Due to the ongoing craziness that is our world, we have not had an RCC evening since February. March rolled around and with it the Coronavirus pandemic, and everything came to an immediate halt. With the initial improvement in conditions in Israel and the relaxing of the guidelines from the Health Ministry, I decided about a month ago to try and shoot for some sort of RCC. For this month. Social distancing requirements meant that it would be hard to host this kind of an evening in someone’s home. Instead we began looking for a restaurant that would agree to host us and keep to strict social distancing guidelines as well as full implementation of the Health Ministry’s guidelines, including masks by all staff. This is not to be taken as a given as MANY restaurants appear to be lax. Luckily we found a restaurant that was able to meet all of our requirements – Eucalyptus.

I have to say I was nervous. I had been to a wine event a month ago organized by someone else and hosted somewhere else and people were on top of each other, grabbing snacks and cheese without utensils and in general behaving as if this pandemic wasn’t happening.  If I would have realized how things would have played out beforehand, I certainly would NEVER have attended something like that. I sat at the corner of a table off to a side and left the proceedings whenever I could to avoid contact – and I lived in fear for two weeks after. So I was VERY clear that all protocols had to be followed – and I have to say, the restaurant didn’t blink an eye and in fact assured us that they followed every single protocol to the letter. In fact, they gave us the entire upper floor that usually can easily seat 70 or more. They set a table for us with an empty space between every dinner. Each dinner was provided his own bread and dips so nothing had to be shared. Every single staff member wore masks – including those in the kitchen (I checked). And – the food was EXCELLENT. Certainly our best RCC restaurant experience ever, and the meal rivaled many of our Private chef catered events.  Every single dish was a winner, with my favorites being the wonderful short ribs which were served beef bourguignon style, as well as the duck filled pastillas, and incredibly the fully vegetarian mushroom risotto which used freekeh instead of rice. Super tasty. And the portions were tremendous.  I can say without reservation that whenever a home-based RCC is not an option, Eucalyptus will be our new default.

But as I always say, this blog is not really about food, it’s about wine – so let’s get to it. The wines this month (almost) without exception were winners – including an Israeli wine that was 20 years old! One thing that cannot be stressed too much ESPECIALLY here in Israel where the summers can be oppressively hot – PLEASE store your wines appropriately – and ONLY purchase wines from merchants who do the same. When in doubt – do without. More on that in the notes. Here is how it went (Note – in the picture of the printed menu, Flam Noble 2011 appears. Due to an cellar access problem, this was substituted with the Dalton, Matatia, 2006)