Food, Wine & Friends Page 202
February 2011
We congregated at the terrific Clement Street bistro called
Chapeau! to enjoy some vittles and vino with Bordeaux wine Baron, Thibault
Despagne.
Also joining the group was Reine Simone, the queen of Montreal du Gers in the
Southwest of France.
Also joining the festivities was G-Wine-th (Gwyneth) YanYan Yip, Julia and Gary
of SF Wine Trading, Tom Switzer (famous hall-of-fame wine rep) and Charles'
lovely wife, Nathalie.
Chapeau! is always bustling and busy, so we had to wait a while for our table...
A bottle of Serge Mathieu's Tête de Cuvée Champagne was perfect to start as we
scoped out the menu.
Reine Simone and Nathalie.
We all hoisted a glass to toast everyone's good health and good looks.
Some sort of eggplant starter...delicious and loaded with garlic! Yum!!!
Thibault poured wine from a top Bordeaux estate, the Chateau Tour de Mirambeau.
Gwyneth and Thibault.
Nice escargot...
And the presentation of this steak brought smiles!
We opened a bottle of 2002 Leonetti Reserve...a
Cabernet/Merlot/Petit Verdot blend.
The steak was then plated and presented again.
The Cassoulet was delicious!
Some sort of chicken main course...
Tom Switzer steaking a claim.
Charles Neal performing surgery on the steak.
Julia.
The Daubin ladies picking a bone...
Tom then began telling wine stories in Mandarin...
...much to Gwyneth's surprise.
Thibault poured some of the Ridge Cabernet for Nathalie...
Gary.
Simone and Nathalie.
Things are looking up.
And things are looking down...
We then showed Thibault and Gwyneth a proposed new rendition of a Tour de
Mirambeau label...
Thibault, however, was not sold on the minor fine-tuning changes we'd suggested.
As Thibault wrestles with the cork in a bottle of California Syrah, Gary
explains the 2010 baseball season...
...and the victorious San Francisco Giants: World Champions!
Julia has a look at the bottle of Bonaccorsi Syrah.
There's a reason Tom is a Hall of Fame wine sales rep...
It's midnight and the man is still taking and placing orders for wine!
Gary was still explaining the pennant race to Thibault.
Then Gwyneth told us it was the Chinese who invented baseball.
中国棒球联赛
"Yes, the original four
teams were the Beijing Tigers, Tianjin Lions, Shanghai Eagles and Guangzhou
Lightning. The Hope Stars and Dragons joined them in 2005. The Hope Stars are an
under-21 team of promising players from around the country. Henan Elephants
entered CBL as an expansion team in 2009."
Julia was surprised when Charles
told her they don't serve Budweiser at basbeall games in China, but Snow,
Tsingtao and Yanjing.
As it was midnight, Charles and Julia broke into song...
This woke up the proprietor of Chapeau!, Philippe Gardelle.
Philippe then serenaded the crowd with his rendition of "My Darling
Clementine."
Then he asked Simone if she wanted a plate of Foie Gras...
Charles and Julia were then trying to select another tune for a duet.
Charles was thinking of some showtunes.
And with that Gary said, "Philippe, I gotta blow this joint before there's
more singing."
But Philippe said he knew one last Edith Piaf tune.
"If I sing Mon Apero, everyone gets a glass of Lillet."
And with that, Philippe broke into song...
Thibault said he'd never heard the tune so early in the morning.
Julia then regaled us with the Piaf 1936 tune "Ding, Din, Dong" which Gwyneth
thought was a Cantonese song.
And then a handful of revelers broke out into the song of
"The Party's Over."
And so we all put on our chapeaux and headed into the early morning with smiles
and good cheer.
Thanks to Charles for organizing a nice evening.
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