January 26, 2012 Taos Winter Wine Festival Reserve Tasting

January 26, 2012 Taos Winter Wine Festival Reserve Tasting

I ate leftover Crawfish Etoufee and rice for breakfast so was not hungry when we left Albuquerque at 10:30 a.m. and drove to Santa Fe.  After viewing the Pacific Standard Time exhibit at Zane Bennett Gallery we went to Lan's Vietnamese Cuisine Restaurant (2430 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM ) for lunch.  I ordered No. 5, Banh Bao Banh Vac: home made chicken won tons garnished with sweet and sour carrots, threads and caramelized green papaya, shallots, and ginger and then topped with fresh herbs and fried garlic slivers served with a sweetened to dark beige fish sauce dipping sauce.  Delicious and light.

Suzette ordered a special of Lamb Stew, which had white navy beans and carrots and lamb cooked into a stew and served with a small plate full of rice noodles.  We thought the stew tasted more Italian than Vietnamese and rather pedestrian.

We both loved the Wontons and will order No. 5 again.

I drank a Negra Modelo as much to ash down the rich crawfish etoufee as to accompany the wontons.  Suzette tried Export 33, a Vietnamese lager beer, a little like Stella Artois.

After lunch Suzette we drove to Taos and I dozed.  When we arrived at the Old Taos Guesthouse Bed and Breakfast, which is located at 1028 Witt Road across the street from the San Geronimo Lodge, Tim, the owner showed us several rooms and we selected a 100 year old room in the main house ($94.00 per night) with a vega and white plaster ceiling and thick adobe walls

I then took a shower and we drove the short distance to El Monte Sagrado at 5:00 p.m., where the Reserve Tasting was held.  It is the best event at the Taos Winter Festival in my opinion.  As one of the vineyard representatives said so well, "This event is one of my favorites because the quality of wine is exceedingly high and the people are well dressed and a lot more elegant and pleasant than the usual crowd."  It seemed like everyone got the memo to dress nicely and be on their best behavior.  Suzette wore her new cape with the South American embroidery and bakelite clasp.  I wore corduroy pants with the Indian wool vest Luke bought for me in India.  Every year the mix of wine and food changes, so it is always interesting to see which is better.  This year the food was better.  Graham Grille served several of their signature dishes, lovely small tamales and lamb sliders, a pizza garnished with figs, and their clam chowder; all good.  Zippy of Doc Martins shined again with open face sandwiches of duck confit served on a crostini slathered with an orange aioli sauce and the best dessert, a small tart shell made soley from nuts and chocolate and filled with caramel and chocolate.  Wow!

The Reserve Wine Tasting is held in two large meeting rooms joined by an entryway and a hallway.

There were many other wonderful food offerings including Lambert's new French chef's family recipe pate and thin slices of seared lamb tenderloin on crostini.  In the hallway this year was a food tasting area presented by the Penasco High School Culinary Arts Department that offered platters of cream puffs made with light fluffy puff pastry with large openings filled with Bavarian cream, chocolate mocha cream, chicken, roasted tomato and other fillings.  I ate several that had been capped with chocolate.  There were about twenty other food tables and at least thirty importer and vineyards pouring their best wines.  Drouhin, Calera, Heitz, among them.  I was particularly impressed with Parducci's Deep Red grown in Ukiah, CA in bio-dynamically;  deep red in color, it also had a huge fruity taste and great complexity.  The only problem I had this year was that after I had tasted ten of twenty magnificantly elegant and clean tasting Cabernet Sauvignon's and Pinot Noir's I could not help thinking,"Ho Hum, another great cab or pinot."  

After the Reserve Tasting we were so full of great wine and food that all we could do was drive back to the Inn and sit in the hot tub for a few minutes and look at a crescent  moon and planets and stars in the clear night sky of Taos and go to bed.

Try the Reserve Tasting.  You will like it.