Food, Wine & Friends Tour de France Survivor's Dinner
DINNER FOR THE SURVIVORS
OF A 2011 ENOLOGICAL TOUR DE FRANCE
Tom Ragle took care of pouring Drea's bottle of Champagne...a nice Oeil de
Perdrix from Veselle.
The seemingly ubiquitous bowl of radishes, along with some truffle mousse pate.
In the kitchen, I took care of plating the chicken and vegetable terrine, served
on a bed of Mache and Arugula.
Vincent Ricard's Les Trois Chenes Sauvignon from Touraine was a nice match for
the lightly lemony salad and veggie terrine.
With the Escargot we had a tremendously good Saint Aubin from Pierre-Yves
Colin-Morey. Mildly toasty and woodsy...very fine.
Should have had a magnum of this, though.
For an intermezzo...we had a palate cleanser of an ice made of
Colette's Beaujolais Villages...
It had Meyer Lemon Juice in it and some Meyer Lemon zest, too, giving a
different twist to the ice.
Refreshing, though.
The main course was grilled duck breasts. These had been marinated in red
wine, orange juice and a drop of soy sauce.
Oven roasted potatoes...a bit of grilled polenta, too, for our vegetarian
friends...
Braised artichokes, too.
Also, we had some tomatoes stuffed with eggplant and
zucchini....
We had "professional service" from a gal who's the
daughter of a famous French restaurateur...
Nathalie Neal...
We all hoisted a glass for a toast...
Charles then started singing his favorite Polly Jean Harvey tunes...I think it
was Down by the Water (or maybe he was asking for someone to pass the bottle of
Badoit?)...
We had two nice, fully matured bottles of Bordeaux.
The 1978 Haut Bailly showed a touch of green herbs and a hint of mint,
perhaps. The 1978 Domaine de Chevalier was offering tobacco notes and a
faintly herbal element. Both wines were medium-bodied, elegant
"clarets." And they are mature, but still holding
reasonably well.
A selection of cheeses...a Basque cheese, Delice de Pommard from Burgundy,
a Mushroom Brie and a Le Chevrot...
A small Crottin de Champcol, a Camembert seasoned with Calvados and a Chaource
(we'd stopped at a farm along the road on our journey and picked up some
Chaource when in France...).
And we opened a nice little red Burgundy to go with the
cheeses...
Before dessert, we sprung a surprise on the crew...
A 1996 Jurancon from Clos Lapeyre was a nicely mature sweet wine...and it paired
well with the ice cream and berries.
And so we adjourned the proceedings until next time.
It was a pleasure to host the crew and see everyone again after such a great
excursion around France (with 36 hours in Italy and 12 in Spain)...
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