Sunday, February 19, 2006, 6:30 p.m.

Please join us as Executive Chef Philippe Raynaud will present a five course meal paired with wines of Ridge Vineyards.

Wines to be presented with an introduction and discussion by Paul Draper include:

2003 Monte Bello Chardonnay

2003 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay

1993 and 2003 Geyserville

1993 and 2003 Lytton Springs

1990, 1991 and 1992 Monte Bello

2003 Zinfandel Essence


Located in Menlo Park, this evening of wine and food will be held at the Duck Club Restaurant in the Stanford Park Hotel.

Tickets are $125, all inclusive, and may be purchased by calling the Duck Club Restaurant at (650) 330-2788. Seating is limited.

If you have the oppotunity, would you ask Paul Draper why his outstanding 1975 Havelock-Gordon Cabernet was just a one-time shot and wasn't repeated? It was one of the best American Cabs I've ever had.

That's enticing, but I'm already booked that day. If you attend, let us know about the MB's. I have the 1990-1992 and haven't tasted them in a long while.

-Al

The Havelock-Gordon wine? How was it? I finished all of mine at least 15 years ago.

Quote:

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Re: Lunch with Paul Draper
#31374 - Board_O 4/17/03 05:19 AM
David, you might mention a forumite enjoyed the Cab he made for Havelock-Gordon in 1975. I'll bet he'll be surprised to hear anyone mention that.

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Board_O,

This above was your post on April 17, 2003.

In looking through my notes I see that I did not have this wine. I do remember mentioning it to him though.

Here is the thread.

Thanks for the link, david. I either didn't read your post or forgot it. I frequently travel during mid-April and may have been away when you posted that. Or it could be old age!

Forgot it

It was three years ago.

I barely remember and it was I who was there.

Kind of amazing.

Time flies when you're having fun

Well, we are going. We are great fans of Ridge and have enjoyed their ATP program (you do get a lot of weird wine, though). They are also showing a Fellini film with the 2003 Ridge Lytton Springs Syrah (first commercial release under ATP program) afterwards. Should be a ribald night.

Hope we can meet some Vinocellar folks there as well.

That sounds like a lot of fun - I wish there were more events like that out here in DC with CA wineries.

How was it Saut?

Well, a great time was had by all. Paul was his usual softspoken self, and the food and beverage manager (who coordinated the event, Frank?) did a great job. The dishes were well paired with the wines and the wine flowed all evening. Quite a contrast from the Peter Michael dinner where they poured one ounce tastes and would not let anyone have a second taste.

We have not been to a great number of these, but the comraderie was infectious. Bigwigs from Stanford and the SF Chronicle were in attendance, but it seemed like one big happy family.

Unfortunately, I'm out of town on business for the next week and will have to post the tasting notes when I return. Suffice it to say that the wines showed Ridge's balanced character, the chardonnays were OK, zins were a great lesson in the aging of this varietal, and the Montebellos compared very favorably with other 15 year old cabs I've had recently (Delinger, Viader, Rafinelli, but a bit nicer)...

Two things came out of this which I think are interesting discussion topics, and I will post those separately. It was a generous evening on the part of the restaurant and Mr. Draper/Ridge...they even raffled off bottles of the wines tasted as a door prize!

More when I return...

Look forward to your further impressions.