Vineyard dinner

Eastside Road, March 9, 2014—

I'VE MENTIONED BŒUF DAUBE here before, I'm sure: here's another — and, best of all, I didn't have to cook it. I call this a "vineyard dinner," not beccause we ate in one, but because it was a party in the home of a near-neighbor vineyard proprietor, and her son's another, and that's where we were, out in vineyard country. Food and wine the profession of every one of the twelve people at the table — except for me. I'm just an enthusiast.

Before the daube, at the table, we had appetizers in the living room, prepared by a visiting cookbook author, an authority on traditional Japanese farm cooking — carrots, arugula, and broccolini meeting miso; nine-minute eggs lightly pickled in soy sauce, with a glass of Crémant or, later, a white wine new to me, Terrebrune from Bandol, very nice -—

And after the salad and cheeses, a good flannelly Savarin with light rum syrup and whipped cream, oh boy… Thanks, Willi!

Merlot, Toby Lane (Alexander Valley), 2009 (very nice, mature, rather deep); Cabernet franc, Domaine Laroque (Carcassonne) (pleasant and sound), 2010; Gros 'Noré Rouge (Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault), Bandol, 2009 (deep and rewarding, terroir)