The Restaurant Guys

The Spirits Project: A Flight of Billecart-Salmon Champagne

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Demi-sec; Brut Reserve; Brut Rose; Brut Sous Bois
• Suggested retail price: Between $50 and $89
  
• Wednesday, December 30 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce of each (four ounces of Champagne) for $10

The Napoleonic laws of succession require that a person's estate be equally divided among their children. Napoleon's idea was to break up large family fortunes and lessen the control of the aristocracy. Most of the Champagne houses and many of the great Bordeaux Chateau are now owned by large corporation for this reason.

Billecart-Salmon is one of my favorite Champagne houses. It is also one of the last old-line prestige Champagne houses that remains family owned. The Billecart family has been living in Mareuil-sur-Ay since the 16th century. When Nicolas Francois Billecart married Elisabeth Salmon in the early 1800s the two families' long held vineyards were married as well. This led to Nicolas' decision to leave his law practice and take over the family wine estate. In 1818 he founded the house of Billecart-Salmon which now stands as the oldest continuously family owned and operated house in Champagne. It is currently managed by the seventh generation, brothers Francois and Antoine Roland-Billecart. The cellars are in the hands of renowned "chef de cave" Francois Domi.

Billecart-Salmon owns a total of 15 hectares of vineyard. Eleven of these are in the Vallee de la Marne split between 4ha of Grand Cru in Ay and Premier Cru in Mareuil-sur-Ay and 7ha in the village of Damery. In the Cote des Blancs, the family owns 4ha of Grand Cru vineyards in the villages of Chouilly, Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. With respect to harvest, one of the most distinctive aspects of Billecart-Salmon is their philosophy that an early harvest yields more elegant and delicate champagnes. They look for a strong acid structure rather than alcohol as a preservative and therefore, never harvest at higher than 10 degrees of potential alcohol.

Another defining characteristic of Billecart-Salmon is their practice of double cold settling which they began in 1952. This involves a primary cold settling of the pressed juice for a period of 12 hours whereby the heaviest of the must solids fall to the bottom. The juice is then racked into clean tanks where it is chilled down to 2C for another 48 hours. This second and much colder settling eliminates any wild yeasts and additional heavy elements without the use of enzymes, filtering or a centrifuge.

After the second racking, fermentation is initiated by adding dried yeasts and maintained at a long slow pace for up to 5 weeks in order to preserve as many delicate fruit aromas as possible. One varietal that benefits greatly from this is Pinot Meunier which the Billecarts believe is a vital component in world class champagnes. Many producers shy away from Meunier because it is easy to burn off its delicate aromas during fermentation. Malolactic fermentation is allowed to occur but may be blocked in certain years if the vintage conditions warrant it. Since 1987 the family has been making a certain percentage of the wines for their vintage cuvee champagnes in barrel. In these instances malolactic fermentation is always blocked. These are released as "Sous Bois" cuvee or "under wood."

As of 2001, Billecart-Salmon moved their winemaking into a brand new facility that they believe to be the most technically advanced in Champagne. The intricate and precise nature of Francois Domi's winemaking demanded that the family use every available resource to create the perfect environment for the production of these truly stellar champagnes. The ability to perform as many as 75 micro-fermentations simultaneously allows M. Domi the luxury of keeping many of his parcels separate until the blending phase. Overall, production levels are modest. Billecart are some of the most elegant and graceful Champagnes on the market.

Tonight, Wednesday, we will open one each of FOUR different Billecart-Salmon Champagne and offer them as a flight for $10

When the bottles are drained, the jig is up!

Next week in The Spirits Project
Normandin Mercier Christmas Cognac

Black and White Truffle Menu

We are at that magical time of year, when white Italian truffles are still around, and the black French truffles have just arrived. Black and white truffles are two sides of the same, very expensive coin. But the season when both are available together is short. So next week in Stage Left we will offer an extraordinary

Black and White Menu
from December 26 through December 30
Extended to January 7!

Lobster and Black Truffle Beggar's Purse

Black Truffled Capon and Duck Terrine

Seared Diver Scallop Layered with Black Truffle
Finished with White Truffles

Chanterelle & Maiitake & Black Truffle Risotto
Finished with White Truffles

Veal Braciola with Truffles

Black and White Cookie
w/ Chocolate Truffles

$199 plus tax and service
Reservations here or 732-828-4444

A Different Irish-Italian Guy Duo

Click picture for video

I had to share this with you. This is a different Irish guy / Italian guy duo from the late 50s. I had never seen this clip before and I love it. Amazing things in this video, aside from the obvious Bing and Frank at the height of their powers: The apartment, those suits, those ties, the fireplace in the middle of the room, that punchbowl, the artwork on the wall and when Bing gives his coat and hat to Leon he says, "Want to grab the drape there Leon...and the skimmer." Christmas has never been so cool.

If you stop by the wine shop, we'll check your drape and skimmer and offer you a nog from our own silver punchbowl. See wassail recipe.

Wassail Recipe

So you can have some "fine jazz" in your "tub," that will make you too "sing like a bird." "Do you know that this recipe is hundreds of years old?" Like Bingo, we too "toast the long line of tipplers that have perpetuated such a noble tradition."

From Charles Baker’s The Gentleman’s Companion: An Exotic Drinking Book, from 1939: a collectible tome, of which we possess a valuable early addition.

As with so many old books, use the recipe as a guide and adjust and improvise to taste.

THE ANCIENT WASSAIL BOWL
from an Ancient Elizabethan Formula, Circa 1602, & Truly Notable for Its Exceeding Mildness

In Saxon times this custom of the Wassail Bowl at feast days was an important ceremony, and later it became an accepted custom at Christmas Eve, when minstrels or choirs, or village singers went about singing carols where there was a candle lit in the window.

In the Feudal castles, and manor houses, the Wassail Bowl was borne into the banqueting Hall with songs and carols, and crowned with garlands.

• Nutmeg, 1/2 grated; or 2 tsp powdered
• Powdered or grated ginger, 1 tsp
• Cloves, 6 whole
• Cinnamon, 1 inch of stick
• Sugar, 1 cup
• Eggs, yolks 6; whites 3
• Apples, 6 cored, but not pared
• Mace, 1/4 tsp
• Water
• Sherry or Madeira, 2 qts

Take spices and cover with a cup of cold water. Fetch to a boil; adding wine and sugar. Let heat up . . . Meanwhile in the Wassail Bowl (Punchbowl) previously warmed:

Break in six yolks and three whites. Beat up. When wine is warm–not boiling–mix a teacupful with the egg. When a little warmer, add another cupful, and repeat until five cups have been used . . . Now let the rest of the wine boil up well, and pour it into the bowl also, stirring well all the time, until it froths in attractive fashion . . . Fill cored apples with sugar, sprinkle on a little of the spice and roast until nearly done. Time these to suit the end of the wine-pouring process. Throw them into the bowl, and serve the whole thing very hot . . . Some stout hearts add a tumbler full of good cognac brandy to the whole–and we, after testing the business, heartily agree with them; since sherry of itself isn’t potent enough to make any Saxon defend his native land, much less a 20th Century wassailer, with all we have been through during the one and a half decades that Saxons never even considered as drinkable fluid!

The Brigadoon of Wine Shops Is Open

Here are Selections of Spirits Organized into Cocktail Kits with recipes

 

The Coravin: Perfect for The Wine Lover $300
Coravin II: $350

The Spirits Project: Flight of Vintage Port (Fonseca 2007 & 1977; Quinta do Vesuvio 1994)

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: Between $75 and $175
  
• Wednesday, December 23 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce of each (three ounces of port) for $18

Vintage Port is really one of the great pleasures of wine. Frankly, people don't drink enough of it. Mark and I are on a mission to change that. This week we will offer The Spirits Project on Wednesday instead of Thursday, due to the holiday. And instead of a spirit, we are offering a flight of three vintage Ports, which are near and dear to our hearts. If you're not familiar with Port, here is an excellent opportunity to acquaint yourself to it's wonders. We will pour three wines from two different houses. Side-by-Side comparisons are always best.

Fonseca and Quinta do Vesuvio are both excellent houses. We will pour the 2007 Fonseca as a baseline lovely port in its younger stage of development. Vintage Port at this stage is all about concentration, fruit and power. Nineteen Ninety-Four was one of the best vintages of the 20th century. When it was released, back in 1996, Mark and I attended tastings of various properties back to the 1800s. We were so enamored of the vintage that we bought everything we could get our hands on. Our favorite of the lot was the Quinta do Vesuvio. I was working as a bartender at The Frog and The Peach in 1987, when I first tasted the Fonseca 1977. The port was only 10 years old at that point and I was only 22. We were both precocious, but only one of us would improve with age. Nineteen Ninety-Sevenwas a strange vintage with many exceptional wines. The 77s are clearly identifiable with an unusual structure that I love. To my mind then, and now, Fonseca is the port of the vintage.

So come in and try these three beauties side-by-side on Wednesday evening. At precisely 6:30, we will open one bottle of each. When it's gone, it's gone. I do hope you can join us.

Next week in The Spirits Project (Wednesday 12/30)
A New Year's Tasting of Bubbles!

The Spirits Project: Elijah Craig 23 Year "Single Barrel" Bourbon

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: $400
  
• Thursday, December 17 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce for $7

This is a limited release bourbon from Heaven Hill Distilleries, the country’s largest independent family-owned and operated spirits producer. Heaven Hill holds the world’s second largest inventory of Bourbon and the most “extra-aged” barrels of any distillery. It has been designated “Excellent/Highly Recommended“ at the 2013 Ultimate Spirits Challenge. In the spirit of full-disclosure, I sit as a judge on the USC.

At 23 years of age, quite advanced for a Bourbon, barrel selection becomes of tantamount importance. Barrels that age for that long on the highest floors of the rickhouse, where temperature extremes are greatest, can become too woody or tannic. The barrels for Elijah Craig 23-Year-Old Single Barrel are drawn from the middle floors of the rickhouses, where the effects of long aging are mitigated by the more moderate temperature fluctuations. This careful barrel selection, drawn from Heaven Hill’s inventory of over one million aging barrels, means the whiskey offers depth and complexity but still maintains the balance between barrel and distillate.

Thursday, December 17, at precisely 6:30, we will open one bottle. When it's gone, it's gone. I do hope you can join us.

Next week in The Spirits Project (Wednesday 12/23)
A Christmas Tasting of Vintage Ports

Eggnog: What You Buy in the Grocery Store Is an Abomination

We are most certainly serving eggnog at the bar, but here are two recipes for you to make at home.

Eggnog is a very old and traditional drink. It used to be imbibed in all cold weather, and my mother used to make us eggnog as a restorative when we were sick. Today, it's mostly served around he holidays. There are more iterations of real eggnog than I can count. All of them are better than that crap you buy in the store. And yes, with significant doctoring and a goodly amount of bourbon, that stuff can be rendered palatable, but why not just start with the good stuff.

The first distinction to make is between an à la minute eggnog or one made in advance. To me the most elegant and decadent eggnog is one made on the stove in a batch and chilled. My grandmother's recipe for such a classic is below. There is nothing like the texture of a cooked eggnog, but there are good recipes for to-order nogging.

Here is a down and dirty (yet traditional) eggnog that you can make in individual portions and to-order. We found references to this particular Eggnog in a 1957 Esquire and in a different Maryland cookbook from 1932. We even saw a modern mutation swaps the Madeira (called for in the original recipe) for Peach Schnapps (DON'T DO THAT).

Baltimore Eggnog

• ½ oz. 15yr Malmsey Madeira (you can find a brand called Blandy's in any good wine store, including ours)
• ½ oz. Hennessy VS
• ½ oz. Aged Rum (El Dorado 8 year is our favorite)
• 1 oz. Heavy Cream
• 1 oz. Whole Milk
• 2 Bar spoons: Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Egg Yolk (no white)

1. Combine ingredients and shake with ice; strain off ice into small glass.
2. Grate Cinnamon and Nutmeg on top

My Grandmother's Eggnog

It must be made in advance and then chilled.

You can keep it in the fridge and pour individual glasses at will. Spike or don't spike at the last minute. Always grate fresh nutmeg right before serving.

You can also set it out in a punch bowl at a party. Grate cinnamon and nutmeg over the bowl. We usually put a glass bowl inside another bowl full of ice and water to keep it cold. You can either spike the punch bowl or leave the bowl un-spiked and leave various bottles around so people can spike it how they like.

This nog works with almost any spirit: Spiced rum is great (try El Dorado), Irish Whiskey like Tullamore Dew (what I grew up on), Bourbon and Brandy are also classic and, believe it or not, Mezcal works an amazing Feliz Navidad if José Feliciano is on the radio.

For The Custard

• ½ cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 cups whole milk (scalded - That just means boil the milk for a minute)
• Cinnamon Stick is optional.

For The Whites

• 3 egg whites
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean in custard overnight)

Make The Custard:

1. Beat ½ cup sugar into egg yolks
2. Add ¼ tsp salt and stir in milk slowly
3. Add Cinnamon Stick
4. Cook in double boiler, stirring constantly, until mixture coats spoon.
5. Add vanilla beans if using beans at this point. Steep overnight is best.
6. Cool completely

Beat The Whites:

1. Add 1/8 tsp salt to egg whites and beat stiff
2. Add ¼ cup sugar and beat well

Finish and Chill:

1. Add whites to custard with vanilla extract if not using beans.
2. Mix thoroughly and chill (Four Hours in Refrigerator).
3. Spike as desired - see above.

The Wine Shop Will Be Open

Sunday, December 20, Through Wednesday December 23: Noon - 8 PM and
Thursday, December 24: Noon - 5 PM

We once ran Old Vines Wine Shop out of what is now the Wine Library Dining Room. Every year, just before Christmas, we open it again.

Almost our entire wine collection is available for retail sale. That's an extremely well curated collection of close to 900 bottles. We also make available a selection of spirits and proprietary cocktail ingredients. If you are looking for some really special and uncommon wines for your holiday enjoyment or to give as gifts, we would love to help you.

We've also got some other pretty special items, like olive oil, our house blend coffee, Austrian roasted pumpkinseed oil, rare apple balsamic from Modena, salt brick and stand, cheeses, coravins and a whole host of other items for your perusal and enjoyment.

We'll be making some of my grandmother's eggnog, the old fashioned kind you cook on the stove almost to a custard and then chill. Come have a glass of eggnog with our compliments. I'll also have the recipe if you care for it.

Gift Certificates to Both Restaurants Will Also be Available

Clarence's Flaming Rum Punch

Click Picture for Video

So, you know that El Dorado Rum is sponsoring New Brunswick's New Year's Fireworks. In appreciation, we are featuring El Dorado prominently through the month of December.

Fans of the classic Frank Capra film, It's A Wonderful Life will remember that Clarence never did get his Flaming Rum Punch, but that's no reason you shouldn't.

Come by The Cocktail Bar at Catherine Lombardi now through New Year's Eve and have one (or more)!
$9