At around 9:00 we transitioned from Sunday Morning TV News
shows and reading the newspaper to check the sales on TV’s, since our TV died
this week, to gardening. After an hour’s
work in the garden, we showered and Suzette toasted four of the Belgium Waffles
Marie Paul made yesterday at the Center for Ageless Living’s Wafflemania. Suzette heated syrup and we put Marie Paul’s
raspberry, blueberry and strawberry medley and Suzette’s brandied peaches on
top of the waffles and drank a bottle of Gruet Brut Rosé for a lovely brunch under
the gazebo in our newly cleaned garden.
Around noon we drove to HD for wasp spray to get rid of an
unwanted nest of wasps where our hot tub will be placed on Tuesday and then to Costco
to look at TVs. We discovered that
Target had the same 55" Samsung smart TV we wanted at a better price, so we
quickly drove there and bought it.
Then Suzette went to a lecture about how to deal with the medical
effects of aging at UNM and I reconstituted the fish chowder with clam juice
and milk and ate two bowls with 2-3 ounces of cubed avocado and toasted
sourdough bread (Costco) and worked a bit.
At 5:30 when Suzette returned home, she was hungry so we
began fixing dinner. Suzette wanted to
make pesto with the lovely basil growing in the garden. We decided to make pasta primavera with fresh
mozzarella, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and squash. I cubed an onion, 1 yellow crook necked squash
and ½ of a zucchini squash (Sprouts Farm Market at $.98/lb.) and minced about
ten cloves of garlic, while Suzette made pesto with fresh basil leaves, garlic
from our garden, Pecorino Romano cheese, pinon nuts and olive oil in the Cuisinart.
I asked Suzette what she wanted to drink with dinner and she
said, “A light red.” So, I went to the
basement and found a bottle of Toulouse 2010 Anderson Valley Rosé of pinot noir
and chilled it in the freezer for about ½ hour.
Suzette boiled about ½ lb. of gemilli pasta (Costco) and tossed
it with olive oil. She then sautéed the cubed
onion, garlic, and squashes with olive oil in a pan and tossed about three cups
of pasta with the sautéed vegetables and 1/3 cup of cubed fresh mozzarella.
Then Suzette toasted two large pieces of Bosque Bakery baguette and put some of
the pasta Primavera in a bowl and laid one piece of baguette on each plate. I poured the Toulouse Rosé and we took our plates
and glasses of wine to the gazebo in the garden and enjoyed a fresh light meal.
We were amazed by the 2010 Toulouse Rosé. It had character and body and age on it that
made it a pleasure to drink. I always thought that it is important to drink rosés
as soon as possible (within 9 months to one year after bottling), while they
still have their fruitiness. But the
2010 Toulouse Rosé was an entirely different animal; smoothly fruity but with the
strength of the pinot noir grape and the nuttiness of age coming through
also. We liked it very much and it only
got better as it opened up. In about 20
minutes we were sipping a really nice glass of wine. So I guess I now think you can age a Rosé of
Pinot Noir into a really good wine. It reminds
me of a bottle of 1957 Beaujolais we drank at Mother’s house around 1978. I thought it would be vinegar, because they
say to drink Beaujolais young. It turned
out to be a memorable bottle of wine, very much like the 2010 rosé tonight. The
1957 Beaujolais was still good. In fact it
was fabulous; without any astringency but still possessing that characteristic
gamay grape fruitiness and incredibly smooth without any ill effects of aging,
a memorable bottle of wine. The aged
flavor that I tasted tonight reminded me of the 40 year old aged tawny ports we
drank in Oporto, Portugal, this spring and that 1957 Beaujolais, a caramel nuttiness
that enhances the wine’s flavor. The
only sign of aging I saw in the 2010 Toulouse bottle tonight was a aggregation
of reddish pink crystals on the bottom of the cork, no sediment, and the cork
was partially dried out and broke as i pulled it and I had to pull the half still stuck in the bottle a second time to pull the entire cork.
Bon Appétit
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