by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
This South American wine dinner had everything...everything except Carmen Miranda: There were no kitschy kitschy koo shoulder shakes and torso shimmies from the fruit coiffed Brazilian bombshell. The food and wine were gourmand for the trenchermen, gourmet for the epicures, and devil for the dieters all of whom enjoyed the six courses and six wines.
The food was prepared authentic South American style, so much so that it evoked romantic reflections of my dining some years ago in Rio de Janeiro at the magnificent Opera House.
Unlike the ultra dignified, uppity-nosed Opera House, Chris and Helena Liazos' Webster House restaurant is unpretentious and unassuming, is a restaurant with a sincere open heart, serves generous food portions, and charges contradictory low prices. For a few hours it provides my escape from the unpleasant reality of the grim portents of old age as I enjoy the restaurant's relaxed ambience, courteous waitstaff, hostess Jo-Ann Woupio, and my favorite Greek and American style food selections.
Appetizers: Chilean turnovers with fillings of juicy beef and onion and South American Cheddar cheese. Both were perfection in flavor and texture and with crusty over wrap. The Pascuel Toso Malbec 2002, suited the appetizers admirably. The red wine from Argentina sells for: $7.99 after O'Hara's 20 percent discount. All wines poured at the dinner reflect the discount.
Notes on the Argentine Malbec: "blackberry nose, strong fruit flavors, hints of coffee, violet, spice; smoky accents of vanilla and oak; proper balance of soft tannin and fruit acids; long aftertaste."
Soup course: South American vegetable soup with crouton; rich, spicy, peppery, creamy thick, full flavored was perfection with the Chilean Montes Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2003, $7.99.
Notes: "assertive nose of asparagus, vanilla, hints of tomatoes, freshly cut grass and sweetness with green undertone; lively, zesty acid balance; good firm structure; moderately long aftertaste."
I remembered a similar style soup - spicy, peppery and thick -- when Lillian (sadly gone now) and I were in Rio. I had written the following memoir about a Rio dinner in my autobiography:
"Quaint," murmured the wife of a Sweet Life supermarket customer, seated behind our table. She noted my holding hands with Lillian. The moment was perfect. The urge was instinctive. I suggested that Lillian try the Wisconsin cheddar and Bordeaux Rausan Segla wine. I hoped she would enjoy them as much as I did inasmuch as she is not a wine enthusiast.
She hazarded a sip to please me, slowly and thoughtfully tasted it; turned to me, smiled, nodded, and said, "Yes, nice." I took her hand, held it, not letting go lest it interrupt the exquisite moment of mood and tenderness.
I turned to the woman seated behind me. She laughed and said again, "Quaint," and added, poking her male companion, "I wish my husband would take a lesson from you!
He grumbled dismissively, "Yeah, yeah."
That was at the Opera House in Rio de Janeiro 24 years ago when we had finished dancing a rhumba and I resumed sipping my Rausan Segla.
The dinner in Rio comprised five wines - two were Brazilian - and four courses. The Brazilian wines were thin and sharp and afforded only fair flavor. The second Bordeaux wine, Chateau Leoville Les Cases, was superb. Imported wines are inordinately expensive in Brazil -- to force the purchase of the homegrown product.
The imported wine, the deliciously seasoned food and the continental dinner dancing at the Opera House are remembered with pleasure. We pulled strings, we gave bribes, and the Opera House restaurant was opened to accommodate our time schedule. The musicians were German refugees from the Nazi abomination.
The affair was gracious and luxurious: hors d'oeuvres and wine, salmon and wine, stewed chicken and wine, lamb and wine, cheese varieties and rich desserts and unctuously sweet Chateau Climens Sauternes.
We dance to waltzes, foxtrots and Latin tempos. We listened to operetta selections of Lehar and Friml, selections from Broadway musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein, aria instrumentals of Puccini and Verdi, incidental music of Satie and Debussy, piano pieces of Chopin and Schumann. Many of these were arranged for dancing.
We made friends with the musicians and invited them to share our food. Their histories were sad. Some had fled the Nazis minute-to-minute, hid from them place-to-place; others had survived the concentration camps, but all lost their families to the Holocaust.
We heard how they escaped and suffered; how nearly penniless, with fear and in peril, they landed unwelcome in Brazil. Their harrowing experiences could be retold in a novel or in a movie.
This dinner couldn't have been prepared better...anywhere. So enamored of the dinner were the some 36 of us that Chris Liazos announced to standing and resounding applause that this wine dinner would the repeated in October. Most of us reserved a place immediately. It will be a sellout, so please reserve early. (Flash! The October date may be moved into 2005, based on the availability of compatible wines that are different from what we had and are priced as reasonably.)
First course: pan fried salmon in an unusual and delicious white sauce, served with steamed vegetables of chyote (light green vine vegetable), okra, cauliflower, zucchini, and honnied carrots. Couldn't be improved upon, perfect!
Chile's Montes Chardonnay Reserve 2003, $7.99, suited the salmon nicely. My notes: "faint vanilla nose, lightly oak-aged, pear, tropical fruit transfer to palate with added subtle sweet edge, grass; smooth swallow, assertive, creamy, balanced, long aftertaste."
Second course: stewed chicken tournedos wrapped around chicken bones with yellow rice; unusual tenderness and sensational flavor.
Argentina's Pascual Toso Cabernet 2002, $7.99; "floods the palate with rich layers coffee, cedar, vanilla and berries, hints of blueberries/blackberries, spice, soft tannin and balancing fruit acids; lingering fruit taste in the aftertaste."
Third course: Argentinean roast beef tenderloin with salsa and sweet potato fries was cut-with-fork tenderness and juicy. It was served with two wines: Bodegas Graffigna Malbec G 2000, $14.99 from Argentina, and Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, $15.99, from Chile.
The Chilean cab from 100-year-old vines was excellent with primary aromas and flavors of cherry and black current fruits and secondary aromas and flavors of chocolate and cigar box.
As good as the cab was, it was dwarfed by the stupendous Graffigna Malbec G, which drew resounding exclamations of pleasure from the tables. O'Hara's Jim Vasiliadis reports that the quantities ordered of the Malbec G and the Sauvignon Blanc Reserve topped all the orders he received, including my four of the Malbec G and two of the Sauvignon Blanc and Dr. Bob Ouellette's order for two of each. Dr. Bob said that although he is surfeited with wines in his cellar, he couldn't resist ordering these.
My notes on the Malbec G: "extremely dark and intense with blackberry, ripe berry and roasted coffee aromas and flavors; smooth, smoky, and very fruit forward. It's as fine a red wine of recent memory that I can remember drinking."
Although most of us had eaten more than enough, the portions were so generous that many of us took home each of the three main courses. How would we manage dessert to follow?
The Argentinean flan with apricot glaze and chocolate/fruit pieces were so inviting that we managed to consume a few calories more as recklessly, unmindfully, luxuriously, we ate away. And, thus, the dinner ended. It was yet another dinner in the unbroken series of Chris and Helena Liazos's culinary triumphs.
Kudos all around are deserving to Andres Lantigna, chef from the Santiago Plaza restaurant, 1000 Main St., Worcester, where all Spanish accents with food are available; also, to John Hammerstrom, Alex Hill and Cindy Garvin who helped prepare the dinner; to Webster House bartender Matt Konthong who was Spanish interpreter - he speaks four foreign languages; to servers Sean Maynard and Ann Robert; and as usual to hostess Jo-Ann Woupio who efficiently oversaw that the wine/food service was prompt and smooth.
Special Kudos to Bill Schuler, Classic Wines Imports' Sales Consultant who discussed each wine, affording us special insight into premier Chilean and Argentinean wines. Great job, Bill!
SPARKLING WINE DINNER COMING! RESERVE NOW FOR Wednesday, JULY 21, 6 P.M. $70 inclusive. Phone: 508-757-7208. IT WILL BE A SELLOUT SIMILAR TO LAST YEAR'S DINNER. DON'T DILLY-DALLY AND BE DISAPOINTED.
Dr. Bob Ouellette, O' Hara's Jim Vasialiadis, Jeff Ghertler of M.S. Walker, Chris Liazos and I did the trial dinner ritual. We massaged, argued, and matched the dinner menu to five Champagnes/Sparkling wines, after tasting 10 wines.
With a blare of bugles and a flourish of strumpets, I am proud to announce the food and wine pairings:
Welcoming wine: Prosecco sparkling wine from Italy.
Champagne with baked Oysters Rockefeller: Saint Hillaire Brut from France.
Mumm Cuveé from California with New England style Clam Chowder.
Rotari Brut from Italy with Clam Cake topped with Newburgh sauce.
The great Duval Leroy Champagne France with the Baked Stuffed Lobster.
Dessert: Fresh blueberry compote.
Did you know? A supermarket chain in England has insured the tongue of its chief wine buyer for $17million.
In 2002, per capita wine consumption rose in every U.S. state. Tennessee led the states with close to a 13 percent increase.
According to French researchers red wine picks up potential cancer fighting compounds from oak barrels.
There are 1049 wineries in California; 4805 grape growers; over 200,000 full-time equivalent jobs; over three billion 750ml bottles.
Full economic impact of wine on the California economy is $45.4 billion.
Wine Pick: Stephen Ross "Edna Valley" Pinot Noir 2001, $31.99. Burgundian style preparation shows cherry and plum aromas, which transfer to the palate and are joined by varied spices; nicely balanced, smooth swallow, lingering aftertaste.
Wine Pick: Stephen Ross "Edna Valley" Chardonnay 2002, $24.99. Merited 92 points from Wine & Spirits and 90 points from Wine Spectator magazines. Fruit forward, full and rich, lingering oak and tropical fruit flavors. Reminiscent of peaches, nectarines; spirited balancing acidity; delightfully lingering after the swallow.
Wine Pick: Victor Hugo Petite Sirah 1999, $17.99. Lovely mouth-filling wine, laden with fruit and berry spice and unobtrusive tannin, magnificently balanced with fruit acids, smoothly structured and reluctant departure after the swallow.
Email Comments to Julian at:
julian@oxfordwineroom.com