'AWAITING THE BLIZZARD' DINNER PARTY FOR SIX WINE TASTERS:

On a recent Saturday evening I prepared a dinner party for six people who were tasting Merlots and Shiraz wines.

We didn’t know when it would start snowing – at 4pm or 10pm – but the dinner was scheduled for 7:30 anyway.

After an arrival tasting with snippets of cheeses and a sun-dried tomato and artichoke spread, everyone sat down to begin dinner that began with a hot Onion Soup Gratinee made with beef broth that had been simmered and mellowed for hours. The steaming bowls were coated with a lavish grating of Gruyere and Emmenthaler cheeses.

This was followed with a fresh Salad of mesclun and red leaf lettuces, snow pea shoots, Macadamia nuts, and tiny cubes of red bell pepper. The salad dressing, designed not to interfere with the wine, was prepared with verjuice and blood orange juice, with walnut and canola oils, soy and mustard. Halved grape tomatoes and avocado cubes that had been soaking in the dressing were added.

No snow yet. Everyone sounded very jovial and friendly. Exclamations of “This is superb!” filtered from the dining room.

The main course, a prime beef Rib Roast, which had been coated with fresh herbs and black pepper rested at room temperature prior to a high heat blast and then a lowered temperature. It rested again, covered in foil, on the back of the stove for 30 minutes to relax. Then served au jus, crusty on the outside and warm in the center.

The roast was accompanied by a Yorkshire Pudding with sautéed leeks, and Green Peas cooked in the French way with bits of lettuce and scallion bulbs and a pinch of savory and thyme.

At this point the wine tasting was between two Shiraz wines, one mixed with other wines and one only Shiraz. The bottles were covered and the examining of tastes and preferences began.

Everyone wended ever so slowly toward dessert made mostly of fruits and designed to allow for optimum digestion. Bosc pears poached in sweetened red wine and vanilla beans were filled with creamy Mascarpone flavored with honey and lemon zest, then coated with Caillebaud chocolate, and garnished with marzipan leaves. They each stood on a deep purple strained reduction of the pear poaching liquid with blackberries. This was accompanied with a strawberry fan, fresh blackberries, small scoops of mango-vanilla sorbet and a petit triangle of Pyrenee with Green Peppercorn cheese, and more chocolate shavings.

Then….the snow flurries began and continued until the following afternoon.