2001 Alain Jaume CdP

[VouvrayHead]

occasion: it's the coldest night of the year. windchills at -35 F...

company: my gorgeous girlie

wine: 2001 Alain Jaume Chateauneuf-du-Pape

food: seeded french bread with loads of garlic, black olive, herbs-du-provence, a touch of black pepper and some thin slices of good local gruyere... in the oven just enough to melt cheese and make the garlic and olives sing. Also roasted potato/carrot/sweet onion all oiled and herbed up... (we're vegetarian, but still epicurian damn-it!)

the wine was fabulous for a lower-end CdP...
the notes in my journal read: "fruity (black cherry?) and gamey nose, but the palate is all about earthy, spicey and salty. A kaleidescope of olive, lavender, gravel and earth. Terrific with the food, each bite of food changed the wine. A long finish of olives and herbs.

soooo good with the food. it's good to be inside and warm on nights like this! grapes are miraculous little things...

[brappy]

Yep, Mad Town can be like that. Do you live between the lakes?

Solution to the cold: Spend way too much time at Buck's.

How many $ for the wine?

[winoweenie]

VH vegan or carny this sounds like a kick-patootie pairing. My computer must be malfunctioning agin' as I swerar it showed a - 'afore the temp #. WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[dananne]

Sounds like a fantastic evening. Though I miss Wisconsin, I don't necessarily miss that winter weather anymore. I grew up snowmobiling, ice fishing, playing pond hockey, skiing, etc., but I think I've become weakened by living in the South so long. That having been said, when the temp nears freezing down here and everyone runs off to the store to buy perishables, I still get a good chuckle.

[TheEngineer]

Let's put it this way...when I lived in Toronto, we use to look at Wisconsin and say, wow.. that's a cold place.

[This message has been edited by TheEngII (edited 02-18-2006).]

[Thomas]

Vouvrayhead,

We had winds that scared the you know what out of us.

With no electric power I cooked under lamp light--deep fried potatoes in olive oil and garlic plus (sorry about this) buffalo burgers with shitaki mushrooms and onions.

A 1999 Cotes de Bergerac (Chateau Masburel) that is near impossible to find in the US. So good we opened the second bottle.

With the wood stove churning out BTUs, we were off to bed early with prayers for hot water (any water) in the morning: prayers answered.

[VouvrayHead]

Brappy,
yup... right between the lakes. a 1/2 block off of lake mendota in the isthmus. cold as hell when the wind picks up, which is frequent. but oh so nice that we can carry our kayak or canoe to the water.

the wine was $24, i think... saw it online once for $18. It's not exactly "lower-end" per-se, but I rarely see CdP less than that. I love Rhone everything, but it's hard to afford the good stuff sometimes. Luckily the best wine store in Madison does basement inventory clearance every once in a while, and we have a couple of 01 D. Marcoux V.V. resting.

Foodie,
Glad we still had power last night! At least the buffalo was warm on such a cold night [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by VouvrayHead (edited 02-18-2006).]

[This message has been edited by VouvrayHead (edited 02-18-2006).]

[robr]

My wife's from Madison. She really misses those -35 nights! NOT!

BTW, what's the buffalo?

[VouvrayHead]

the buffalo in foodie's small intestine. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[robr]

OOps! I missed that. My wife wants me to let you know that she does miss Madison. She misses the people. It's the only place she's lived where the people are genuinely nice. Just nice and normal.

Also, she misses Barnaby's Pizza.

[This message has been edited by bernkastler (edited 02-18-2006).]

[This message has been edited by bernkastler (edited 02-18-2006).]

[VouvrayHead]

yeah, it's a very friendly town...
there's an excellent new pizza place here called Roman Candle.

The restaurants here are top-notch, and i'm pretty picky.

[VouvrayHead]

Bernkastler, can I ask you what you do? I see that you're an educator, and was wondering in what sense. i'm working on teacher certification in secondary english...