Wonderful weekend of friends, food & wine took place in celebration of my wife’s 50th. This culminated with a catered dinner by Trellis: Curated Wine Dinners and this was an artful, well-paced, truly excellent meal. The wines came from my cellar with their staff making a request for Oregon Pinot Gris to go with squash & ricotta fritters. The rest of the courses were created around wines we just wanted to serve on this occasion.
For me the apex of the event was the corn sformato with 02 Raveneau Montée de Tonnerre, others said it was the birth-year López de Heredia Gran Riserva bottles and duck gnocchi or the 2010 (son’s birth-year) Napa Cabs with the exquisite short rib preparation. The friends attending all made the event and celebration truly memorable.
Obviously it was very fine indeed. We uncorked both Cabs ~ 24H early and poured off into the mid-shoulder.
I thought the wine was very balanced and elegant, especially in contrast with the Materium. Maybach took another day open to really mellow out, terrific by lunch Sunday.
MacDonald is truly old-school Napa done with élan.