A little while back, my wife and I joined our friends Tom and Sandy up at Jud and Lisa’s home to taste through some fine red and white Burgundies. We had great cheeses and other appetizers with the whites and then sat down to dinner with a whole bunch of different types of grilled homemade sausages from Karl’s Sausage Kitchen & European Market. The sausages were fantastic and actually proved to be very interesting pairings with the wines.
Whites:
2000 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. This wine presents a reserved but finely-etched bouquet of stone, chalk, apple, citrus and smoke aromas. In the mouth, it features fairly generous flavors of lemon, dark citrus, yellow apple, pear and slate that are kissed by a bit of classy wood. It’s fleshy-textured, well-balanced and easy to drink. It’s definitely a real nice wine but perhaps a bit overshadowed by its flight-mates on this night.
2005 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Blanc. Aromatically, this wine shows off classy aromas of white flowers, chalk, wet river stones and peppery herbs that are controlled and fine-tuned. It’s much more expansive on the palate, fanning out with beautiful flavors of apple and citrus fruit. It has solid concentration of juicy flavor, but still feels lithe and light on its feet. The balance is exemplary and the finish is delightful. It’s just very tasty and well done all around.
2004 Jean Boillot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchère. This wine just pumps up the volume--delivering a very flamboyant bouquet loaded to the brim with sexy and outgoing aromas of hazelnuts, creamy oak, shaved nutmeg, spiced apples and pears that are just lovely and luscious. In the mouth, it’s deeply-concentrated, fleshy and almost unctuous with its sweet-toned and sexy flavors of baked apple, pear, nutmeg, caramel and Normandy butter. It has great depth, expansive flavors and a ton of personality. It makes you sit up and pay attention, and I found myself fairly captivated by it.
Reds:
1994 Louis Latour Vosne-Romanée. Served blind, this definitely punched above its weight class. It features a bright nose of sour cherries, cranberries, rustic earth, caramel and a bit of soy creeping in. It’s surely quite resolved, with an easy-going, open and friendly demeanor that’s not profound in any way, but nice nonetheless. In the mouth, it features mellowed and gentle flavors of cranberry, sour cherry, herbs and clean earth. It’s not particularly deep or long, but it is quite pleasant and proved to be rather food-friendly. Drink up, of course.
1998 Domaine Joseph Roty Gevrey-Chambertain 1er Cru Fontenys. Here one finds a rather meaty and entirely savory bouquet that features pretty lilac notes on the top but underneath is all grilled meat, pan drippings, white pepper, iron and toasted herb aromas. On the palate, it’s dark and savory—with all kinds of tasty peppercorn, smoke, peat, game meat, dried sweat, iodone, iron, black cherry and earth bits that leave a lasting impression. For all that, it’s accessible right now and indeed delivers a good deal of drinking pleasure.
2001 Vincent Girardin Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots Vieilles Vignes. This wine presents lovely aromas of licorice rope, sweet blueberries, dark cherries, turned earth, bacon fat and leaf pile. On the palate, it’s mid-weighted but still feels muscled and wide-shouldered, with cool charcoal, iodine, black cherry, licorice and salty sweat sensations supported by a pretty inner mouth perfume of funky dried flowers. It’s all finely-integrated, holistic and free-flowing, with little tannic interference. It has tons of life and delivers a very enjoyable drinking experience right now.
2007 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale. Not surprisingly, this is a lot younger-smelling, coming across as sweeter-fruited and more extracted on the nose, with aromas of wild cherries, candied raspberries, rhubarb, cocoa powder, and some earthier leather and tobacco accents now and again. In the mouth, it’s big and bursting forth with blueberry, wild cherry and blackberry fruit. Smoke, toasted herbs and earth notes also make appearances. It’s a little tannic still, but not in any drying or astringent fashion. One can sense a good deal of promise in the wine, but it’s best to hold off another 5 years or so before trying again, in my opinion.
2000 Arcadian Pinot Noir Pisoni Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands. This was served blind. The nose is really overt and full of fun aromas of wild berry fruit, mushroom, toasty brown stems, birch and sassafras. In the mouth, it’s luscious and much more warm-fruited than the previous set of wines, showing off flavors of baked cherries, raspberries and baking spices to go along with some interesting saline notions. It has more obvious glycerin levels, but that helps it carry the fruit and spice flavors nicely through to the generous finish. This is nice, and can probably continue to be held for a bit, as well.
I think my favorite sausages overall AND with the wines were the sweet Italian and the bratwurst. The kielbasa wasn't what I grew up with, so I was less excited about that one (and I don't think it was quite as good a pairing). There were a few others that were a bit stronger-flavored, but still managed to pair decently. All in all, a successful experiment, and thanks to our host for surprising us with it!
-Michael