The Omaha Wine & Food Gazette December 2023

The Omaha

DECEMBER 2023

Event Report: Event Cancelled Upcoming Events.

What’s New

Our October 15th Fall Forage, which featured a Classic Napa vs. Modern Napa tasting, was cancelled due to low turnout. At only 13 signups, it was not enough participation for the restaurant to reach their minimum. October seems to be a busy month. I had to cancel my October 10th event in 2021 due to low turnout. Producer Hasan Hyder will attempt this event at a later date next year.

Hopefully, we will have a good number sign up then. We don’t have a lot of cancellations due to low signups, but we did have an April, 2022 cancellation for the President’s Spring Event as well.

Your participation is important. We don’t want cancellation to be a tradition.

I have put in photos of the Chicago festival in place of an Event Report. The theme was a French Wine Experience in Chicago. I thought the event had a strong educational experience. In addition to Stuart Leaf’s experiences with old wines, which became a passion with him at an early age (and you have been following in the Omaha Gazette), we had a master class on arguably the best area in Burgundy, Vosne Romanée, by Allen Meadows. Allen is the publisher of the highly regarded Burghound.com web site, which specialized in all things Burgundy as well as Champagne. He spends over 5 months in Burgundy each year. He presented a vertical of Premier Cru red Burgundies from the year 2015. But we also went to two great restaurants, the one Michelin-starred Sepia, which was awarded the Wine Spectator’s 2022 Best of Award of Excellence, and Les Nomades, which was within walking distance from our Ritz -Carlton Hotel, just off the Magnificent Mile. Nomades is in a charming turnof-the-century brownstone with fireplaces, Lalique vases and other antiques. The only day it rained and was foggy was when we took our Architectural Cruise on the Chicago River. Our guide pointed out all the architectural marvels along the river. Steve Hipple’s tenure as Chairman of IWFS Americas, Inc. came to an end at the Black Tie Finale put on at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago.

Enjoy the photos.

Cheers!

Tom Murnan

“Deceiving my wife is like trying to sneak a sunrise past a rooster.”

- Roy Hatten.

Best of the Cockle Bur compiled & edited by Harry B. Otis, 3rd President 1973-1974

IWFS Chicago Festival A French Wine Experience September 6-9, 2023 Mature Wine Tasting Part 2 of 4 Written by Tom Murnan, Photos by Tom Murnan Last month we explored some of Stuart Leaf’s comments about aged Red Wine. Recall he led a tutored study of his findings about wines with age and extraordinary age. The wines presented were a mix of red wines, white wines (including a 1985 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque Champagne, a 1959 Gaston Huët Vouvray, Clos du Bourg demi sec, and a 1971 Weingut Dr. Peter Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese), and fortified wines. The year and the winemaking are extremely important in keeping old wines. For example, you wouldn’t want a 40 year old Bordeaux from 1965, a very poor year. Storage is also very important. Proper humidity level, cellar temperature, ventilation, whether the bottle was standing up or lying down to keep the cork moist, lack of vibration in the cellar structure, all are important factors to longevity. So provenance is critical. Poor labels (torn, stained, molded) don’t affect the taste, but you need to know what wine you are drinking.

White Wines with stone fruits become toastier and oakier (if oaked initially) with age. Remember, they have little to no tannin, so the acidity is crucial in preserving white wines. Wines with high acid are Rieslings, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Grigio. Wines with high acid are better bets than Gewurztraminer, Viognier, Marsanne or Roussanne. The 1985 Champagne, from an outstanding year, still had toasty, yeasty, campfire/marsh mellow flavors, but was losing its effervescence. The bubbles are what makes a good wine brilliant. Serve them slightly over-cold. One trick Michael Broadbent would do was to add 20% of new but same Champagne into an old wine to see what it might have tasted like when younger. If you like old Champagne, they are very cheap in the market place compared to other older wines. The 1959 Vouvray was losing some of its sweetness (demi-sec) because of its age. Leaf thought the 1971 German wine had good Riesling taste, but it was no longer as sweet as an Auslese should be. I thought drinking it was an intellectual odyssey at this point and not especially good, which surprised me as usually Rieslings hold up well.

Stuart Leaf

Steve Hipple’s end of term as Chairman of IWFS Americas Inc.

Alan Meadows Vosne Romanée Master Class

Wine Food & Friends editor Kathy Kallus with husband Mark

We walked to Les Nomades Restaurant

Rose Clemson IWFS Americas Administrator

2023 UPCOMING OMAHA BRANCH EVENTS

DEC

10 JAN

06

JOINT EVENT WITH FOR THE OMAHA AND METRO OMAHA BRANCHES

Producers: Mike Wilke & Joe Goldstein

2024

HIGH NOON STAG

Flemings Producer: Mike Wilke