Rupert's Wine List featured in McCall Magazine

Amazing wines in McCall? That's right! And Rupert's was featured in a recent article in the Spring 2011 issue of McCall Magazine showcasing the best places in town to immerse yourself in wine culture.

Here is an excerpt from the article:
According to David Carey, McCall’s purveyors of fine wine and food aren’t competing with each other as much as with every other picturesque town with ski lifts on the mountain and beef cheeks on the menu. For all their flash, Lake Tahoe, Ketchum, and Aspen lack McCall’s unassuming appeal.

“I have one tie, for emergencies only,” Carey remarks.

He is the general manager of Rupert’s, a formal dining room that shares an address and prime view of the lake with the historic Hotel McCall. His family owns the landmark, and he has been watching the town change around it since he was 7 years old.

Carey’s vision for the restaurant also is colored by memories of endless vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with Ernest and Julio Gallo growing grapes right down the street. Then there was London, where he lived and worked for 10 years, earning his chops at five-star hotels.

“I came with bigger eyes,” Carey recalls. “We had a lot more expensive wines on the list, more from the Old World. What’s bizarre, fantastic, and ironic is that local and regional wines aren’t inexpensive. It is not about price.”

It’s about comfort. People gravitate toward the familiar, especially if they’re just beginning to taste and learn about wine. The recent dominance of Washington wineries works in their favor, and Rupert’s offers labels from hotspots such as L’Ecole No. 41 and Cayuse.

“Sometimes we open something special and offer tastes to our customers. It might be a $10 bottle or a $50 bottle. When you make the right match, it’s fantastic. Those are the connections that make it fun to be in the business,” he says. “Wine is about story.”

The story doesn’t have to be a five-course meal. Rupert’s signature chocolate lava cake is a surprisingly apt foil for a glass of Fonseca Port. Both are dense and sweet, luxuriously soft. While pairings favor contrast or kinship, Carey says there are no rules.

“Wine is substantially about food,” he explains. “Sometimes you want them to compete.”

To see the full article on all of the great wine destinations in McCall, visit Lake Fork Publishing's website to view a digital issue or pick up a copy in town!