We have a tradition of buying very big (3 liter) bottles of Joseph Phelps wines for each of our grandchildren. We buy it in the vintage of their birth year and the plan is to have a party to celebrate their 16^thbirthday.

Actually, my buddy Tom Julian started the tradition. Our daughter Jennifer was born in California in 1984. Tom came out to visit and we went to the Napa valley as part of his visit. The Phelps vineyard has always been one of our favorites. It is in a little sub-valley in the Napa valley and it produces some excellent wines. Tom bought Jennifer a 3 liter bottle and we enjoyed it at a wonderful party in 2000.

Originally, we had planned on having it to celebrate her 18^thbirthday, but we got a little nervous about how well the wine would age. We kept it in the basement of Tom’s old house in Rye NY on Onondaga street. His basement was the perfect place to store wine. Fortunately, the wine held up very well. When we first opened it we were nervous. Older wines will change color slightly. This wine had a reddish tint versus the deep purple of newer wines. The taste of the wine was good at the start and as the evening progressed, it got better and better. Funny how that works…

(Tom Julian, Jennifer, Paul and Susan Kenny getting ready to open a 16 year old bottle of Phelps Cabernet in 2000)

Right now we have  a 5 bottle inventory of 3 liter bottles of Joseph Phelps Cabernet or Insignia. These bottles mark the birth years of  Max (2013)  Emma (2014), Dylan (2017) Declan (2018) and Hadley (2019).  This tradition will lead to some fantastic wine and great excuses for a succession of parties.

The good news as that I have parlayed the collection of large bottles into an excuse to buy a wine cellar. In Memphis we don’t have the luxury of cellars. My wine cellar is actually a large refrigerator. How large? All I can say is that when the truck delivered it on a pallet, it was too large to fit in our garage. With the help of my son Brian we were able to wrestle it into the house and our collection of large bottles of Phelps wines is aging comfortably. The tradition was a great excuse to buy the wine cellar. Lord knows that my wife Susan wouldn’t have let me buy it otherwise.

Again, there is nothing like a good excuse!

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Note: The featured image pictures our 5 grandchildren with their 3 liter bottles of Phelps wine

SORRY …ANOTHER TEST AS THE ISSUE PERSISTS

 

Note: To my regular readers as Ricky Ricardo would say to Lucy: “You have some splaining to do”. Here is the story

Blogs have been few and far between for awhile because of a glitch in my website software. When you design your own website there are bound to be some glitches. Like my father used to say about his carpentry skills: I can do it, but it looks like I did it. I finally broke down and hired a guy in India to help. You have probably have noticed blogs being sent by Jay. Hopefully, the glitches have been fixed and you should be getting more blogs from me soon.

 

Enjoy!

 

The best way to eat mussels is to use a mussel as a tweezer.

Try this method once and you will be hooked for life. It just works. Mussels also make a great wine group starter.

Our son Brian and his family love spending time in Westhampton. He spent 6 weeks every summer growing up coming to visit his grandmother at the beach. He has a sizable list of food favorites that he wants to have while he is here. At the top of the list is mussels. Out tradition during summers in Westhampton was that we would take the boat out to an island in the bay that has a healthy bed of mussels. There we would collect a pail full of perfectly sized mussels. There is something about free fresh seafood.

After scrubbing and soaking in water with corn meal to get rid of the grit, I like to prepare mussels two ways with:

• Red sauce (olive oil, garlic, onion, canned tomatoes)
• White sauce (butter, white wine, olive oil, garlic, onion)

Add fresh herbs and a hearty baguette to soak up the sauce and you are in for a treat.

Using one mussel as a tweezer to eat mussels is not something we grew up with. My buddy Lucien who grew up in the south of France is the one that taught us this one. If you ever go to Paris you have try moules frites. Chez Leon along the Champs -Elysees is a great experience. While moules frites is originally from Brussels, the French do a great job. You can get your moules 10 to 20 different ways. No choice is bad.

I like mussels for a group setting because it adds the dimension of sharing. While mussels are increasingly popular at restaurants, they are not everyone’s favorite. Chances are you will have a guest or two that is not a fan, but my bet is that you can get a few converts to the “tweezer” method and have lots of fun with it.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Brian at the Westhampton Beer store, another favorite. Talk about a kid in the candy shop

Brian and his son Declan at the Beach

Note: To my regular readers as Ricky Ricardo would say to Lucy: “You have some splaining to do”. Here is the story

Blogs have been few and far between for awhile because of a glitch in my website software. When you design your own website there are bound to be some glitches. Like my father used to say about his carpentry skills: I can do it, but it looks like I did it. I finally broke down and hired a guy in India to help. You have probably have noticed blogs being sent by Jay. Hopefully, the glitches have been fixed and you should be getting more blogs from me soon.

 

Enjoy!

 

The best way to eat mussels is to use a mussel as a tweezer.

Try this method once and you will be hooked for life. It just works. Mussels also make a great wine group starter.

Our son Brian and his family love spending time in Westhampton. He spent 6 weeks every summer growing up coming to visit his grandmother at the beach. He has a sizable list of food favorites that he wants to have while he is here. At the top of the list is mussels. Out tradition during summers in Westhampton was that we would take the boat out to an island in the bay that has a healthy bed of mussels. There we would collect a pail full of perfectly sized mussels. There is something about free fresh seafood.

After scrubbing and soaking in water with corn meal to get rid of the grit, I like to prepare mussels two ways with:

• Red sauce (olive oil, garlic, onion, canned tomatoes)
• White sauce (butter, white wine, olive oil, garlic, onion)

Add fresh herbs and a hearty baguette to soak up the sauce and you are in for a treat.

Using one mussel as a tweezer to eat mussels is not something we grew up with. My buddy Lucien who grew up in the south of France is the one that taught us this one. If you ever go to Paris you have try moules frites. Chez Leon along the Champs -Elysees is a great experience. While moules frites is originally from Brussels, the French do a great job. You can get your moules 10 to 20 different ways. No choice is bad.

I like mussels for a group setting because it adds the dimension of sharing. While mussels are increasingly popular at restaurants, they are not everyone’s favorite. Chances are you will have a guest or two that is not a fan, but my bet is that you can get a few converts to the “tweezer” method and have lots of fun with it.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Brian at the Westhampton Beer store, another favorite. Talk about a kid in the candy shop

Brian and his son Declan at the Beach