Oregon Wine Sampler ... V Mertz Restaurant Omaha

When friends heard I was going to Omaha, they had a lot of snide comments like: "Oh, you're going to Omaha--well, have fun--if you can". I expected a decaying Midwestern town with a shabby Main Street lined with 1950's storefronts. Instead, Omaha is a vibrant modern town with sculpture gardens, clean wide boulevards, landscaped parks dotted with sculpture and glass and metal architecture mixed in with restored fine brick buildings. Besides Warren Buffet, Omaha is home to numerous billionaires and millionaires and several Fortune 500 companies, many of whom shower the city with their munificent philanthropy. And it has at least one world class restaurant, which I found through the useful TripAdvisor website. One enters V Mertz through a covered passageway between two exposed brick walls verdant with flowers. The restaurant decor is elegant but warm with soft pools of lighting. The evening we dined there, Executive Chef Kyle Anderson sent out an amuse bouche with a spoonful of salmon ceviche, a round of savory quinoa and tiny ramekin of tasty truffle soup that we all would have liked to have licked to the last drop. Sadly, my iphone couldn't take a good photo by candlelight, so I'm substituting one of the restaurant's website photos of a different fish dish to demonstrate their aesthetic presentation, but my entree was actually a perfectly cooked piece of wild salmon with corn succotash, watermelon cooked sous vide (boiled in a vacuum pack) with cracked pepper, lemon verbena, parsley and sherry vinegar (absolutely delicious!), roasted onions, greens, and a delicate corn foam and corn puree spiced with coriander, fennel, clove and allspice--the flavors of each part of the dish creating wonderful taste combinations with the rest. The V Mertz wine list has won awards from both Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator. On the waiter's recommendation, the 2005 Robert Sinskey "Three Amigos" (Los Carneros, California) was an excellent pairing for the salmon. Speaking of Pinot Noir--the wine pairing recipe for this week's Pinot sale is for fresh figs stuffed with Mascarpone and Gorgonzola. These are a sensuous, luscious delight and you will love these as an appetizer, dessert or for nibbling while enjoying the 2007 Trifecta Pinot Noir in your Oregon Wine Sampler shipment.

FRESH FIGS STUFFED WITH MASCARPONE AND GORGONZOLA:
10 large figs
1/2 mascarpone (you can use creme fraiche + 1 Tbsp. lemon juice)
4 Tbsp. Gorgonzola
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup honey
mint leaves
This recipe requires fully ripe, but not mushy, figs. Cut them in half and scoop out a bit of the center for a place for the cheese stuffing. Toast the pine nuts until golden brown under the broiler. Let cool, then mix the rest with the cheese. Spoon the mixture into the figs and drizzle with honey. Garnish with mint sprigs. Serve with the 2007 Trifecta Pinot Noir.