Pouring it on

Alan Verstraete's Wine Sync retail store in tony Northville was always about synching wine with food. After a few years of recommending to customers what goes with what, last year he began serving small plates himself, creating Kitchen Sync. He cleared away some of his wine displays, bought a ton of stemware, and installed tall tables with comfy chairs.

The walls of the store-restaurant are still lined with upright bottles arranged in six categories: silky white, crisp white, rich white, fruity red, mellow red and robust red. White linens and fresh flowers complete the scene.

The result is a marvelous place to snack after work; the small plates are enough to constitute supper if you order a couple. Better yet, it's a fun all-round experience on Saturdays: a $30 three-course dinner, with three wines matched by an expert. Verstraete says he always starts by choosing the wines; the menu evolves from there.

New Year's Eve will be more elaborate at $100 a couple, with a Champagne toast at midnight. Call quickly for a chance at a seat.

Because the kitchen is tiny, Verstraete works with a limited menu. On Saturdays (reservations required), dinner includes just two choices of entrée, plus coffee and dessert.

On a recent weekend, the first course was watercress and pink grapefruit salad with toasted walnuts: the greens ultra-fresh, the dressing light, the jumbo walnut halves crisp and plentiful, not just a garnish. The salad was outstanding, but the star of the course was a small serving of zippy Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc 2009 — which had a distinctly grapefruit tang.

The wine ($25 a bottle; 10 percent discount for Saturday diners) came from Mauritson Estate Wines in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County. See mauritsonwines.com for a quick lesson on how their wines get the way they are. The grapes for the Sauvignon Blanc, for example, are grown next to a creek, which lengthens the growing season, making the wine richer, while the sand and rock in the soil impart the illusion of citrus, the makers say.

The cheese and charcuterie course was a bit disappointing in the food but spectacular in the Mauritson Cabernet 2007. The cheeses were served cold and were a bland Bel Paese, cheddar and dill Havarti. When we replied honestly to the host's "How do you like the cheese?" he brought a fantastic aged Gouda, pungent, dry and crisp (in flavor). Both the more humdrum cheeses and two Goudas are available when ordering cheese a la carte on weeknights.

I can't credit most of the Mauritson family's description of their Cabernet: "aromas of dust...both juicy and serious...tobacco and sweet oak...as the wine moves back on the palate, it gains focus." But it definitely is "explosive in the nose" — please take the time to inhale first.

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