Last week, Meredith and I had the delightful opportunity to attend Sea Glass‘s fifth annual Argentinean Wine Dinner. When Rauni from Inn by the Sea invited us, we weren’t familiar with the event, but the premise of five courses prepared by Argentinean-raised chef, Mitchell Kaldrovich, paired with wines from Ruca Malen, sounded too exciting to resist.

We’ve enjoyed a memorable meal and a cocktail hour with Orvis on the patio at Sea Glass before, but this night was a slightly different experience. With dishes like empanadas and South American crêpe-style canelones, the fare was far from your typical Maine meal regularly featured on Sea Glass’s dinner menu. Although a number of the ingredients had a Maine feel to them, this wine dinner is one of Chef Mitchell Kaldrovich’s greatest opportunities each year to show off the Argentinean style of food he was raised on, and to that end, he did an outstanding job.

The other half of the equation, the Ruca Malen wine pairings complemented a number of the dishes exceptionally well. The Chardonnay Reserva in particular, an aromatic wine that was a bit bolder than we’re used to, paired extremely well with the smoky bacon-wrapped scallops that accompanied it. Days later, we’re still talking about the two Malbecs, which were tasty enough to warrant a special order from Old Port Wine Merchants that we’re picking up tomorrow.

All in all, Meredith and I enjoyed a delicious dinner, some brand new (to us) unique wines, and some excellent conversation that evening, and will definitely be adding more of the Sea Glass wine dinners to our calendar for this coming year.

Photos taken by Meredith Perdue for Map & Menu.