The Omaha Wine & Food Gazette July 2025

Event Report. Blind Bourbon Tasting & Wine Stag Dinner at Salted Edge. Upcoming Events.

What’s New

A reminder. Be kind, a mark of a gentleman. Reply to event invites by using the online system to accept or decline an invite. This helps the event producer immensely. Also, respond to the survey afterwards, even if you didn’t attend the event. It helps the producers and the Board home in on what you want and enjoyed.

Some members have had trouble reading the Gazette on issuu.com, Or they don’t want to sign in, which means you can’t even read the Gazette at all. They prefer a PDF since all you have to do is click it open. We have decided to offer it in both formats. In your email, a PDF will be sent along with the issuu.com link. The advantage of issuu.com is that you can see both right and left pages, like a paper magazine. Our PDF only lets you view one page at a time.

Cheers!

Tom Murnan

Adolescence is like a hitch in the Army – you’d hate to have missed it, and yet you’d hate to repeat it.

Best of the Cockle Bur compiled & edited by

Harry B. Otis, 3rd President

1973-1974

Event Report: Blind Bourbon Tasting & Wine Stag Dinner at Salted Edge

May 19th was threatening storms and tornados, but thankfully all the bad weather was to the west of us. We were comfy in the Salted Edge, who worked for us on their normally closed Monday. Chef Joel Hassanali was up to the challenge.

After our usual quaffing with high-end wines, this time we began with a blind Bourbon tasting. With a Chef’s Bread Board brought down to put a little more food in our stomachs before all the high alcohol hit, we had to identify which of three Bourbons were before us: Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year; Bardstown Bourbon Company Origin Series High Wheat; and Weller Antique 107, otherwise known as Poor Man’s Pappy (60% Old Weller Antique/40% Weller 12 Year). The Old Rip Van Winkle costs $800 a bottle. The Bardstown substituted wheat for rye, a $50 bottle, and since Pappy (a 15-year-old Bourbon) is almost impossible to get, we had the $200 Weller product nicknamed Poor Man’s Pappy. I’m not a Bourbon man and got all my answers wrong. But there were a few that correctly identified all three.

With most participants humbled, we moved on to dinner. A Safron Grilled Caesar had the Caesar dressing, Prosciutto Chips and Quinoa Pops atop of an oval shaped half of Baby Gem lettuce, which made for a lot of lettuce. It also made for a great presentation. It was all the Domaine Moreux Sancerre Blanc 2023 could handle, which is another

way of saying this was a delicate wine. The Second Course was Coriander Crusted Pork Tenderloin. Another beautiful presentation, it sat on a bed of pureed celeriac, with a small carrot and Port Wine Gastrique for a sauce. The tender pork did better than beef with the Château Beaucasted 2006, a great match for the Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Our Entrée was Charcoal Beef Filet with Fondant Potato, Black Garlic Bordelaise sauce and Asparagus. This time we had two Cabernet Sauvignon based wines from the same year. Château Lynch Bages 2014 and a wine from host Dan Thrasher’s cellar, Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Caravina 2014, which has 89% Cab and 11% Petit Verdot. The Bordeaux was more structured and ready to drink while the Caravina was good but seemed tight and had little nose. Dessert was Crème Brûlée Bread Pudding with Charred Crème Anglaise with Remy Martin XO Cognac. I did not think this was a good match at all due to the sweetness of the dish clashing with the extreme dryness of the Cognac. On its own, the Cognac was fine.

Many thanks to Chef Hassanali and his knowledgeable staff who worked on their day off and gave us great service. Thanks as well to Dan Thrasher who organized the event, rounded up the Bourbons, and supplied some of the beverages himself.