When I happen to be travelling on or close to Rosh Chodesh, and I can’t attend my regular Jerusalem based RCC, I try to attend one in the locality that I happen to find myself in. Even when I am at home in Israel, every now and then I attend an RCC either in addition to or in place of the one that I organize in the Jerusalem area. That was the case this month when organizing something in Jerusalem didn’t seem realistic with the current restrictions. And so this month, I found myself attending the RCC hosted in the city of Raanana. In general, when I do attend an RCC other than my own, I do not write about it. It’s not really my place – I am just a guest and others in attendance may not be up for a public critique of the wine they brought. In this case though when I RSVP’ed that I was coming, one of the organizers specifically asked that I write it up the same way as I would an RCC of my own. I warned him , that there may be wines that I don’t care for or that the food might not be up to par – and I don’t really hide these things from my readers – that’s what the Unfiltered means in the title of the blog after all. But he insisted, and so here we are. As always, first a word about the food. As expected, hosting in someone’s home at this time is unrealistic and so the RCC took place at Brasserie Kazan which is located at 71 Achuza (on the corner of Achuza and Kazan). We sat outside with a reasonable amount of space between diners. Everyone wore masks –including attendees prior to eating and restaurant staff. The food was cooked well and was really plentiful. My favorite dish was the pappardelle with meat – the pasta was cooked perfectly, and the sauce worked well with the meat flavor accenting rather than overpowering the dish and vice versa. Well done. Other highlights were the Salmon Tartare on bruschetta and the Pineapple carpaccio for dessert. The service was excellent as well. If I lived in Raanana, I could see myself going there regularly. And now, on to the wines.