Todd Abrams
Todd Abrams
A simple and refreshing Clavelin Cremant du Jura was popped to start with a spread of smoked salmon, a perfectly ripe and runny Saint-Felicien, a hunk of Cantal, Zingerman’s baguette, and a bowl of Castelvetrano olives. Add a big, raw salad and this spread would be a fine weekday meal. Although we didn’t have a salad there was an enormous pot of lamb stew. We drank a couple bottles of Reissdorf Kolsch waiting for the stew to warm up.
I’m no Katie Brown but I do know that the terra cotta crocks that Saint-Felicien and Saint-Marcellin cheese comes in make first-rate salt cellars. Give them away as xmas gifts after you eat the cheese.
We started on the lamb with a 99 Verset Cornas. A layer of menthol and herbs (suitably described as being akin to Fernet Branca aromas) persisted, underneath which the scent of tart red fruits and meatflowers set up a drink that was bright and even. This wine is drinking brilliantly. It makes you say four letter words after every sip.
We finished the lamb with an elegant 83 Chave Hermitage all spicy cherry and pepper meat and puffy-chested Burgundianesque-y. I don’t know what else to say about this wine other than it was utterly charming at the start and began to shrivel up towards the end. An interesting comparison to the 83 Guigal Hermitage we drank last week that seemed to have a bit more earthy complexity on the nose but less grace on the palate.
Somehow a 2005 Domaine Savoye Cote du Py appeared and suffered by having to compete with the intensity of the two previous bottles. Nevertheless, it was in fine shape. Well integrated and still quite juicy.
Dessert consisted of a whiskey tasting led by one of our favorite local celebrity mixologists. Noah’s Mill Bourbon, Rowan’s Creek Bourbon, Hirsch Bourbon (I forgot the bottling. Steve?), E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Bourbon, and WhistlePig Straight Rye.
I’m no Katie Brown but I do know that the terra cotta crocks that Saint-Felicien and Saint-Marcellin cheese comes in make first-rate salt cellars. Give them away as xmas gifts after you eat the cheese.
We started on the lamb with a 99 Verset Cornas. A layer of menthol and herbs (suitably described as being akin to Fernet Branca aromas) persisted, underneath which the scent of tart red fruits and meatflowers set up a drink that was bright and even. This wine is drinking brilliantly. It makes you say four letter words after every sip.
We finished the lamb with an elegant 83 Chave Hermitage all spicy cherry and pepper meat and puffy-chested Burgundianesque-y. I don’t know what else to say about this wine other than it was utterly charming at the start and began to shrivel up towards the end. An interesting comparison to the 83 Guigal Hermitage we drank last week that seemed to have a bit more earthy complexity on the nose but less grace on the palate.
Somehow a 2005 Domaine Savoye Cote du Py appeared and suffered by having to compete with the intensity of the two previous bottles. Nevertheless, it was in fine shape. Well integrated and still quite juicy.
Dessert consisted of a whiskey tasting led by one of our favorite local celebrity mixologists. Noah’s Mill Bourbon, Rowan’s Creek Bourbon, Hirsch Bourbon (I forgot the bottling. Steve?), E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Bourbon, and WhistlePig Straight Rye.
