TN: Another trip to Blue Hill, this one someone else pays for Friday we were invited to a surprise 60th birthday dinner for a dear friend at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. As the winegeekiest person my friend Jim knows, I was asked to work with Don the sommelier. I had fun talking over wines with Don, and was generally pleased with what we came up with. We had a pair of beautiful private rooms, with a chickentail hour in the outer one. Waitstaff circulated with some stunning appetizers- cod brandade with herring roe, mushroom tartlettes, seabbutt ceviche on tiny tortillas, and my favorite, herbed goat cheese with walnuts on a tuile, which was pbutted from a tray of grated parmigiano. Wines were a bubbly and a light white: NV Bisol "Crede" Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut Light and easy, a crisp contrast to the rich appetizers. Nice mousse, apple and lemon flavors. There's no Champagnish-yeastiness here, but it doesn't need it. Clean likable wine. B+ 2002 Vegadeo Verdejo (Rueda) Very light bodied, clean without any apparent oak. Green apple fruit with a touch of grbutt and herbs, easy if unremarkable. B-B- Dana the birthday girl arrived, and was stunned (she knew Jim was taking her to dinner, didn't expect 22 friends). Some easy socialization, then we moved to the other room. A friend read Dana's favorite poem (Wendell Berry's Manifesto:The Mad Farmer Liberation Front ), and then Betsy played a short Bach excerpt and did some improvising (Dana was a cellist as a youth). A couple of toasts, as we moved to the parsnip-root vegetable soup and the main white wine, the 2002 Hirsch Kammerner Heiligenstein Grüner Veltliner (Kamptal). Plenty of zippy acidity, the fruit a complex blend of white peach and honeydew melon, though the acidity gives a citric edge to it. Long finish, a wine to look out for. A- A few more sentimental toasts to a woman who inspires a lot of love, then the main course of lamb loin atop a melange of beets and red cabbage. The wine was the 2001 Domaine la Roquette Châteauneuf-du-Pape. These had been decanted earlier, yet still showed a bit of tannic backbone. Ripe red Grenache fruit, quite mouthfilling with some herb and spice notes. Develops in the glbutt, a nice full-bodied CdP with some aging potential. I see Sherry-Lehmann has it, this might go on my shopping list. A--B+ Great evening with a lot of friends gathered around a truly unique woman. The evening finished with a quince coupe with cider granite (I don't eat desserts, but this dish was the only one that seemed to inspire mixed feelings), and a rousing parody (what's the opposite of bowdlerization?) of the Iowa state song, in recognition of Dana's former crown as Miss Iowa. Can't wait for her 70th. Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency Dale Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply 
|
|||||||
