We’ve all had it…those moments where we see something familiar and it sparks an entire chain of memories as if it was just yesterday. In my case, it starts with my most favorite wine from Gevrey-Chambertin. If you read my earlier blog on The Village Pub, you may remember I mentioned wines from this area - they are the only local SF Bay Area restaurant that I know sells it by the glass.
Gevrey-Chambertin, a small town in Cote de Nuits producing some of Burgundy's most famous red wine from Pinot Noir grapes. Their wines are dubbed the king of wines and wine of kings, even though it was said that it was the Emperor Napolean's favorite wine.
Gevrey-Chambertin wines are deep in color with intense aromas and flavors evoking blackcurrant, cherry and liquorice, among others. Even with such a powerful punch in flavor, I found them to be silky in texture. They say these wines are a perfect accompaniment to stews, grilled red meat and strong cheeses. I say if you love red wine, it can go with anything.
I first discovered Gevrey-Chambertin in New York. We landed around 6 p.m. with just enough time to spare for our hotel check-in and then a late dinner at Thomas Keller's Per Se.
My colleague picked the location, as we knew it was only appropriate to have a small pre-celebration before all our festivities leading up to and at the NYSE – we were days away from ringing the bell in front of millions of people - Per Se was our treat and so was the wine we discovered.
We described our taste to the Sommelier, who ended up recommending a Gevrey-Chambertin. I gulped when he told us the price - $250 – but in honor of the upcoming big day, our little dinner party of four agreed to order a bottle. I’m so glad we did. It opened a whole new world of wines for me and since then I have been hooked.
I recently hit up a private sale at the Vintage Wine Merchants and stocked up…as you can see below. Off-the-shelf prices range from $75-$110 per bottle.
Every sip I take, just brings back wonderful memories of New York, our dinner at Per Se, the team outing to see Jersey Boys and dinner at Nobu, and then the all memorable NYSE morning Bell Ringing Ceremony. I know people who wait nearly a lifetime to do it just once and some never reach that point. Here, I was 35 years old and my third time at the podium. I am so grateful for it all!
If you watch the video, I was caught on National TV in front of millions, taking a FaceBook photo of the Floor. And worse, I've got this look on my face like "hey, why are you guys clapping already?" Doh...we were live on air. LOL. It felt like the longest 30 seconds of clapping and smiling of my life.
Here's the photo that I had taken on my iPhone moments before the clapping.
Since I was responsible for all the Marketing aspects, the evening before our Bell Ringing Ceremony, I sat outside of the NYSE waiting for our 60-ft banner to be hung on the NYSE building. It was a cool experience to sit on the steps of a historic building and “listen” to the city. I can still hear it, when I close my eyes...I hear the NYSE workers clipping their safety belts to the iron rods, yelling to one another to check in "ready?" as they prepared to hang the banner. Sunday-Friday those men put their lives in danger to hang and remove a 60-ft banner each day.
[The angle of the photos can be deceiving - just know that these buildings and the banners were huge and up high!]
Here’s the evening photo:
