Sammamish, WA, USA
Tasted Saturday, December 11, 2004 by Eric with 1,821 views
Last night Roy Hersh hosted the second annual “Year End” dinner for the Seattle Tasting Group. This was our 24th month of tasting together, and we have been fortunate to maintain a consistent core of folks along with a few new faces from the past year. It really is a delightful group of thoughtful and generous folks, and I always look forward to our gatherings.
As with last year, Rodney Muirhead was up from Portland to delight us with his culinary delights, although we did miss Elizabeth’s chocolates this year. (She is busy opening a new chocolate shop.) It is funny to think that a year ago Rodney and Elizabeth weren’t yet engaged, so it was nice to finally congratulate him face to face.
Joining us from New York & Paris as our ‘special guest’ was Robert Michel Abood (Vinotas), and he certainly kept us on our toes with his finely honed urban wit and charm. Also in attendance were our hosts Roy & Dorene Hersh (and daughter Taylor, the whirling dervish who put on an impressive display of speed and agility as she darted back and forth for the first few hours of the tasting) Jason & Tracy Goldberger, Dave Browning, Susan Garret, Jason Domanico, Michael Gordon and of course your not so humble scribe.
Last year’s tasting was such a delight that we were doubtful we could recreate such a flawless tasting, but we tried our hardest. In case a flawed bottle showed up, we had an alternate lineup of wines on hand to break out at a moment’s notice. (Most people were smarter than me and kept theirs far away from the table, whereas I nearly broke out a 1990 Montrose far past the point where we really needed it. I do maintain that it would have been fun to taste next to the 1994 Harlan…) We didn’t up needing the backups, but it was good insurance.
All wines except for the two desserts were served blind, and generally people only knew of their own bottles. There was very little spitting and lots of cabs prearranged. (Too bad for me that I had to be up at 6:30am the next morning to catch a flight, uggh…)
Anyway, here we go.
With a delicious starting course of bruschetta and crab ‘salpicon’ (three heaping mounds of delicious Dungeness crab) we tucked into a pair of whites. Nearly everyone thought the first was Californian and the second was Burgundy. Imagine our surprise…
Next Rodney delighted us with a beautiful salad of red, yellow and rainbow beets served on arugula dressed lightly in a sherry vinaigrette with ricotta salata shaved atop. This was followed by a course of beautiful and plump pan seared scallops atop softened sugar snap peas and roasted cauliflower in a surprisingly light sauce of bergamot orange beurre blanc. (It was neat to see the raw bergamot which indeed conjures clear notions of Earl Gray tea.) Very nice! With these two courses we enjoyed some fine bubbles. It was interesting how distinct the three different wines were.
OK, now it was time for the reds, yeehaw! To accompany a ‘warm-up flight’ of 1983 Bordeaux, Rodney delighted us with a wild mushroom risotto that was brimming with porcini, shiitake, crimini, chanterelle and spiked with a hint of white truffle oil. I clearly recall the pair of risottos that Rodney delighted us with a year earlier, and as with those this had the perfect texture, creamy yet with just enough snap left in the rice kernels, mmmm…
Now it was time for some meat. Rodney brought out plates of pan seared duck breast, sliced then and draped atop a mound of wonderful parsnip puree and sauced with a lingonberry reduction and some toasted and chopped walnuts on top. I thought I heard a complaint or two about a bit much going on with this plate, but it curled my toes and tickled my tongue just fine!
OK, now were feeling pretty good and really excited to move onto the flight of unknown big guns. Ahh, what a flight! Rodney brought a whopper 6th course that consisted of cartoon-sized plates of very rare Washington lamp chops with roasted cippolini, roasted carrot (so cool!), roasted cloves of garlic and French fingerling potatoes. Michael Gordon easily outdid me as clean bone champion, gnashing anything that came within his reach. So now about those wines…
Now it was time to somehow cram some dessert down our ever more filled gullets. Rodney brought out a tray of toasted hazelnuts and perfectly ripe pineapple, and along with these he brought out a deliciously salty blue cheese and a 14 year old Manchego.
Nearing the end. Rodney’s last delight was port-poached pears served with an awesome walnut shortcake and whipped cream. Delicious! We also passed around some chocolate truffles. And with this…
Thank you Roy and everyone for another spectacular evening. Sharing wines like this with friends, enjoyed with fantastic food, and lingering over a 6+ hour meal, what a way to enjoy wine!
1995 Hanzell Chardonnay 88 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
The nose is clean and somewhat restrained with a faint hint of oak that became more prominent as this warmed showing a bit more toast and butter. The palate belied the typical California Chardonnay with clean, penetrating flavors of lemon and green apple and vibrant mouthfeel. I correctly guessed mid-90’s Hanzell, as I haven’t had any other California Chardonnay that shows such a light touch with the oak.
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1997 Hanzell Chardonnay 92 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Wow, this leaps out of the glass with ripe, tropical notes of mango. This is lightly toasty on entry yet penetrating, oily and rich with a strong mineral component. The ripeness had me thinking of the Mâconnois.
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