Old World and New World Collide
by Tejal Rao
October 2006

At Vidalia in Washington DC sommelier Doug Mohr harmonizes New World wines with Chef RJ Cooper’s modern American dishes but doesn’t hesitate to make bolder, unexpected matches that stretch as far as Spain. Cooper’s quail dish is a musing in early fall colors and ingredients and the little bird is stuffed and sliced in the fashion of a traditional roulade and even presented foot-on. But the presentation and the complimenting sauce—with all the sharpness and playfulness of dressed-up ketchup—renews the French roulade in visual style as well as taste. The upshot is a contemporary American dish whose European roots are mischievously implied by Mohr’s sophisticated Old World wine pairing. It’s this internationally boundless imagination and sense of playfulness that best define Mohr’s wine pairing style. The results, like Mohr, are bold, imaginative and hearty without overpowering the dishes’ flavors.