We have been married now for 44 years. Wow, what a long time. But it doesn’t really seem that long. It seems the older I get the more compressed time seems. We have a very happy marriage although not without its little woes. Sometimes I complain too much and sometimes John is a little goofy. On the whole, though, we have a wonderful life with two great kids and two adorable grandsons. John is retired and we can visit all the places we want to see. We are together almost all the time and that is what we looked forward to all of our pre-retirement life. So no complaints here!
This year to celebrate we go up to Sonoma for the Stone Edge Farm Winery’s winemaker’s dinner with a vertical tasting of all their cabernet sauvignons. Our friend, Philippe, is there to greet us. We start out with passed hors d’oeuvres and champagne. The four course dinner includes a delicious bouillabaise Provencal with garlic toast and rouille,
and a sformatino of gorgonzola, walnut-saba relish, charred leeks and arugula salad. The small gorgonzola cake is especially delicious. (no picture, too busy eating). Next are slices of Painted Hills oak-grilled porterhouse with potato gnocchi, zucchini tian, and swiss chard. The meat is cooked perfectly and is so tender!
And lastly a dessert that even I like – a selection of artisanal cheeses with stone fruit compote. Plus the whole time we are tasting and critiquing a lot of wine! We start off with a 2014 Stone Edge Farm Sauvignon Blanc and then move on to the vertical tasting of the Stone Edge 2006-2011 Cabernet Sauvignon and also taste a 2009 Chateau Pontet-Canet, Pauillac. The table is a sea of glasses.
It is a wonderful dinner with knowledgeable folks from the winery and interested and eager tasters. We all give our opinions and it seems as though we tasters like all of the wines!
Luckily we are staying within walking distance of the dinner venue and we stumble back to our room after dinner is over.
Sunday, our actual anniversary, is spent walking around Sonoma square and napping. For dinner we go to a tapas place, Tasca Tasca. This is a lot of fun and we choose an array of tapas to try.
It is my first time eating goat and it is really good. I wonder why we don’t it in the U.S. The duck is also especially yummy. The dinner concludes with small servings of piri piri chocolate ice cream and salted olive oil ice cream.
I think we have eaten enough to last until our 45th anniversary next year! It is a lovely weekend and now I can start planning what to do for our next anniversary. Since it ends on a “5” it will be something really special.
