by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
A faintly familiar face bent over to the side of me at the Webster House game dinner last month. “Remember me, Mr. Schultz,” he asked? I said that his face was vaguely familiar but that I couldn’t place him.
Still bent over to the side of me, his bald head shining under the overhead light, he said, “I worked for you at Sweet Life Foods in Worcester and Northboro. Ray Ducharme of the Rack Service Health And Beauty Aids department was my supervisor. I am Don Bubois…without the hair now. You were CEO there. Remember me now?”
“Yes,” I said, “indeed I do.” He said that he was new to wine and this was his first wine dinner…and wasn’t it wonderful! He added that he had never heard of Laurus Rhone wines, although he had been reading my columns on www.oxfordwineroom.com for the past five months and been reading wine catalogues and winery newsletters. He was excited and delighted about these Laurus wines. He then asked if I had ever been surprised, excited and delighted with wines that I had never heard of or tasted before as he was with the Laurus.
After some reflection, I said that my surprise, excitement and delight upon discovering Hidden Cellars wines, to be trite, had “blown my mind.” I added that I seemed to recall I had written a wine column about it for The Worcester Magazine some years ago.
I promised him that I would send it to him if possibly I had made a copy, after he had implored. His fervor was touching; I could remember my own euphoric emotions when I discovered the joy I had derived from wine 51 years ago at the old Caesar’s Monticello Restaurant in Framingham. I had written my wine columns then on a word processor and didn’t know if a copy existed, but I added that I would look.
I did find it, and this was the wine column that I mailed him:
PHILOSOPHER SUFFERS LOVE’S LABOR LOST
“All if us have trauma repressions in the hidden cellars of our psyches,” said Capt. Manny Silverstein, doctor of veterinary medicine, inspector of dairy products at the Brownsville Army Air Base, Texas, in World War II.
“We conceal from ourselves certain guilts, indiscretions, infidelities, cruelties, disappointments that we may have perpetrated and or experienced. Dredging them up into the consciousness is Freudian therapy.”
Manny was bright, but an oddball; he fancied himself a philosopher, psychologist and psychiatrist, which may have cost him the hand of my sister-in-law.
Lillian’s younger sister Fay had come to Brownsville to help Lillian with Gordon our newborn son. She attracted the admiration of Manny and of Capt. Paul Lifland, a graduate degree chemical engineer, who taught meteorology to our pilots. They both courted Fay by coming to our home that away from the air base.
Paul was cerebral, but dull, dry and often acerbic. I thought he had no chance with Fay. Manny’s flamboyance and quick wit held our interest, but too much of him became annoying and boring.
He addressed Fay first: “Tell us, what is concealed in the hidden cellars of your mind – memories that you’d rather forget; those guilts, embarrassments, indiscretions that you may be repressing?”
Cold stony silence from Fay.
“Lillian,
well, what are yours?” he asked.
Typically of Lillian when what she considers nonsense questions are put to her: her voice steely cold with disdain, “I don’t have any!”
“Julian, yours?”
I laughed: “Hey, Manny, if you think I’ll confess all in front of Lillian and Fay, you’re out of your mind.”
Manny shook his head, disappointed: “I thought we were all highly intelligent here, intellectually unconventional, open-minded about probing our subconscious to obtain Freudian therapy. Perhaps my perception is wrong.”
I told Manny his perception was wrong, that Lillian and Fay were conventionally highly intelligent and intellectual, were valedictorians of their high school and college graduating classes, straight–A students from grammar school through college; that Fay attained the second highest score in the United States when she took the National Academic Merit exam; that Lillian had a master’ degree in history and international relations, had taught high school college preparation English and Math to the brighter students – and had I not come along she would have pursued a doctorate degree.
When Manny offered to release to us suppressions from his hidden cellars: his youthful sexual aberrations, his trauma from anti-Semitism at his bar mitzvah, reasons for his failed marriage, Fay ran to attend fussing Gordon; Lillian departed, said Gordon’s diapers needed folding. Neither returned until Manny departed. An awkward evening.
At Fay’s urging, I ended Manny’s visits; it was easy. I was Chief of Administration and Manny reported to me. Paul fascinated Fay. I didn’t particularly like him; didn’t like his being free every afternoon, after his morning pilot meteorology instruction sessions were over. I had him pull officer of the day duty – on call all evening into the morning – doing it more frequently than other officers. He complained bitterly; it didn’t help him much. As far as I know, he never spoke of it to Fay.
Fay and Paul married after the war, raised two brilliant daughters. All of us lived happily without Manny’s Freudian therapy, hidden cellars repressions in our psyches not withstanding.
Well, hello, Hidden Cellars wines at the Yankee Spirits wine dinner at the Castle Restaurant last month. Nothing was repressed with these wines! They revealed everything that winemaker Dennis Patton sought to achieve. The nine wines to my unfamiliar palate were brilliant.
In 44 years of tasting wines seriously (51 years now), Hidden Cellars had never passed my lips; in 14 years of writing wine columns (21 now), Hidden Cellars had never graced my word processor. They are hidden no more! The one remaining one bottle of Hidden Cellars “Sorcery” ’95 reposes royally in my cellar.
So exuberant was the Castle dining room that usually modest Yankee Spirits’ wine manager Paul Provost became euphoric over the wine dinner that he had wrought and philosophized to Lillian and me: “I contribute more to the sum total of human happiness and considerably less to the sum total of human misery, except when I was giving exams, than when I was teaching philosophy at Springfield College.”
Amen, Paul. You, the Castle’s father Stanley and sons John and Jim Nicas were responsible for an unforgettable wine event to 70 oenophiles: excellence of the unusual.
Cauche Gris 1996, $9 (then!) accompanied appetizers of crabmeat stuffed mushrooms with light jalapeno and ground, yellow and green peppers that were grilled. Second appetizer: marinated chicken kabobs with sauteed peppers and onions. My notes on the wine: “perfume-y, crisp, floral, sweet edge; vanilla, melon, apples; balanced. A-minus.”
Heritage Alchemy ’95, $18, (meritage blend: wine contains less than 75 percent of the major varietal wine and is blended with other white wine or wines) and Heritage Chardonnay ’95, $25, were paired with medallions of sauteed swordfish topped with mushrooms and roasted peppers in lobster sauce. The fish fell away from itself at the touch of the fork, its being so tender…and exquisitely more delicious than the mostly drier preparations which I have been subjected to at other so-called gourmet restaurants.
The wines. Alchemy: “light nose, subtle honey sweet-edge, crisp, clean, balanced; fresh tropical fruits; some pleasing complexity. A-minus to A.” Chardonnay: “floral, melon, pineapple, crisp, dry, balanced, firmly focused; good wine but one-dimensionally straightforward. A-minus.”
Four red wines were paired with the filet of beef entrée: Hillside Red ’96, $10; Sorcery ’95, $25; Ford-Hitzman Zinfandel ’95, $28, and Ford-Hitzman Zinfandel Barrel Sample ’96, $28.
The entrée of grilled filet of beef tenderloin, nested on sliced Portobello mushroom caps, gazed with béarnaise (warm sauce made with white wine, vinegar, shallots, tarragon and spices, to which egg yokes and butter are added -- inimical to dieters, but delicious to gourmets!), was completed with spinach and corn/sweet peppers soufflés.
I rated the Sorcery ‘95 and the Ford-Hitzman Barrel Sample ’96 Zin A-plus/125 percent price value at $28; had the price been $18, I would have raised the price value to 150/100.
The Ford-Hitzman one year older ’95 Zin at $28 merited a straight A and a 100/100 price value; I gave the Hillside Red ’96 at $10 an A-minus; it is great bargain at $10 and worthy of a 125/100 price value.
Sorcery (meritage blend): big fruited, blackberries, plums, black pepper; exquisitely balanced with fruit, alcohol, acid, tannin and texture; silky smooth, long aftertaste.
Barrel Sample Zin: immense fruit, lush blueberries, blackberries, currants; black pepper, fruit acids, soft tannin, velvety texture; as magnificently balanced as the music of the Boston Symphony.
(As a side note: I thought I had a single bottle of the Sorcery in my cellar. Upon investigating, I discovered I had two! This evening I opened one of them to sip with professional chef Debbie Zachariewicz’s gift of her famous “turkey stew/soup,” a combination of turkey stew and turkey soup, loaded with tender turkey pieces and a zillion vegetables.
Perhaps the turkey stew/soup was responsible: The Sorcery became a double A-plus exultation; continuing to taste it, I felt as though I had become Bacchus the god of wine!
Hidden Cellars is a boutique,
hands-on wine making winery. Ask your favorite wine shop to stock it. You
won’t get the ‘95s or ‘96s, but their wines are a consistency of premium
quality.
Cheese course: blue tart Gorgonzola and walnut, accented with clover honey, was paired with Eaglepoint Petite Sirah ’95, $25 and its ’96 Barrel Sample, $25. The cheese and wine matches were made in heaven, which descended into Stanley Nicas’ Castle kitchen for this wine/food event. I rated both wines A to A-plus, 135/100 price value.
After being served hearty brewed fresh steaming coffee and nutty, soft, chewy pastries, we were invited to repair to the taproom for a manly repast of Cognac and cigars.
Lillian wouldn’t let me go in…in no uncertain terms!
Wine Pick: Midnight Cellars Chardonnay 2000, $14.99, a 13.9 percent biggie, so perfectly balanced with fruit, fruit acids and texture that one isn’t aware of the high alcohol content. My notes: “lively acidity, superb fruit of apples, citrus, tropical fruits; balancing prominent sweet spice; creamy viscosity.”
Wine Pick: Midnight Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1999, $20.99, a macho 14.3 percent alcohol wine for the stout of heart and the pampered of palate. My notes: “already complex at its tender age; fruit loaded with berries, some cedar; balanced with mint and pepper; nuances of tar, licorice; rich, full-bodied; softened with merlot addition.”
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julian@oxfordwineroom.com