Chateau Palmer

I once fell in love with a cook. Not any old cook, but the resident cook of Chateau Palmer in the Margaux region of Bordeaux. The chateau itself was pretty magnificent - vines trailed practically up to the backdoor. She taught me to cook magret de canard over dried vine wood, with creamy potatoes dauphinoise and crisp green beans. She also had to decant the wine when the owner, M. Sichel, was entertaining merchants from the city of Bordeaux or America. In the decanters would go, from the kitchen to the grand dining room - Chateau Palmer 1960 (and I'm not that old!), 1962, 1970. And an hour and a half later, back they would come - half empty. Or rather half full. I have never spent so much time in a kitchen. I drank alot of good wine with that girl.