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Been to any good wine dinners lately?

The dead of winter is prime season for wine dinners, and they can be either a bane or a blessing.

Back in the 1970s, when wine dinners were a novelty, they were by definition a blessing, since no one knew anything about wine. Any kind of wine and food pairing felt like a grand adventure, even if the pasta course stuck to the plate, the dessert wine stuck to your teeth, and there were green peppers in everything, including the cabernet.

One of the first—and best—I attended in the ’70s was a revolutionary “components” tasting put on by a representative of the Robert Mondavi Winery. Before offering guests wines paired with food, the rep led us through a series of tasting exercises that demonstrated several important dimensions of wine: acidity, tannin, sweetness, and sulfites. This sort of tasting, which allowed the participants to manipulate the wine, has long since been abandoned. I suppose it was considered too technical and cumbersome, but it certainly advanced my understanding of wine.

Once wine distributors latched on to the idea of showcasing wines in a restaurant setting, wine dinners often became tedious lessons in the swirling and sniffing of whatever offerings the distributors needed to sell, tarted up with standard restaurant fare, always including a chocolate dessert.

When a wine dinner is presented as a “special event,” some people find it intimidating. How do you know what to wear to something like this? If you follow the advice of some online bloggers, you’ll wear khaki pants with a button down shirt and tie or a nice polo for the guy; a skirt and blouse or slacks (capris) and a blouse for the lady. Can’t find your capris? wear a tuxedo t-shirt: It says, “I want to be formal, but I’m here to party!”

Of course, capris and tux t-shirts wouldn’t be right for any wine dinner I’ve attended, but I’ll leave the wardrobe decisions up to you.

The principal hazards of any wine dinner are: too much wine, too much food, and too much time. A swish restaurant outside of Cleveland recently featured a wine dinner of six courses, including sea scallops, roasted cod, lobster quiche, duck and veal layered with potatoes, cassoulet of lamb, poached pears, Stilton cheese, ice cream, and cookies.

Garnishes included truffle hollandaise, Napa cabbage timbale filled with simmered white beans, pancetta bacon and caramelized shallots, brandy crab sauce, and a heart attack. Maybe drinking all of the six wines paired with these dishes would make them more digestible; I’m not sure.

Despite the risks to one’s health, who doesn’t enjoy a feast? A well-planned wine dinner can truly open the senses, offer new insights into flavor, balance and dimension, and give you a great variety of tastes in one seating. It’s educational!

More than that, it’s social. Instead of entertaining at home, you can invite your friends to share an evening that’s fun and different. You may make new friends, too. At Southampton’s Plaza Café, the chef, Doug Gulija, loves the dynamic of his frequent wine dinners, which he says, “are really all about people from widely differing backgrounds, with widely differing interests coming together and finding common ground in their shared appreciation of good food and fine wine.”

Unlike the wine dinners that are sales vehicles for otherwise empty restaurant nights, chef Gulija’s are carefully orchestrated flights of fancy that show both chef and vintner at their best. Other local restaurants that offer well-executed tasting dinners include Scrimshaw (Greenport), Jedediah Hawkins Inn (Jamesport), The North Fork Table and Inn (Southold), the Stone Creek Inn (East Quogue), Fresno (East Hampton), and The Hedges (East Hampton).

Recently, a new type of wine dinner has emerged with the farm-to-table movement. The East End Convivium of Slow Food (www.slowfoodlongisland.org) has planned several stunning “eat local” events. One of the most recent ones was at Sag Harbor’s American Hotel. This dinner, which sold out in a day, paired local wines with a procession of regional treats, including a clam “cappuccino,” Peconic Bay scallops, duck ravioli, micro-green salad, and tender pork belly. The winemaker for Wolffer Estate, Roman Roth, even brought a still-fizzy barrel sample of his late-harvest chardonnay, a tour de force all its own, with or without the profiteroles in maple syrup.

Just as exciting as the wine/food pairings was the joie de vivre of the guests, friends making new friends while sharing a mutual enthusiasm for our region’s agriculture.

I have a feeling that the next Slow Food wine dinner will sell out in a matter of hours as well. Hope to see you there.