WTN: 8 @ Vin

The Opener

With parmesan crème brûlée,

NV Henriot Brut Souverain
My second time with this wine in less than a week - it's vinified in a big, smooth, easy-quaffing style, which has me thinking that maybe Henriot is the poor man's Charles Heidsieck.

The brûlée was salty - I think that was a first for me.

A Tale of Two Bottles, PART I

With Citrus cured arctic char on a potato latke,

1997 Bouchard P&F Chevalier-Montrachet
Very corky nose - not "corked" per se, but the bottle had one of those corky-corks whose flavors leeched into the wine. Beyond that, alarmingly dark in color, thick, dull, and plodding. If it weren't for the problems with the cork, this wine would be screaming prem-ox. I don't know if 12 or 24 hours in the decanter might have helped matters, but I doubt it.

1997 Jean-Noël Gagnard Bâtard-Montrachet
Young, fresh, virile, light [in color and in gait], somehow this wine managed to become even more aggressively delicate with air. WOTN, and, as I understand it, another [as if he needed another] huge feather in the cap of that jim-dandy man-about-town, Per-Henrik Mansson.

By the way, it turns out that "char" [at least in this style] is kinda like lox, and something tells me that a François Audouze would have gone bonkers for it opposite the Gagnard.

A Tale of Two Bottles, PART II

With lentil soup of fresh lamb and garlic sausage,

1996 Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc
Here we go again: Substantially darker, thicker, heavier, and duller than its sister vintage.

I don't have any experience with aged Chave Blanc, so I suppose it's possible that these wines might retreat into a hard shell for a few years, before re-emerging as something more interesting - or maybe it's just a vintage characteristic unique to 1996 - but I'll be darned if I wasn't thinking prem-ox on this one, as well.

1999 Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc
The perfect accompaniment for the dish. Please do not feel the slightest twinge of guilt about opening one now.

BARREL SAMPLE #1

With wild striped bass on white beans, chard, and lobster butter,

1998 Jadot Le Musigny
Hold until 2028. Maybe 2023 if infanticide is your thang, but I wouldn't.

BARREL SAMPLE #2

With "Essex Street Cheese Company Hand Selected Comte",

1998 Artadi Rioja Grandes Anadas
Sorry - I have no earthly clue what this wine is supposed to be about: No idea where it came from, nor any idea where it might be going.

BARREL SAMPLE #3

With flourless chocolate torte on huckleberries,

1992 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
Okay, here I have to vent a little - having remembered a recent thread about this wine at The Board Which Shall Not Be Named, and after having glanced at the consensus opinion over at Cellar Tracker, I was expecting something really special here.

But sadly now, I've come to the realization that I've been immersed in this foul, wretched, God-forsaken hobby long enough to finally have arrived at the point where I can dish out a little macho-pedantic condescension of my own: These poor souls have no clue what they're talking about.

Having been the very fortunate beneficiary of the library release of the 1973 Chappellets a few years ago, I can say quite confidently that this would have been WOTN in 2022, but personally I wouldn't touch it a day before 2032.

Frankly, in the highly unlikely event that the cockroaches haven't annihilated us on the march to their inevitable evolutionary triumph, which is to say: If real, live, flesh & blood oenophilic Homo sapiens still exist mid-century, then this wine will be a legend.


Followed by some Amaretto & Kahlua, which were both promptly dumped in my decaf.

[Gosh, I'd forgotten how much I used to love Kahlua.]


Then a short taxi ride to Ted's place.


Politically Incorrect Night-Capper Which Shall Banish Me to the Dog House For - Gosh, I Don't Know How Long - Maybe Forever

From the line card of a certain En-Bay Ammerschlag-Hay, this was a joint effort by Dan Standish & Jaysen Collins - shortly before midnight, but after 10PM - from a vintage that succeeded 2004 but preceded 2006.

Wow, speaking of the remembrance of things past - I had forgotten how much I used to like Dan Standish's juice.

Wish I were still allowed to drink it.


Well, thanks Ted - I certainly didn't deserve a night like this.


PS: The food & the wine starts coming at you so fast in these events that it's entirely possible that I got the Gagnard & the Bouchard backwards.

If anyone knows for a fact that that's the case, then please get on here and correct me - I'd hate to leave a piece of disinformation like that buried somewhere in the bowels of the Google cache.

I think you had it correct Nathan. I had the Gagnard but not the Bouchard and found the Gagnard lovely. Also had the Le Musigny and Spanish Wine, the red Chateauneuf-du-Pape and another red Burgundy, the Serafin Chambertin Veilles Vignes. Will report later today.

My menu was the same for the char but differed beyond that.

From your notes, I would say those wines were reversed. The Bouchard Chevalier should be elegant, light, delicate and fresh.

The Gagnard seems to be flawed, but my experience with JN Gagnard's Batard is a thick, complex, powerful white wine. Nothing delicate there.

Then again, you were there and I wasn't, so what do I know?

Hey - I think I saw you in the distance, but I was talking so fast and getting so damned drunk that I never got a chance to come over and say hello.

Sorry about that.

Went back this afternoon and tried a new bottle of the Bouchard Chevalier. This one was better, and had a very strong, athletic acidity to it. Yet above the acid, the wine itself seemed [strangely] a little tired.

Oh, and it turns out that one of the reasons the Gagnard showed so well was because it was poured out of magnum.

Also revisited the two Chave Blancs - the 1999 is just singing right now, and if you're eyeballing a bottle, then don't hesitate to pull a cork.

With warm potato and leek soup & crispy fingerling potatoes, bacon, and garlic chives,

1991 Penfolds Bin 707
Yet another barrel sample. Hold until 2021.

With butter poached Mero on spaghetti squash & haricots vert,

1997 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin
Wow - kicking some serious posterior here. Showing exotic aromatics, yet still fresh & alive like a young wine should be. Very, very tasty. 97 pts & drink now. [Note that this bottle was on Day 3 & had been gassed after Day 1 & Day 2.]

By the way, that Mero might have been the best fish I've ever had in my life - certainly the most unique. Apparently they FedEx it overnight from Hawaii.

I don't think I had ever even heard of "Mero" before:

http://images.google.com/images?safe=off&q=mero

Thanks for the update, Nathan. I've never heard of mero before either.
I hadn't heard of tilapia until about four years ago and unfamiliar with triggerfish until after moving to North Carolina. If you ever get to the Monterey Peninsula (not sure if they are available all along the West Coast or not) be sure to try some sand dabs.