John came over, just back from Japan, and brought 2 amazing old bottles so we whipped up some worthy grub to go with them. I took the remaining pie crust from the freezer, along with the kraut, a radicchio, and the one Italian sausage not cooked the other night, and made a filling for the tart that also included red onion. All cooked down, with wine, to a spicy/bitter/funky dark purple and went on the crust, with pine nuts and parmesan to finish. We ate this while sauce and pasta water cooked, and drank a 1989 Orion which had a very Southern Rhône-like character, but still tasted like a Thackrey. Beautiful, and the oldest Orion I’ve ever had.
John brought yellow and green zucchini from the garden, and cooked them in garlic and water, then added shiso, nama shoyu, pine nuts, more garlic, and stick-blended it into a beautiful soup with oil and chives on top to finish. Amazing. Meanwhile I took some ground beef/pork mixture from Fleisher’s, and made a Bolognese that included some fantastic green beans, also from their garden, and the trimmings from various leftover heirloom tomatoes. We had it on whole wheat spaghetti, and moved on to a 1983 La Chapelle which had a beautiful strawberry nose, and was still a little tight and sour, but over time opened out into a graceful, delicious treat. We finished with a 2003 Torbreck “les Amis” grenache which tasted like red twizzlers and milk duds after the others, but in a good way(?) I’m saving my last bottle for at least 10 years to see if it gets any of the amazing grace of the others.
For dessert, John and I ate the last of the verbena ice cream standing over the sink like real men.