By Greg B.  (photo courtesy of sxc.hu) Morton’s steakhouse is something special.  If you walk into the restaurant, you are immediately thrown back in a 1920’s era old school fancy steakhouse and it practically screams Chicago.  Not really the mobster scene, but a classy, refined place that will serve you the best steak around.  I had never been to Morton’s here in Baltimore, let alone any Morton’s restaurant before, so I was excited when offered the opportunity to attend a dinner of Organic wines and food pairings!

I walked into the restaurant a bit early, but that is fine by me, because it affords me the opportunity to head to the bar and check out the beer list!  Unfortunately, this was the one sore spot of the evening, the beer list needs some work.  You’ll notice they don’t really have a section for beer on their webpage, but they have the ‘usual’ suspects, Amstel and Sam Adams.  The bright spot of the list was a large bottle of Chimay Red, which I think would go fantastic with any lamb dish they have on the menu, and I would bet if Morton’s gave their beer department a little bit more of a budget to experiment with some more beers, they would find other great pairings, for steaks, seafoods and especially their desserts (more on that later).

Going from the bar to the reception, was a change.  The bar was in a back room, very chill and quiet, and the reception was full of folks milling about and chatting.  It took place in a side room towards the back of the restaurant, which had sliding doors to seal it off from the rest of the diners during whatever event would take place (tonight the organic wine dinner!).  There were cocktails available of Crop organic Vodka.  I did not get a cocktail per se, but I did try the tomato vodka because I was curious about the flavors.  And they were exactly right, if you imagined something, anything, flavored with tomato but lacking that acidity of the tomato, this vodka both smelled and tasted like it.  There also was a cucumber flavored vodka, though I did not sample this, as well as a Casa sauvignon blanc from the Rapel valley that was biodynamically farmed, the highest quality rating an organic product can achieve.  For my part, the tomato vodka went very well with the Jumbo lump crab canapes & roma tomato-basil crostini.  I felt the tomato parts matches pretty well, and the sweetness of the vodka paired nicely with the sweetness of the crab meat.  But while milling about interacting with people, I bumped into several folks who, as luck would have it, were homebrewers!  So, along with the rest of the evening’s discussion of the fine foods and wines, there was always a beer topic brewing in someone’s mind.

We took our seats at the tables and were promptly served the appetizer course, a delicious grilled domestic lamb chop with a rosemary chambord sauce!  The meat was cooked perfectly, and the cut was excellent, as you almost had no need for a knife with this dish in removing the meat from the bone!  It was paired with a Bonterra vineyards zinfandel from Mendocino, a wine that had enough of a more ’spicey’ kick to go nicely with the lamb, but also had a delicious raspberry flavor that paired very well with the chambord sauce.  The lower acidity of the wine and a bit of sweetness in it helped to give this wine a great mouthfeel that also matched the texture of the lamb.

After this meal, we enjoyed a salad course made of a mixed field green salad with apples, walnuts, goat cheese and topped with a dijon vinaigrette.  The salad was great by itself, but the wine, a Bonterra Vineyards Viognier, certified organic of course, was also a great pairing.  The wine had a nice crisp fruity aroma and flavor that complimented the salad.  Normally, in a salad with this list of ingredients, I might also expect some slices of tangerine or a small nectarine slice as well, but the wine, in essence, was this citrus fruit for the salad.  Both were light, fruity and festive and while the goat cheese was tempered by the wine, the apples were complimented by it, showcasing both aspects of and a great usage of this viognier!

Then the main meal.  It’s always a pleasure to enjoy a great steak, from well fed and managed cattle to well cut sections and then, of course, well prepared by chefs who know how to handle beef!  This was no exception.  The single cut filet mignon was tender as possible.  I ordered the steak, I believe if I can quote myself ‘as rare as is possible’ and it arrived cooked (or, mostly not!) perfectly to temperature.  It was almost like butter, and while I did use a fork, the meat was fell apart and was succulent, practically melting in the mouth.  Coupled with traditional sides of herbed new potatoes and grilled asparagus spears with a balsamic glaze, this was a hearty main course featuring classic steak fare.  To serve with this, two wines were chosen: a Ferrari-Carano cabernet sauvignon (sustainably farmed) and a Casa Lapostelle, ‘cuvee alexandre’, cabernet sauvignon (biodynamically farmed).  The Ferrari-Carano cabernet sauvignon was a hot (you know, not temperature), but fruity wine and it went very well with the steak and potatos dish, having enough tannin to handle the fats and oils of the food.  The second wine, the Casa Lapostelle Cabernet sauvignon was a totally different beast.  Fruitier and juicier almost, this was a much more elegant wine than the first.  While it had softer tannins, and I preferred the meal with the Ferrari-Carano, I finished the meal with this wine and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The more fresh fruit on the nose stood out and was refreshing, and the softer mouthfeel was a pleasure to drink as I finished off the meal.

And now, the dessert course.  This was a miniature legendary hot chocolate cake that was absolutely fantastic… and almost to the point where I want to see if I can make a cake similar!  It was great, moist, hot, chocolatey and topped with fresh raspberries, this dessert might be fit for the king of decadence.  It was paired with a Ferrari-Carano Eldorado Noir from the Russian River Valley (sustainably farmed).  This is a grape I’ve been wanting to try for a while, and have had a bottle of black muscat in my basement for a few months now, just looking for a reason to open it.  This was sweet sweet sweet, and nicely matches the raspberries in the dessert dish.  However, and this is where I’d love to see Morton’s take up a better beer list, I think there are several beers that could have done an even better job.  A Russian Imperial Stout, with it’s fruity, raspberry aromas and caramelized/roasted malt flavors would be an absolute killer match with this dessert.  But, that could of course just be the beerman in me!  The eldorado noir was a great match as well, and balanced the dark chocolate of the dish with a sweeter supplement until the last bite.

This was a fantastic evening, one that also included a benefit for the American Red Cross of central Maryland.  There was an auction at the conclusion of the night, one which, while I would have loved to have participated, my graduate student salary kept me out of the bidding!  This is not a bad thing, however, because the more money raised for charity is more money for a good cause.  And the promotion of organically and sustainably farmed wines and produced spirits is also for a great cause, so we should thank Morton’s Steakhouse for promoting vintners who have such noble goals!