Cause and effect (1994 López de Heredia Viña Tondonia GR)

S

Sharon Bowman

Sharon Bowman
Yesterday I took the A train. I brought a backpack and a book, and I'm glad I did. I took a folding Laguiole knife, too, just in case.

I went up to Dyckman Street-200th in Manhattan. Inwood. I walked to the park.

So, to backtrack a second—the summer was very dry in this part of the world, this year. So dry that my lone mushroom foray up the Hudson Valley resulted in crispy black chanterelles in the ground.

However, temperatures have remained clement, and rain has sprung itself upon us a couple of times of late, so I thought maybe... perhaps...

I tromped around, yesterday, in fairly damp ground, and found a few inedibles in Inwood Hill Park. Then, clambering back down to the paved world, I thought that it would be reprehensible not to stop in at the storied wine store PJ's. So I did.

Got three bottles, which I knew could all fit in my empty backpack. Hell, this backpack has hauled 20 lb. of morels; of course it can carry 3 bottles. Two were whites I'll talk about some other time.

The other was 1994 López de Heredia Tondonia GR.

I came home, put my feet up, ate something inconsequential, and watched the old TV show "Frasier," which I've just discovered on Netflix and which is so interesting.

Flash forward (well, walk with me forward) to today.

What better to do on a Sunday than go snag some lamb chops, and hello, dinner.

I've now opened this. I have only had it one other time, this young vintage, and that was at a set meal at Pearl & Ash a year and a half ago focused on LdH's wines. There, it was obviously obscured by loftier siblings from more storied vintages.

But the joke's on no one; this is a lovely wine, and it's drinking very prettily right now. And I'm watching an episode of a show that was on TV when it was made.
 
So you never saw Frazier when it was actually on television. I don't think I've seen it since those days, but glad to hear that it's holding up as well as the Tondonia. Nice combination.

(And as you may have seen, the brothers have their own little wine appreciation thing going on. I wasn't into wine when watching the show, so I don't remember how well done those bits were. But I do remember them enjoying sherry, which is somewhat close to LdH!)
 
It does hold up! Kelsey Grammer is very funny, as is David Hyde Pierce. I also kind of love the dog staring at Frasier thing.

You're right about the sherry—and I was laughing at that. Who was drinking sherry in Seattle in 1993?

There was also, in the latest episode I've seen, a story from the character Niles about his wine club, and how they tricked its president by substituting Petrus with Fourcas Hosten and he didn't realize it, resulting in Niles being named president of the club. It was pretty funny.
 
I never watched Frasier, but I loved the Frasier parody on the Simpsons:

Cecil Terwilliger: Now make yourself at home. Perhaps a glass of Bordeaux? I have the '82 Chateau Latour and a rather indifferent Rausan-Segla.
Sideshow Bob: I've been in prison, Cecil. I'll be happy just as long as it doesn't taste like orange drink fermented under a radiator.
Cecil Terwilliger: That would be the Latour, then.
 
I find it relaxing to watch older TV shows: the pacing can be slower and the innuendo less applied and grating. But I wouldn't binge on them.
 
So true. I recently discovered Andy Daly's "Review" and devoured both seasons over the course of one weekend. With "Frasier," I'm taking it amblingly, at most one episode an evening.
 
New to the board. From the looks of this thread, I'm glad I found it.

Love the quotes from the Simpson's Frazier parody.

This is a timely post for me; I just found an incredible patch of huge chantelles while mountain biking close to home. I'll be revisiting them for decades!

I opened a '94 LdH Tondonia GR exactly two years ago to the day. While I loved it, it seemed a little young and closed. It sounds like it's opened up a bit since then.

Cheers,
Warren
 
originally posted by Warren Taranow:
New to the board. From the looks of this thread, I'm glad I found it.
Click to expand...
It is rumored that the Politburo frowns on "members" who haven't spent three months donating labor, in the gulag, lurking and brushing up on whether noumena are synonymous with non-sensible intuitions. You've been warned.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Warren Taranow:

This is a timely post for me; I just found an incredible patch of huge chantelles while mountain biking close to home. I'll be revisiting them for decades!
Click to expand...

Hope you're blanching them:

Chanterelles
Click to expand...

Or not. That link includes a few comments by SFJoe, who was initially horrified. In yesteryear, when the SF got attached to Joe's name and he was working at Gilead Sciences in Foster City, I remember going over to his house for dinner. He handed me a basket of chanterelles to clean. A voice was raised - a rarity - and arm waving ensued when I headed for the sink. I ended up using a small paring knife and a brush, if I remember correctly. The only mushrooms we ever washed were black chanterelles. In general, he felt most chefs had little clue about cooking mushrooms, often serving them undercooked (scary for morels).
 
originally posted by mark e:
Or not. That link includes a few comments by SFJoe, who was initially horrified.
Click to expand...
But who took the other stalwart Disorderlies at their word that the technique worked, and he obtained concurrence from Connie (directly) and from Robuchon.

A voice was raised - a rarity - and arm waving ensued when I headed for the sink. I ended up using a small paring knife and a brush, if I remember correctly. The only mushrooms we ever washed were black chanterelles.
Click to expand...
Dog Hind Parts felt the same way about washing mushrooms.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by mark e:
Or not. That link includes a few comments by SFJoe, who was initially horrified.
Click to expand...
But who took the other stalwart Disorderlies at their word that the technique worked, and he obtained concurrence from Connie (directly) and from Robuchon.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

All true. Yet he never did it to my knowledge. Perhaps others know better.
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Warren Taranow:

This is a timely post for me; I just found an incredible patch of huge chantelles while mountain biking close to home. I'll be revisiting them for decades!
Click to expand...

Hope you're blanching them:

Chanterelles
Click to expand...

Or not. That link includes a few comments by SFJoe, who was initially horrified. In yesteryear, when the SF got attached to Joe's name and he was working at Gilead Sciences in Foster City, I remember going over to his house for dinner. He handed me a basket of chanterelles to clean. A voice was raised - a rarity - and arm waving ensued when I headed for the sink. I ended up using a small paring knife and a brush, if I remember correctly. The only mushrooms we ever washed were black chanterelles. In general, he felt most chefs had little clue about cooking mushrooms, often serving them undercooked (scary for morels).
Click to expand...

Mark,
I have been doing the quick blanch technique and then into the saute pan with a little fat for a few minutes.
For me it works really well. The blanching technique does not seem to saturate the mushroom with water. Why this works, I am not sure.

Morels no. But Chanterelles for some reason it is magic.

Welcome Warren, glad you found this place. BTW the technique was something Lars's wife learned at cooking school in France.
 
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