Courtesy of: The Morning News
NOORD — Always seeking to improve the quality of their service, the proprietors of Sweet Peppers restaurant located within the Caribbean Palm Villas adjacent to Palm Beach, Harold and Anky Paesch, welcomed representatives of Aruba Trading Company’s wine and spirits department to educate their staffers on some of the fine wines they carry on their menu.
“Selecting a wine that will particularly complement, even enhance a dish, is important for restaurant staff to know,” commented ATC representative Kavey Yarzagaray. Wine and Spirits Manager Diego Claderon heartily agrees and both enjoyed sharing their knowledge and passion for fine vintages with the Sweet Pepper owners and crew on Friday afternoon, March 28.
The first in a series of such sessions with the restaurant’s staff focused on two Argentinean vintages of the Trivento Tribu label, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Malbec. These red wines are full flavored, hearty wines that best compliment beef main dishes, and are also quite appropriate for pastas with meat or sausage, a staple of the Sweet Pepper menu, along with antipastos. Kavey did advise to select the Cabernet with dishes with strong tomato sauces, as ‘the acidity of the Malbec might clash, but the Cabernet should prove an excellent choice.”
The restaurant provided a beautiful antipasto spread for its staff for the wine tasting, of items that are particularly well paired with such wines. These fine quality Trivento labels are available only in restaurants, explained Kavey; “They are most definitely not what we would categorize as “supermarket wines.”
The fine points of over and under tones of a select vintage, the tannic elements and acidic qualities, and how they offset the dishes they are paired with, were entertainingly explained to the Sweet Pepper staff as they swirled, sniffed and sipped. A nibble of Italian sausage, cheese, or marinated olives allowed them to fully comprehend and savor how various elements interacted with the flavor of the food and wines.
Aruba Trading Company is known as distributors of many fine wine labels, and Sweet Pepper owners were both employees of one of Aruba’s most famous gourmet restaurants, Chez Mathilde, for more than a decade. Both are dedicated to the appreciation of fine food and spirits, and Anky and Harold are quite fastidious about the quality of service their wait staff and bartenders can provide. The charming restaurant welcomes it clients to chat with the staff, and ask their wine advice, as they continue to insure they can give an informed answer.
