beringer private reserve 1991

I had a four day proposal writing meeting at NASA-Ames outside San Francisco last week. Let's just say it was a lot of work. Late nights and early mornings. When Saturday rolled around and we were still working at 2pm, I couldn't wait for the moment when my little interdisciplinary team parted ways so that I could visit my good friend from graduate school. Lisa and her husband Jeff have a gorgeous home in Menlo Park and treated me to one of the best evening respites in my life.

I walked in to see Jeff sauteeing porcini mushrooms for a pizza appetizer complete with taleggio cheese, fresh sage, and shallots, a little truffle oil on top (why not?). Instantly a glass of white Rochioli appeared in my hand, before the official home tour. FYI: I love Rochioli wines.

I haven't mentioned the best part though, dinner and more wine. Before we sampled the crunchy perfect pizza, we switched to a black market Napa Valley cabernet blend. When I say "black market", what I mean is that the bottle had no label. These bottles come from the "extra" wine not legally sold by wineries. Wineries are only allowed to sell a certain amount of wine, if they make too much, they may happen to bottle it, but can't market or legally sell it. Now, you know someone at the winery has to know which bottles are the good ones and which come from the cheaper blends. Apparently, as Jeff can attest, there is the occasional case or two of unmarked high end wine which a friend of a friend might tip you off to. This bottle was excellent, rare, and fun. We thought it was likely dominated by Cabernet Franc, though it had enough body and roundness to likely also have some Cabernet Savignon and who knows exactly what else.
After the red, we went back to another white (I think it was Australian since we needed something to open for cooking) for the pizza and traditional Venetian salad of asparagus, hard boiled eggs, fresh parsley and hot and sweet peppers from the back yard garden.

Fro the main course Jeff prepared an outstanding Saltimbocca, which literally means "to jump in the mouth". Whoa, I can't wait to try this out in my own kitchen. Just imagine prosciutto wrapped around aged cheese, fresh sage leaves, and a pounded veal tenderloin, lightly seared then served quickly.

And, as if I hadn't been overwhelmed by hospitality at this point, Jeff allowed me to decant the 1991 Beringer Private Reserve. Old enough to have half the cork quite mushy, but we were able to retrieve all the cork bits before a slow decant to keep the sediment out of our glasses. This 16 year old Napa Valley Cabernet was so beautifully smooth and layered with complexity that I had to just admit I was satiated with food wine pleasure. (It's worth noting that not all Beringers are amazing. But the Private Reserve is world class). The wine opened up a bit more while we tore through the saltimbocca, and remained the highlight for me. But let's not forget the pears baked in brandy wine, or was it something else. By this point I was loosing track. I couldn't take notes on the wine, sometimes the experience is so good you don't want to mar it with tasting notes. Let's just say we enjoyed ourselves and the wine immensely. I'm sure there won't be a repeat evening this good in a long while. I'll probably have to go back to Jeff and Lisa to have such a perfect wine and food evening again.

Some pics from the beautifully landscaped backyard:

Where we had a candle lit dinner by the fire.