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Montana’s Triple Creek Ranch: "So, what wine do you drink with elk?"

This is the kind of question friends think is funny when you’re off to a wine tasting on a Montana dude ranch. Yes: a Vintners Weekend in Big Sky Country. Somehow it doesn’t seem so incongruous once you get to know Triple Creek Ranch http://triplecreekranch.com/ .

Triple Creek fits seamlessly into its spectacular Montana setting. The main lodge straddles a bubbling creek and is constructed entirely of logs. It houses the bar, comfortably furnished in Ralph Lauren-style Western chic, and a dining room with a wood-burning fireplace and enormous picture windows beneath a soaring cathedral ceiling. Guest rooms are a series of handsomely appointed one- and two-story log cabins scattered among the ponderosa pines and aspens surrounding the main lodge. There is nothing very Abe Lincoln about any of this.

Triple Creek opened in 1986, was bought in 1993 by Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, and his wife, Barbara, and became a member of the Relais & Cháteaux group the following year. Recently five wineries-Cháteau Montelena, St. Supéry, Chappellet, Far Niente/Nickel & Nickel and Iron Horse-visited over five consecutive weekends in the spring. I was lucky enough to attend the Chappellet fest, and an utter delight it proved to be.

Proceedings started on Thursday evening with a casual reception hosted by Phillip Corallo-Titus, Chappellet’s winemaker (all the Vintners Weekends are hosted by either the owner or the winemaker), at which they served their simple, elegant Chenin Blanc, a rarity in quality California wines, and a gem.

This was followed by a tasting dinner of four courses paired with four Chappellet wines. Well, call it ten courses really, since the first consisted of five different appetizers to accompany the 2002 Chardonnay, and the second had a trio of different gnocchis (herbed with a truffle butter sauce, sweet potato with a fresh fig and cherry compote, and cocoa with a duck ragout) to enhance the 2001 Merlot.

Of course, there is plenty to do at Triple Creek between meals. The ranch is tucked into the eastern slopes of the Bitterroot Range in southwestern Montana close to the Idaho border, and surrounded on three sides by 1.5 million acres of untouched National Forest. Given this setting, it’s not surprising that the most popular nondrinking activities are horseback riding and fly-fishing. A recently inaugurated all-day cattle drive has proved a big success, too.

For the serious hiker there’s the five-mile hike up the 10,157-foot Trapper Peak, from which to savor the views of the surrounding mountain peaks sliced by deep, cavernous valleys. Or so the brochure claims-I didn’t make the hike myself, but quite believe the descriptions from my less taxing explorations on horseback and ATV.

Friday’s Vintners Weekend event was a 90-minute seminar and tasting during which Corallo-Titus expounded on the philosophy behind Chappellet wines and the difference between the various bottlings. Now, an hour-and-a-half discussion about wine, any wine, will, in most circumstances, be a total and utter bore, but Corallo-Titus managed to sweep up even the most inexpert wine enthusiasts in his ardor for his wines and love of winemaking.

But the high point of the weekend was the Saturday night dinner. It was another food-and-wine-pairing feast, but this time the wines were Chappellet’s flagship Signature series Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, and their Pritchard Hill Estate Vineyard Cabernet Franc. My favorite was the torchon of foie gras poached in Chappellet’s Old Vine Cuvée Chenin Blanc, but then I’m a sucker for foie gras.

As I rose from my seat at the end I spotted a family of six wild turkeys trotting down the drive outside the picture windows. I was struck by the thought that this moment perfectly summed up the Triple Creek Ranch experience-you enjoy the splendors of life in the Rocky Mountains while being pampered day and night, especially at mealtime. On the other hand, I never did discover which wine went best with elk.

-NICK PASSMORE

Full Article: http://www.forbes.com/fyi/2005/0620/029_2.html

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