by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
I
am writing this story…writing it to
recapture and unforgettable evening with Drs. Boris and Luba Blinder and Dr.
Marshall Zamansky. My writing of the evening and sending it to them is my way
showing the depth of my gratitude.
We
became friends through the appreciation of wine. Yes, it was the God-given
grape, its blessed wine that created this friendship.
I am realistic: I am an old man. I am nearing 89 and facing my life’s
not too distant setting sun and purple dark horizon. So when people much younger
than I, so much younger… oh, blessed be their younger years…seek to soften
my loneliness with their concern and compassion, I become moved and mellowed and
I immediately listen to music appropriate to my mood.
Fittingly, I am listening to
soul-stirring the disc, Violin and Piano Duets, by the Boston Duo of
pianist Ellina Blinder (Drs. Blinders’ daughter-in-law) and violinist Lilia
Muchnik.
It was Saturday, about late afternoon. Dr. Boris was on the phone.
Peremptorily: “Julian! I have some great wines! I want you to try them! We
will have a little dinner! Marshall will pick you up at 7! Goodbye!”
He didn’t ask if I would come. He told me I was coming! So…I went. I
was afraid to refuse although I was already preparing for my dinner and had
thawed out some antelope fillets. Hey, who knows? He could be one of those
unpredictable Mad Russians from the frozen Steppes that his friends and I
don’t know about. And, anyway, I like his sweet, lovely, intelligent physician
wife Dr. Luba.
It is my custom to bring a fine wine when I am a guest at a wine
friend’s home. I brought a superb California wine, Old Patch Red, a
2000 meritage blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Carignane, produced at
Trentadue Vineyards. I wanted it opened, tasted and appreciated, so that I could
gloat about how really smart I was to have bought many bottles. Marshall brought
a 1997 Brunello di Montalcino, a magnificent and expensive Italian wine from
Tuscany, a fragrant, robust, full-bodied red wine also known as Sangiovese
Grosso.
Boris had already opened a Chassagne-Montrachet 2000 white Burgundy, a
Laurus 2002 white Rhone, a Chateau Montrose 1996 red from Bordeaux’ St.
Estephe. I saw in wait an 80-proof brandy of 25 years barrel aging from Armenia.
Marshall was insistent that his 1997 Brunello just had to be poured, no
matter what. So proud Julian’s treasured gift will rest disappointedly in
solitary splendor at the Blinder’s home until another day.
It seemed – oh, I knew -- by design, the doctors-three, Blinders and
Zamansky, knowing emotional me only too well, didn’t want me to dwell on past
dinners with them…dinners past when my recently departed, dearly beloved,
Lillian would be with us. So before I could get my bearings, to orient myself to
the beautiful home’s ambience, to the caliber of the wines I would be sipping,
to the spread of food laid out, I was beset by a whirlwind of gastronomic
activity:
“Here, try this thin pounded ox meat from Armenia with – do you want pita
bread or crusty chewy old Czar-style Russian bread? Here is a sauce to go with
it, or do you want the black or green olives, or maybe you would like to try
these little gherkins?”
I don’t remembering answering Boris, but I do remember sipping the
Montrose with the ox meat in pita and exquisite flavor-enhancing sauce. I assume
Boris had decided for me and put both into my hands.
From Luba: “Julian we have cheeses and some lox. Perhaps you might want
some now, yes? Sit down at the table and eat and drink your wine, relax and be
comfortable. We will have lamb chops. Do you like lamb chops?”
I was not unmindful of what was happening and what was the intent of
these three friends. I turned away and forced myself to study the labels on the
Brunello and Montrose…to hide my eyes from which the tears were starting to
flow.
“Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy
soul with hoops of steel…..” Hamlet, from Shakespeare; Polonius advising son
Laertes. How appropriate. The significance of those words caresses my thoughts
and lightens my heart.
Marshall approached with his Brunello: “Here, try the Brunello with the
ox…or perhaps you’d prefer it with the aged nutty Asiago cheese?”
Boris: “Wait! We’ll try the Montrose, also. Let’s see if the wines
are accented differently by the ox and how the ox is influenced by each wine.”
Marshall and I congratulated Boris for his very savvy suggestion and with
glasses held high to the lights, we sighted for the esthetic, color and age;
then we sniffed and savored...how exultantly we smiled our pleasure!
But where was Luba? Luba, whose presence ever illuminates the room with
shining brightness and adds to it a glow of warmth?
Oh, yes. Huddled over the stove, eyes alternating on the simmering food
and on her husband and guests, she took charge of what was important – to
ensure a successful and happy evening. Did she succeed? As Boris so frequently
would say, “She is so smart – like your Lillian – she never fails at
anything.” Her record remains intact.
To have made the evening complete, would have been the loveliness of
Marshall’s dear Peg. But Peg, dutifully and lovingly, was minding her
grandchildren.
Hey, this story is supposed to be also about wine and food, isn’t it?
Yes…and so to the dinner:
We were seated and Luba joined us, glancing all the while at the stove
where the lamb chops were being cooked. “Don’t want them either overdone or
undercooked,” she murmured. Boris hurried over to inspect and gestured an
‘almost ready’ with his fingers,
We
sipped the Laurus 2002 with cheeses: goat in bread and Asiago in pita. The
deeply fruited, fruit acid spirited, nicely balanced wine with the differently
flavored cheeses were perfect combinations. I hurriedly did a repeat of them as
I observed Boris looking my way while he fussed with the Chassagne-Montrachet
and Montrose and then made small sandwiches of ox in bread and in pita.
He poured each wine into appropriately sized and formed wine glasses to
accommodate white and red wines. What a treat it was to taste wines of highest
pedigree with compatible delicious food! Marshall successfully fended for
himself with the wine and food. Luba seemed too anxious about the lamb to remain
with us, and apprehensively departed for the stove.
Minutes later Luba returned with the vegetable salad: “The size is not
too large, dressing is not too pungent. We have filling foods and wine ahead. I
don’t want you eat too much so soon.”
Well, now! When did you last have a varied-spices-accented, creamy tomato
soup with tomato pieces…and sparked with demon GIN? Well, we did and was it
ever delicious! Luba continued to protest that well maybe it wasn’t very good,
and maybe we shouldn’t eat it, and maybe…maybe…maybe. But during her
maybes we all finished our soups to the last drop. I even boldly displayed
questionable manners when I lifted the bowl to my lips and sipped – did I
slurp? Hopefully not -- to the last delectable drop.
Luba, assisted by Boris, served the thick tender tasty lamp chops with
dried porcini mushrooms in a sensational plum sauce, the latter uniquely
delicious and produced only in Georgia, Soviet Union.
Marshall was pouring all
four wines into our glasses. “We must try them all,” he said. “They should
go much too good with lamb for any of them to be shamed by being ignored.” He
was correct, and no wine was shamed by being ignored. Indeed, so correct was he
that, with the exception of Luba, we permitted him, assisted by Boris, to refill
our glasses…and refill…and…
Leisurely, we sat and sipped…and sipped…and sipped…and ate…and
ate…and ate…and talked…and talked…and talked…
In
answer to questions, the Blinders spoke about Russia, especially its culture
perhaps as not completely known here in the west: the revolution, the atrocities
of the last Czar and Stalin, the difficulties for Jews to get a first class
education, the economics -- even about Shakespeare, whose plays were popular,
produced, and well attended. They spoke about the culture of Russia not from
books, but from having lived there.
We
discussed the wines and exchanged perceptions about which of the four went best
with the soup and lamb. I guess we practiced wine chauvinism: Boris said his
Chassagne went best with the soup and his Montrose with the lamb; I thought the
Laurus best with the soup and both reds – Montrose and Brunello – went
equally well with the lamb; Marshall said his Brunello went best with
everything, including the plates, tableware and napkins. I wanted to say, but
didn’t, that my Old Patches Red meritage would have been sensational with the
lamb and with the ox meat, cheeses, soup and paintings on the wall.
I
related how the lamb prepared at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens differed
from the lamb as prepared in Santorini, and Santorini’s lamb from Rhodes’.
We discussed the cooking philosophies of famous chefs we knew about and their
application of spices and the evil bulb, grrrrrlic.
“Dessert
time!” Luba announced.
“No!”
from Boris. “We must taste first the brandy before the sweeter fruit salad. I
want nothing to detract from its unique subtle tastes of chocolate and fruity
alcohol. Proudly and expectantly Boris poured….
What
a brandy! Something like I have never tasted before. After sipping away on that
brandy, I wouldn’t need wings if I wanted to fly. I asked Boris to buy three
bottles for me…and I’m a 20-precent-alcohol Port devotee, not an 80-proof
brandy aficionado. Marshall had prepared me for the brandy, saying how
exceptional it was. I believe in his palate, having tasted wines with him for
many years. But his enthusiastic praise for this Armenian brandy was yet an
understatement.
Dessert
time now. Boris served: fresh fruit salad, comprising apricots, cantaloupe, and
blueberries infused with orange-ish Grand Marnier Liqueur. How delicious was it?
Let your imagination be your palate!
We
were loath to leave the table as we munched on the fruit and liqueur filled
small Russian imported candies and sipped sturdy Russian tea, macho Russian
style – no cream, no sugar, no nuttin’. We just sat, savoring the moment.
The grim reality of the oft-hostile world outside could not intrude on this warm
circle of friends, on the intoxicating perfume of friendship that wafted about
us, coming from the blossom of our hearts.
I
looked carefully at Luba, Boris and Marshall; felt that I was part of this
family. I was at home here, not simply a guest. I murmured something from Khalil
Gibran: “For in the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is
refreshed.” Luba understood. She sympathetically patted my hand.
This
evening was indeed a luxury divine, and oh…oh, how I wished for that departed
sweetheart of mine…
Maybe in my shadows-lengthening, twilight-deepening, darkness-approaching years, I am becoming more emotional than ever over thoughtfulness extended to me. Here I was, welcomed into the family of friends young enough to be my children. They owed this late-octogenarian nothing. They had no obligation to care. But they cared.
Shakespeare
wrote in Othello, “Oh, thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to
be known by, let us call thee devil.” (Italics mine.)
I
am sorry, Mr. Shakespeare. I would say it differently: “Oh, thou invisible
spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee…friendship.”
So…“Thank
you Boris, Luba and Marshall.” Six short words, yes they are, but long in
gratitude.
Wine
Pick: Montevina Barbera 2001, around $11. Enjoy fruited and spicy aromas and
flavors of cherries, roasted coffee, black pepper, spices, some toasty oak, with
a hint of violets; nicely balanced with fruit acids and soft, creamy, rich, fat
texture; smooth swallow and moderately long aftertaste. Parsimonious purse
price.
Wine
Pick: Yalumba “Y” Viognier 2003, around $10. Superb white wine from
Australia offering aromas of lemon, lemonade, honeysuckle, with hints of varied
spice. Aromas transfer to the palate where tropical fruits, citrus and lychee
nuts are added. As delightful a Viognier as I have ever tasted, and that
includes Viognier from the Rhone.
Bodega
Lurton Pinot Gris 2003, Argentina, around $5.99. For exquisite flavor and
exquisite price, seek out this beauty and revel in rich aromas of peach, apricot
and tropical fruits. Palate wise, note its balancing crispness with roundness,
lush body, and lingering aftertaste; sort of replicates a coveted Alsatian Pinot
Gris at considerably less the price.
Email Comments to Julian at:
julian@oxfordwineroom.com