Celebrating a Birthday: A Little Break From the Vinework

We took Friday off to procure a few things to celebrate our friend Barry's 60th birthday. Because he loves champagne we were on a mission to buy some cheeses that paired with champagne. My husband did the online research and found a cheese shop not too far from us so we took a road trip to The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook and met up with the proprietor, Paul Partica. He let us taste a number of cheeses and recommended a pear pairing so, this is what we ended up with:

The cheeses, oysters, popcorn, and strawberries were the starters for our slow food dinner that we paired with one of our favorite champagnes, Egly-Ouriet, a champagne made totally from the Pinot Meunier grape, provided by Barry's SO. We also opened up a Duval-Leroy with artwork on the bottle by Leroy Neiman.

We followed up the appetizers with pan seared beef tenderloin finished in the oven and served with mushroom sauce. The side dishes were grilled potatoes and onions and one of Barry's favorite vegetable side dishes, a ratatouille of corn, tomatoes and okra a combined effort of the attendees. The main meal was accompanied by a trio of wines that included a 2004 Bond Estates Pluribus Red, 1994 Dunn Napa Valley and 1994 Ridge MonteBello. All of this was lubrication for the festivities of a 60th birthday roast for our friend, he had no idea what was coming next! Suffice it to say that the birthday gifts, mainly of the gag variety, had all of us in stitches. And when all was said and done, we had consumed 5 bottles of wine including one bottle with dessert. When we said our farewells, it was 1 a.m.!