Essex County Wine Society

Essex County Wine Society

September 18, 2011

Dear Fellow Wine Society Members and Friends,

Once again we have kicked  off our new tasting season with a terrific dinner at CulinAriane in Montclair.  We have been trying for a couple of years to arrange a dinner at CulinAriane so it was wonderful to finally make it happen. All the credit goes to Howard Menaker and Stacey Rudbart. Chef-Owners, Ariane & Michael Duarte, were very accommodating to our needs and made the evening seem effortless. I particularly enjoyed the intimate atmosphere (ok, its a small room) as it kept us all together  in a close knit group and if you talked loud enough you could converse with almost anyone that attended.  Adding a case of tasty champagne (Gatinois Brut Grand Cru NV) and sumptuous hors d'oeuvres facilitated the loud talking. The first course was a seared cod with leeks and potatoes in a light lemon-thyme beurre blanc sauce. This was my favorite course since the fish was perfectly cooked and matched the 2006 Moreau Grand Cru Chablis Valmur very well. Several of us experienced some bottle to bottle variation with the wine however. Always hard to explain and always frustrating. The second course of Chicken Chasseur was very flavorful and again was right on target with the 2007 Hospices de Beaune Volnay 1er cru Santenots Cuvée Gauvin. As Gil Bauer explained at the dinner we acquired this special cuvee by participating via a consortium in the annual wine auction at Hospice de Beaune. I only heard good reviews of the wine at the dinner which is a good thing since we have another case and you will get another chance to taste it at a future dinner. The third course was a braised short rib slowly cooked all day and served with goat cheese polenta and summer greens. The powerful fruit of the 1999 Alion from Vega Sicilia offered a perfect match  for the concentrated meaty flavor of the short rib.  We ended the meal with Michael Duarte's restaurant-made trio of chocolate truffles served with a 1994 Graham vintage port.  Good food, good wine, great friends, a heavenly dinner.

Now we move to our tasting events of the 2011-2012 season. This season we are starting with the newly released 2009 white burgundies from Meursault and ending next April with a tasting of the 2009 red burgundies. On Thursday, October 6, 2011, Past-President and burgundy lover, Howard Menaker, will present 10 delicious examples of some the finest wines from Meursault including several from the three most famous premier cru areas, Les Perriѐres, Les Genevriѐres, and Les Charmes. Although these three areas are adjacent to each other in the southern part of Meursault each produces distinctive wines which you will be able to try and differentiate side-by-side.  Some familiar names will be there like Fichet, Faively, Boyer-Martenot,  Grivault as well as others. Meursault is larger than its two famous neighbors, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, it has no Grand Cru wines (yet) and is well known for its many premier cru vineyards. It is also known for producing top quality village level wines which offer good value. It is hard not to love the wines of Meursault. A sub-title in Robert Parker's 1990 book "Burgundy'" says it all, "Meursault- Burgundy's most hedonistic and user-friendly wines".  This is the only white wine tasting this season so we thought we'd better have a good one!

The cost for the tasting will be $73 for members and $88 for guests. Please send your reservation form with payment to our Treasurer, Peter Ballance by Friday, September 30, 2011.

Date: Thursday, October 6, 2011

Place: Montclair Women's Club, 82 Union St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Time: 7:30pm Aperitif,  8:00pm tasting

Hope to see you all there!

Dennis Roland                        

"In vino veritas" -Pliny

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