TasteCamp – The BYO Dinner

Send an e-mail to all your friends right now and ask them what they are doing tomorrow night. If the answer is “nothing,” you should round them up at your place and tell them to each bring a bottle of wine. That is what Lenn did with all of the bloggers that were on the trip to Long Island and it was really interesting to see what people brought.

There was a really interesting Vidal from Canada, the Lapostolle Clos Apalta 2005 (Wine Spectator’s wine of the year), a Gevrey-Chambertin, a bottle of blackberry wine (eee-GADS that was sugary sweet), a bottle of Duckhorn, a few wines from Virginia, some Riesling from the finger lakes, a crazy good white Rioja from 1999, and all manner of other wines. There was even a silky Kentucky bourbon.

This is something that is easy to put together and the more people the more booze... I mean the more variety of wines you will have.

I brought a few bottles of Altair 2003, one of my favorite Chilean producers. The winery started in 2001 as a joint venture between Chateau Dassault and San Pedro Wine Group, but now I believe it is fully owned by San Pedro. Regardless, I really like these wines and have a few stashed away in my mother's basement (not so much room in NYC apartments, and if you don't believe me check out the Wine Enthusiast website... the "before" photo is of my kitchen area...) to see how they will taste in 10-15 years.

So, grab your friends, get together and see what people bring. I promise it will be interesting.

Disclaimer:

I was previously employed by RFBinder Partners and a member of the team in charge of the Wines of Chile account.

Another Thanksgiving, Another Great Memory

I love my mother.

Yes, I think that is a good way to start any blog post. I love my mother for so many reasons, she brought me into this world, she dealt with my diapers, she kept me fed (not an easy task) and she supports me constantly as a single mother.

This past weekend was one of my favorite Thanksgivings I can remember. There is nowhere else I would rather be on Thanksgiving than at my mother’s table. The food is always delicious and the company great. And this year the wine was truly amazing.

A few months ago my mother asked me to go take a look at what she has down in her basement. I went down not expecting too much, it was rather dusty and slightly moist from being embedded in the ground and surrounded by concrete. She and I had gone to Pier 1 to get some cheap wine racks that stack on top of each other so that I could unload the decaying boxes that have been forgotten for many years of their treasures. And treasures I did find!

The prizes that I had found and convinced my mother to open for Thanksgiving were two bottles of Chateau Cheval Blanc 1978. It was like finding a diamond when you had expected a cubic zirconium. Actually, that isn’t fair, my mother has better taste than that. But I certainly did not expect to find such bottles, nor did I expect my mother to open them for Thanksgiving. My parents bought these wines; it was their anniversary year.

But we did! And it was phenomenal. Instead of turkey and the fixings, we had roast beef tenderloin and potatoes. I had several of my friends join us and I really could not have been happier.

You want tasting notes? DELICIOUS! It was so complex with an incredibly long finish and a base earthiness but still some dark berry fruit and… I could seriously go on for another page. As a novice wine geek it was heaven in a glass. Like having that perfect morsel of Belgian chocolate melt in your mouth or enjoying the work of a master artist or being moved by your favorite passage in your favorite book.

For desert we had her classic apple and pecan pies. It was a perfect end to a memorable meal.

And then the next night we had another feast, this time with my mother’s longtime friend from junior high who has been part of the family for as long as I can remember. She and her family came over with their turkey leftovers, and added to our roast leftovers it was another great meal. For this we had a Chilean wine, Altair 2003. Again, a delicious wine and while lacking the decades of winemaking that Cheval Blanc has, still more than a match for the meal and for the company.

It might have come and gone, but the memory still remains. Cheers to you mom, happy anniversary, and thank you, always.