Wining and Dining Near the Vine
Perfect Partners: Wine Country Restaurants and Great Wine Companies
by John Mariani

It is easy enough to tour just about any wine country in the world—Bordeaux, Napa, Tuscany, Mendoza—and find splendid places to stay and dine. But it is a rarer thing to find fine restaurants attached to or run by wineries.

One of the dining rooms at Les Crayères

In most such cases, a great restaurant is a showcase for a wine company. At the famous Les Crayères (at Château Les Crayères in Reims), for example, it is Pommery Champagne. This is certainly one of the most opulent and beautifully situated grand châteaux and restaurants in France. Its 19 rooms were done in the Louis XVI style in 1901 and renovated in 1983 and are set within a breathtaking seven-hectare park beneath which are caves of Champagne.

Les Crayères' cuisine, prepared by chef Thierry Voisin, is classic, formal and consistently fine. This is not a restaurant in the forefront of modern French cooking, but you can still expect to have impeccably prepared dishes. Among them: the signature truffle en croûte with a sauce Périgueux, a pink, roast pigeon with girolles, and lamb in a crêpinette of baby vegetables. Happy endings include peach soufflé, lavender-scented peach soup and sorbet.

Nearby in Epernay is Maison Belle Epoque, a magnificent mansion done to perfection with some of the finest original Art Nouveau furniture and artwork in France. This is the showcase for Perrier-Jouët's Fleur de Champagne marque, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002. Aside from tasting an array of splendid wines in the famous flower-enameled bottles, you may dine here privately, with friends or with a group, attended by your own personal chef, Alain André, who will spoil you with a "100 Years of Romance" menu that includes lobster, truffles, foie gras, caviar and all the glories of French haute cuisine.

The Perrier family has had the gorgeous Maison Belle Époque since the 19th century, and its museum-quality décor is worth hours of investigation, glass of Champagne in hand. Upon strolling the leafy, manicured gardens and answering your call in for dinner, you may never wish to leave. You must, though, unless you are able to coax the manager, Madame Frederique Baveret, to let you spend the night. Anything is possible.

Castello Banfi

In Tuscany's glorious hills of Montalcino, Castello Banfi is a winery of astounding, ancient beauty, run by the Mariani family (alas, no relation to this writer) since the 1980s. They turn out some of the finest red wines in Tuscany, including SummuS, ExcelsuS and the brawny Brunellos, the most notable being the Poggio alle Mura and Poggio all'Oro. The wines are made on a rolling 7,100-acre estate in the beautiful golden hills of Montalcino. The 11th-century castle lies in the foothills of Mount Amiata.

One can visit Castello Banfi with advance notice and dine at the estate's two restaurants, a rustic, Tuscan taverna and a superb fine-dining restaurant. The consulting chef at Ristorante Castello Banfi is Heinz Beck, of Rome's La Pergola. Chef de cuisine Guido Haverkock's food expresses the regional bounty of Tuscany, enhanced with seafood from the Mediterranean. There are tasting menus that range from €66 to €90 with wine options available. Depending on the season, you might be dazzled by gnocchi with caviar and chives; roast quail with a Tuscan bean purée and truffle oil; and a dessert of apples, raisins, and pine nuts with caramel and vanilla ice creams, all accompanied by those superb wines.

Barboursville Vineyards

The verdant wine country of Virginia is some of the most beautiful in the world, coexisting with a long equestrian tradition and an even longer link to Thomas Jefferson, whose mansion, Monticello, is here. Jefferson also designed the mansion at Barboursville Vineyards, near Charlottesville, set on what was once the 870-acre plantation of Gov. James Barbour. That property is still standing, though in ruins. The land was purchased by the Italian wine company Zonin in 1976, and the winemaker is a Piedmontese named Luca Paschina, considered one of the new pioneers of Virginia wine. His insistence that Cabernet Franc was the ideal wine for the region's terroir has helped make this Virginia's most notable varietal.

Veranda Room of Palladio

You may enjoy Paschina’s wines, along with sumptuous pastas and braised short ribs in a red-wine reduction, at the on-premises restaurant, Palladio. Unquestionably one of the best and most authentic Italian restaurants in America, it offers views over a 100-year-old willow oak and is within site of the Jefferson-designed mansion. At intimate, rustic Palladio, chef Melissa Close knows how to coax flavor from every fruit and vegetable, taking full advantage of those tastes essential to the product and never masking one with another or adding extraneous ingredients. You’ll find evidence of this in her seared sea scallops with morels and fava beans accompanied by warm pancetta and locally-produced pecorino cheese. The veal, which is from the region, appears with Parma prosciutto, fontina and asparagus-and-morel ragù, with a potato gratin.

John Mariani is well known for his frank and poignant writing in Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink and co-author, with his wife, of the Italian-American Cookbook.