The Wine Cellar Opening
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how I had the opportunity to try out some of Paul Mas’ terrific wines. In the post I mentioned that I invited The Sicilian, her hubby, and The Bloodsucking Lawyers to help as there was no way I could drink all three bottles.
OK, that’s not completely true – I can easily drink three bottles of wine in one sitting.
It’s just being coherent afterwards that’s the hard part. The other part that’s not completely true is why I invited the others. We just got our basement finished and we wanted to break in our new wine cellar …
wineguildcville.com
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That isn’t the actual cellar. Did you think I’d build something that small?
Anyway, I wanted to serve some wines I’ve had laying around but didn’t know which to open. So I asked them to bring some food but not tell us what they made until they arrived. Then I’d open up what I thought would pair well with their dishes. I’ll post recipes later.
First, here’s a recap of what we had with the Paul Mas Wines –
Veal Scallopine stuffed with morels and ramps. Paired with 2011 Clos du Moulinas cru Pezenas.
Moroccan-spiced Bison sliders. Paired with 2011 Clos des Mures.
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Not pictured – a wheel of Delice de Bourgogne triple crème cheese. Paired with 2011 Clos de Savignac.
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Here’s what else we had…
The Sicilian’s shrimp cakes with chili lime sauce and Vietnamese-inspired salad –
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which I paired with a 1996 CH Berres Kinheimer Hubertuslay Spatlese Riesling.
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Say that 5 times as fast as you can. First off, I’m so glad the wine was still good – it was actually much better than good. I’ve heard all along that Rieslings can age well, but I haven’t had any with some age on them. The very fresh acids with apple and lime aromas was perfect with the shrimp and the sweetness perfectly complemented the heat in the sauce.
The BSL’s seared beef tenderloin with Mustard-Horseradish sauce.
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Because it was served with some arugula, capers, and parmesan I was getting an Italian-kinda vibe. So I paired it with a 1997 Fattoria Valtellina Convivio Tuscan which goes really well with beef tenderloin.
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Other things do as well and there isn’t anything particular about them that match well with the other elements of the dish. But sometimes a good pairing has to do with general feeling than individual components. In this case, the feeling was Italian-ish.
And somewhere in the middle of the courses, we managed to drink this 2009 Clos Pegase Mitsuka’s Vineyard Pinot Noir.
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To finish off the evening, Ms. Bloodsucking Lawyer made her incredible Key Lime Pie. After all that wine, I guess we forgot to take a picture of it. But we paired it with this 2010 Furst Tibor Muskat-Ottonel from Hungary.
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At this point we probably didn’t need dessert or wine. The wine itself was beautiful with it’s peach and honey notes. It wasn’t cloyingly sweet, either. As I write this, it doesn’t sound like it would be a good match, but they went perfectly together.
Like good friends, good food, and good wine.
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8 comments on “The Wine Cellar Opening”
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wine century
Doppel Member, Baby!
Wow, what does it take to get an invite to the Hedonist’s house? Sounds and looks fabulous! Next time you’re in Philly, I have a bottle of ’76 Riesling with your name in it. Shared the other bottle with the Winegetter and his wife….
Awesome! And all it takes is a “hey, gonna be in town. Let’s go to Outback.” At which point I’ll insist u come over…
Food and wine porn – double exctasy!
That was quite the incredible evening lucky mcducky!
Food and wine were only the icing on the cake. Great conversations (though not about porn), so much fun.
Well since I didn’t get the call to help in the festivities either, I guess we will never know if you were coherent by the end of the evening. It sounded like a perfect night for revelry. I also agree that you would not build such a small cellar.
Haha… I”m waiting for the 2-3 semi trucks of wine to show up so I can fill up the cellar.
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We need to have you over for some aged Rieslings…can’t believe that hasn’t happened yet!