Last night Jeff Pfohl came up to celebrate his 39th birthday. We started with shrimp and a spicy horseradish sauce, accompanied by a lovely, crisp NV Leclaire-Gaspard Blanc de Blancs Brut Grand Réserve. This was all enjoyed sitting at our patio bar, looking out at clouds and mountains. Just a we were finishing, we got a few light sprinkles of rain, which fortunately didn’t last. While the chicken was finishing cooking, we opened a 2006 Rosé de Haut Bailly. This Bordeaux rosé was quite austere, and not great by itself. It was, however, enjoyable with the tasty, small Pollo Real Label Rouge chicken (3lb 6oz), stuffed with Spring onions and Pixie tangerines and basted with a mixture of butter, orange peel, garlic, & SI Poultry Seasoning. It took about 50 minutes on our ancient GE rotisserie. It was the most moist label rouge chicken I think we’ve had. We shared wings, legs, thighs, and slices of the breast meat with baby peas with garlic and rosemary. As we finished the Haut Bailly we opened a Charles Joguet Chinon Rosé - bright strawberry-cherry fruit with crisp acidity. It was much more open and enjoyable than the austere Haut Bailly. It was a great evening for rosé and rotisserie’d chicken out on our patio.
We than had a 2000 Ridge Mazzoni Home Ranch (47% zinfandel, 47% carignane, & 6% petite sirah) with Epoisse, Affine aux Chablis, Drunken Goat, & Taleggio cheeses; with pistachios, pecans, & mixed nuts; four fruit pastes - pear-vanilla, orange-ginger, mango-pinapple, & plum; and crackers.
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