A '70th' birthday dinner for Suzi and Eric

Seattle, WA, USA
Tasted Saturday, November 13, 2004 by Eric with 1,542 views

Introduction

My 35th birthday is 11/8 and my wife's is 11/17, so we have taken a tradition of throwing ourselves a joint birthday party on the bigger days. Our last one was back in 1999, a 60th birthday party extravaganza where we rented Rover's Restaurant for the evening. For our combined 70th we wanted to continue the trend, so we invited family and close friends to join us for a fun evening of food and wine at Lampreia in Seattle.

Of the 36 folks in attendance only 6 are wine geeks, so the emphasis was more on the food and having nice but not necessarily remarkable wines that matched well. Also, my notes are a much more sparse than they would normally be, as I was focused on catching up with folks and having a good time. There were three parallel menus, one for fish-i-tarians, one for meat eaters, and a modified meat menu for the foie gras averse.

Flight 1 (1 Note)

While folks arrived, we served a nice NV champagne and passed around little sandwiches of toasted parmesan and truffled cheese, yum!

We then continued with the champagne for a first course of either seared Hamachi fillet (with a delectable assortment of other tastes on the plate) or a 'shaved salad' which is a warmed tart with shaved vegetables and pesto served in a little pastry shell.

Flight 2 (1 Note)

Next we moved onto a rich soup (a veloute) of squash and parmesan mousse. With this we went for a slightly sweet match to pick up the sweeter notes in the soup.

  • 2001 Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris Cuvée Cécile

    France, Alsace

    The nose was the highlight here with nutmeg and honey slathered over minerals. The palate is rich and oily with a fair amount of residual sugar. This was a very nice match with squash soup, and as it warmed it took on excellent palate weight.

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Flight 3 (1 Note)

The next course was either (1) foie gras, seared perfectly; (2) smoked white asparagus with lardons (shaved fatty bacon); or (3) a poached and heavily truffled duck egg palio style. The Monbazillac was served to the foie eaters, a delicious match!

Flight 4 (2 Notes)

The main course was either salmon poached en tagine in a little fish broth (we poured a Gevrey Chambertin from Sylvie Esmonin, didn't grab a taste or the specifics) or for the meat eaters there was Kobe tenderloin poached in Barolo, served with a little balsamic reduction and a warm 'potato salad' of lightly mashed potatoes with chive and truffle. Wow, the beef was as tender as anything I have encountered yet still had a lot more flavor than most filet. The 1975 Las Cases was poured all the way around and was a delight while it lasted, matching beautifully. The Montelena was a bonus pour, a birthday gift from Jason and Tracy.

  • 1975 Château Léoville Las Cases

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

    This was my bottle, a 3.0L monster that we poured all the way around the restaurant. The cork was dark but still solid and had held a seal. The wine was textbook Las Cases with deep notes of pencil lead and cassis, just screaming of mature Cabernet. The palate was soft and well resolved, showing none of the hardness of the vintage. This actually seemed a bit too soft at first, but with time it picked up very nice palate weight in the glass.

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  • 2001 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    This was a wine that Jason brought and served blind. I was thinking that maybe this was a very young Quilceda. The nose was showing charcoal and cassis with an ebullient blast of floral elements. There is no TCA here that I can find. This is awfully young and stern, brooding and brimming with dark notes and lots of structure. Cranberry, cassis and mineral are the dominant notes. This is not giving a great deal, but that is to be expected for such a young and powerful Montelena.

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Flight 5 (1 Note)

The tables were presented with a delicious selection of mostly Italian cheese as well as pecorino roasted on cedar planks and drizzled with truffle honey. The cheese course had no formal wine poured, although an Amarone showed up for those folks with stamina. Is there a better wine with cheese than Amarone?

  • 1985 Bertani Recioto della Valpolicella Classico Superiore Amarone

    Italy, Veneto, Valpolicella, Recioto della Valpolicella Classico Superiore

    This was a bonus wine from my cellar to try with the cheese. An absolutely perfect cork boded well. The nose immediately burst forth with chalk, raisins and rising notes of chocolate that really came out with air. This was a fairly mature, dry style of Amarone that was probably showing its age, but with a nice mix of cheese this easily held its own. Very intense stuff!

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Closing

The evening finished with an huge assortment of desserts, each person at a table getting something different. Scott Carsberg always does an amazing job with desserts, and this night was no exception. Fortunately no fights broke out over the chocolate dumplings or molten chocolate tarts, and everyone shared nicely.

All in all, it was a delightful evening with friends, and I can't wait for the next one in 5 years!

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