Last night Jinny & Jack Johnson, Allyson Bennett & Cabe Martinez, and Laurie & Al Lucero came over for a cooperative dinner featuring Flannery beef. We started with Lucero’s shrimp with a spicy tomato sauce; which was very nice with Jack’s 1999 Veuve-Cliquot Vintage Rosé - bright, fruity, with good bubbles; as well as Lucero’s 2007 Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma Coast ‘Les Noiseters’.
We then moved to the dining table for beef carpaccio, made from a Flannery filet sliced very thin and topped with arugula dressed with a light lemon-EVOO dressing. The carpaccio had a little coarse sea salt and EVOO sprinkled on it before the arugula was placed. Each person got eight slices of beef. A magnum of 1997 Sangiusto a Rentananno Percarlo was very good with the carpaccio - bright red and dark cherry fruit, good balance, and a very long fruity finish.
The Flannery rib-caps were taken out of the refrigerator about three hours before cooking and sprinkled with granulated garlic. When I was nearly done with my carpaccio, I took the two rib caps out to our grill and put them on to sear on all sides, and then cooked them to 130F. The rib caps were finished with coarse sea salt and garlic pepper. They were served with Lauries’s twice baked potatoes and Jinny’s sautéed fresh local porcinis (Jack had picked then the day before), sautéd in a tasty compound butter, red & yellow peppers and garlic. The first two wines were Jack’s 1964 BV George de la Tour Private Reserve Cabernet and my 1962 Bouchard Chambertin. Both were amazingly fresh and youthful and very good. The Bouchard was more like a 15-year old Burgundy in color, nose, and flavors; than a 47-year old. We then had Jack’s 1976 Ridge York Creek Cabernet - also quite youthful and tasty. We then had three 1986 Cabs: Jordan Alexander Valley, Beringer Napa Valley Private Reserve, and Dunn Howell Mountain. All were better than I had expected.
Then with Jinny’s cheese course with honeycomb honey we had Cabe’s 1967 Borgogno Barolo - also youthful and fruity and good with the raw-milk Morbier and Brillat Savarin cheeses.
For dessert we had Allyson’s very tasty apple pie with vanilla ice cream. At that point we’d had enough wine and didn’t need any with the rich dessert.