Old and Cold

Today our short hour and a quarter road trip took us to St. Emilion, a small ancient wine making mecca. This town is adjacent to wine regions of Pomerol, and Haut Medoc, Graves, Pessac-Leognan, Sauternes, Entre Deux-Mers, You could call these the Bordeaux wines, which they are, however those would be fighting words to the individual areas. So to be faithful to their 150 years of classification, they separate them, and they each make some great wine. The town of St. Emilion itself is divided into three sections, the small stone town which is a collection of the most somber buildings, surrounded to the south by the lower aspect of the town with sectioned off parcels of vines and the northern aspect which is higher in elevation, which is also cordoned off into vine areas. The shops are mostly top shelf, with a couple musee’s and the Office de touriste information, invaluable in any town. We had walked the uneven cobbled streets for a hour, I was losing my euphoric self due to the abject cold, and it was getting close to lunch time, so we went to the highly regarded L’enevers Du Décor. We sat down and admired the small tables which were a mosaic of wooden wine case ends, with all their labeling, Chateau such and such, Gran Cru-la-la, after 20 minutes of navigating the wine epic, we chose a bottle of St. Emilion Gran cru Gueyrosse 2005, as we asked for a compliment to what we were going to order. After discussing our order, the waiter whisked off, and we were proud to have described our wine preferences and analysis of our meal decisions. He then returned with the bottle of wine and a huge decanting glass, and our two wine glasses, after uncorking our wine I sniffed the cork and liked the non-reacted smell, why after that they expect your first taste to mean anything as the first sip is a wasted sip because the tongue hasn’t acclimated to wine yet. The first sip must be if there is a real problem with the wine, in which case you perform a spit take and cloud the side of the waiters shirt. Hey I don’t know exactly, I just liked the wine a lot. Cindy ordered the Foie Gras, and I had a few bites on the warm toasty bread, and noticed that the restaurant was starting to get crowded and busy. I won’t go into trying to get anywhere on time………I was glad we arrived on time because I don’t like standing around waiting for a table with a crowd of other people who either don’t own watches, telephones with clocks on them or the type of people who dilly around trying to make up their mind for twenty minutes on where they want to eat, then decide on the original place in the first place. Then get to watch as other people take two hours to eat a leisurely lunch, while they in turn look at the section of “Don’t let this happen to you, loser party of four.” After thoroughly enjoying the Foie Gras, and not thinking about Gary’s disdain for this delicacy, we enjoyed another glass of the wine. The main meal arrived, Cindy’s monkfish was not only excellent but the accompanying sauce and risotto was incredible. My order of Entrecote was also delicious, and paired with the wine kept a simpletons grin on my face most of the meal. We finished the meal with Chocolatherapie, which was an exotic name for chocolate mousse with frosted crème. Cindy had a nice nap on the drive home, compared to my occasional cat nap while she wasn’t watching.