Food Wine & Friends Page 307
Back in July, Vino Fino member Tim Zainer trekked from his
palatial digs in Utah (he used to live in Santa Rosa, California) and hosted
some tasting group members and other friends to share a bottle of Dunn Howell
Mountain Cabernet.
Tim told us he would be returning to California for some golf outing in August,
so we suggested gathering in Burlingame to open some bottles and have a little
meal.
We selected a date and during the third week of August we hosted an evening to
pull a few corks.
I came up with a menu and started to put things together on a
Friday afternoon.
We assembled some Seafood in Parchment Paper...a humungous Prawn with some Sea
Scallops, Zucchini, Red Peppers, Shallots and Yellow Cherry Tomatoes with
cheese-free Pesto. I'd used some Pistachios in the pesto instead of Pine
Nuts and so I chopped additional Pistachios to sprinkle atop the seafood for a
little bit of "crunch."
We then prepared a few "Nibbles" to go with the magnum of Roederer
Estate.
Valery took care of pouring some bubbles for the guests.
While she took care of that I decanted the magnum of 1994 Dunn Napa Valley
Cabernet brought by Jack.
It was at cool cellar temperature and this was perfect on a warmish evening.
There was just a tiny bit of sediment in the bottle.
Here's the cast of characters...
Joe, Joanne, John, Jack, Guest of Honor Tim Zainer and Dr. Valery.
After the bubbly, we opened a couple of whites we thought might pair well with
the Parchment Pesto packages.
From Italy's Tramin winery in the Alto Adige we had the Stoan 2019 blend of
Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Bianco and Traminer.
We had enjoyed an earlier vintage of Spring Mountain Vineyard's Sauvignon Blanc
so we were curious to try the 2019.
We fired up the oven and had the Parchment Packages in there for about 20
minutes.
The Stoan had a mildly citrusy fruit tone as the Sauvignon Blanc, though only a
minor player, seems to have the loudest voice in that quartet.
Spring Mountain's Sauvignon was nicely pungent and herbal, so it worked well
with the garlicky pesto.
(We had a bit left over and re-tasted it the following day, without food, and it
was almost a tad skunky.)
A toast to the guest of honor!
And people dug in to the seafood.
Dr. Valery surgically dealt with the Freakishly Large Prawn with ease.
(Those things are roughly 4 ounces each!)
To cleanse the palate we served a Meyer Lemon Sorbet (yes,
homemade).
We wanted to open some other older red wines as we had a
handful of bottles which were on the market about the same time as the Vino Fino
tasting group was founded (in 1974).
Tim, John, Jack and I are original members.
I know John had been a fan of Concannon Cabernets from those days of yore and so
what better time to open a 1966 vintage?
As you can see the top of the cork was quite scuzzy and the level of fill was
rather low, so we did not have high hopes for this.
The cork came out in one piece using an Ah-So cork-puller.
We decanted the bottle and amazingly it was still alive!!!
Yes, of course it was old, but nicely earthy, maybe a touch of tobacco, but
still having a bit of Cabernet fruit.
While people poured the Dunn Cabernet and this Concannon 1966 "Limited
Bottling," I was busy in the kitchen.
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta.
Roasted Potatoes
Prime Rib...used a gizmo called MEATER
to monitor the internal temperature while the roast was in the oven.
It connects to a phone app and tells you the temperature and approximate
roasting time.
I was shooting for "rare" this worked efficiently.
We had another old bottle: 1973 Robert Mondavi Reserve
Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley.
Again the top of the cork was quite filthy and we wiped it down with a wet
towel.
The fill level was in to the lower neck/top shoulder.
I poured a little taste for Valery and she confirmed my suspicion in that the
wine was corked.
We then tried a little trick we've used a few times...sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn't.
We wadded up some plastic wrap and put it in a Pyrex cup of 32 ounce capacity.
We then poured the wine onto this and stirred it around for a bit, maybe 20
seconds.
The we rinsed out the decanter and poured the wine back into it.
Amazingly the corky, musty smell was vanquished!
It was still and old wine, though, but you would not have known this was a bad
bottle!
Sniffing the wine from the decanter I suspected it was flawed.
The 1994 Dunn Napa Cabernet was excellent...a bit of an herbal note but some
dark Cabernet fruit, too.
The Mondavi was old and earthy...still drinkable (once we dispatched that
overtly musty character!).
We had more bottles of red wines, but as everyone seemed
content with what we had open, we moved on to dessert.
Foreau's "Clos Naudin" Vouvray Moelleux from the 2009 vintage.
The color of the wine suggested it's old, but in fact there's ample sweetness
that's beautifully balanced by screamingly high acidity.
For dessert we baked an Apple Crumble and made some Cinnamon Gelato.
Valery brilliantly suggested a sprinkle of Cinnamon atop the gelato.
This was a delightful combination on all counts.
And so with that we completed our little Vittles & Vino
marathon!
Thanks to everyone for participating!
(And for the help in cleaning up the kitchen!!)
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