Opening The Chef's Wine Cellar For Friends

One of the things a chef or anyone with unique wines always contemplates
is when do you actually use that or those special bottles. So carefully
climate controlled for years, laying there turning into what they can
become. The aging process as the tannins unwind change the character and
smooth out the finish on the tannin laden reds. If you have a cellar, you
have special bottles. Not all are expensive, but they are special! I
have a duplicate bottle of Dom Perignon for my daughters wedding and my
sons wedding. These were purchased the same time I purchased the bottles
to celebrate each of their births. The exist solely to please the wife
and I the day the children each marry. We thought it would be cool and
so it will.



But you end up with other wines, 1999 Penfolds Grange, 2 bottles with
around $200 each, a 1976 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon "Reserve" that is
you can find it runs into the $375 range. So you sit and you contemplate
when would be the time to visit this wine and who would enjoy it? My
wife only cares for whites. So just when do you decide to open and share
the nectar within?



Let say you have 13 chefs flying in from all over the place, coming
together to help raise money for a scholarship fund. Now that, to my
mind, might contain people whom could appreciate what they were tasting,
people who understand what was done in their honor and most importantly,
the kind of party that gets things off on the correct foot. And so it
was that I would uncork some of my most prized wines for a group of
chefs that would spend their own money to visit Grand Junction and
become the structural fabric of what was a wildly successful first
event!



I present to you the wines of the Thursday Night reception. Many of
these wines and one for sure and probably once in a lifetime. I will
describe what they tasted like to me, and hopefully those that
participated will share their own personal experience with the same
wine.



We started with great wines from Two Rivers Winery, it seemed since they
were our sponsor and made great wine we should begin the evening with
their whites! I find them excellent wines with great character and nice
balance. After everyone finally arrived (Elsner was late as usual!) we
got on with the party!



First up the Crios Malbec blend:



I chose this wine because it is dirt cheap, something like $8.50 per
bottle. And I think it tastes great. Not a cellar wine, just a drink me
now wine.








Then we needed to move up a notch or two and try something a little more
exciting. So Lorraine (bless her heart) sent a bottle of Catena Alta
Malbec 2001. This Argentina wine was very nice. This wine was very heavy
dark fruit to me. I got pepper on the end of it. Some just got allspice.








Then I wanted to bring it up another notch and really let the guests
explore a once a year type wine. Of course I have made my passion for
the Penfolds 1999 Grange known to everyone and so it was that I pulled
the cork out of a 1999 Grange for everyone to taste. For me a return to
what I knew was in the bottle. Velvet smooth, nice play on the sides of
the tongue and an excellent silk finish across the entire back of the
tongue. I truly think this is a great wine and love to drink it.








You will notice two empty bottles of the 1999 Grange. I will explain
shortly.



Last I thought it should be a night like this one that everyone try a
once in a lifetime wine! For me, I knew it was time to pull the cork on
my 1976 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. As the cork was almost gone
some did drop into the bottle. But heck after laying down for 30 years I
guess we can give her the benefit that a little loose cork is OK. The
only way I can describe what thirty years did for this wine. It was like
when you were a kid and a butterfly landed on you, you knew it was
there, you could feel it, and you could tell it was leaving from the
flutter, but that is what is was in total. It was there elegantly, then
gone in a slight whisp and flutter of butterfly wings.








And then for the finish, they say you only know a wine if you have had
it prior to dinner and well after dinner. Then you remember it in your
minds eye forever. I am that way with 1999 Grange and so I wanted my
hard working dedicated guests to also carry that in their own minds eye.
So much to the chagrin of my daughter I pulled the cork on a second
bottle of Penfolds 1999 Grange. And it was that night that I drained
$900 from my cellar for friends and almost family so that they might
know how special I think of them for traveling so far and spending so
much in support of such a worthy cause!



As I sat their surrounded by this team of people, I knew I would not
regret the decision to pull some corks out of some of my prized wines,
because the longer the night and weekend went on, the more I realized I
had indeed been guided to the correct use of these fine wines! They say
the wine makes the glass, and they are right, but the company makes the
wine and the glass something to remember, and that first Junction fund
raiser weekend is something I will always remember! There will be the
second, third and fourth annual, of that I am sure, but there will only
exist one first time, and I hope my cellar made it a memorable
experience for each of the guest chefs that came to participate and
carry on and have a good time raising money for a good cause.



Next year I have a 1975 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve that we may
explore!



Til we talk again, gets some friends together and pull the cork on a
"forbidden" bottle in your cellar, the memories made are worth more than
the wine in the bottle!



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction Colorado USA