what wine should i serve with this menu?

"Mike Cretaro" wrote in news:JbQsb.64554$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com:

I really like Apex 1993 Cab Sauv. with a nice cut of beef. Around $50. Or a Caymus Napa reserve 1991 to 1994. would be excellent too only a bit more pricy. My opinion.

Well, assuming these are all served together (the soup being a separate course), my first thought would be either a good Nebbiolo (Barolo or Barbaresco) or a bigger Burgundy.

A range would help (one man's splurge is another man's quaffer). I think Mark Sv. is near Syracuse, maybe he could offer specific suggestions.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Mike Cretaro wrote: : my christmas menu for 2003

: filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and : veal demiglace)

: french potato gratin with gruyere cheese

: brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs

: lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken : stock)

: white bread stuffing with veal, pork and porcini (savory stuffing)

I'm thinking this calls out for a young, big Burgundy or an aged St Emillion that has a heavy cabernet franc component.

: any help would be appreciated. money is not too much of an object but i am : not rich either. i live in the syracuse new york area. thank you

Syracuse, eh? You invite strangers to dinner? :)

: mike cretaro snipped-for-privacy@twcny.rr.com

I'd lean toward serving Napa Cabernet _and_ Bordeaux with this feast. Either would be good, but you might find the comparison interesting. A few years of bottle age would be nice, but whatever the current vintage of BV Private Reserve is would be fine. If you don't want to spend that much, the BV "Rutherford" Cabernet is nice too. For the French wine, I'd favor a classified growth from the 2000 vintage. The 1st growths are hideously expensive, but there are a lot of others in the $30 range that are very nice, e.g. Clos L'Eglise (sp?).

BTW, this sounds like a *great* dinner! How about posting the recipes? I'm particularly interested in the savory stuffing and the wild mushroom ragu.

Tom S

While I don't disagree with any of the other suggestions (you have a very red wine-friendly menu there) my personal inclination would be to open a quality red wine from the Rhone Valley. I think that a Chateauneuf-du-Pape of either the meaty (Beaucastel) or fruity (Vieux Telegraphe) school would be excellent, or a Cote-Rotie would be great. You could even go with a fairly young wine, as the beef will help temper youthful tannins, though I'd prefer a mature wine. To me, the mushroom ragu, the truffle butter and the smokiness of the lentil soup would harmonize well with the funkier, meatier notes found in the Rhone. One word of caution: I doubt that the Brussel sprouts will match well with any red wine, so you might want to have a white wine handy, too.

Mark Lipton

Can't quite figure out how the courses go, so I'll make a guess. For the lentil soup with smoked ham hocks and garlic sausage (homemade brown chicken

For the french potato gratin with gruyere cheese brussels sprouts with chestnuts and provencal herbs, stay with a Beaujolais

For the filet mignon with wild mushroom ragu (ragu contains black truffle butter and

Rich

Surely, you're joking. Beaujolais and cheap Bordeaux with a Holiday dinner? I drink better than that with _hamburgers_!

He said he wasn't rich, but that doesn't mean he's Bob Cratchitt.

Tom S

I agree with Mark and Dale here. The richness of the meal as well as the cheese and potatoes suggest a big Burgundy (or Merlot, Cab Franc Bordeaux)

Keep in mind that a Gevrey Chambertin or a Clos Vougeot (to name a couple of wines from Cote de Nuits) are much bigger than a Volnay or Rully (from Cote de Beaune). The range of weights (big vs little, however you want to say it) is substantial in Burgundy. And people say that Pinot Noir produces light wines...It depends.

I'm sure Liquor Square could steer you to a bigger Burgundy, a nice Rhone, or a right bank Bordeaux (Pomerol, St. Emilion). Mark would know other stores in Syr.

Tom Schellberg

Tom,

While I am a longterm BV fan, I think its only fair to be sure that poster knows re their TCA troubles, as the '97-99s (the affected vintages) seem to be the ones mostly available. These days I'd only purchase from a local retailer where I was sure returns would be accepted. I'm batting about .750 for BVs from that vintage- 6 were fine, 2 tainted (1 '98 GdL and a '97 Tapestry).

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Tom,

Very good points. And of course it's not just appelation- producer and vintage make a difference too! While Gevrey are usually bigger than Chambolle-Musignys or Volnays, not always. That's why it's especially important if buying Burgundy to buy from a store that knows their stuff.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Hi, Dale -

I had a couple of bottles of the '98 GdL that were definitely "off", but none of the '97 Rutherford or GdL, and none of the '99 Rutherford. That's the extent of my buying/tasting experience, so far. I hope my '97 Clone 6 is OK. That was an expen$ive purchase!

Tom S

With a menu like that why dont you just drink red blood.

Salut/Hi Folks

Sun, 16 Nov 2003 22:55:28 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net said:-

You can count on a webtv user to say something REALLY bright.

Careful, Ian! You're starting to sound like _me_! ;^D

I know of at least one exception to that general rule (Cwdjrx_), and he posts here pretty regularly and intelligently. I'm sure you didn't mean to include him. :^)

Tom S

Salut/Hi Tom S,

le/on Tue, 18 Nov 2003 02:42:17 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

I most certainly didn't. Humblest apologies to him, he's the exception that prevents me simply killfiling the lot of them!

Yes, I post with a MSNTV (former WebTV) box. This is to avoid spam. The MSTV box is too dumb to catch a virus, but it is a good e-mail machine.It has very poor spam filters, so I keep the mail box full, and you have to send a response to a Yahoo mail address. Yahoo has very good spam filters and virus scan for attachments. I have a fairly new Dell computer on Windows XP with MSN8.5(a slightly modified IE6 used by the ISP MSN), IE6, Netscape7.1, Mozilla1.5, and Opera7.21 browsers as well as the W3C's Amaya editor-browser. I seldom use it for e-mail to avoid spam and virus attachments. I often will order something on the computer, but give one of my 5 MSNTV addresses for a return address. When this box attracts too much spam, I change the name of it. I have all of my large collection of operas recorded on the computer in WMP variable bit rate lossless audio. I use an external 250GB HD for the music and video, and it connects to the sound system. I also have my complete wine list on the computer and a private web page. I get to use the MSNTV box on the MSN IP service for the computer at no extra charge for about US$21 a month for unlimited usage. I am on dial-up, but probably will go the cable, phone DSL, or ultra high speed radio link in the future.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net from my email address. Then add snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com . I do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

LOL! Yep, just your typical WebTVer... FWIW, given a choice between DSL and cable modem, I would choose the cable modem option on the basis of effective bandwidth and future extensibility. I don't know enough about the radio link option to comment on it.

Mark Lipton