I did minimal research on the Restaurant other than this.  I wanted to approach it with an open mind and senses.  We checked into our hotel, took the S-Train to Christianshavn, and walked the last half-mile through a charming old neighborhood, across a canal and along the harbor-side docks.   The restaurant itself is in an old stone salt warehouse, at the waters edge.   A small, wood-masted sailing ship lay dockside outside the restaurant window, and the view was across the harbor toward central Copenhagen.

The restaurant was cozy, softly lit in warm tones, and simply decorated with a mix of bares stone walls and draped surfaces in predominantly brown & beige tones.  One enters through the main doorway and immediately faces an itensely active scene in the display kitchen.  The restaurant is small, seating less than a hundred I would guess.  A casual lounge is on the other side of the entrance  from the dining area.

There appears to be only one seating per evening, although the seating times are staggered. One is asked about allergies and food dislikes ahead of time, but  only a set menu is offered, with modification if necessary. The diner is not informed of the price, nor do you see a printed menu until the end of the evening, as sort of a commemorative souvenir.

The service is attentive, but relaxed and casual.  It appeared to me that there is some blurring between wait-staff and kitchen staff, as at times a cook-like person would bring the course to table, while at other times wait staff or what one might presume to be a maître ‘d or wait captain would serve wine.

The most powerful impression NOMA conveyed to me did not come from the food itself, but from the expression of the culinary philosophy and vision.   The meal as a whole sent a message about one’s place in the world, about a food “ecology” , and about eating from the place you inhabit.   More than anything else that night, and really unlike any other dining experience I’ve had in the world, NOMA can imprint this concept on the receptive diner, and it does so with a magnificent whirlwind of varied courses, that descends to the slightly repetitive only fleetingly.   In a way, the meal is coursed like a Baroque musical piece, with fugue like elements appearing throughout the evening.  Carrots, celeriac, and coniferous components figured strongly, as well as fruits de mer.  Red meat only briefly, and mostly not muscle:  marrow & skin, for example.   Fowl and dairy occasionally.

Vicky and I elected to have the set wine pairings with the meal, wanting to let NOMA immerse us in what they thought worked best.  The pairings tended to the obscure and sometimes marginalized wine regions of Middle Europe, with a focus on subtlety, nuance, delicacy..Austria, Beaujolais, Champagne, Germany, the Loire, Vin du Pays.  In this sense, the food is definitely center stage, with the wines meant to counter point or complement in a poised way.    Warmer climate, higher alcohol, and New World wines were general or totally absent.   We began the meal with Champagne, and at the end of it all, I honestly think this is one of those restaurant cuisines where you could drink Champagne the whole meal, just moving up from Blanc de Blancs to Blanc de Noir, to more aged heavier styles like a Krug and be perfectly happy the entire time.  The cuisine would match perfectly.

After the flurry, the pace slows, and the dishes are a little large in size. An ebelskiver like round pancake, with a small sardine like fish (cooked, smoked, pickled?) swimming through it.   A single Limfjords oyster, shucked, replaced, carved, with seaweed, gooseberry and buttermilk, covered with shell, presented on a bed of seaside shingle.  A tastes so much like the sea. Celeriac, unripe sloe berry and white currants, with a douglas fir emulsion sauce—coniferous, fresh, piquant and vegetatively dense and satisfying.

Desert was  a mix of sloe berry sorbet, and brown cheese (sweet carmelized, think the Gjetost fad…)presented in a bowl as tiny coin sized disks laid out in a fish scale pattern, and freshened with a sloeberry light syrup or juice reduction…very brisk but nice match with sorbet and cheese.

Served with an Auslese, which was a bit overwhelmed by the above

We moved to the lounge area after desert, and finished the meal with bone marrow caramels..very hearty, serve in cut round bone sections as the filling.  Hearty, dense, powerful.  We drank it with aquavit from Denmark; apple, and I think peach distillation based.

Overall, while it is presumptuous of me to rate a restaurant, if I did, it would shake out like this:

Culinary vision and execution-A++
Service A-
Wines B+
Food ingredient quality: A++
Atmosphere: A
Overall:  A+
Price: $$$$$ (this was the most expensive meal I’ve ever had for two)

NOMA delivers an exceptional experience that was truly unique, and highly unlikely to be duplicated elsewhere.  If a good friend asked if they should go, I would say “YES!”. Vicky and I had a wonderful time and will not soon forget our evening together at NOMA.

The cuisine helps you feel in touch with a place, you feel like your eating somewhere, not anywhere.  It’s a locavore experience that surrounds you with the idea in the dining experience, not just saying it.  The food was technically very good, naturalistic, truly locavor oriented, subtle, and visionary.  Not food of fireworks and overwrought clichés..just a very intense ecological message quietly but forecefully presented.  Also, one last comment.  At times, a meal of this length and complexity leaves us feeling over fed, uncomfortable, and unhealthy.  NOMA was a pleasant exception to this.  Vicky and I left feeling good, and feeling good the day after.  Somehow, we felt refreshed and healthier.  The design of the meal components reflected the earth and its balance between plant and animal kingdoms, and made extensive use of items that were more hunter gatherer based diets, rather than cultivated.  Seaweed, beech nuts, lichen, forest mushroom, fir needles, wild seafood.  I loved that, feeling like what we ate was a reflection of our ecosystem, yet regionally based and authentic. That’s a big plus

We had a great time at the Montana Master Chefs at the luxurious Resort at Paws Up!  They’ve just let us know about a gorgeous video they produced with footage of the event which includes  some nice images of Seven Hills wines!  Pentad can be seen at about 1:38 into the video, closely followed by a brief flash of Viognier.

One of my early experiences in the Washington State wine industry was a visit to Red Mountain. I went there with a friend in the early 1980s to look over some land. This was in the days when Ciel du Cheval was one of only several vineyards on the Mountain, and well before fame had reached the area. There wasn’t even a Columbia Valley AVA, let alone a Red Mountain AVA. Land could be bought for about $500 per acre, a far cry from the $50,000+ seen today. Obtaining sufficient irrigation water could be problematic even then. Still, that slope facing off to the southwest overlooking the Yakima River and the Horse Heaven Hills had a special feel to it.

From Klipsun Vineyard Cabernet Block, looking northeast towards the peak of Red Mountain and Col Solare winery in the distance.

Seven Hills first began buying grapes on Red Mountain from Klipsun Vineyard in 1991; a Cabernet Sauvignon block planted in 1989 by the Gelles family. We opened a bottle of that 1991 Cab 20 years later at the Gelles home for a British wine writer this last May, and it delivered sweet fruit, on a fully mature structure without a hint of tiredness. Remarkable among Washington State winegrowing sites from the beginning, we’ve continued to enjoy and produce Bourdeaux red varietals from Red Mountain ever since.

In 2001 we began bottling a single-vineyard Bourdeaux-style red blend named simply Ciel du Cheval, Vintage Red Wine. Ciel has a wonderful capacity to produce wines of power, wrapped in elegance, layered with complexity. These bottlings have earned numerous accolades over the decade from a variety of wine publications. A few years later, we began working with Fred & Jorja Artz, using Cab and Merlot blocks from their Artz Vineyard, just to the north of Klipsun, sited on a northward facing slope. Fred had managed Klipsun Vineyard for many years, and is one of the most experienced viticulturists on the Mountain. For me Artz is about huge, almost impenetrable structure, good acidity, a signature kirschwasser liquer fruit note and that dusty-earth on the nose that always says “Red Mountain!”. From 2005 on, Artz Vineyard Cab has been an extremely important building block in our Red Mountain Cabernet Reserve bottlings. These Cabs are not for the faint of heart when young, and need at least five years in the bottle to begin opening up and showing what lies in their future. They will have a rewarding 15-20 year life in the cellar, without a doubt.

Today, I look back with pleasure on the many vintages of incredible red wine we’ve been able to produce from Red Mountain, and the relationships with the growers who’ve passionately produced grapes of the highest quality. Viticulture on Red Mountain has come a long way since I first stepped foot on that young Ciel du Cheval vineyard back in the early 80’s, but it’s really the coming decades I’m excited about as we continue to hone the grape growing and winemaking, elevating the wines to a whole new level.

Currently we offer the following expressions of Red Mountain terroir:

• 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve
• 2009 Ciel du Cheval, Vintage Red Wine
• 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Klipsun Vineyard
• 2006 Ciel du Cheval, Vintage Red Wine (library release, please call winery to order)

5.  Epic End-of-Harvest fire!

4. Rabbit house

3. Elegant, handy and sophisticated table for your Buddha Board

2. Kitteh Barrul

1. Making more wine!

Al Fresco Champagne lunch on the crush pad

September 27^th, 2011 - Today we celebrated the beginning of Vintage 2011 here at Seven Hills by crushing some wonderful, ripe, intense Merlot from some of our best vineyards, followed by a delicious al fresco Champagne lunch on the crush pad.  It’s a great feeling every year when those first loads of fruit come in and the vintage is launched.  We’ve had to be particularly patient this season, as we had a very cool Spring which delayed picking by about two weeks past average.

I believe we’ve done everything we can do in the vineyard to make this a great vintage of memorable wines.  Now it’s up to us to process and age these wines with our usual care so they end up the best they can be.

To get a taste of what it was like to be there, take a look at the video we made of the 2011 Merlot crush:

Crabs just waiting to be made into Crab Cakes served with Riesling!

Chuck Hill at Wines Northwest has done a nice write-up of Riesling tastings with crab cakes, including a review of our Seven Hills 2009 Riesling.  We love to see this kind of writing out there, as it combines our favorite topics: northwest food and northwest wine!

They provoke reminiscence about the original trip we took together through some of our great Bordeaux varietal ( Cabernet, Merlot, et al.) vineyards.  Seven Hills Winery has worked with these rich places for decades: Klipsun, Seven Hills, Ciel du Cheval.  Our journey led us through Walla Walla Valley, Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, and Wahluke appellations, as we gathered rock and earth for use in the Echoes of the Earth series.  Kevin Pogue, noted geologist, Ian and myself had an immensely enjoyable time together synthesizing our knowledge of earth, vine, wine and art.

I really hope that as many of you as possible can make it to the winery to bask in the visual message these paintings have to share.  You can read more about this stunning series on Ian’s site.