Sunday Night Dinner

[Dick_Krueger]

Last night Jeff Pfohl came up for dinner. Leah Amir was originally going to be here too, but she had to return to SoCal earlier than planned. We started with appetizers at the bar out on our patio, since it was a warm evening. We had Saucisson de Vic with a coarse mustard and Gambas al Aljillo. The shrimp was cooked in olive oil with garlic, and bittersweet & hot Spanish Paprikas. When the shrimp were done, i removed them from the pan and added dry Vermouth to make the sauce. The appetizers were enjoyed with a 2002 Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet ‘Clos de la Garenne’ - light yellow gold in color; rich, complex nose and flavors of white fruits and flowers; rich, full-bodied fruity mid-palate with good acidity; and a long complex fruit finish. The wine was rich enough that it worked well with the appetizers.

Then we moved to the patio table for our main course of roast leg of Churro lamb with broccoli. The leg was treated with a dry rub of granulated garlic, SI Mesquite Seasoning, and SI Rosemary Pepper for a couple hours. Then a little Meyer Lemon Olive Oil was put on it and it was placed in a 375F Convection Oven. It was cooked to medium rare and the roasting pan was deglazed with Verdelho Mardeira. The broccoli was cooked in chicken stock and Thai Fish Sauce and finished with coarse sea salt, EVOO, and Tellicherry black pepper. It was all enjoyable with two Hermitages: 1998 Guigal and 2002 Chave - slightly different but both with rich spicy dark berry fruit and earth. They were both a little tight and closed initially, so we brought out the Vinturi. We each poured our initial glasses through the Vinturi into a decanter and back into our glasses, where the fruit was more apparent and the tannins reduced. We then poured the bottles through the Vinturi into decanters. It was pouring the wine from the decanters back into the bottles that we had our first problem using the Vinturi. Wine started to flow out of the Venturi ducts, which we’d never seen before. The wines didn’t get a full second pass thru the Vinturi. With the aeration and more time the wines were very enjoyable and a good pairing with the rich lamb.

Dessert was the Italian Truffle cheese that Leah had graciously brought and a piece of Hudson Valley Sheeps’ Milk Camembert, with Rosemary-Lavender Honey and a very tasty 1982 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel - no signs of its age, just rich berry fruit and a long finish.

[Jeff_Pf0h1]

Another great evening in Santa Fe with Dick & Carollee. Life is good when you have friends like this…