Lemur's birthday feast

[chickenfeet]

We were grossly self-indulgent in a simple way on Satrurday night. I made a sour cream. garlic and herb dip which we had with raw veggies and a bottle of 13th Street Funk Vineyard Sparkling Rosé 2002. This is a largely Pinot Noir based wine with a bit of Chardonnay in the blend. It was a glorious salmon colour with a soft mousse and notes of yeast, toast and strawberries. The lemur considered that it was distinctly better than Veuve Cliquot Rosé.

The main even was the cheese. We had a splendidly ripe Époisses, some Montgomery raw milk cheddar and some raw milk Stilton, accompanied by excellent crusty white and pumpernickel breads from Carousel bakery and assorted fruit. The bubbly was pretty much done by this point so I opened a bottle of Marynissen Cabernet/Merlot Reserve 1998. The Époisses was superb; runny, pungent, unctuous, indeed everything an Époisses should be. The wine was very, very good as this one always is. It's medium bodied and perfectly balanced with long black fruit flavours and a touch of cedar. It's reminiscent of what good claret was held to be before that prat Robert Parker started to tell Americans what they ought to drink. Parenthetically, these two wines demonstrate just how good Ontario wines can be, if anybody still had any doubts. The trouble, of course, is that they were never available except at the winery. Indeed 13th Street sells out most of its wines the day they are released. For dessert, the lemur had layered confiture du vieux garçon(1), with sour cream and fresh raspberries. Indulgent but yummy.

We finished the evening with a glass of Warre's Warrior Port and eastern european boozy choccies while watching Donnie Darko. This is a movie probably better watched reasonably sober.

fn1: confiure du vieux garçon - berries and sugar and booze (in this case rye) with vanilla and cinnamon left to mature for a few months.

Comments

[nanila]

It sounds like a marvlous birthday meal. I had to break out the Cheese Primer to look up Époisses. Mmm, washed-rind cheese. The cheese snob who wrote this book says: "It is a majestic cheese meant to go with the biggest red wine you can muster." Must try, yes yes.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Washed rind cheeses are fabulous if you are a real cheese lover. Besides Époisses I can thoroughly recommend Mont d'Or though it's a rather larger cheese so buying one is a bit of an indulgence. It has an amazing aroma of wild flowers, mushrooms and pine trees.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

I should give that Marynissen a try, although everything of theirs so far has had the same saddle-leather flavour.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I detect a saddle leather note in Marynissen but they definitely have what i would describe as a brick dust note. It's particularly marked in the cab Franc and, to my mind, is quite reminiscent of Graves.