Here's the perfect way to kick off summer: Get yourself invited to Debbie & Stu the Wine Genius Williams' home for dinner. There is no lovelier place to be on a first-summer's-blush evening, on the patio in their lush back yard, chatting with them as well as Sue & Louis Ainsworth, sipping incredible wine, eating beautiful food, celebrating the end of another Minnesota winter. It's over, it's really, really over! Those leaves are real, those flowers smell like heaven, I am wearing sandals, and it will not snow for at least five months. Cheers to that.
Drinking wine with Stu is an honor and pleasure. He delights in sharing the unexpected, the fascinating, the obscure, collecting our reactions and observations like a child collects toys. He remembers what his guests like and dislike, then reaches into his cellar for something new and interesting the next time we get together.
Yeah, he thinks like that. I wish I had one-eighth of that talent, but it is not so. That's OK. I accept my limitations and happily sit back and enjoy the ride.
A ride that includes food worthy of the wine. Debbie & Stu always pull together colorful, fresh-from-the-market meals, this time grilled Scottish Highland beef, Boer goat, and St. Croix lamb from Blue Gentian Farms in New Richmond, WI (available locally at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market).
Alongside new potatoes with fresh morels and grilled asparagus, it was a spectular meal. Especially bookended by foie gras sprinkled with black Himalayan salt and Rustica Bakery rhubarb tarts. Yeah.
What we tasted:
Pierre Peters Cuvee Reserve Blanc de Blanc NV Champagne
Pierre Peters 2001 Brut Cuvee Speciale Les Chetillons Champagne
2006 Nicholas Joly Les Clos Sacres Savennieres
2005 Domaine Vincent Girardin Mersault Les Narvaux
1975 Chateau Montrose
1975 Chateau Pichon Lalande
1977 D'Oliverias Reserva Terrantez Maderia
Rare Wine Company's Historic Series Charleston Sercial Maderia
Hello summer.
