Winter Solstice Celebration 2019

What a feast! Fine food, good spirits, profound musings and wonderful women. Soul-full blessings on the solstice.

Happy to carry on the annual tradition to celebrate the return of longer days with lovely ladies. The first was held in 2008. This year: Liz, Chris, Kaarina, Caroline, Wendy, Grace, Nicki, Virginia, and Nicolette. I do wish my table were bigger.

Everyone brought a wine, food pairing and a poem for a truly memorable evening.

POEMS

A Winter Solstice Blessing

Homer's toast to wine

A Summer's Day, Mary Oliver

The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

A Winter Nap, by Caroline

Life (Part 1 XXVIII), Emily Dickenson

My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Odes to common Things, Ode to the Plate, Pablo Neruda

Snow, by Naomi Shihab Nye

Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning

MENU

Champagne paired with Chinese roast duck

Chablis paired with crab dip

Sancerre paired with scallop mousseline with lemon caper sauce

Gerwurztraimer paired with smoked duck, blood orange and bitter greens

Pinot Noir paired with pear with mushroom duxelles served with blue cheese and almonds

Spanish red paired with papas bravas and Spanish meats

Bordeaux and grilled lamb

Late Harvest Vidal and Stilton risotto

Niagara Icewine and berry crumble

Greek Muskat and dessert

WINES

whites

reds

not only for dessert

Lots of learning!

There is a great app called Vivino that enables you to snap a photo and it will provide tasting notes and a ballpark price, along with overall rating.


White wines are so food- friendly! I tend to be biased toward red but each of the whites was an outstanding pairing. Of course, champagne goes with absolutely everything! Wendy paired the Taitinger with beautifully plated and succulent roast duck. Gewurtz has always been a go-to for me with regard to spicy foods, but it worked wonders with the bitter greens. This was a pairing suggested by Fiona Beckett (K. took the dare).

Chablis and Sancerre with seafood, oh! Nicki found a great recipe for crab dip to highlight the Chablis; Caro brought her thermomix to prepare the mousselline on site. Absolutely visually stunning and the Sancerre a perfect match.

And the reds! Pinot Noir is one of my all-time favourites and the one Liz chose from Oregon "peared" so well with the duxelles and blue cheese. Rioja nicely complemented the spicy papas bravas made by Chris... I think I would be very confident serving this Spanish red with a spicy chili, too.

For my course, I checked on the bottles in my 'cellar' and pulled out a dusty 2005 Bordeaux: 2005 Chateau Haut-Vigneau / Pessac-Leognan which I had been saving for a special occasion. Robert Parker noted this wine's anticipated maturity would peak 2017-2040; Cellar Tracker at 2011-2016. I did start to worry if it may have turned. As a back up, I picked up a newer Grand Vin de Bordeaux, thinking that if things worked out for the best we could sample each and compare in the glass. Luckily the 2005 was still quite marvellous. To my taste the 2005, was still wonderfully round; the 2015 was a bit too young and brash. Some at the table preferred the 2005, others preferred the 2015. I plated the lamb with a dab of mint sauce and a dab of cherry calvados jelly - both tastes worked their alchemy with the wines.

Nicolette served what I tend to think of of as a dessert wine, a Spanish muskatel, with the big flavours of a blue cheese risotto... not something I would thought of, but it was a really great combo. Virginia paired ice wine and transformed the berry crumble into an elegant dessert. For the finish, Grace introduced me to the first taste I've had of a Greek Muskat.

Each course its own discovery, and the poetry elevated our discussions. The phrase, "dog into wolf," that Caro used in her poem to mark the twilight hours, still lingers. I will practice the French, "Entre chien et loup."