by Keith M » Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:43 pm
Before the recent departure of some good friends, we decided to go out for dinner to celebrate their time in the Bay Area. We decided on Rivoli, which I've experienced at the bar many times, but wanted to try for the whole dinner experience. Very impressive. As I live quite close we decided to start with an aperitif at my home where I prepared some fried green Spanish olives, a bit of P'tit Basque sheep's milk cheese and some marcona almonds. All nice salty fare which proved an excellent canvas for glasses of the 2008 Talai Berri Getariako Txakolina, a Hondarrabi Zuri from the Basque region of northcentral Spain. Cleansing as water, lightly effervescent, delicious firm grip. Yum, the perfect summer wine. We moseyed on over to Rivoli as the last elements of sunlight faded and sat at a great table facing the spotlit garden out back. As my friends began with some pea soup and I with the grilled dayboat scallops with chanterelle and porcini mushrooms, truffle cream, toasted breadcrumbs, and salsa verde, we started with a half bottle of the 2006 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Monthélie, a pinot noir which was bright, full of cherry fruit, and paired beautifully with the food on the table. Fairly simple, but accompanies food quite beautifully—I rather liked it. But I was particularly interested in trying the older half bottle they had on the menu, the 1995 de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans. Indeed, there was a lot going on with this wine, smelled just a smidge, perhaps, of brett, but all sorts of wonderful tertiary development, smokier, a bit powerful, but hardly too much. This was a special wine and very much up my alley, my friend appreciated the Monthélie more with the food, but we agreed that a sip of the Les Mitans required a moment of contemplation, a very nice wine indeed. Didn't go at all with my crab lasagna (dungeness crab and ricotta lasagna, buttered leeks, sweet 100 tomatoes, shellfish fonduta, chervil purée—which was outstanding) but I had figured on that in advance. Much better with my friends' lamb and quail. We took our time finishing the bottle and lingering over our meal before deciding to head back to my place for a nightcap which consisted of a few glasses of the 2008 Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese Erste Lage from the middle Mosel. Wow, utter deliciousness, plenty of middle mosel richness enveloped in a rapturing interesting complex nose, but backed up with enough refreshing acid to keep things moving, rich and delicious, a wow wine. Rapturing wines with rapturing food makes for a good sendoff for some close friends.
