Christmas Dinner with Tom and Diane

Michele and I always look forward to Christmas dinner with Tom Maresca and Diane Darrow. For a number of years it has been our tradition to invite Tom and Diane to our house for Thanksgiving dinner, and they have us to their home for Christmas. They are excellent and adventurous cooks and Diane often chooses recipes from books she has written about in her blog http://dianescookbooks.wordpress.com

Tom www.ubriaco.wordpress.com has a great wine collection and will try to find the perfect wine match for each course.  Though all of our previous holiday celebrations have been wonderful, it seemed to be extra-special this year.

The meal began with a series of appetizers, several of them made with truffle products from Tartuflanghe.  This company specializes in white truffles and related products from Piedmont.

Prosciutto wrapped truffled grissini

Toast topped with beef tartare seasoned with truffled salt

Savory salame and cheese puffs

Cashews coated with salted truffle juice

These treats were served with two Champagnes:

Gosset Champagne Brut made from 45% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier. Malolactic fermentation is avoided. It has hints of apple, citrus fruit, lime, almonds and a touch of lemon.  8g/l dosage. Gosset is the oldest Champagne House in Aÿ.

Guy Larmandier Champagne Cramant Grand Cru Blanc des Blancs Brut Zero  The wine has hints of citrus fruit, white peach, apple, and a touch of almonds. This is a full bodied champagne.

Cotechino sausages wrapped in pastry.  These large pork sausages are a specialty of the Emilia-Romagna region and are typically served as part of a bollito misto with fruit mostarda.  We always have cotechino on New Year’s Day with lentils, a tradition in many parts of Italy.

The sliced Cotechino with Mostarda di  Cermona- -it was so delicious I had two slices.

Elvio Cogno  PRE–Phylloxera Barbera d’Alba 2010 made from barbera vitis vinifera from a 0.25 hectare plot at 520 meters. There are 4,500 vines per hectare vertically  trellised  with guyot pruning. Harvest is at the beginning of October. Vinification is in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks with controlled automatic pumping over. The wine is aged in large Slavonia oak barrels for 12 months and in bottle for 6 months before release. This is a well-structured wine with hints of raspberry, strawberry, ripe cherry, a note of blackberries and a touch of prune and spice. The aroma is aromatic and deep with a perfectly balanced acidity. Only 2,000 bottles are produced. The wine was showing no signs of age and will last for many more years.

This was for me the wine of the evening and the best Barbera I have had in a long time — and I have had many great ones.

This is the story behind the wine according to the producer:  “Produced from one of the last archaic vineyard of Langhe region, an open air museum from a time gone by, with vines older than a hundred years. The vines are on 100% Vitis Vinifera roots and replicate by layering. They have therefore maintained, over the decades, the original Barbera characteristics. The small plot, situated in Berri near La Morra, has an excellent exposure and sandy-chalky terrain which guarantees a natural protection from Philloxera. This mixes with the intriguing vine resiliency and its most typical charms imparted from the microclimate and a particularly favorable altitude. The low production per hectare guarantees an intensely rare and rich organoleptic concentration. The wine is refined in oak casks which slowly develop all primary aromas. Pleasant and refined, complex even as a young wine, it is not afraid to be aged in bottle, expressing its solid uniqueness even over the years.”

Perfectly roasted 8 pound Capon with  stuffing of apples, pears, prunes, chestnuts, walnuts, ground veal, pancetta and cognac.  What a beauty!

Perfectly carved by Tom and on the plate with butter browned boiled potatoes and sautéed green beens.

Tenute Cisa Asinari die Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga 2004 made from 100% Nebbiolo from a 11.93 single vineyard with a south/south east exposure at 220/290 meters. Soil is limestone and blue marl and the training system is guyot. The vines are 30 to 40 years old or more. Fermentation is with selected yeasts with a submerged cap for 10 to 14 days. Malolactic fermentation is completed. Farina fossile and micro filtration during bottling. The wine is aged in French oak allier barriques, 30 percent new and 70 used and then 12 to 18 months in Slavonian oak casks. The wine then remains in the bottle for 12 to 18 months before release. The wine has hints dried cherries, tea, licorice a touch of tobacco. It is starting to drink now but will last for a few more years at least. This is a practicing organic winery.

The cheese

Bodegas y Viñedos Vega Sicilia 2001 made from younger vines of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo). Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is added to a greater or lesser extent depending on the vintage. Fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks as does the malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged for five years in wood and in the bottle which is why it is called Valbuena 5. The oak is French and American, new and used 225 liter barrels and 20,000 liter vats. The wine has hints of red fruit, black cherries, raspberries, mocha and vanilla. It will last for at least 10 more years.  The winery is located in the Ribera del Duero region, an appellation under the Spanish DOP.  Lars Leicht, another guest, brought this wine.

Michele made this delicious lemon tart in an almond crust.

Tom has a large grappa collection and all meals end with a selection of grappa and other after-dinner spirits.

g

I had one of my favorites. A traditional grappa Capo di Stato from Loredan Gasparini in the Veneto, made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

Another Wonderful Christmas Dinner with Tom & Diane

It has become a tradition  now  for a number of years that Michele and I trade holiday meals with Tom Maresca and Diane Darrow.  Tom is a wine and food writer and Diane is a food writer and they both have excellent blogs.  We do Thanksgiving and they do Christmas.

As always we started with Champagne. Champagne Aubry Brut Premier Cru NV Aubry Fils made from 55% Pinot Meunier, 25% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir, 5% Arbanne and Petit Meslier ad Fromenteau. The assemblage is 50% base with 50% perpetual reserve dating back to 1998. The vineyard/ village: Jouy-les-Reims and Villadommange 1er Cru. It has hints of white flowers, green apple, lemon and a hint of toast.

With the Champagne we had  two little pastries, gougeres  flavored  with  prosciutto  and  cheese  and  pastry  pinwheels  filled  with  liver  pate.

Coullee de Serrant 2003 Nicolas Joly made from 100% Chenin Blanc from a seven hectare vineyard from old vines located on very steep slopes dominating the Loire Valley. Cultivation is by horse or hand. The grape harvest is done 5 times over a 3 to 4 week period to obtain the most colored, mature and the most grapes marked by botrytis. The wine is aged in 500 liter barrels, with never more than 5% new wood. The winery is biodynamic. The wine is bottled with a light filtration, no fining and a low amount of sulfur. The wine was showing its age but very drinkable with hints of passion fruit and honey.

With the white wine we had  baked crepes  filled  with bechamel,  gruyere  and  ham.  

Domaine Henri Georges Nuits St Georges 2003 made from 100% Pinot Noir. This is a complex wine with hints of dark red fruit, plum and blueberries, it was drinking very well and showing no signs of decline.

With this wine we had  a prime  rib roast which  was  perfectly  cooked.

The  beef  was  accompanied  by  green  beans  with  onions  and  a shiitake  and  potato  gratin.

Barolo 1989 “ Cannubi” Prunotto made from 100% Nebbiolo. !989 was a exceptional vintage for Barolo. The legendary Beppe Cola made this wine before he sold the winery to Antinori. This is classic Barolo at its best with hints of cherry, blueberry, licorice, and a touch of spice. A great wine in a great year!

A variety of cheeses to finish the wine.

 

The Chocolate Grappa Cake Michele brought for our dessert was a recipe that she had developed for an article in Gourmet Magazine some years ago.  Diane supplied the delicious cookies, peanut butter, chocolate chip and nut snowballs.

It was another wonderful holiday meal.  I hope you all ate and drank as well as we did.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Dinner with Friends 2018

For a number of years now Michele and I have been trading holiday meals with Tom Maresca and Diane Darrow. We do Thanksgiving and they do Christmas. Tom is a wine and food writer and Diane is a food writer and they both have excellent blogs.

For this year’s Christmas Day dinner, we started with Champagne Palmer & Co. 2009.

With it, we had an assortment of small bites including foie gras torchon, olives, cheese sticks and salami.

Then we moved on to the dining room where Diane served a frisee salad with gesiers, confit chicken gizzards, and a walnut oil dressing.

With it we had our first red wine, Chateau Les Ormes de Pez 2000 (Saint Estephe) made from 50% Cabernet, 40% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 35 years and the plant density is 9,000 vines per hectare in accordance with the traditional Médoc planting ratio. 80% of the wine is aged in one-year-old oak barrels and 20% in new wood. The wine was showing very well and will age for a number of years.

The next wine was Baron de Pichon-Longueville 1978 (Paulliac) made from 77% Cabernet and 23% Merlot. This was classic old Bordeaux with hints of cherry and tobacco. It was the wine of the evening and only 12% alcohol.

Our main course was roasted duck with sautéed apples and roasted vegetables. The duck was cooked to perfection and the apples were a good sweet tart compliment.

 The cheese course,

 Chateau Gruaud-Larose 1966 (Saint Julien) made from 57% Cabernet Sauvignon 31% Merlot 9% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. One could not ask for more from a wine that was over 50 years old and it went very well with the cheese.

Pound cake

Diane made an assortment of Christmas cookies for dessert, plus a cake made with fruits and nuts, while Michele brought a pound cake made with grappa and pears.

The final wine of the evening was Broadbent Madeira “Sercial” 10 year old made in strict accordance with traditional methods. Aged in old oak casks in the traditional Canteiro system. It is one of the driest types of fortified wine. It has hints of dried fruit, orange peel, almonds and a touch of caramel.