Last night Laura Chancellor, Larry Archibald, and Laura’s Mother, Barbara, came over for dinner. We started out on our patio around the table with a lovely 1996 Paul Bara Brut Comtesse Marie de France - crisp, complex with a fine mousse, and quite tasty with our appetizer trio of Carollee’s Stuffed Cucumber slices, Stuffed Calamari in its own ink, & Calamari pieces in Sauce Americaine. We then went inside for a salad topped with slices of triple-smoked sturgeon. The greens were dressed with a dill-horseradish vinaigrette - onion powder, dill weed, lemon peel, & celery seed in a mix of beet horseradish, Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, Tuscan EVOO, and Yuzu rice vinegar. The sturgeon slices were garnished with a stripe of beet horseradish. this was enjoyed with a slightly oxidized 1996 Clos des Deux Roches St. Veran - bright yellow gold in color, the slight oxidation gave some complexity and went nicely with the light smoke on the sturgeon, with a medium long complex finish.
Next came the main course of Shepherd’s Lamb loin chops, grilled to a nice medium rare, with rainbow chard steamed with garlic and finished with coarse sea salt and Tuscan EVOO. These were very good with two Côte Rôties - a very nice 2001 Domaine de Bonserine ‘La Garde’ and a somewhat bretty 2001 Ogier. The Bonserine was lovely & rich and everyone’s favorite, the funky brett in the Ogier diminished with air time, but it still had subdued fruit. Then we moved on to a light dessert - red raspberries and blackberries macerated in vanilla sugar and Grand Marnier, then spooned over warm buttermilk biscuit halves and topped with lightly whipped cream sweetened with vanilla sugar and Grand Marnier.
A very enjoyable summer evening with good friends.