Remembrance of Loire Past
by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
Said Debbie Zachariewicz, professional chef, dog fancier, gravesite horticulturist, as she ecstatically rolled her eyes: "This innovative preparation of veal - Veal Chateau Lemoine - its piquant sauce blended with pulverized and seasoned tomatoes, black olives and honey mustard is itself worth the price of this entire dinner."
Debbie then bowed her pretty head, followed perhaps five minutes of deep concentration, finally raised it with stars twinkling in her eyes: "Upon reflection I am not sure that I don't find the extraordinary game hen preparation even more satisfying than the scrumptious veal."
Said I: "And what about the three other courses and five Loire wines? What are they worth?"
Debbie thought a moment, then chuckled and said with a playful smile: "I dare not say. You'll write about it and Chris Liazos might raise the price of these dinners."
Fifty-three gourmets/palateers at the Webster House Restaurant hailed yet another wine dinner, this month with the premium wines of Loire and chef Jim Lemoine and visiting chef Joan St. Denis-Clarico's imaginative culinary artistry.
Guests exchanged nods of pleasure as they sipped the Sancerre reception wine of "Les Monts Damnes" Thomas 2001, $14.39, after 20 percent discount on six bottle mix or match purchases at O'Haras Discount Wines and Spirits. (All prices shown reflect the discount prices.)
My notes: "steely, lively, refreshing, sweet grass, pears, grapes; more comfortable with each sip, extravagantly generous on the palate, increased pleasure with repeated refills; velvety smooth swallow; reluctant to leave farewell; super price value."
Appetizer course of baked oysters, stuffed with chopped shrimp, mushroom, turkey bacon, onion, basil, and given a light kiss of cayenne pepper, combined exquisitely with Muscadet "Domaine Tourmaline" 2001, $10.99.
The "baked stuffed" and the "raw slurp" oysters, the latter also available to the intrepid oyster purists among us, and the flinty, steely, bone dry, crisp, firm, green apples, green grass Muscadet, elicited murmurs of delight and avid acceptance of seconds as both were offered by genial mine host Chris. Author Roald Dahl (he's discussed later in the column) might have described the wine as "fearless with flavor resolution, firm with focused endeavor, leaving a legacy of lingering memory."
"The best ever - these stuffed oysters!" I exclaimed, "perhaps since Montbazon…at Chateau D'Artigny. But as good as they were there, they were also my disaster."
Linda Zachariewicz, my home caregiver, food shopper, household director, apprehensive cook - yes, she's apprehensive: trying to please my persnickety palate is prelude to panic -- looked at me quizzically.
I explained: "The night before we (with our Sweet Life supermarket customers and spouses/significant others) were to visit Loire wine chateaux and vineyards, we reveled sybaritically with an epicurean feast at the Chateau D'Artigny, where we slept the night. Indulging a gargantuan appetite, my palpitating palate mastering my wayward willpower, I ordered seconds and thirds of the baked stuffed oysters…and - yes -- raw slurp oysters over horseradish/ketchup/lemon sauce. The wine, bone dry and briny, was Manzanilla Sherry, of which my refills, exuberantly ingested and recklessly requested, matched the seconds and thirds of the scallops.
"I was surfeited, bloated and belching at dinner's end when our titled host promised that we would experience "the heights of ethereal transcendence" when he insisted that an associate and I visit his library to taste his high octane "cunning" Armagnacs, their age extending over a wide range of years: We sipped away on vintages from 1915 through the '50s - about 16, as I remember.
"At 8 a.m. next morning, I stared up at the 40-foot high ornately painted domed ceiling, my head splitting, my eyes glazed, my belly sickly green with nausea. The naked cherubs gleefully flying across the green tinted ceiling only intensified my misery.
"The tour went without me. Members of our group, my wife Lillian told me, couldn't believe I would miss an opportunity to visit wine cellars and taste the wines of Vouvray.
" 'Julian too ill to taste wines? He must be seriously ill!' Rumor spread that I was hospitalized.
"By 4 p.m. I was able to taste my first food, cream of wheat that I detest. At 7 I joined the group for dinner, a five-course gourmet affair: prawn soup, crab and lobster, poached salmon, beef Wellington and crepes Suzettes with raspberry sauce. The wines were spectacular…so they said: Sherry from Spain, Muscadet and Sancerre from Loire, Griotte-Chambertin from Burgundy and Chateau Climens from Sauternes.
"Groan! I dined miserably on poached eggs atop white toast and sipped mild tea with honey, suffering an unsympathetic Lillian's relentless lecture on my last evening's gluttonizing. I haven't tasted Armagnac since -- like in 26 years. But Webster House's baked stuffed and raw slurp oysters and the consort Loire Muscadet wine were nostalgically, sentimentally, déjà vu -- ha! Sentimental? You've got to be kidding, Julian!"
Linda, ever concerned for my welfare, cautioned me severely that I refrain from over eating with the oysters and over drinking of the Muscadet, adding grimly that she would be keeping her eyes on me during the balance of the dinner.
Yes, when thirds were offered and Linda peremptorily waved them away.
First entrée: Magnificent artistic scallop salad presentation, delicious with tender scallops, raw greens, artichoke, and finished with Mandarin oranges and a delicate orange sauce, was paired with Pouilly Fumé Domaine Berthier 2000, $12.79. Not a morsel remained on any regretfully relinquished plate that we could observe. Many of us congratulated Chris - some requested seconds -- as he made his way among the tables.
My notes on the wine: "tropical fruits, grass, apples, pears, herbs, pebbles, mineral; deft touch of sweet oak and honey. Easy to drink, easy to buy, well worth the price."
Writing these notes recalled my reading a short story by Roald Dahl, husband of actress the late Patricia Neal Dahl. He had a character in the story humanizing his description of the wine. This probably is how he would describe the Pouilly Fumé: "A prudent wine, rather diffident and evasive, but quite prudent…a good-humored wine, unpretentious, benevolent and cheerful - slightly obscene perhaps but nonetheless good-humored."
Second entrée: Cornish game hen and Provence bread stuffing, with added tang from a lightly peppered Cabernet Franc sauce, escorted by Chinon "Clos Cure" Jaquer 2001, $18.99, seduced our consensual palates…oh, heavenly bliss! The faint scent of the food and the berries aroma of the wine brought immediately warm oozings of saliva to my palate.
At the trial dinner, the tender game hen was served with two stuffings; we were to choose the stuffing that best did justice to the hen and Chinon. Usually at trial dinners, Dr. Bob Ouellette, Jim Vasiliadis, Chris Liazos and I debate the compatibility of the food ingredients with the wine…sometimes with a minimum of civility in our earnest endeavor to "get it right." Not this time; we were unanimous in our selection of the delectable stuffing…a treat in itself, chef Jim Lemoine's specialty.
The Chinon, produced from the Cabernet Franc grape, caressed the palate with rich berry fruit and was perfectly balanced with vivacious fruit acids, firm but soft tannins, and a viscous texture; its smooth swallow lingered long in the aftertaste and left a happy glow in the eyes of the palateer. Additionally, the Chinon perfectly balanced the flavors of the game hen, its subtle pepper-ish sauce and seasoned stuffing. An unmitigated delight, the superb combination of food and wine, prompted some males to shake Chris' hand, some females to buss him as, blushing, he toured the tables.
The large portioned tender tasty game hen with its sauce and stuffing was - how did that commercial go? - "lip-smacking good." Heck! It was lip-smacking delicious, delightful, delovely, delectable, delirious, divine. Ignoring caregiver Linda's grumpy grunts and glowering glare, this little piggy overate the whoooole of it, smiling contentedly…and all the way home I grimaced as I contemplated the hot peppermint and baking soda cocktail that I would suffer before bedtime…so sleep, gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse, would weigh my eyelids down and steep my senses in forgetfulness.
Dahl might have given the Chinon human attributes in his description: "First sip, gentle, generous, gracious; in the second taste, a little arch perhaps and a little naughty also, teasing the tongue with tastes of raspberries and violets and with a trace - just a trace - of tannin. In the aftertaste, delightful, consoling, and somewhat feminine with a certain blithely coquettish, flirtatious quality that one associates only with would-be ensnaring seductive women and soft red seductive wines of Loire."
I said to tablemates that they must be mindful those words were author Dahl's…not mine!
Interjected tablemate Cheryl Orrico, "What do you mean, 'not mine?' You can't be serious! I remember reading in one of your columns that a wine reminded you of the 'flash of a nymph's thigh' - or was it a nymphomaniac's thigh - 'in the underbrush?' If that isn't purple prose, I don't know what is."
"Yes, 'twas a nymphomaniac's thigh that flashed," I said smirking. "But…it was not in the underbrush," I added, dreamy in retrospect.
"Ha, ha! Fun…ny!" Said Cheryl grinning, "You're fantasizing, Julian."
Third entrée: Veal Chateau Lemoine and Bourgueil Domaine de la Change "Cuvee Beauvais" 2000, $9.59. Let me repeat the assessment given earlier by professional chef Deborah Zachariewicz: "This innovative preparation of veal - Veal Chateau Lemoine - its piquant sauce blended with pulverized and seasoned tomatoes, black olives, and honey mustard is itself worth the price of this entire dinner."
Overheard at a contiguous table: "What's all this mystique about wine?" said the lady with the beautiful baby blues and bodacious bountiful bosom, shaking her head, her nose pinched displeased. Fixing her baby blues on our table, at me in particular it seemed: "It's only something you put into your mouth and drink and pass it through. It's so ephemeral." So what's all this oohing and aahing about?
Unable to let it lie, I dredged up something I remembered having read long years ago and answered her pompously: "Wine opens the heart, it warms the shy poet hidden in the cage of the ribs. It melts the wax in the ears, that beautiful soulful music may be heard. It takes the terror from the tongue, that the truth of love can be said. And if you deal respectfully with it, not boorishly, it takes leave of you with the most desirable departure: sleep, sleep, smiling sleep because it removes gnawing heartaches of doubt, anxiety, anguish and despair."
"Oooooh, huuumm, weeellll," she said reflectively, "I'll give more attention to the next wine…and let you know." She smiled archly, snickered and turned away. I thought I heard her mutter to her table companion, "Pontificating ass."
My notes, the veal: "tender, tasty, succulent, medium rare juicy; unusually flavor-arresting with the innovative light smack of honey mustard infused with the pulverized seasoned tomatoes and black olives."
My notes, the Bourgueil: "rugged masculine wine, an honest country wine, unlike the velvety smoothness and finesse of the Chinon, but an assertive mouthful of flavored and balanced berries, fruit acids, soft oak and firm tannins; softens and improves in the glass." This Arnold Schwarzenegger wine gets my vote for palate pleasure and purse price.
Our dining revels now were ended with wife-y dear Helena Liazos' dessert of such-stuff-as-dreams-are-made-on-rich strawberry cake with richer French crème, fresh strawberries, and kiwi sauce. Generously portioned, it was airy light, lavishly delicious, and it melted away, dissolved, in our mouths. We expectantly awaited her appearance - no, she had left the restaurant. Chefs Joan St. Denis-Clarico and Jim Lemoine did appear and were given our enthusiastic sustained applause as they answered questions about the food preparations.
Throughout the dinner, Dr. Bob Ouellette added dimension and "flavor" to our own perceptions of the wines as he discussed them with his usual insight and expertise.
Next wine dinner: Wednesday, Sept. 10, with the great wines of Australia. Australia has now become the hot button region for superb Shiraz wines, especially, at still compassionate prices. Same $65 all-inclusive price for multi-courses and multi-wines. This dinner will be a sellout as it was tonight, guaranteed. Can any self-anointed gourmet forgo the expertise of food preparation such as we had this evening? Reserve now: 508-757-7208.
Important announcement: Dr. Bob Ouellette will conduct again his 27th annual Wine Workshop at Assumption College, beginning Tuesday, September 9, and continuing for five consecutive Tuesdays, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Bob will pour wines from his own distinguished cellar, explain the basics of wine appreciation for novices, refresh them for the connoisseurs, and progress to comparative tastings of wine from wine growing regions world wide. The workshop is tailored for novices and connoisseurs. Cost $120. Bring two wine glasses and enjoy while you learn. Call Assumption College for details and/or enrollment: 508 - 767- 7364. Space is limited, so act quickly.
Wine Pick: Monticello Vineyards Estate Grown Merlot 2001, $26. Wow! This is some kind of Merlot, more in the tradition of a French Pomerol, what with the addition of Cabernet Franc; couldn't stop sipping the multi-flavors of the multi-berries…and still more berries. Balanced soft oak, firm tannins, velvety texture and fruit acids perfect this wine. Smooth swallow and lingering aftertaste evoked rare applause from our excited taster group. A big price value bargain at $26. Seek it out!
Wine Pick: Carmody McKnight Estate Chardonnay 2001, $11-$12. Subtle flowery nose; palate: tropical fruits, peach, melon, pineapple with hints of vanilla, cinnamon and allspice; balanced with zesty fruit acids; rich clean swallow and lingering aftertaste. A classy wine of complex fruit is worth considerably more its price.
Wine Pick: Reynolds Vineyards Shiraz 2001, $15, blended with five percent Merlot for flavor variation and smoothness. Sniff and taste assertive black cherries with complexity of licorice and black pepper; fruit acids, soft tannins and subtle oak balance and perfect this great example of the Down Under continent's estimable Shiraz.
Wine Pick: Trinchero Winery Sauvignon Blanc 20001, $9. Melon and citrus nose and taste are nicely balanced with oak, freshly cut grass and vanilla complexity; round smooth medium-bodied texture, crisp zesty fruit acids blend harmoniously with the flavors and tingle in the aftertaste. Price value:125/100.
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julian@oxfordwineroom.com