Food, Wine & Friends Page 154
THANKSGIVING 2008
WITH ALEXIA & HENRY!
Henry opened the first bottle of Champagne, a Charles Heidsieck Blanc de
Millénaires from the 1995 vintage. This was wonderfully yeasty and
toasty...very fine.
Alexia had a nice assortment of crudités.
Henry kept checking the bird and brought in the turkey...
We then adjourned to the dinner table...
Alexia prepared a Butternut Squash soup...
We had two New Zealand whites with this, a couple of Pinot Gris wines from the
2007 vintage.
The Huia had lovely fresh fruit and was quite good. I also liked the
Waimea, a winery located in the region of Nelson. It may have had a touch
of sweetness. Both were well-made, fresh and showed nice character.
The main course was Henry's roasted turkey and we had a pair of 2002 Sonoma
Pinot Noirs.
The 2002 Stewart Pinot Noir was a wonderful example of Russian River Valley
fruit. It was beautifully balanced and showed sweet cherry notes.
The 2002 Dutton Estate "Jewell Block Vineyard" was an example of
over-ripe, jammy, dehydrated fruit.
What were they thinking?
The wine was not "bad," but they sure missed the boat if they were
attempting to make an elegant wine.
Tom quickly got the hang of the serving utensils...
Henry!
Ellen.
There was plenty of food, even for these guys...
Alexia served a nice mushroom gravy...
Henry! did not use these for the sauce, however...
There was a cheese course to follow...
I had brought two 2006 Burgundies...
Domaine d'Eugénie is a new brand, but an old domaine. It is the old Rene
Engel domaine and was purchased by François Pinault, who owns Château Latour
in Pauillac.
With old vines and no shortage of resources, one might expect these pricey
bottles to be truly grand.
The Vosne-Romanée showed bright cherries and nice red fruit aromas and
flavors. It's a mildly tannic wine, medium-bodied and of "good"
quality.
The Echezeaux, priced at nearly $300, should have been a fabulous bottle of
wine. It was very nice and certainly a well-made Burgundy, but it is, at
this early stage, not worthy of its 'grand cru' status. Perhaps a decade
in the cellar will bring this to a higher level, but we didn't see the value in
this wine. The Echezeaux was perfectly nice, but when you pay a ransom for
a bottle of wine, your expectations are such that you're going to find something
extraordinary. This was a medium-bodied, moderately tannic Burgundy.
It had hints of dark cherries and a faintly earthy, underbrush character.
Alexia baked a spicy Ginger Cake...my bottle of Lustau's
Moscatel was 'corked,' so Alexia found an alternative bottle...
Frog's Leap's "Frogenbeerenauslese."
This was lovely...a late-picked Riesling from Rutherford. Nice acidity to
balance the sweetness.
We then witnessed a series of hand signals...
Alexia, however, had the last word...
And with that, we departed for home...
Thanks to Alexia and Henry for a splendid evening!
BACK TO THE
FIRST "FOOD, WINE & FRIENDS" PAGE
BACK
TO THE PREVIOUS PAGE
ON TO THE NEXT PAGE...
