I’ve been a fan of chef Eric Erhard for many years, so I was looking forward to visiting his new restaurant, Mojo Tapas Restaurant and Bar, to explore the wine and cocktail list.
The wine selections were solidly chosen for a medium-sized list. Bottle choices included a respectable five sparkling, more than 20 whites and about 40 reds. Even the highest-priced bottles on the list – higher-end reds like Duckhorn Merlot at $65, Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon at $68 and Stag’s Leap Syrah at $78 – were offered at very reasonable prices.
The list’s 16 wines by the glass means most patrons will find something to their liking. That wide by-the-glass selection also fits very well with tapas-style dining, allowing diners to switch up their wine selections to best pair with the variety of flavors that results from ordering so many different dishes. The calamari with chile-lime aioli was great with the Adelsheim Pinot Gris, a delicious and affordable companion at $8 a glass. Oregon Pinot Gris is so consistently good that you can order almost any producer’s product and be virtually assured of a pleasurable experience.
A can’t-miss Zinfandel choice is from the Cline winery in Sonoma. The fruitiness of this Zin was the perfect balance to the cheesy, bacony intensity of the blue cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and served with a balsamic reduction.
Also from Sonoma, the Benziger family winery offers a superb value and high-quality Chardonnay from the famous Sangiacomo vineyard in the Carneros region. Only lightly oaked, this wonderfully balanced white is a great multitasking wine, making it a great choice for tapas-style dining. It paired nicely with the crab empanadas with mango mustard as well as the fantastic lamb sliders with apricot mustard.
The Garlic-Chile Shrimp & Sexy Grits was hot enough that I wished I could have a glass of milk. Knowing that most dry wines won’t work well with spicy dishes, I thought about pairing it with a Bogle Riesling (a great buy at $6 a glass), as the lightly sweeter Riesling would likely help to put out the fire. But the house-made white Sangria turned out to be the best choice for this one.
I was too stuffed to go for any of the desserts, so instead sampled a dessert-like Martini called Blueberry Muffin, a shaken mixture of Pearl Blueberry Vodka, St. Brendan’s Irish Cream, Amaretto and white crème de cocoa that really did smell and taste like a blueberry muffin. If such concoctions are too sweet for your taste, Mojo also offers a really fantastic aged rum, Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Year Rum from Guatemala. I was suspicious about it actually being 23 years old, and I did discover that the rum is a blend of rums with up to 23 years of barrel age. It was still a beautiful drink and a very classy way to end the meal.
Eight draft beers and about 30 bottle beers touched all the bases for lovers of fermented grain. All of the draft beers were $4, a very fair price.
Although Mojo offers a well-priced selection of wines, I am always disappointed when all wine choices are from a single wholesaler, which thwarts opportunities to offer other interesting wines. (Disappointingly, the wholesaler Mojo uses is a leading distributor of Missouri wines, yet there were none of these on the Mojo menu.) Tapas bars should also have at least a minimal selection of Sherries, the traditional wine paired with Tapas; Mojo offers none.
To read Michael Renner’s take on Mojo Tapas Restaurant’s cuisine, visit Gourmet Guru in the reviews section.
This article appears in Jul 1-31, 2010.