth, intensely fruity and ripe, with sweet tannins." It tasted lovely, we might add.
Among La Vigne’s regulars, the pork leg is already a favorite. Crisp and falling off the bone, accented with more duck liver, barley salad and a sweet balsamic, this excellent interpretation ensures that you’ll never look at crispy pata the same way again.
Next came a cassoulet, "from a classic recipe we don’t touch," says Sotto. Served with thin slices of bread, its heartiness is designed to keep you insulated from the cold, rainy weather outside. By now we were well and truly full, and this white-bean stew replete with duck confit, steamed pork and slices of fresh garlic sausage put us over the edge. We were ready for a bit of dessert.
But Sotto wasn’t going to let us off that easy. He served up the whole dessert menu. If you had a choice of just two, we’d say go for the extraordinary bibingka-flavored pot de crème and the light, not-too-sweet devil’s food cake served a la mode with a pumpkin-and-carrot sorbet. Sotto found his pastry chef by accident. "She works from home and she’s very young," he reveals. And quite inventive, with her Earl Grey crème brulee – a great twist on an old favorite – and a white-chocolate panna cotta infused with basil and passion fruit.
Sotto sources the passion fruit and other ingredients from as far away as Tagaytay in his quest to use the finest, freshest ingredients available. He actually does the marketing himself every morning, shopping at an organic market for herbs – "I’m happy when what I buy is all used in one day" – and at Farmer’s, Seaside and Cartimar for the rest.
He also recommends the set lunch menu. For P495++, you select a starter and a main from a list of 14 dishes. Starters include seafood salad, spinach and pig-ear salad, chicken Caesar salad, smoked salmon salad with watermelon, chicken paté with blackberry vinaigrette, cream of potato leek soup, and shrimp bisque.
Entrees consist of clam pasta with pesto cream, sole fish with almond-butter sauce, pork chops with mushroom sauce, stuffed chicken leg with sage-demi sauce, red wine-braised lamb shank, breaded dory with watermelon curry and osso bucco with parsley-garlic pasta.
While lunch is a good deal, by all means try to get to La Vigne Bistro for a great dinner. You’ll go sideways and get intoxicated by the perfect combinations of food and wine.
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