Here In The Comfort Of Our Home Celebrating 30 Years Of Being Happily Married ... the headline should finish ...
What a great experience this continues to be for me as I come downstairs from having enjoyed my music on my old i-pod that my son bought for me years ago and downloaded with eight hundred or so of my favorite songs along with some of his favorite. It's the 30th anniversary of my wife and my marriage which is still grand and enduring very well : I've made our dinner of salmon, jumbo Gulf shrimp and rib-eye steak on our grill out back with avocados and sauces and white rice ... and before that 31 flowers ( one to grow on ) and the last of the 1981 Chateau Margaux ( definitely suffered greatly from last night when it was magnificent - it became so tight and taut and a bit closed and acidic and volatile and yet even with the sediment at the bottom of the bottle magnificent ... and the last of the Lallier N.V. French champagne that was given to us by Jeanne Thomas ( Moillard ) recently that had the tiniest, almost microscopic bubbles and had also lost quite a bit since last night but was still brilliant anyway ...
Last night I took my wife to celebrate one-day early our thirtieth anniversary and we had both of the above along with a half bottle of the Chateau Liot Barsac 1981 that I purchased back in 2000 at MacArthur Beverages for the ridiculously low price of $4.99 a half-bottle! It was also sublime - what a grand and deep and lustrous golden color and it went great with our creme caramel that came out, complements of the Lavandou Provencal restaurant in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. N.W. with the words written around the plate in milk chocolate : " Happy Anniversary ". Thanks Marc and Florence for that - we loved it and it caramelized/harmonized beautifully with the creme caramel that we shared.
We offered some of both of the Chateau Margaux 1981 and the Chateau Liot 1981 Barsac to our " new " friends as we both overheard them mention and talk in depth about " Randolph-Macon " - it was the Women's College that they were referring to even though they went to Princeton and to James Madison, one a lawyer and one a Psychology major turned stage actress - Chuck and Emily ... wow, the things you learn ...
I have taken pictures of all of this and will include them here soon but for the meantime enjoy my story. The meal and the three wines at Lavandou were all brilliant, really - trust me. Everyone should rediscover Lavandou for it's honest and traditional French Provencal and country cooking : it delivers and is a true expression of what many of us all love about French cuisine at it's most true and classic style.
The three wines were all truly expressive of their own forms and genres and their soils and places and times - and age now , of course. Think of it : they are both from 1981 - the Chateau Margaux and the Chateai Liot - and tonight the Steltzner 1981 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon , which after three hours of being open is still magnificent if not even more magnificent than when I first opened it once I had served all of the meal and finally sat down to dinner myself. Making a dinner takes time and real attention to detail and minutes and even seconds of on-the-spot-food-preparation and serving.
The Chateau Margaux 1981 I had enjoyed with my wife perhaps three years ago on our anniversary? It was really brilliant - really incredible. This time it was not quite as open or expansive and multi-layered : it was just not as ready now to be enjoyed as it was three years ago? And yet, it was incredible, really incredible : the bouquet alone was worth the price of admission as well as the whole experience from start-to-finish and I dove head-first repeatedly into it, luxuriating in it constantly as well as marveling at all the spices, tobaccos and earthy, natural, non-man-made perfumes of the soils and the heat and the vines and the dried grapes, etcetera - wonderful!
The Lallier N.V. champagne was opulent and full and bright and sun-infused and so round and palpable and exciting and lush and ripe and all fruit-things grand and grandiose and voluminously layered and textured and ballooned and funneled and fulfilling : we both loved it, really loved it - especially me. I will want to buy some for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and sell it really soon. Let's find someone Jeanne that I can buy it from.
The Chateau Liot 1981 Barsac from Bordeaux was stunning and full and rich and captivating and luxurious and decadent yet restrained and sublimely polished and perky and pithy with accents of almonds and honeys and apricots and nectarines and many more things : and only for $4.99 a half-bottle : mind-blowing really when you sit a spell and think on this. I - we loved it and as I said it went superbly with the creme caramel. Really nice ...
The Steltzner 1981 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon tonight ( Monday, February 7th, 2011 ) was incredible and as I have already said it has gotten better and better and rounder and fuller and better-balanced and smoother and creamier and just plain more complete and enjoyable as the minutes have rolled by and as the moon has been lighted longer in the dark sky above... I am amazed as it seemed in all it's unfilteredness ( not a real word, I know, but it still sounds good - just take it slow and easy as you say it ) and cloudiness to be a bit volatile at the first and less and less so as it has opened in first the bottle and then in our Lalique glasses that my mother bought gradually in Paris in the 1970's when we lived there.
Funny, I was listening upstairs to my i-pod and I heard Jimi Hendrix sing Bob Dylan's song : " All Along The Watchtower " which I dearly love as the sound goes from the left to the right ear and back and forth repeatedly : especially at the end of the song. I love that!
Then I listened to Joan Osborne's song : " Crazy Baby " that I also love and I realized that it, too went from the left ear to the right and back-and-forth repeatedly throughout the song just like " All Along The Watchtower ". In like that bouncing back and forth and highly recommend that more artists attempt this approach to their songs.
I thought about age - the age of the songs. I thought about the age of the wines - I thought about the similarities of both. I thought about Joan Osborne's gravelly voice in her song and how it spoke to me. How the #1 and the #2 Chicago albums also spoke to me in all their rawness and authority and honesty. Just like certain wines like this Steltzner : it's thoroughly authentic in it's age as it seemed at first to be falling completely apart and yet as it opened in the bottle and the glass with the air contact it rallied and became incredible and wonderful and earthy and pithy and perky and punchy and spicy and filled with all those overtones of nuts and earth and tar and leather and tobacco that I love : somewhat like Joan Osborne as she sang " Crazy Baby ". I like this character and personality that transcends trying to be pretty and pleasant and to make money. Don't worry about making money folks : be true to yourselves! Joan, write more songs like this and sing them : it's what made you famous in the first place!
Anyway, thanks to all these wines, the food, my wife, the wonderful flowers ( 31 - one to =grow on ), the music including Dylan singing his song : " Don't Think Twice It's All Right " and " The Leopard Skin ... Hat ", Donovan singing : " Colours " and " Catch The Wind " and Steve Winwood of Blind Faith singing : " Can't Find My Way Hoe " ... it all has made for a magical evening for me and my wife and ... of course , just now watching the HBO " original " " Sex And The City " episodes down here as I typed and listened to Carrie and Samantha and Mr Big and the rest talk about " funky spunk " and " all righty " for a marriage acceptance and having more space in a relationship and then telling " Chris of Northern Exposure and Adrien of Sex And The City to not always listen so closely to what she says ... convoluted and fun and raw and sassy and silly and true-to-form-to-norm ... ahhh, what a day it has been this 30th anniversary of ours and I have my wife and all these things including my son and my daughter to thank ... what a great ride and adventure it has been so far and now we have one more flower to grow on. Cheers, TONY
I'm back to smelling the wine as I head on off to bed. It's late and yet this Steltzner 1981 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon smells like the floors of so many wonderful places : forests and woods and valleys and carpets and caves and cellars and underground grottoes where the heat and the warmth and the damp and the growth and the dirt and the soil and the air and the moisture and perspiration's of everything all gather and meet and combine and rewind and unravel and release their individual souls and essences and funkiness' and both weaknesses and strengths ... aaaahhh the truly wonderful and enriching and the unadulterated sublime ... my nose and my two nostrils dive deep once again ... actually, they only hover on the surfaces.
We three just finished the delicious nut and chocolate cake from Firehook and so now I think I will drink the last three or so sips from my beautiful Lalique crystal glass that my mother bought years ago in Paris, France and gave my wife and me ... with the six grape crystal-clear grape clusters holding up the glass wine bowl ... a work of art in itself. Wait to see it soon in the pictures that I took earlier this evening. Bonsoir et merci a tous , surtout a ma femme de treint ans ... TONY It's still sweet and enticing and inviting even after the nuts and the chocolate cake - mushrooms nicely like the floor in the woods rising up as I sniff and sip and swallow and as a result also sniffed, sipped and swallowed up myself by this amazing aged red California Napa wine ... it still has it , just like my wife and me even with the wear-and-tear and even after all these years ... pretty amazing really when you stop to think about it all ...
I am sure I have left something out and have more to say but it will have to wait until I have some time to sleep on it all.
I forgot to mention that I listened also on my ancient old sliver i-pod to Jacques Brel ( he's really one of the greatest of all time for me ) sing brilliantly and with as much passion and conviction and authority and rawness and ownership of the song " Au Suivant " that I completely love. My wife and I also spoke of the Leonard Cohen concert that we saw years ago in Paris, France ( 1979 I believe ) with Monsieur et Madame Levy. Monsieur Levy then worked for Columbia records and was nice enough to invite the two of us. Leonard Cohen was, of course brilliant and he introduced and spoke of his Russian musician that was playing heart-brokenly because he had to leave his family in Russia. Comme c'etait vraiment triste ca...
P.S. Before fixing dinner tonight I read the article : " Selling Scores Or Selling Wine ? " on the Dan Sogg blog called : thesoggblog.com ( Feb. 1st, 2011 ) and I responded immediately just on the title alone and now have to go back and read the whole article. I can't wait! Dinner, though had to come first in this case ... 30 years after all together as a team ...
P.P.S. What are the chances?!? Earlier today at 1 PM or so Sal Furfari from Bacchus Imports brought the 2007 Napa Valley STELTZNER Cabernet Sauvignon to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits to taste and I told him my story about the 1981 that I just enjoyed this weekend and I must say that I also quite liked the 2007 . Great work, what a treat, a very enjoyable, well-balanced and focused Cabernet and I was not thinking of the alcohol but of the power and the elegance and the fruit as well as the spice and the concentration with everything seeming to be in place and still needing some more time in the bottle and or a meal to enjoy it with now. Bravo. What are the chances of this?!? I love it, really I do. TONY
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