"It was a dark and stormy night..."
All Snoopy jokes aside, it really was! Mike, Jarl, Christy, Diana and I were psyched for the
Fête du Bordeaux event. There have been 7 of them (although Jim, the owner of Applejack, joked that it felt like the 25,000th one),
Mike and I have made it to 6. It's a wonderful evening, and is our belated Christmas date. One of the reasons it works so well for a Christmas
date (besides the obvious) is that the room the event is hosted in overlooks both his favorite green building and the park we went to as part of our first date.
(October 11, 1993) All of the food is prepared by the Westin hotel's gourmet chef, Jean-Luc Voegele.
We get to sample 15 wines with the food pairings, the incredibly awesome food pairings, and hear commentary about
this year's vintage from featured chateau owners. This year, the owners were:
But first we had to get there. When I booked transportation for the event, I told them we may need to leave early,
because it always seem to snow on Fête du Bordeaux night - and this year was not exception. The storm moved in about
3 pm and turned all the roads into sheets of ice. Traffic was horribly snarled. I left work in Boulder at 4:15 for what would normally
have been a 40-minute drive home, with plenty of time to get ready for our 6 pm pick-up time. But I never made it home - by 5:50, I had made
it to Diana's house in Westminster - what would ordinarily have been an approximately 20-minute drive from Boulder. And I felt fortunate
to have gotten there! Jenna (from Anthony's Limo) picked Mike up in Golden, and they started to make their way downtown, very slowly. I hung
out at Diana's house while Jenna's boyfriend attempted the drive north from Golden to pick up Jarl and Christy, and then us.
We were a wild bunch by the time he picked us all up- just thrilled that he made it through all the traffic to get us! He was laughing - "that's why I love driving you guys.
Here I was all worried you'd be mad that I was late." By the time the 4 of us were in the car, the clouds had parted and the de-icing chemicals
(mag chloride) had made the roads completely driveable. We were thrilled to know we would actually make it to the event on time and were very talkative all the way downtown.
It was a race! Mike got there before us, but not by much. Because many guests were late, they had extended the champagne reception, so we toasted to
making it to Fete du Bordeaux despite the weather ...again... enjoyed a few tasty hors d'oeuvres, and had time for a few pictures. I had forgotten to tell
Mike to bring our camera, but Diana took pictures - below.
I have scanned my menu with notes. There were also really large ("souvenir size") menus. One of the event planners said those were accidental -
when he went to pick up the menus that are set at each place setting, he found they had printed the poster size. oops! Luckily, the print shop was able
to quickly produce another batch that would better fit on the table. We had a wonderful time. We sat at a table with the Chateaux Figeac owner, Hortense.
The food was amazing, the conversation exuberant, and the wine was tasty! A perfect evening!
Pictures from Diana:
Our awesome place setting:
Jarl, Christy, me, and Mike by our table.
The lamb:
Last updated 10Feb2015