Food, Wine & Friends Page-182
MARCH BIRTHDAYS
Paul and Sandy Obester hosted a lovely birthday celebration
at the home of Sandy's mother, "Grandma Sally."
Sally is a spry 90 years young!
The table was set and the wines awaited...
Meanwhile, as the guests arrived, the kitchen was busy...
The Ruinart was especially toasty and yeasty. Very elegant!
It was soon time to sit down at the table and so we opened the white wines...
We've typically known the "Y" from Chateau d'Yquem to have been born
in a vintage which could not produce a sweet wine of exceptional quality.
The current vintage seems to be made with the idea of producing a good quality
dry wine, more along the lines of "dry white Bordeaux" than it is
"dry Sauternes."
The Sauvignon component is much more expressive than we've found in earlier
vintages (they do not produce "Y" every year...).
Smith Haut Lafitte is a superb white Bordeaux and has great fruit character and
nice oak as part of its make-up.
Sandy was busy in the kitchen preparing the first course, a
halibut preparation.
Bob appeared to be nodding off....
...so Alexia was getting ready to catch him in case he wavered towards her.
The dog indicated Bob's snoozing was making him tired...
It was then time for people to take a seat at the dinner
table.
Sandy and Paul were busy in the kitchen, preparing the first course.
Henry decanted the two Bordeaux wines...
The 1967 Lafite is on the left...light brown in color with a bit of tobacco leaf
character. It was "old," but still quite drinkable. Henry
described the bouquet of the Lafite as "ethereal."
The Lynch Bages was very fine and a much more youthful wine. It was darker
in color (as you can see) and showed more Cabernet fruity notes. Cassis
fragrances and flavors...deep and dark (still!).
We had a wonderful and 'rare' lamb roast...Paul explained that some friends
raise sheep and tonight's roast came from these pals...
It was quite good...and perfect with the Bordeaux.
Paul, then, was curious to see how a Gemello Cabernet from this era stacked up
against these famous French wines, so he uncorked a 1968 Gemello Cabernet.
That hand belongs to Alexia, who was motioning for a second pour of the Gemello
wine.
Paul points out the DRC Echezeaux was given to him some years
ago by Henry and Alexia...
This was, then, a gift that kept on giving.
The Pommard bottle was corked, so Paul found another Burgundy
to pair with the cheese course...
As you can see, the precise vintage is not visible and, curiously, the cork was
not branded with the vintage date, either!
Speaking of cheese, Bob demonstrated the proper milking techniques for sheep and
goats and explained how this differed from milking cows.
A moment later, Bob cuts the cheese.
The crostata of apples and pears was terrific!
The Sauternes was quite ready to drink...moderately honeyed
and perfect with the crostata.
Bob, then, opened a birthday gift...
Happily, he refrained from singing.
Another gift for Bob...
...salt of the earth.
And as the hour grew late...we soon adjourned and everyone made their way home.
Thanks to everyone for a splendid party!
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