September 25, 2021 Breakfast - Salmon and Chèvre Omelette. Lunch - Chez Mamou. Dinner - 4 Tapas

 September 25, 2021 Breakfast - Salmon and Chèvre Omelette. Lunch - Chez Mamou. Dinner - 4 Tapas

Another eventful day at the Wine and Chile Fiesta.  

We awakened around 6:30 after about 9 hours’ sleep.  I watched a terrific match between Chelsea the European Champions and Manchester City, the English premier league champion last year.  It was a fast moving game between evenly matched teams that Man City won 1 to 0.

Then I got dressed and sliced a couple of slices of onion we bought at the farmers’ market in La Veta, the tomato from our garden, and two thick slices of salmon cubed.  Suzette whipped up several eggs and sautéed the onion and then added the salmon, tomato, and several spoonfuls of the fresh chèvre we bought in La Veta. I added a heaping tsp. of capers.  

We drove to the SweeneyCenter in Santa Fe arriving just before the seminar started at 10:30.  The seminar was a vertical tasting from 2016 back to 2011 of Chene Bleu Rose from the Appellation Mont Ventoux.  This is an elegant high acid Rose grown on the slopes of Mont Ventoux produced from Grenache and Syrah and Cinsault grapes mainly. The theme of the seminar was to better understand how roses age. It was slightly misleading because every one one of the Chene Bleu wines we tasted were delicious. Our favorites were 2012 and 2015, but none of these wines are available in the US because almost all of their wine every year.  These are world class wines that are selling for over $60.00 per bottle.  The seminars are unique experiences because one can not go to any liquor store in the US and buy all the six bottles.  They were shipped from the vineyard for this tasting. It is very special to taste wines that one will probably never be able to drink, but also disappointing that the wines are not available in the U.S. because of its antiquated distribution system.

The main differences were in the intensity in the acidity of the wine.  The 2014 was the least intense in acidity because 2014 was a cool wet year.

After the tasting we drove to to the Railyard to the Farmers’ Market where we bought 2 lb. of green shishito peppers and a handful of bright red sweet peppers.

Lunch - 

We then drove to Peyton Wright gallery and walked to Chez Mamou for lunch.  Suzette ordered a shrimp scampi salad and I ordered my favorite, a duck confit entree with mashed potatoes, country fries, and sautéed vegetables with a Demi-glacé sauce.  I ordered a glass of Elk Cove Pinot Noir and Suzette shared a bottle of champagne with the lady at the next table who was in an emotional mood.  We did about an hour of counseling but I don’t think it did any good, although I loved the duck and Suzette loved the scampi

We then walked down to William Cliff’s Gallery where I picked five note cards with photos of Mont St. Michel and Shiprock. William showed me so proofs of Georgia O’Keefe’s sitting he did in color when I commented on the large image of her for $4,000 in jet ink. We had a friendly conversation for a few minutes.  Bill does not sell like a normal gallery owner but he is proud to explain his work. His comment about me at the end of the conversation was, “You are a gentleman.” My response was, “My parents tried to raise me to be a gentleman.”  I was honored by Bill’s comment and up I think he was honored by my interest in and purchases of his work.  By the way, the book and limited edition folio of Mont St. Michel and Shiprock with a jet ink image of each that I paid $1,500.00 for is now priced at $2,500.  The image of La Bajada that I paid $1,000 for in 1989 is now priced at $10,000.

We then walked back to Peyton Wright and said hello to John, who showed. Us his next big exhibit of the paintings of Peter Miller, a little known New Mexico artist who was mainly a post-war Abstract expressionist with a couple of New York shows and who lived on property adjoining San Ildefonso Pueblo.  

We then drove back to Sweeney and attended the last event of the fiesta, a seminar featuring the Familia Torres wines.  The seminar featured Torres’  American representative and a sommelier who worked for Wilson-Taylor, a major importer of fine wines. After presenting the history of the family including that Torres was the first European winery to produce wine in Argentina.  Then he showed the world rankings of the top 100 producers that voted Torres the top producer in the world.  It was at this moment that I realized we were entering a rarified atmosphere and became instantly aware that this would be an interesting experience.

There were five wines all of which were unique in their own way.  The first was a Forcado white.  A result of Torres advertising in Spain for lost and unknown indigenous grapes.  It was delightful and we were told this was 1 of 900 bottles.  The next wine was a Chardonnay raised in Spain that was as close to a French Burgundy Montrachet as any wine I have tasted.

Then we tasted the three reds. The first was a 2017 Purgatori named for the estate which previously had been the monastery where bad monks were sent.  It was light high acid Grenache and Syrah blend that lasted long on the palette as all of these Torres wines did.  I thought of pairing it with Pascal lamb. 

The next red was a 2016 Mas La Plana, a huge but very clean tasting Cabernet Sauvignon without much fruitiness or California funky aftertaste.

The last wine was another Southern Rhone style wine, a 2016 Grans Muralles featuring two newly raised indigenous grapes, one of which was Rolle plus traditional Grenache and Mourvèdre blend.  It was a complex and elegant wine.  All of the wines we tasted at the seminars were in the $60.00 per bottle range and hard to find in New Mexico, but a wonderful window into the developments in current winemaking.

Also, I think the seminars offer a unique experience and a bargain in terms of the wine.  One is typically poured 2 to 3 oz. of wine in six glasses.  If the wine is a minimum of $60.00 per bottle, and many bottles cost more than $60.00, that is $5.00 to $7.50 per glass so you are getting your monies’  worth of wine, forgetting for a moment the effort and shipping cost associated with obtaining these wines on your own. So the seminars are an excellent way to taste wines you otherwise never be able to taste as well as the opportunity to discover areas and wines you were never aware of.

We left more than satisfied.  Suzette commented that it was a wonderful day.  I easily agreed.

It was 5:00 when we drove home and we arrived at 6:00 and then next 30 minutes were spent carrying the 12 chairs Suzette had bought at the garage sale at the Park Plaza Apartments in the morning as we were leaving for Santa Fe.  Willy came over to help. And, Luke called to ask if he could bring his friend, BIlly Joe, for dinner, which of course we agreed to.

Dinner - I had thawed out one of the packages of pork tenderloins this morning in anticipation of cooking our favorite tapa of apples, onions, oregano and pork and Willy’s favorite tapa, Catalan Spinach, which is diced apples, Pinon nuts, raisins and spinach sautéed together. Suzette also diced several of the sweet peppers we had bought at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and added ten to the spinach sauté.

Since we would be five with Billy Joe and because we had new potatoes and Shishito peppers, we made Papas Bravas by roasting quartered potatoes dusted with salt and sautéed a handful of Shishitos in olive oil for two additional easy to prepare tapas.

I prepped everything except the potatoes and sweet peppers, which Suzette diced.  While she was cooking the three tapas, I fetched and uncorked the bottle of Ahua Reserva Rioja that we bought with our 1/2 price coupon at Total wine several months ago.

When everything was ready Suzette plated each plate with some of each tapa and we put the sautéed Shishito in a square bowl onto the table and I poured the wine and Luke fetched glasses of water and butter lit a candle.

It was an enjoyable dinner p that everyone seemed to like.  There was talk of how traditional the foods were and we concluded that almost all the ingredients were locally available 200 years ago.

A tribute to our menu.  

After dinner Luke made whipped cream and made dessert of fresh strawberries and peaches from Amy and Val’s tree with a small mound of whipped cream.

After dinner Willy and Luke and BIlly Joe left and Suzette and I watched Death in Paradise and then went to bed at 10:00, although I blogged until 11:00.

Let me say that going to the seminars and reserve tasting was like going to wine heaven where every sip is heavenly and there is no bad wine.

Bon Appetit