An Homage to Hermitage
When Paul told me that he would be available to hang out on Thursday evening, I decided to host the weekly Thursday’s In The Cellar series at my house and turn it into a dinner party. Paul had a few bottles he wanted to try, all of them based on Syrah or Shiraz, thus I told all the invitees to bring Rhone or Rhone style wines.
When Thursday arrived the air seemed electrified by our enthusiasm. I probably received 25 phone calls with last minute questions and suggestions. For most of us, this would be a night of epic proportions. Many of the guests had never experienced such a high caliber line-up of wines.
Admittedly, I focused poorly during the day. I allowed work to become secondary to ensuring that everything was in order for the party. I made trips to the grocery store to buy food. I did this despite having told everyone to bring his or her own grill item. To ease the financial burden on myself I had previously decided to make it a BYOB/BYOS (steak) party. I thought, “I’ll fire up the grill and let everyone do their own cooking.”
Vincent arrived early with two really beautiful bottles in hand. He then proceeded to feel guilty for not having brought any food though I told him I had plenty. Paul and Joe showed up shortly thereafter bearing gifts of hummus, bread, and cheese with which to start our feast. Toby, Andrew, and Ted ambled in. My new housemate Stacie freely mingled with the arrived company. Stacy (the usually appearing one) was, of course, late.
We started with a bottle of Schild Estate Sparkling Shiraz, which I can’t deny disliking. After a few sips I poured mine down the drain and opened a bottle of the 2002 J.L. Chave Hermitage Blanc. During this wine we all sort of stood around the kitchen talking. I made final hors d’oeuvres arrangements, checked the temperature of my wine cooler (where the reds were waiting at 63 degrees) and forced everyone to sit down at the makeshift dining room table I set up in the living room (more space now that Marita moved to Philadelphia with all the furniture). After some rather boisterous conversation around the table, I noticed that Vincent had disappeared. I imagined he must have gone outside to check on the charcoal situation, but when I went out there myself, he was nowhere to be found. Odd, I thought.
While Vincent was gone we opened a variety of wines, in no particular order, as I found it impossible to control this rowdy group. I opted for a laissez-faire attitude, hoping that it would work itself out. The resulting sequence in which the wines were tasted makes little sense. We jumped around from full-bodied new world examples, to lighter, older northern Rhone vintages. My apologies to those who might find this sacrilege, but I no longer held the reins at this point. In the end, it worked out quite well, although it did seem chaotic during the pre-meal tasting, with bottles being handed around the table wily-nilly.
On the table could be found: hummus, pita chips, cheese, bread, Tom’s fantastic pâté, crackers, chips, and salsa.
We opened and tasted through the following bottles:
2002 Fidelitas Syrah Columbia Valley, Washington (From my cellar courtesy of Paul)
2003 K Syrah Morrison Lane Walla Walla Valley, Washington (from Andrew’s Collection)
1995 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage (from Vincent’s collection)
Vincent showed back up on the scene at this point (appropriately as we were tasting his wine) with two shopping bags full of food. A whole pork loin, spices, etc. Portobello mushrooms. He went to work cooking for the entire group. I had bought some lamb and fixed it up earlier in the day. Andrew brought lamb also and two types of sausages. Paul and Joe brought steaks.
Then Stacy arrived.
She began peddling her wines to anyone who would listen. She had just come from an account and remained in full salesperson mode. Her audience, all restaurateurs or wine shop stewards didn’t help this. I told her to calm down a little, as she was at a party not at work. She opened:
2005 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhone “Belleruche” Blanc
2005 Zaca Mesa Roussanne, California
200? Horton Viognier, Virginia
During these latter two wines I was assisting Vincent (who had ducked out when Stacy began her impassioned speech on Horton Vineyards) with the grilling, as was Andrew, who seems very much in love with cooking.
I occasionally popped back in the house to clean a tray or grab a plate. During these brief inside moments I caught some of the propaganda in favor of the three whites, with Stacy stopping mid sentence, as I appeared to ensure I tasted these “terrific” wines. I missed the Zaca Mesa Roussanne, though I did hear very positive commentary on it. The Horton Viognier I thought poor in quality and dumped it onto the fire when Vincent needed to coals contained to a more moderate temperature. I took notes on the white CDR and these can be found in Part II of this post.
Vincent, Andrew, and I arrived at table bearing great platters of food. Grilled Portobello mushrooms and green beans on one plate. A mountain of meat on another platter: pork loin, sausage, steak, and lamb. It truly was a feast fit for a carnivorous confrèrie of wine and food lovers. (I had a pre-made tuna burger courtesy of Whole Foods).
Two flights of three wines each accompanied the food (quite possibly the most interesting and delectable flights I’ve ever had, apart from a previous dinner of 1982 Bordeaux that included Talbot, Léoville Poyferré, Léoville Las Cases and La Mission Haut Brion). The spit buckets were pushed aside and left to lie unused, as we tasted through these:
2002 J.L. Chave Hermitage Rouge (Both of the Chaves brought by Paul)
1995 Chapoutier Hermitage “Le Pavillon” (Vincent)
1990 E. Guigal Hermitage (Ted)
This was followed by:
1996 Jaboulet Cornas (Me)
2000 La Bastide Saint Dominique Chateauneuf-du-Pape “Secrets de Pignan” (Me)
2000 Penfold’s Grange (Paul)
After Dinner things deteriorated a little bit. We tasted:
2003 Zaca Mesa “Z Three” Santa Ynez Valley, California (Stacy)
2005 Mitolo GAM Shiraz McLaren Vale, Australia (Stacy)
2003 Tintara Reserve Shiraz McLaren Vale (Stacy)
At this point, these three undrinkable, heavy, alcoholic wines should have been saved for a more appropriate occasion. To strip paint from a house for example. Overkill and unnecessary after the fine wines of earlier.
For Dessert we drank the following two:
2001 Chateau Pierre Bise Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu “Papin-Chevalier” (Me)
(Oops, how did this make it into a Rhone tasting?!?)
2003 Chapoutier Banyuls (Stacy)
After the meal we lost a few good men, including Paul, Joe and Vincent. Joe actually fell asleep halfway through the dinner! The food, of course was incredible (this generally happens when Vincent is cooking). The wines (for the most part) fantastic though see Part II for the tasting notes.
As I am blogging about this dinner nearly a month after it occurred the details regarding conversation are a bit fuzzy, though I did note that Ted vociferously exclaimed he wanted blind tastings more than once. I think he actually may have told me to write this down.
Oh, I forgot to add that halfway into the Grange we decided to call Michael (Toby, Andrew, and Ted’s cellar landlord) whose single greatest wine experience resulted from a bottle of Grange. Though he doesn’t live far, poor Michael made two trips back and forth from his house to my neighborhood due to nighttime road construction on the street leading to my house and our obvious inability to give proper directions after 10 bottles of wine. He has no cell phone so when he couldn’t find it the first time, had to go home, call us back, then make the trip again, the second time successfully. I think he was happy that we got him out of bed for a glass of Grange?
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