Bacchus
Barbrix is a sexy place to be right now in Silver Lake, which means all the beautiful people are wearing flannel, and likely to be taking the food seriously. Though it is a wine bar, the extensive small plates are certainly not an afterthought. In fact, the big menu makes it even more fun to try unlikely pairings.
Since much is made of Barbrix’s choice of unlikely wines, I chose solely based on country of origin: a red from Uruguay and a white from Hungary. Can’t say that either one really knocked my socks off on their own, but they did pair nicely with some dishes.
The South American wine was a tannat (2007 Bouza), brought over from France and now Uruguay’s main wine product. It went well with sweetbreads and skirt steak, as expected.
The Tokaji from Hungary was a bit more challenging. Actually, that’s the wrong idea. It was just sort of boring. However, it perked up considerably with seafood, which surprised me, since Hungary is landlocked. But then I looked at a map.
Ah. That’s quite a large river that runs through Tokaj. Probably a lot of delicious sea creatures within. The wine culture of that region goes back many centuries, longer than even France’s strong vineyard tradition. In fact, eastern European rulers often gave it as a gift to their western counterparts. Perhaps 2005 just wasn’t as good a year as 1732.
