by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com

In quiet reverie, listening to minor-key adagios, reflecting upon once upon a time - whoa! That comes later.

I was invited to a small, intimate wine tasting. I didn't want to attend. My protests were not accepted: "You can't become a recluse. Life is too short and the bird of time has but little way to fly, and lo! The bird is on the wing. So you are coming and we will pick you up. Case closed!"

Fortunately...or not, I have always been malleable clay in the hands of lovely and persuasive women...especially when they laid their charms on me. Carole Dorris did them all - the lovely, persuasive, and charm -- and I became a puppet. So I went to the home of Dr. Earle and Carol Halsband for the tasting.

The wines stood sentinel, imposingly erect in review:

Veuvre Cliquot Ponsardin Brut Champagne;
Chateau Talbot 1989, St. Julien;
Chateau Gruard Larose '89, St. Julien;
Chateau Cantermerle '89, Haut Medoc;
Chateau Haut Brion Bahan- Pessac-Leognan Graves, '89;
Chateau Les Tourelles de Longueville '89, Pauillac;
Barros Tawny Port, aged 20 years.

My personal good physician, Dr. Ron Dorris voiced doubts about quality - flavor - of the Haut Brion. Promptly Dr. Halsband whisked it away and substituted the Longueville. I liked the voluptuous complexity of the Haut Brion; I poured more and enjoyed sipping away on it and on its substitute Longueville.

And the Halsbands, in joint effort, prepared and matched the wines with delicious - and I mean DELICIOUS -- food:

Giant sweet strawberries;

Shelled pistachio nuts;

Mushrooms stuffed with bread crumbs, flavored with port wine, parsley, basil, chopped mushrooms, salt and pepper;

Egg plant made with tomatoes, pignoli nuts, green olives, capers, mushrooms and salt;

Chicken sausage made with apple and cinnamon;

Orange slices with aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil;

Beef and pastrami roll ups stuffed with egg omelet, spinach, lemon zest, asparagus, tomatoes, mushroom and hazelnuts. 

Yes, it was summertime...and the sipping and the supping were easy...easy...easy.

Upon returning home, after leaving the Halsbands to all around sweet kisses, warm embraces and sincere handshakes, I listened to minor-key adagios. I was in that mood: humbly thankful and deeply moved that I have friends who care...

Friends who care... So much so, that upon my being seated, Carol Halsband announced, "In Julian's honor all food was prepared...absent garlic and pork!" (Standing applause from me followed by a sweeping, gracious bow.)

I am paraphrasing a line from Shakespeare: "Oh, invisible spirit of wine! If thou has no name to be known by, let us call thee...friendship": It was through our mutual interest in wine that I met and became friendly with the Halsbands', the Dorris', the Dr. Fred Busch's and Don Raymond, who comprised the group.

Between the wines being poured and the food being served, scintillating conversation added pleasure - and some laughter -- to the evening:

I said I am in awe that my 90th birthday is only weeks away and my bird of time is fast flying to that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. I said I hoped it would be a slow flight on the wings of beautiful, seductive, voluptuous angels.

Dr. Earle picked up on that: "When I die, I want my ashes to be buried in Bloomingdale's...so my daughter will visit me." 

I will send the joke to my granddaughter in New York.

I told this anecdote from Ogden Nash: "A gourmet challenged me to eat a tiny bit of rattlesnake meat remarking, 'don't look horror-stricken. You'll find it tastes a lot like chicken!'
It did.
Now chicken I cannot eat because it tastes like rattlesnake meat."

I commented, musing, cynically, that my having progressed from youth's ripening and ripening to my old age's rotting and rotting, I have come to believe in the mystical, metaphysical, spiritual, supernatural; yes this, even after having studied philosophy for two semesters at Clark University where most of us dismissed what couldn't be proved or quantified. 

My faith in the supernatural, conversely, is strong now. I illustrated this when I said to lovely ladies Carole, Carol and Patricia Busch, "Why thou art here, oh rivals of the rose, I never thought to ask, I never knew, but I am convinced that the self same power that brought me here also brought you."

This was typical of the chatter we indulged in between the wines and the food. Other conversations and chitchat, apropos of the wine and food - some unrelated -- were as spirited and unusual.

Dr. Earle prepared us for the evening with an inordinate amount of research and thoroughness about the wines, beginning with the Champagne and its four families of description: 

Champagne with BODY is sensual, powerful, structured and intense with woody, spicy and red fruit overtones;
Champagne with SPIRIT is vivacious, light and delicate with grassy and citrus aromas;
Champagne with HEART is generous, heart warming, smooth with aromas of brioche, cinnamon and honey;
Champagne with SOUL is mature, complex, with nuances of subtle and rare spices.

I attributed the SPIRIT and SOUL descriptors to the Veuvre Cliquot Champagne.

Dr. Earle listed the three grape varieties that generally are blended in Champagne:

Chardonnay gives finesse, floral and mineral tones;
Pinot Noir gives aromas of red fruit; strength and body;
Pinot Meunier gives suppleness, spice; contributes roundness.

About opening the Champagne bottle: How to remove the cork properly from the highly pressurized wine to prevent broken lights, sprayed ceilings, or visits to the ophthalmologist.

It is estimated that flying cork leaves the bottle at more than 60 mph. The Guinness Book of Records reports that the world's distance record for cork popping was a blast of 94 feet 6 inches. So always point the bottle away from people you like...unless it is Osama bin Laden.

Place a napkin or towel over the must-be-well-chilled bottle to prevent unplanned cork departures. Unwind and remove the wire hood. Grasp the cork (still covered with a napkin) on one hand and the bottle in the other. Tilt the bottle from you and others at a 45-degree angle, and while holding it close to your body twist the bottle - not the cork. Keep a firm grip in the cork with the thumb and let it ease out.

You won't get a loud popping sound, but neither will you lose bubbles or hose down your friends. Maintain the bottle at the 45-degree angle for about 10 seconds and watch the flume drift out, curling like a genie from the bottle. To turn it upright too soon is to invite a geyser of spurting wine on the rug. 

The Bordeaux wines, all 1989 vintage:

Chateau Talbot, St. Julien, rated as a "Grands Cru" in the 1962 reclassification by Alexis Lichine. Blend: 70- percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 Merlot, 5 each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Some of us found the wine big and elegant of bouquet with intensity and depth; another commented on its sexy seductiveness; one other discovered it to be fleshy with low acidity and rich fruits.

My notes: "lush fruit, supple, soft, balanced with fruit acids and soft tannin, smooth, delightful, rich ripe mature fruit; held up nicely after 15 years."

Chateau Gruaud Larose, St. Julien, "Exceptional Growth" in 1962 reclassification. Blend: 64-percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 24 Merlot, 9 Cabernet Franc, 3 Petit Verdot.

Some said, similar to the Talbot (same region, same vintage year); others found it full-bodied and intense with rich bouquet; another discovered, rich chunky fruit, good balance.

My notes: "initially sharper than the Talbot; sharpness recedes with the food; more assertive, lingering and complex than the Talbot."

Chateau Cantermerle (Haut Medoc), another "Exceptional Growth." Rich and supple with good fruit intensity and fragrant fruit bouquet. Rated 91 by Parker.

I enjoyed its overall lushness and beautifully balanced fruit, acidity, tannin and texture. I remember tasting Cantermerle on the Concorde when flying to and from France; it was the only red Bordeaux poured.

Chateau Haut Brion - Bahan, Pessac-Leognan Graves. Blend of 55-percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 Merlot, 20 Cabernet Franc. This 2nd wine of Haut Brion is one of the best 2nd wines of Bordeaux according to Parker.

An elegant wine of medium body that has extraordinary flavor, length and intriguing complexity...I thought. Its pronounced "musty" maturity evidenced bell pepper, olives, tobacco, cedar, was off-putting to some of my tablemates, but not to me.

The substitute Les Tourelles de Longueville, Pauillac, was outstanding -- a blend of 60-percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 40 Merlot and 5 each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Maturity and grape flavors were typical of Bordeaux complexity: lush pulsating in-and-out combinations of tastes; each sip a different flavor experience.

Le vin de resistance: Barros 20-year old Tawny Port...with accompaniments irresistible: blueberry crumb square; chocolate chip cookie dipped in chocolate with chopped walnuts. Pastry plates were garnished with fresh blueberries and raspberries.

The sweet-toothed among us were transported to heaven. Yes, I thought old Mother Earth looked pretty good down there as I ate away of the pastries and sipped the caramel-y Tawny Port.

About Port: Port affects me emotionally when I am alone. I sip...reflecting on dreams that were and on dreams that never can be. These visions are moments split from time, flung like moons against my heart's dark sky:

The remote country inn gazing into the eyes of my beloved; holding hands, listening to Chopin's Nocturnes in blissful solitude; a balm for troubled thoughts as my shadows lengthen, deepen and intensify...

Port is fortified with 25-percent brandy distilled from wine of its own grapes. When fermentation of the wine is halted with the addition of brandy, the alcohol is raised to between 19 and 21 percent; the sweetness is completed at 8 or 9 percent.

The greatest Port - the most expensive - is Vintage Port that is "declared" about three times in a decade. The shipper will declare a "Vintage Port" if growing conditions were perfect and, after two years aging in casks, the wine showed superior qualities. Only about 2- percent of the wine produced in a "declared" year is made into Vintage Ports and are bottled within two years after harvest.

Then you wait for 10 to 15 years, or longer, to best enjoy them: robust, rich, intense and complex with sweet flavors reminiscent of chocolate, cherries, coffee, spices, burnt raisins, and sometimes, violets. They have enough alcohol, tannin and acids to neutralize any possibility of cloying.

Port fanciers, likewise, prize 10- to 20-year Tawny Ports. They are lighter-bodied, more velvety and more amiable than Vintage Port; they mature after many years in barrels. Color is often orange-brownish-red from extended wood contact and some oxidation.

I find them to be caramel-y sweet, although drier; they are less expensive than Vintage Port. They usually smell and taste of walnuts, spices, smoke and musty dried fruit. They are immediately drinkable upon purchase because aging is finished in the cask.

Our Barros 20-year Tawny Port met all the criteria enumerated above.

We passed the bottle around the table for re-pours; nor were seconds - and thirds for me - disdained.

So it was in this mellow mood at home that I poured a 1983 Croft Vintage Port later that evening.

Yesteryear, ah yesteryear...betwixt the Port and adagios there fell thy shadow, Lillian, and the memories were shed upon my soul between the music and the wine; and I was desolate and I bowed my head...she was with me -- oh, hell! And I didn't want to cry anymore.

Thanks Dr. Earle and Carol Halsband...and Carole Dorris for a blessed and unforgettable evening. 

Wine Pick: It's a'commin', a'commin', Three Thieves "Bandit" California Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, $7 for liter wine box...that's right: wine box! It's like a milk carton with the same plastic closure and reseal cap. No glass, no corkscrew, no corks - just great low cost wine enjoyment.

So what! Blended with 10-percent Syrah, this cab is a quality wine at about one-third the price of a comparable quality wine.

I had educated palates of Al Jr. and Kim Vuona join me in the tasting. They shook their heads in disbelief at the favorable price-quality ratio.

Notes: "aromas of blackberries and oak; plum, currants, mocha flavors; medium tannin, smooth swallow, lingering aftertaste."

Implore your favorite wine shop to stock it for you.

 Email Comments to Julian at:
julian@oxfordwineroom.com