Notes from a wine dinner.
After a nice Loire bubble with a couple of tapenade on bruschetta sorts of things, I did a kabocha soup with bacon bits and nutmeg on top, served with
2010 La Frenz Sauvignon Blanc Rattlesnake Vineyard – this excellent BC sauv blanc has been getting drier and drier and it is just about perfect now. Nice varietal nose (gooseberry, not cat’s pee sort), clean and crisp.
Next up was a Mushroom and Gruyere Tart with herb salad served with:
2010 Artazuri Garnacha Rosado – they get excellent colour depth on this Rosado, and the sweetish entry quickly gives way to full flavoured middle and medium acidic finish.
Then a Bacon wrapped Quail stuffed with Goat Cheese and Rosemary on Braised Lentils
with Roasted Sweet Potato, Garlic and Shallots
1994 Ch. Haut Bailly (Pessac Leognan) – this was a real surprise. Dark, with a big nose of cassis and vanilla, good weight in the mouth and lots of softening tannins, and a smooth lengthy finish. Just starting to get into my 94s, and this is on plateau and hitting maximum enjoyability. If you’ve got them, time to start popping corks.
With cheese, I didn’t want to hit them with anything as heavy as Port, so I pulled:
1999 Masi Grandarella Appassimento – at 15% alcohol, still a big cheese wine, but a notch down from many Amarones. yet still with all the good things. Dark (threw tons of sediment) with ripe recioto nose, good length and a fairly dry raisiny finish. Had one lady who wasn’t a wine aficionado saying it was a very nice Port!
Highlight of the dinner for me was the Haut Bailly. Well, that and the fact that the quail, cooked at 500 deg., set off the smoke alarms….