by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
It was a catered affair: Mimi Grenier and George Neuman played gracious mine hosts at their home for the annual Les Compagnons des Bons Vins Holidays Party. The evening comprised eager sipping, ecstatic eating, non-stop spirited conversation, lusty singing, and art appreciation.
And sophisticated gourmets (epicures at the table) and gormandizers (gluttons bereft of palate discipline), numbering 24, were struck awesome, struck open-eyed, struck open-mouthed by the Struck Catering's delectable food and by the variety of pedigree wines.
Yes, gormandizer, hedonist, that I am I disdained restraint and recklessly ate away and recklessly sipped away on too much of what was much too good. And, yes, I paid the price in the wee hours of the morning when a gleeful devil with a playful pitchfork joyfully stabbed at my groaning innards.
At 4 a.m., bicarbonate of soda and essence of peppermint in hot water finally offered some little relief after a sleepless night. And next morning when Dr. Bob Ouellette made his daily phone call to check on me, I got his inimitable inspirational lecture and concerned serious advice for my behavior at future dining and wining parties.
Next morning, after gnawing indecision and much trepidation, I hesitantly stepped on the bathroom scale: 155, up from 151. I felt ill all over again...and vowed: never again! (If I had a dollar for every time I forgot that vow, I would move to Iran and assemble me a harem of 761/2 virgins.)
Try as I might, at parties I can't seem to control my appetite and I lose my iron-ribbed willpower. My boast, quoting Oscar Wilde, that I can resist everything except temptation becomes a wimpy whine when I contend with fine wine and delicious food at banquets.
The pulchritudinous distaff halves of our members didn't sample much wine; they congregated in an off living room area. I peeked in and was fascinated by their serious discussions on cheating husbands, expensive mistresses, neighborhood sex scandals, husband and wives swapping, and their head-to-head whisperings and titterings about subjects not meant for the walls to hear.
The most gentlemanly of us all, dashing George Neuman, from time to time dashed to the ladies with wine and food.
God bless them! They gracefully and graciously accepted their subservient fate as designated drivers, permitting their good ol' boys to cheat with heavier than the recommended one-ounce wine pours.
We macho men partook of the libations and food with hearty lip-smacking, belly-thumping, high-fives satisfaction. And to think that I almost didn't go! The reason: next day, Castle's monthly Sunday afternoon tasting -- 1983 premier Bordeaux wines with a variety of irresistible hors d'oeuvres; Monday, Worcester Wine Tasters' monthly 12-wine tasting; Wednesday, Webster House's monthly wine dinner with 12 reception wines, plus five more with a six-course dinner; Friday, Dick and Joan Caparso's annual black tie wine dinner at the Castle and sumptuous dessert repast later at the home of Norman and Marie Limoges.
True, at wine tastings of multiple wines I savor and spit all my sipped wines (as most seasoned tasters do), and at food extravaganzas I try, try, try hopelessly, helplessly, to avoid nibbling forever on foods that taste good. The legendary Broadway showman, Billy Rose, said it best when asked about his noticeable weight loss: "If it tastes good, don't eat it." The statement is cavalier, but a person needs extraordinary willpower to make the maxim work.
So, how could I avoid dishes, prepared with consummate artistry and culinary skill, and not partake of the noteworthy and unusual wines like the ones I will describe that we had at this Les Compagnons dinner?
Non-stop, sweetly smiling, charming Karen Shea served four appetizers that were gracefully snatched from her platters as she described the varieties:
Sesame chicken kabobs with Cumberland sauce,
Asian gargantuan marinated shrimp with pea pods,
Roasted asparagus on toasted bread rounds with roasted red peppers topped with smoked Gouda cheese,
Potato latkes topped with mushroom mélange, spiked with Madeira wine and cream.
Hands were everywhere, hands reaching for white wine with one hand and hands reaching for red wine with the other, our voices crying out for Karen to hurry down with seconds and thirds of the hors d'oeuvres.
I lost count after I had consumed four each of the first four hors d'oeuvres and five of the potato latkes. Were they ever delicious! Were they ever!!
Four lavishly "embroidered" main courses:
Tenderloin slices with rosemary/thyme crust; served with horseradish/gorgonzola cheese spread and assorted rolls,
Scallion crepes stuffed with salmon, leeks, and shiitake mushrooms; topped with Hollandaise sauce,
Assorted grilled, marinated and raw seasonal vegetables with lemon/peppercorn dip,
Chive-crusted chevre cheese log, and black peppercorn-crusted chevre log with Gorgonzola.
The wines: Havens (cult) Merlot 1997; Chateau Leoville Las Cases (Bordeaux) '90; Coppola (meritage California) Rubicon '95; Santenay (Burgundy) 1er Cru '85; Brunello d' Montalcino (Italy) '90 and '97; Messapicus Primativo (Italy) '99; Montagny (Burgundy) '99; Touraine (Loire) Sauvignon Blanc '01; Caymus (California) Sauvignon Blanc '96; Fernand-Vergelles (Burgundy) '90; Chateau La Lagune (Bordeaux) '82; Chateau Montrose (Bordeaux) '82; Latour Grand Ardiche (Bordeaux) '01; Segura Vidus Sparkling Wine (Spain) non-vintage; Prum Wehlener-Sonnenhur Spatlese (Germany) '99; and Justin Isosceles (meritage California) '97.
I steeled myself to be up to the task of reporting on the wines, so I had single one-ounce sips of each wine. Stony cold with sobriety (I thought) after sipped them all and definitely now in retrospect, I can triumphantly say: "There...was...not...a...single...clinker...among...them...all."
The '82s were magnificent: The '82 Chateau Montrose had me shaking my head in disbelief and warranted a larger-size - ssshh! - three-ounce sip. The Caymus Sauvignon Blanc was as fine a representation of that varietal as I have ever tasted, and that includes the great New Zealanders. And the Massapicus Primitivo (Zinfandel) was a sustained delight, loaded with dense fruit, perfectly balanced with fruit acids and tannin. The two Brunello di Montalcinos retained their inimitable flavors and guaranteed long life.
The Struck Caterers' food was a calorie conscious dieter's downfall, an enthusiastic trencherman's fantasy and ecstasy. I fell from high as I consumed everything ecstatically.
I had seconds of everything and thirds of the scallion crepes with white wine. Did heaven come down to earth, or did I go to heaven? As I contemplated this serious question with furrowed brow, Dr. Bob Ouellette tapped my shoulder: "Aren't you overdoing it...rather extravagantly?" he asked rhetorically.
"Hey Bob, you know I'm going to write a column about this for the www.oxford wineroom.com website for national and international viewing, so I must eat everything passed around and drink everything within sight if I am to be true to my wine scribbler profession. And, by the way, don't phone me tomorrow to ask how I am. I fear I won't be in any condition to survive your lecture. I know the drill: When I overindulge and sheepishly confess, you give me your evangelical Golden Award lecture." (He called earlier than usual the next morning, and I got the higher rabbinical Platinum Award lecture.)
When I protest this routine, Bob solemnly says, "That's what friends are for." I am blessed to have such a friend.
Desserts: delicate complex cream filled feather light chocolate cake - irresistible. So I didn't try to resist. Two for me.
Nor did I forgo the fruit trays of papaya, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, pineapple and fresh raspberries.
I led groaning, but happy, dieters - and we were many - to the fruits buffet table for seconds. We agreed: We live tonight, tomorrow we suffer.
Coffee and left over wines completed the evening as songstress Nurse Peg Zamansky, of velvety, mellow and sweet tones, led us in song.
Sob! Sob! Forgive me. I just can't go on. I am beginning my 5th major diet of 2004, in addition to many every-other-day diets.
I do better during July and August when wine and food events come to a dead halt, except for the Webster House wine dinners. I can lose as much as 13 pounds and my 41-size garments hang from a now spare frame. I feel great - lean and trim at 152. When I hear from many acquaintances, however: "Good grief, Julian, what has happened to you?" I get psyched out and begin to think that maybe fat is fine after all. Anyway, I dried my tears and continued.
All of us had great fun matching the food courses with the different wines, then discussing our preferences. We agree, we disagree, always civilized.
We are a congenial, enthusiastic group that meets once a month at one another's home; most of us have tasted together for many years. The catalyst is wine, the blessing of Bacchus...and the good food that accompanies wine.
I have never met a wine enthusiast I didn't like. That includes pontificating wine writers, pompous wine snobs and contentious oenophiles.
Wine writers may be amiable at wine tastings and at wine dinners. But when they egotistically sit in the scorner's seat and hurl the cynic's ban about a wine for print, and I am wont to reprimand, I try to remember they share wine communion and wine communication with me, and I tolerate their annoying dissection of wine.
Wine snobs are ludicrous and amusing. They enjoy entertaining themselves with their posture. They evoke snickers of mirth with their one-upmanship behavior and elitist comments about remarkable wines from obscure vineyards that only they could discover.
Argumentative oenophiles also keep wine tastings and wine dinners exciting, but their disagreements often are discomfiting: They are eager to emphasize subliminal nuances that their God-endowed sensitive noses and palates uncover. Often they will squabble with table members who dissent.
I don't often find such people as discussed above in the wine circles I frequent here in Central Massachusetts, but I can't say the same for the Boston area wine enthusiasts I often meet at wine functions.
How pleasurable it would be if everyone who worships wine god, Bacchus, would consider others' wine sensory perceptions courteously, whether they agree or not. Conversely, we are pleased when someone contributes insight about a particular facet in a wine that we may have missed, or politely questions another's judgment. This attitude makes wine tastings and wine dinners fun and educational.
At the Harvard Club in Boston some years ago, Lillian and I sat beside a husband and wife from Arlington. Within seconds after the first wine was tasted, we were spiritedly exchanging evaluations. We did not agree about 25 percent of the time, but always in a civilized and convivial manner. When we did agree, we would playfully give high-fives or applaud each other. It made for a fun evening, full of warmth and fellowship. We promised to taste together again, and we did many times.
So ended another Compagnons dinner. The men shook hands in farewell, bussed the ladies with wine-infused ardor; the ladies bade one another good evening; some wives returned the men's wine-infused ardor with bored indifference.
Most of us viewed some of Mimi Grenier's arresting artistry that hang on the walls of her beautiful home. Mimi is as talented an artist as she is sweet as a hostess.
She has been coordinator of exhibits at the Worcester Public Library for 13 years. Ending last year, she had an outstanding and highly acclaimed display of her enameling artistry at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, RI; its title was Evolution: 14 Billion Years to Now. The inspiration was based on Mimi's life experience and travels. These figurative and abstract works were presented as an array of brilliant glass colors fired onto pieces of copper and were affixed on sheets of slate or were framed in wood.
Mimi, a native of Montreal, lives in Worcester; has studied at the Worcester Art Museum, at the Worcester Center for Crafts, and in Avignon, France. Her work has been exhibited in Montreal and in New England, and is held in many private collections. She has received many grants from the Worcester Cultural Commission.
Our viewing some of her current pieces on her walls added to our esthetic pleasure.
Wine Pick: Trinchero "Family" Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, around $11-$12, displays aromas of dried cherries and blueberries with subtle scents of cedar, green olives and molasses. Transferred to the palate, the aromas are augmented with flavors of black currants and ripe plums; soft tannins and fruit acids nicely round out a beautiful bottle of wine.
Wine Pick: Again Trinchero Family Selection, this time Merlot 2003, $11-$12. And again a fruit-driven wine that is dark, rich, lush and smooth; taste cedar, plum, ripe cherry and cassis; perfectly balanced, smooth swallow, long aftertaste. Recommendation: Buy a bottle of each of these varietals to compare and to further your vinous education.
Struck Catering (130 Hamilton St. Worcester, MA 01604; phone: 508-755-5953), catered the dinner with chef Sean Dacey and waitress Karen Shea; owner Barbara Cotter organized the menu and orchestrated the service. Kudos all around!
Flash! Plan to attend Webster House's annual Game Dinner, Wednesday, January 19. Reserve early! At tonight's sold out annual Holidays Dinner, my arriving slightly late, I had to scramble to find a seat and could not sit with Dr. Michael Bradbury, whom I had urged to attend. Many late reservations could not be accommodated because of space limitations. Phone: 508 - 757 - 7208. Please don't shilly-shally, reserve NOW!
Email Comments to Julian at:
julian@oxfordwineroom.com