Wow – this is the latest I have ever gotten an RCC post out. Hopefully, this is getting posted no later than Rosh Chodesh Nisan. My last post was just super long and took me a while to put together – so hopefully things can now proceed at a normal pace. RCC Adar Bet this year was special. Due to the situation currently in Israel, I have NOT been holding regular monthly RCC’s. It still simply doesn’t feel right. Why Adar Bet? Because I do truly believe Mishenichnas Adar Marbim B’Simcha – and to no have an RCC in the primary month of Adar, to me, would be antithetical to the theme of the month – akin to minimizing joy on Purim. Having said that, I do know that there those who disagree and rather than having standard Seudah this year, spent Purim day doing BBQ’s for our chayalim. I totally get that – and I think that this is a tricky time and everyone is doing what feels right for them right now.

The second reason I wanted to have an RCC was that Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet more or less coincided with my 50th birthday. I therefore decided to not only hold an RCC, but that I would supply all of the wines for the evening, rather than our standard practice of everyone contributing a bottle. In terms of cooking, my good friend Alex Mongait has been going to culinary school and offered to do something special for my birthday – and so he did. I have to say the dishes were IMPRESSIVE. For me, the star of the evening food-wise was the goat on vegan lebaneh with Lebanese tabouli. I had never had goat before and expected it to be super gamey – it wasn’t. And the vegan lebaneh was a revelation. Really excellent. He also did fine job on the Beef Wellington – it is REALLY hard to get that right especially for sixteen diners! Really, there were no misses food-wise – each dish was excellent. But, as I always say, this is not a food blog, it’s a wine blog – so here are my notes on the wines: