Saturday, March 7, 2009

A Fine Dinner With the Pro's From St. Louis

March 6, 2009: For the record:
Whew! It’s Friday and it has been a very busy few weeks. For the past two, Dan Turpin and Gary Pace were in from Boeing, St. Louis to install our latest upgrade. Alex Melchers came in a little later and then left early. It is always a pleasure to pal around with the Boeing TLAM Mission Planning folks.
I don’t know, the writing doesn’t translate the evening very well. To characterize it, I went to bed with the warmest smiling pleasantly satisfied feeling I’ve had in many a year. I hated to brush my teeth because that ruined the wonderful flavors swirling around.
We had Dan, Gary, and Alex over for dinner this past Tuesday. We cooked some flank steak on the Holland Grill, asparagus, potatoes au gratin, corn; Matt and Linda brought over a salad and bread. The guys walked in with some ice cream and Edward’s Key Lime Pie. I opened a nice bottle of Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon, and a bottle of Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay, both of which I had stashed away in the wine celler for just such an auspicious occasion. Dinner and conversation was just wonderful. I don’t actually recall much about what we talked about... oh, except that Alex was going on a church mission trip to Mexico to build on an orphanage. Some dog talk --Peke's, English Bulldogs, Labs, Border Collies, our Dobadore. Everything was... “wunnaful, wunnaful.”
After the bottle of cab’ was gone, it just seemed the perfect time to open the 1999 Sena (a gift from Dave Rusnak). I wish I had thought of it earlier. The Sena was a little cool, having been stashed at 55deg in the wine cellar. But it was a lot of fun to put one’s nose deep in the glass and enjoy the development of that dark inky cabernet nose. Dan seemed to particularly enjoy it. It was fun to watch him warm the glass and enjoy the robust taste and smell as it slowly opened up over about thirty minutes. A quote from the “web” I don’t think really does it justice:
Seña 1999: Tasted in a line-up of Errazuriz wines, including Vinedo Chadwick. This
particular vintage is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 8% Carmenere. It has
dense, pure, blackcurrant fruit, and ripe, slightly roasted nut aromas. Elegant, balanced,
dark black fruits on the palate, with grip and extract. Ripe, rounded, with lovely
substance. This needs five to six years in the cellar. Very good indeed. 17+/20
(November 2004)

Dan and I then graduated to the scotch. I had been told many years ago that Dan was a scotch fan and I had looked forward to taking a wee dram or two with him ever since. I had some Dewar’s, which remained untouched; some Glenmorangie, again we didn’t bother with that one; some Dalwhinnie –the last two drams of a bottle brought back from London in 1993 which we finished off; some Bunnahabhain 12 year old, a new one for both of us which we did taste; and some Lagavulin 16, of which we took more than a couple drams. Gary was well settled into his Yeungling Lager and Black & Tan, but was willing to give the scotch a try. We did him a bit dirty by hitting him with the Lagavulin right up front. Yet, he was very good natured about it and seemed to enjoy the foray into a real man’s drink –a significant departure from his usual “Bud Select” I think.
On the TV, we played Thomas’s “Blue-Ray” of “Planet Earth”, and the guys were fairly impressed with that. We just chatted away until they noticed that morning was going to come sooner than one might hope.
Just an all around good evening thanks to Nancy's prep of the steak and cooking the other dishes. I am just so blessed.

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