The Weekly Re’Wine’der
Dear Wine Enthusiast,
Dinner with Cecile Dusserre
On March 9 Wine at Five will be hosting our first Wine & Dine Event for 2011. Our guest of honor will be Cecile Dusserre. Regular readers may remember that Cecile is the owner and wine-maker of Domaine Montvac. Cecile’s 2009 Cote du Rhone was my vote for Wine of the Year last year. Her vineyards straddle the famed regions of Gigondas and Vacqueyras and her wines represent, IMHO, one of the greatest expressions of syrah, Grenache and mouvedre. Cecile is also one of the most beautiful French wine makers and one of the most accomplished in an industry dominated by men. I have bought her wine ever since we opened the store and countless customers have been hooked on her sensuous Vacqueyras, her ethereal Gigondas and her just plain brilliant Cote du Rhones.
On March 9 we will pair her wines with a five course menu, planned and cooked to show off the vitality of Cecile’s wines and the nuances of her Rhone varietals.
Wine at Five will supply all the wines, Morgan’s Restaurant in Rye will supply the location and the food, and you will supply the company.
As the old adage goes” Listen if you have nothing to say”; we prefer to wait until we have a truly exciting and exceptional wine star before we host a ‘Wine and Dine’ event so you know that this is going to be one hell of a good night.
Seating is restricted so please call us or e-mail us with your reservation requests. Cost per ticket is $85.00 inclusive of everything – 5 course meal, wine, tax and tips, and is non-refundable.
Restaurant: Morgan Fish Restaurant: 22 Elm Place, Rye
Host and RSVP Agent: Wine at Five, 4 Purchase Street, Rye. 914-921 5950
Reservation: 7:30pm
Seating availability: 40
Please contact Wine at Five to make a reservation – credit card payment is required.
As I mentioned in the January Weekly Re’Wine’der we plan to offer an exceptional wine each month at cost. Last month we blew through the Bordeaux wine we offered and I suspect that this month’s offering will be no less enthusiastically snapped up. It’s a white wine grown in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Australia’s wine superstardom began to unravel a few years ago as the 9 year drought in the famed Eastern section of Australia, Barossa Valley, Langhorne Creek, Eden Valley, to name just a few, dramatically reduced harvest yields and the grapes that survived were enormously concentrated, extracted and highly alcoholic. In the last two years we have found it more and more difficult to source outstanding wines from this area and we diverted our attention to the wines from south of Perth – specifically Margaret River. The wine that is showcased and priced on the website is a beautiful rendition of white chardonnay, and whilst it may still be frigid in the North East there is no reason not to stock up on this wine for early spring. Check it out at the following link: www.wineatfive.com
Talking about frigid, I am presently on a quest to find boutique wines (if I’m ever asked by the taxman) in Steamboat, Colorado – temperature yesterday evening: -14. Prior week registered wind chills hovering around the -50F!! Dinner last night was at Bistro C.V. A wonderful modern styles bistro serving up classic American food with a French finesse. The wine list was astonishing – wines such as Maggie Harrison’s Antica Terra, Manfred Krankl’s Sine Qua Non, Domaine Romanee Conte, to mention a few. Prices were not absurd and in chatting to the Sommelier he espoused on the virtues of selling wine at a fair mark-up, even thought the average cost per head was in the region o $75.00. Why more restaurants can’t see the wood for the trees amazes me. Had the wines at Bistro C.V carried the typical North East Coast calculation of 300% we would never have bought three bottles. The Arnot-Roberts Syrah from North Coast California was rather typical of a Rhone style wine made up north – very jammy, quite extracted but a little too one-dimensional. Personally I didn’t care for it since it’s all ‘up-front’ flavors masked the initial course of pork-belly sous vide with wild mushrooms. Second up was Chateau De Beaucastel’s second label – Coudelet de Beaucastel.Very similar in make-up to the Arnot-Robert but everyone was immediately impressed with the balance between the fruit, alcohol and acidity.And finally, with the main dish we popped open Maggie Harrison’s Antica Terra. Bold, expressive, vivid Pinot Noir. Not only did it hold up to the two prior Syrah’s but it excelled in every dimension. Note to myself on this one – I know we tried to buy more of it back in November, but now I really want to buy more of it so we can keep it in stock. As an indication – we were selling the Antica for $55 – the restuarant had it at $110, bu the Spotted Pig in NY once had it, I think at $175!!
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