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+--- Thread: Christmas wines (/thread-560.html)
- hotwine - 12-27-2001
We went to Houston for Christmas, and I was asked to bring the wines for dinner Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I wasn't given much information to go on: Christmas Eve was to be "chicken with green beans, squash casserole, artichoke appetizers, potatoes au gratin...", and dinner was to be roast top loin with some of the same sides. So I took '98 Deerfield Ranch Sauvignon Blanc for the chicken and Ch. Les Fiefs de Lagrange for the loin. Only to discover that the chicken was smoked, and had been purchased at Houston's HEB Central Market. Nuts. Didn't know if the SB would stand up to smoked chicken or not; if I had smoked it, it certainly wouldn't have. But it worked out just fine. It wasn't a great match, but the SB had enough class to hang in there. The Fiefs de Lagrange on the other hand was superb. I would have preferred such a beautiful top loin to have been smoked for a time in a foil wrap with garlic, black pepper and mushrooms, then finished on the grill and served with a wine reduction; but the ladies oven-roasted it in the reduction, without the garlic or mushrooms, so although cooked to a nice medium rare, it lacked the full flavor that would have been possible. Still, the wine was indeed excellent, showing full St Julien characteristics.
I'm trying to figure out a way to travel with a broad spectrum of wine offerings, so that specific choices can be made on-scene, when complete details of the hostess' food preparations become known. I hate to subject my babies to unnecessary rock & roll of travel, but don't like to severely limit selections, either. It went OK this time, but that was only due to blind stupid luck. (Yeah, I know, that beats skill and cunning any day.)
- Innkeeper - 12-27-2001
Will take blind luck anytime these days. Glad you liked the Fiefs.
- hotwine - 12-28-2001
And thanks for your Fiefs recommendation a while back, IK. It was infanticide to drink the '98 so soon, but it sure married nicely with the top loin. The remaining bottles we'll let sleep until '06, as you suggested; but we may also pick up a few more to keep them company.