sumptuous feast at Le Figaro restaurant on Hamilton's Reid Street.

For the restaurant laid on a special wine tasting evening with a selection of top quality beverages to compliment each dish.

And Robert and P.J. Rex, owners of the `boutique winery', made the long journey from the Sonoma Valley in California to Bermuda especially for the wine tasting evening.

Prior to last Thursday's event, Le Figaro's Frank Schmitz told The Royal Gazette that the evening was the ultimate pairing of fine food and great wine.

"Excitement has been building for the last three weeks,'' he added. "We sent a news letter out but we were almost booked within a week, just through word of mouth.'' Ninety-two lucky patrons feasted on a magnificent dinner prepared by chef Paul Duclos which consisted of hazelnut crusted softshell crab, hickory smoked duckbreast over leaf spinach and chargrilled centre cut veal chop with wild forest mushrooms.

To finish the evening off, chef Duclos and his staff of three prepared Le Figaro's famous chocolate mouse with cappuccino cream.

But aside from fabulous food, patrons had the opportunity to enjoy the exclusive wines of the Deerfield Ranch Winery.

Bermuda is the only foreign country to distribute Deerfield Ranch Wines.

Guests were given the opportunity to savour a rich, full-bodied 1995 Sangiovese, a well-aged Cabernet/Merlot from 1992 and a slightly oak-flavoured 1996 Chardonnay.

"The menu was created between us and the Rex's,'' said Mr. Schmitz. "It is the ultimate pairing.

"For example, because the Sangiovese has a powerful taste we needed something to counter it and the duck does.'' Mr. Rex added: "The delicate nature of the veal will bring out the Merlot, while the mushrooms brings out the flavour of the Cabernet.

"The 1992 Cabernet/Merlot is done in the Bordeaux style and was constructed to complement food,'' he noted. "It has a very long finish and lingers on the pallet.

"Wine Spectator described the Chardonnay as `elegant and silky smooth' and the 1995 Sangiovese has flavours of strawberry and blueberry and is fruity in the middle, has a long finish and has just the right amount of oak for balance.

"We believe that every wine should be delicious,'' he added. "You shouldn't have to look for interesting characteristics in wines, you should just enjoy it.'' "We really want to introduce our wines to Bermudians,'' said Mrs. Rex. "We are surprised to see the wide selections of Californian wines in the local stores.

"And we are delighted to see that Bermudians can get wines from small, unique Californian wineries.'' "All of our wines are handmade in small lots,'' explained Mr. Rex. "We take great care to bring out the flavour of the soil and climate of the vineyard.

"We only produce 2,000 cases a year. It is a very small production.'' But he said there were plans in the works to bump-up production by another 1,000 bottles this year.

The Rex's said their Bermuda connection was cultivated several years ago by John Sharpe of New World Wines and today the partnership has harvested into a rich alliance.

"Being one of the premier wine growing areas in the world, John came to visit us three years ago looking for small unique wineries to represent in Bermuda,'' Mr. Rex recalled. "We became friends and John talked us out of some wine.

"Bermuda is the only overseas account for our wine. We usually only sell it in the Sonoma Valley -- its not even available in San Francisco.'' Anyone interested in obtaining Deerfield Wines should contact John Sharpe at New World Wines.

To learn more about the Deerfield Ranch Winery their web site is www.deerfieldranch.com