by Howie Hart » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:25 am
This past Saturday evening (2/16)I hosted a family dinner at my house. It was the first time in over 3 years that all 5 of my sons were together. Tim is home on leave from Ft. Hood, TX for the month of February and Pete flew home from Ft. Lewis, WA for a long Presidents Day weekend. A fairly simple dinner of salad, homemade Italian sausage (see Forum Kitchen about the sausage), meatballs and rigatoni. We started off with Tosti Asti Spumante (a Christmas gift). Nice loud pop when the cork was pulled, lots of bubbles, simple, fruity and sweet. Decent for an Asti and everyone seemed to like it. With dinner, for the first time, we used the Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glasses that Tim bought for me for Fathers Day. I was more nervous than a cat with it’s tail under a rocking chair, but the glasses all survived. I opened a special bottle I received from Mike Filigenzi, his homemade 2004 Sangiovese. The bottle had thrown quite a bit of sediment and I should have decanted it. Deeply colored dark garnet. Excellent nose – very aromatic; leather, earth. Good acidity – tannin balance and long, mouth filling finish. A superb wine. With several folks around the table and those big glasses the wine was gone quickly. So I opened 2005 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon ($8.99). Decent, sound wine that went OK with the dinner, but nothing great here. Pete apparently still hasn’t acquired a taste for reds, so he drank my home made 2005 oaked Chardonnay, which he liked. Just coffee and pie for dessert. A simple but memorable family dinner.
Chico - Hey! This Bottle is empty!
Groucho - That's because it's dry Champagne.
