January 31, 2013 Winter Wine Festival and Tesuque Market

January 31, 2013 Taos Winter Wine Festival and Tesuque Village Market

We gassed up and left Albuquerque around 1:15 p.m. By the time we reached Santa Fe we had decided that we wanted to get a light snack to hold us until 5:00, when the Wine Festival Reserve Tasting began in Taos. We planned to trade drivers at Espanola, but we settled on stopping at Tesuque Village Market because neither of us had been there in the last 15 years and we heard it had been mentioned in Bon Appetit Magazine. So we took the Tesuque exit and arrived at the Market at the bottom of the hill. The Market has added an enclosed outdoor seating area in the last 15 years. Inside the main store there are only liquors on the shelves and a deli counter which makes soups, salads and sandwiches, a full service bar, and in the back of the store behind the deli, the old kitchen that probably opened for evening meals.

I selected a Ceasar Salad ($11.00) with extra anchovies ($3.00) and Suzette chose the the market's “World Famous” Tortilla Soup ($10.00).  I was pleasantly surprised when my salad arrived. It was served in a shallow oblong dish and lightly dressed with ceasar dressing, tossed with ground Parmesan cheese and garnished with about 10-12 anchovy filets. Suzette did not like her soup at all. It was a thick acidic reddish-brown gruel garnished with a few pieces of chopped tomato, fried threads of tortilla and cheese floating on the top. The words “World Famous” should have been the warning not to order that dish. My experience has taught me that if a dish at a restaurant is truly world famous, there is no need to tell guests that it is world famous because they will be visiting the restaurant because the dish is world famous.  Furthermore, if they are foodies they willing to pay the usually elevate price of the dish and know to ask if that dish is the one that is famous. The Tortilla Soup was so highly picante that it was beyond flavorful to my taste, sort of a combination of chili blend and highly acidic tomato paste.  So Suzette ordered a side of sour cream to compensate for those two excesses, bit her tongue and downed most of the soup. I asked for and was served two toasted pieces of bread, one sourdough that Suzette ate and the other sprouted wheat that I enjoyed with the salad. Then it was on to Taos.

We arrived at the Old Taos Guesthouse at 4:00 p.m. and were shown to our room by the proprietress, Leslie Reeves. After a short nap we drove to El Monte Sagrado for the Reserve Tasting.

Like last year, the tasting filled two large meeting rooms. There was a mix of new participants and old favorites in both the wine and food categories. Gruet was there serving its top of the line Gilbert vintage champagne; this year's was the recently disgorged 2008 vintage (Disgorgement: A step in producing sparkling wines by means of the méthode champenoise to remove traces of yeast left over from the secondary fermentation.)  Several of Majestic Wines offerings surprised such as an Archery Summit Reserve Pinot Noir and a Boroli 2007 Barolo from high in the Piedmont.
One of the Old powerhouse wineries, HeitzCellars was pouring another year's stellar Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ($175-200/per bottle).  The greatest producer of  Burgundy wines Drouhin was pouring its Pouilly-Fuissé. Among the new producers were a French rose champagne and Castello Banfi's organic super Tuscan,"Cum Laude", made from Sangiovese (Banfi Clonal Selection)/Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Syrah grapes.  The gentleman pouring Banfi's "Cum Laude" described it as the oldest organically produced wine in Italy. It is good to know although satisfyingly predictable that one of the oldest wineries in the world is also one of the most progressive.  So there are almost as many interesting stories in the room as there are wines to taste and I was able to only capture a few. 

Among the food items, there were many tempting offerings for lots of reasons, Among the most attractive and delicious were fresh cherry stone clams on the half shell lying on a bed of salmon caviar and garnished with basil oil and minced tomatoes offered by Mondo Italiano along with homemade cannoli and cream puffs and a cheese and cream mousse on toast points. We ran from one room to the other fetching glasses of champagne and then running back to Mondo Italiano's table for another clam several times until we were embarrassed and promised to visit their restaurant and effusively complimented their food offerings.

Zippy, the Executive Chef at Doc Martins, did one of the most clever dishes I had. He laid a boiled s;ice of red beet on a slice of bread and garnished it with a dab of blue cheese creamed with mayonnaise. Simple, yet a perfect compliment for the multitude of great red wines being offered (Blue cheese and beet, what a simple, yet creative and delicious combination). Several restaurants offered lamb and duck dishes. El Meze offered both; a lamb and pork meatball in a pastry shell cup on a bed of creamy tomato coulis and a shredded duck on bread. The most wonderful vegetarian offering was by The Dragonfly Bakery and restaurant; an eggplant caponata with raisins, capers, garlic and carmelized onions on a slice of the most delicious French bread I ate at the Tasting. Worth a visit if only to buy their bread.

There were many other great red wines offered. Of course Josh Jensen of Calera was in attendance with a table full of his 2009 Jensen Pinot Noir grown on its 13.8 acre Jensen vineyard on Mt. Harlan high in the Monterrey Valley about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean ($81.00). As Josh describes the Jensen Pinot Noir in his website,

"The 2009 Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard is the biggest and richest of the 2009s.  It boasts stunning depth in its dark fruit, licorice, spices and sweet balsamic notes.  Layers of fruit totally saturate the palate as this utterly majestic Pinot opens up in the glass.  The sheer depth and nuance of the Jensen is simply breathtaking.  Readers will have to be patient, as the Jensen is very much built for the cellar.  It is an American classic to savor and enjoy to age 20 and perhaps beyond.  Anticipated maturity:  2014-2029." - Antonio Galloni, The Wine Advocate, 97 points

Wine Specs

Vintage 2009

Varietal Pinot Noir

Appellation Mt. Harlan

Robert Parker 97

The standouts wines this year's Reserve tasting were the high end reds. Besides Calera's Jensen, we drank one of my new old favorites, the powerful deeply focused Archery Summit Pinot Noir (Robet Parker's Wine Spectator 92 points) that I tasted for the first time last May in our first visit to the Dundee Hills in Oregon's Willamette Valley, we tasted the 2009 Beaux Frères Vineyard's Pinot Noir from Oregon's Yamhill District at Newburg at the northern end of the Willamette Valley ($90.00) and a 2009 Sineann "Resonance Vineyard" Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 94 points Wine Spectator and #30 in Top 100 Wines of 2011 ($42.00). Last year we only tasted as far north as the Dundee Hills. so I think I have decided we must go back to Oregon to try the more northerly vineyards in the Newburg area and the Yamhill District. Alas, so many wines so little time.

Toward the end of the evening, Suzette discovered the best complement; Xocoatl, the Chocolate Cartel's raspberry truffles eaten with a sip of Jaffur Winery's Syrah, a new favorite combination. After about two hours of constant eating and drinking we had sampled all of the wine and food offerings we wished and decided to go to the main hotel to see the art. As Suzette so diplomatically stated, “You can eat a lot of food when you are eating a small bite of food with each new wine and tasting lots of wines.” We ended up in the mezzanine Library where here was a lovely orange felt covered old Brunswick pool table, so we spent an hour or so playing pool.

Around 8:30 p.m. we returned to the Old Taos Guesthouse and soaked in its wonderful hot tub with its clean 102 degree water for about ½ hour. After the hot jets of water released all the tensions from our bodies we crawled into bed for a pleasant night's sleep.

Bon Appetit