Had a very enjoyable wining-dining experience Tuesday night at Go Fish, the newish restaurant in Napa Valley, that demonstrated two bylaws of wine appreciation yet again:

1. Red wines go with fish, and

2. Make a point of straying from your usual wine types frequently.

Go Fish is a Cindy Pawlcyn restaurant in the space formerly known as Pinot Blanc (and much more formerly as Vern’s Copper Chimney, but that’s an item for a memoir and not a blog) right on Main Street/Highway 29 in St. Helena. Cindy is one of the pioneer California wine country chefs, and was or still is involved in a bunch of other restaurants, including the Meadowood resort restaurant, San Francisco’s Fog City Diner, Napa Valley’s Tra Vigne, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and the long-running Mustards Grill, the first place I ever ate rabbit.

Go Fish is a nice, big, open restaurant with a lively vibe, dramatic white/dark contrasting decor elements and a nearly all-seafood menu. Go Fish has a big sushi bar manned that night by three Japanese sushi pros under the direction of sushi master Ken Tominaga. The menu has an eclectic list of seafood entrees, and also features daily fish specials for which each diner can specify either wood grilling or sauteeing, and select a sauce. It reminds me of the old Hayes Street Grill in the Civic Center area of San Francisco in that regard.

Before leaving home our group of five downed a really rich and delicious, creamy tasting and creamy textured bottle of Wente Nth Degree Chardonnay 2004 ($40). “That’s Wente?” asked two of the drinkers, showing the prejudice that fifth-generation winemaker Karl Wente designed this newish line to eradicate. The two other Wente Nth Degree wines are Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. I’ve rated all of them in the 90s in blind tastings against the same varieties from Napa and Sonoma. But I digress.

At the restaurant I looked for my usual favorite sushi wine–sparkling– but decided the better ones were too expensive. I saw an unknown wine from a known Napa winery, Vision Cellars White Wine California ($18 retail) that’s blended from Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris. I love Vision Cellars‘ Pinot Noir, so I took a chance on it. Maybe slightly soft for the sushi, but I liked it and it made a good pairing anyway. I could have ordered a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, even Gruner Veltliner, which can be great with sushi, but this straying from the usual path was rewarding.

My drinking friend Bill had brought along a bottle of red from his cellar, a Hafner Vineyards Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1999. Not a well-known wine, partly because they don’t sell at retail. I haven’t tried it for years. We drank the Hafner with the main course, as well as a bottle of honeyed Drappier Carte d’Or Champagne sent over generously by Jacques Brix, a French transplant to Sonoma County who is a home winemaker and has an appropriate last name. Looking around the nearly full room we saw a few professional vintners, too, including Kerner Rombauer.

So 1999 was a balanced year for Napa-Sonoma Cabernet. It was very cool in the spring, and summer started late. Most of the wines have really good acidity and firm but not slashing tannins. I think in general that Cabernets from that year are going to age really well. The Hafner turned out to be elegant, lively, medium-bodied, with bright fruit that was just beginning to mellow. It’s not a blockbuster, but it was really nice with my wood-grilled tuna topped with an olive tapenade. Bill drank it with the sushi he kept consuming through the main course and didn’t complain at all, but he’s one of those narrowly focused guys who never chooses white over red.

Anyway, it was a very acceptable match, and a nice detour on the culinary trail. In my experience the more lean, less robust, more lively and less tannic reds go better with seafood. Which brings us to the Pinot Noir we also ordered: TAZ Pinot Noir Santa Barbara (2005 I think, retail about $25.) By then it was probably time to stop but the TAZ tasted so good that we didn’t.

We really liked the Go Fish food and ambiance (although the service was erratic) and recommend the restaurant highly next time you visit Napa Valley. We liked the corkage policy, too, a common one in wine country where restaurants often waive the corkage charge for at least one bottle if you buy at least one bottle. The bill was big, but not huge. We laughed a lot, savored the food and company, and drank red wine with fish.

Would love to hear comments about other memorable red-wine-with-fish encounters.

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