I must admit that it was a great celebration and unfortunately this time of the year always gets hectic, and I have articles that pile up on each other, especially when I have multiple part stories.  I know that she forgives me, as she knows that I do try to be conscientious.

She wanted to have dinner at home that she administered, though she did claim that the menu seemed more me than her.  We started out with appetizers and shrimp cocktails.  We then had a salad that we discovered on our last trip to Las Vegas, a Heart of Romaine Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Strawberries served with a Champagne Vinaigrette (I even volunteered to harvest the seeds).  She also made her favorite Bourbon Basted Salmon.  So, the first wine that I grabbed was Domaine Jean Bourdy Cremant du Jura NV.  Domaine Jean Bourdy began in 1579 with generation to generation in the Jura.  Consequently, Domaine Bourdy has one of the most extensive library collections of wine in the Jura. The appellation of Cremant du Jura was created in 1995 with a history dating back to the Eighteenth Century and was then known as Vin Mousseux.  Cremant du Jura now accounts for twenty-five percent of the total wine sold by Jura wineries. The wine must be at least fifty percent Chardonnay, and the remainder can be Savagnin for the white and the rosé must include Poulsard and Pinot Noir. Like all Cremant wines, they must be made in the Methode Traditionelle and aged in bottles on their lees for a minimum of nine months.  The Jean Bourdy Cremant du Jura was pure Chardonnay.  My Bride was enamored by this wine, and we bought a case of it about ten years ago, and it has held up extremely well.  The wine had a beautiful golden color with fine bubbles with notes of citrus, floral and yeast.  On the palate apples and brioche with a nice medium length offering terroir (minerals).

Then came the main entrée which was Braised Short Ribs of Beef with Root Vegetables and of course Armenian Pilaf (this is almost a given for any dinner at our house, as it is expected.  Two hours before dinner was expected to be served, I decanted probably her favorite winery’s flagship wine Cain Vineyard and Winery Cain Five Napa Valley 1995, and from a vintage two years after we met.  In 1980 when Jerry and Joyce Cain purchased the property which would become the mountain vineyard, the vineyard was dedicated to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Fran, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.   The fruit inspired the name Cain Five and the first vintage was in 1985, the winery was originally “Cain Cellars” and their first crush was in 1982.  Cain is a mountain winery, and they pride themselves on the fact that the fruit is hand harvested, so they can actually pick the grapes at the proper individual time, because the vineyards are too steep for machinery.  The fruit for Cain Five is all from one vineyard, estate grown and estate bottled.  We bought this bottle at the winery when we did a tasting.  I did ask why they don’t refer to the wines as a Meritage; they informed me that they were doing this prior to the creation of the Meritage association, and that they felt there was no reason for them to be a member.  The wine is sixty-three percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-three percent Merlot, nine percent Cabernet Franc, four percent Malbec and one percent Petit Verdot; and they came from sixteen lots that were vinified separately.  The wine was aged for twenty-two months in French Oak.  This was a very deep purplish-black colored wine that offered notes of black cherry, blackberry, black currant, and ripe plums with secondary notes of chocolate, cedar, and pencil shavings and no foxiness.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine “chewy” wine displayed tones of ripe dark fruits blending perfectly with now savory and mellow tannins, ending with a nice long-count finish of ripe fruit, spices and still plenty of terroir.  My Bride at first objected to my opening one of her prized and esteemed bottles, but after tasting it, she was glad that it was so elegant as a thirty-year-old.

My Bride really did surpass herself with her skill in the kitchen that day, because for dessert she made a Grand Marnier Soufflé.  I also had the perfect bottle to end the evening, and it was even more poignant as I later found out that the wine is no longer being made and my local wine shop sold the last seventy-seven bottles extant.  I brought a bottle of dessert wine that took my breath away, and then the same thing happened when my Bride first tasted it.  We opened a bottle of Roberts + Rogers Louer Family Cabernet Sauvignon Port Napa Valley NV.  I had no information about this wine, nor could I find any, it was like it didn’t exist.  I called and got ahold of Roger Louer, who I have met a couple of times at The Fine Wine Source, and he gave me some information.  After the Cabernet Sauvignon vines were picked for the wines, they went out a picked whatever late-harvest berries were left on their St. Helena estate, and they were reading around 25 brix and after fermentation they added brandy and got the wine down to nine percent sugar reading.  They only made one barrel of this wine, and they aged the barrel for one year.  They produced about forty cases, because they were the smaller 375ml bottles.  The wine was really made for their family and friends’ usage, but the wine shop and the winery have a long record of association and the shop got a few cases.   They have only produced this wine perhaps every five years or so, and I was told that in the future the bottles would read “Port-style.” The wine was a deep-dark red wine that offered notes of dried fruits, candied nuts, and spices.  On the palate there were tones of figs, black fruit, caramel, mocha, and nuts with a very long finish of dried fruit and nuts.  So now, I am guarding the last of our stash.