THE GOOD LIFE PAMELA VANDYKE PRICE
Other people's menus are as fascinating and provoking to me as other people's lists: those `every kitchen should have' compil- ations, which impose fish kettles and porridge pans upon you but omit the potato peeler, and those `round the world capsule ward- robes' which provide you with fourteen assorted sweaters, ten pounds weight of costume jewellery, a single pair of shoes and no dressing gown. Anyway, as women are not, by tradition, invited to the Bass Char- rington Vintners' Vintage Dinner, I can be critical without even being thought catty.
The organisers of this annual slap-up nosh, incidentally, sensibly have several 'rehearsals' before they decide exactly on the dishes and the wines. Would that those who arrange banqueting menus were compelled to eat at least one full-scale version of the fare they too often inflict on humanity. Bass Charring- ton's guests at the Mirabelle were treated to the following: An aperitif of Dom Ruinart Champagne, blanc de blancs; a consommé
with morilles, accompanied by 1900 Van, delho; sole in cream and white wine gar-
nished with mushrooms, accompanied by a
1966 Meursault Charmes; noisettes of veal fried in butter with the red Burgundy
Hospices de Beaune 1966, Cuvee Estienne: partridge with both 1959 Mouton Rothschild' and 1961 Gruaud Larose; three sorbets with Oestricher Eiserberg Trockenbeerenauslese 1964; Quinta do Sibio 1944, Salignac 1979.
Now I am sure a delightful time was had by all but I am so glad that I didn't have to
eat that dinner! In theory, anyhow, it seems
all wrong. You get, for example, a white fish, a white meat, and a white game bird–.
at least, all are pale, however fried or roasted.
There are mushrooms in the soup and with the sole. One of the sorbets was orange in
flavour—very few fine wines benefit by being
drunk against an orange—and why were they put at the end of the meal instead of before
the game and the greatest wine, for which a palate cleanser—not accompanied by any wine at all—is traditional and satisfactory at a big meal?
It may astonish those who imagine that I never eat luncheon or dinner without a minimum of three rare vintages to wash down my food that I have never drunk any of the remarkable wines just listed. But, again in theory, it does seem that those who chose them did so following the principle that you must open with a clap of thunder, then bring up the heaviest artillery to fire long and con- tinuously, and conclude with a nuclear ex- plosion (and I think my palate might have felt that they had). A great wine with every single course seems to me as taxing as some of those old concert programmes that began with the Mass in D, threw in Pictures from an Exhibition and the Damnation of Faust, and concluded with the finale of Forza del Destino and Briinnhilde's immolation. Could one truly enjoy a vintage port after a great sweet German wine? Could one appreciate a velvety St Julien of a year as yet reserved, side by side with a great big Pauillac in the beginning of its prime from an easier vintage? And is it ever satisfactory to drink both claret and red Burgundy at the same meal? I don't really see why, if you break the meal in the middle with a sorbet, you shouldn't be able to select the right sort of red wines to make the whole meal harmom. ous, but although I've known it attempted with the claret first, red Burgundy second, and vice versa, I admit that I've never been contented with the result. The big wine always needs a wine to introduce it, to shoe it off, but hoWever adroitly the pairs have been chosen, one seems to miss the ultimate enjoyment potential in both. You—oral least I—approach Burgundy differently from claret; to tackle both at a brief remove is as confusing to me as if I had to eat grouse and venison almost simultaneously. Anyway, the 'can you serve the two great red wines during the same meal' is one df those sure talk-provokers if you need to liven up guest gastronomes while you gra, PPle. with the carving or dishing-up, just as what wine with ham' is a useful stopper for use with the self-styled `wine expert'. And knig may Bass Charrington's munificence delight even those who don't go to the party. , Meanwhile,back in the humble homestead. I suggest a lemon soufflé to conclude a rick
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