Tonight’s dinner was Porterhouse-style loin pork chops, Iowa pork from Beeler Farms, purchased at La Montanita Co-Op. The chops were seasoned with onion powder, orange peel, and SI Onion Pepper, with a little Blood Orange Olive Oil to moisten for grilling. They were grilled on our Weber Summit for four minutes on each side (they were just under an inch thick). Veggie was Mr. G’s young beets, boiled in slightly salted water on Saturday, and refrigerated until today, since we didn’t need them on Saturday - the greens were sufficient then. I trimmed, peeled, & quartered them this afternoon and for tonight’s dinner, heated them in butter, chervil, coarse sea salt, and coarse-ground Tellicherry black pepper; they were delightfully sweet with rich young beet flavors. All was very enjoyable, out on our patio on a warm sunny day for a change, with a surprisingly tasty 1983 Maume Charmes Chambertin - fill a cm below the capsule; almost fully saturated cork, moldy on top; light orange-brown on initial pour, quickly turning to a deep garnet in the glass; rich, complex developed plums, currants, and dark cherries in nose and flavors, with none of the classic Maume hardness; an interesting mid-palate, balanced between developed (tertiary and beyond) dark fruits and adequate acidity; with a long, complex dark fruit finish. It was a lovely dinner - good wine, good food and a delightful evening.
Then for dessert, inside after dark, watching TiVo’d programs, we had a nice 1985 Grgich Hills Late-Harvest Riesling - very dark gold in color, with more fruit and acidity than the last, lighter in color one (there appears to be significant bottle variation); with four cheeses - St. Andre, a well-aged Brillat Savarin, Goat Boucheron, and Old Chatham Sheeps’ Milk Camembert; with Mesilla Valley Pecans. It all was a very nice combination and finish to our dinner.