Some notes on a good mix of wines with an enjoyable compact group of 5 at La Sirene in NYC last night.
A bit about the food - my starter plate of Pate de Campagne Mason was just OK. I opted for this somewhat light appetizer (it’s really a lot, but as others can attest, the size of the mussels, squid and other appetizers that the others had, and which I’ve had many times on previous visits, were pretty enormous).
For my entree, I had the Snapper dish, nicely sauced and simply prepared with a side of Basmati rice, a good and appropriate comfort food that went well with the selection of food-friendly wines that were brought for the occasion.
The white wines:
NV Champagne Jerome Prevost La Closerie Extra Brut
Dry, sharp and clean. Some grapefruit notes, stone, and bread. Good length. A nice way to start. B+
2003 Domaine de Baumard Savennieres Trie Speciale, Loire Valley
Hint of petrol, peach and ripe white fruit. This wine is easily a crowd-pleaser (our wait staff had a glass and can attest to that), but seem to lack that zingy fresh acidity Savennieres oomph that I likes and which I remember tasting in other Baumard bottlings. B
2000 Louis Michel Grenouilles Chablis Grand Cru, Burgundy
The fruit is ripe but somewhat lean and compact, and yet the wine comes across as full-bodied. Light on acidity with a silky mouth-feel. An elegant wine with good balance. Drunk very nicely last night. I sense that one can easily get comfortable with this style of Chablis, and I certainly was. A-
The red wines:
1989 Ch. De la Font du Loup Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone
A bit of brett but not distracting. The bottle is in fine shape. This is a traditional CdP, with soft fine tannin, and plenty of red and blue fruit. There’s still that tartness that prevails near the finish and which is mixed in with some vegetable notes. A little googling revealed the wine as having 65% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Cinsault. A decent, nicely-mature CdP, but the vegetal tart finish lowered my rating by a notch. B
1996 Dom. Louis Boillot les Pruliers Nuit-Saint-Georges 1er, Burgundy
In my opinion, this was the wine with the most expressive bouquet for the night, with tea, earth, ripe fruit and hint of cocoa … and all this in spite of the sautéing garlic from the restaurant kitchen! Smooth and drinking very well, with its ripe black fruit and bursts of gentle acidity. I liked it with my Snapper dish. I sense that this wine can evolve further with more cellar age. B+
1999 Domaine Gerard Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone
Savory at the onset, but gave way to tasty layers of cherries and blueberries. Every time I drink CdPs made by this producer, the more I tend to positively distance it from the pack of mid-level CdPs that, in my opinion, it belongs to. There’s always that freshness on the wines in spite of some maturity and that sufficient level of rusticity that I like. One of the better 1999 CdPs that I’ve had. A-
2001 Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese, Nahe
I hope that one of the attendees would chime in and provide the correct vineyard that we had last night. As we didn’t have dessert wine, Chris pulled this out to finish out our dinner, and by that time, my note-taking zest had switched to a “relax’ mode. Showing a sweet lime flavor amidst the stony and mineral profile. Notes of pineapple. In hindsight, as I type this, I wish I had tried this with my appetizer of house-made pate. B
This was a good assortment of wines for 5 people. Overall, the wines were food-friendly and, in my opinion, were complemented by the dishes that were served to us.
My thanks go to Chris, Marjorie, Jan and Bill for the very enjoyable company, as well as for the good wines. It was nice to talk about, among other things, hometowns, wines, restaurants, NYC walks and museum visits.