My sweetie and I returned to our favorite local restaurant in Santa Barbara, The Stonehouse, located on the elite resort property of the San Ysidro Ranch. This place has been so special for us for more than a couple of decades and continues to be our go to place for special occasions such as it`s Friday; however, this time we did indeed have a special occasion, besides being Friday, I had a recent birthday.
Originally, we had planned to come here on the day, but a good friend invited us to his spectacular annual gala Christmas party and it was an easy decision to make with so many good friends attending and lots of great food and wine.
As usual, when we go to a celebrative dinner, we take a nice champagne and a Burt Williams made Pinot which on this night was 04 Cristal and 97 Rochioli Riverblock. Both were truly outstanding.
The Stonehouse was beautifully decorated for the holiday season and the glitter of all of the sparkling lights and ornaments were captured in some of the photos we took so the pic with the champagne and stemware seemed to show what Dom Perignon had stated "Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”.
2004 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay; the last few bottles of this vintage had been really good and with a few still in the cellar, I decided it was time to check in again and that was a good move as this was super splendid; it had inviting aromas of spice, brioche and ginger combined with bright citrus fruit; on the palate came more of the same with more distinct lemon, lime, orange peel and mango notes along with a streak of minerals; it was full bodied, had a creamy mousse that gave it a light honey like texture and its hallmark may have been its seamlessness from the nose through the finish. Tsar Alexander II would have been proud.
1997 WILLIAMS SELYEM RIVERBLOCK VINEYARD RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY PINOT NOIR- although not stated on the label, this comes from the esteemed Rochioli Vineyard; note the fill in the photo; Burt always filled every bottle to the cork so this was most nearly pristine at age 22 as the unadulterated red purple color also supported ; I’ve had many a bottle of this and was surprised and delighted to discover there now is a huge dose of blueberry that has joined the red raspberry, red and black cherry fruit; in fact, this was the perfect expression of blueberry at its best; as with the Cristal, this was seamless, full bodied and long at the back end; accents of spice, cinnamon and a hint of clove added to the overall stellar experience; we kept marveling about how good this was throughout the entire evening while toasting Burt on his new journey in the heavens. I had the feeling he may have been present and performed a miraculous shift in the fruit profile blending in the blueberries. Thanks Burt. We love you.
Cheers,
Blake
