Thanks to a misunderstanding between "dinner at 7:30" and "reservations <i>for</i> 8," which I took to be "reservations <i>at</i> 8," we showed up a half-hour late and got the last two seats at the table for last night's offline at Inside in Greenwich Village last night. And just to make my befuddlement complete, I got there and realized I hadn't thought to pack my PDA or a notebook either. Still, I coped nicely, figuring that I'd let other people do the note-taking for a change, and I hope some of them will duly report.
It was a fine evening in any case, as Mary and I joined usual suspects Manuel, Dale, Jay and Tony, old-timer Joe Moryl making a most welcome return, and newbies Bethany and Tevye, who seemed to get quickly into the spirit of a WLDG offline with a neverending stream of interesting and sometimes wacky bottles.
The food wasn't bad either ... I'd call it international bistro fare with some Provence inspiration, in surprisingly generous portions. We enjoyed a squid salad and a ring of extremely tasty buckwheat-coated fried oysters: I had a long-simmered dish of chicken thighs over crispy polenta with lemon and sage and a boatload of wild mushrooms, and Mary enjoyed about half of her rare steak with tapenade over white beans before we rounded out an addle-pated evening by forgetting to take the doggie bag home.
As I said, I didn't take notes and really focused more on enjoying the wines than reviewing them, but here are a few fragmentary comments from memory. In general, it was a splendid lineup with hardly a klunker in the bunch.
We started with a few whites, then moved on quickly to the reds.
* Kamptal Riesling from Hirsch was crisp, bone-dry and minerally and very good with the oysters.
* 2000 (?) St. Aubin seemed damaged at first. Corked? No. Oxidized? Maybe ... but it got better as it opened up in the glass, so maybe it was just idiosyncratic.
* Trento bubbly (metodo classico) was fizzy and fine, with a distinct toasty quality.
* J.J. Prum 1997 (?) Graacher Himmelreich Auslese - very, very petrolly, didn't seem markedly sweet to me with its minerally, cutting-edge acidity.
* J.P. Brun 2006 Nouveau Beaujolais. I picked this up at Chambers Street for laughs and because I love Brun's Beaujolais and wanted to see what he did with Nouveau. Ehhh ... it probably was one of the best Nouveaus I've tried, but it still had that volatile grapiness of the genre and wasn't really my wine of the night, or, I think, anyone else's.
* A fun Greek red that someone (Tony?) hand-imported. I don't recall at all other than that it came from an unfamiliar region (Istria? Something like that) and had a name ending in "-ziki." It was light, a little earthy/barnyardy, greenish fruit but kind of a happy country wine all the same.
* A more serious Sangiovese from Rimini in Emilia-Romagna called "Noi," rustic and bold, with quite a bit of leathery character and good Sangio black cherries. Mary and I both liked it a lot, although I think it got varying reactions around the table.
* My other contribution, Mary's favorite (and one of mine), Puzelat 2005 Touraine Pineau d'Aunis. Crazy wine, a huge blast of white pepper all over the nose; light, structured fruit but mainly minerality on th epalate, like drinking cool rainwater right out of the barrel. We loved it, and most of the people at our end of the table seemed to approve, although I heard it got lower ratings down at the other end.
* Jay fooled us with a couple of California Pinots. After the usual "haha, New World" hilarity, we were impressed, or at least I was. Saintsbury Brown Vineyard (?) Carneros ... durn, 2002? I'm fuzzy on this ... was nicely balanced, full of Pinot character and darn near Burgundian. A mystery wine (passed around in a recycled Brun l'Ancien bottle) was even more interesting - pretty surely New World from its heft, it still had excellent Pinot character and structure, a very fine New World Pinot indeed. We toyed with Oregon, but I called Russian River Valley, which was close, and guessed 1997 from its earthy nuances, which was well off the mark. It was Alysia (sp?) 2004 Pinot Noir from the cool Sonoma Coast region, a wine that Jay says is made in very small quantities by a producer with a serious commitment to Burgundy style. I'd sure buy it.
* An older Finca Sandoval Syrah (?), one of Victor's first efforts, seemed to me to be closed up and difficult to evaluate. Call it gutsy but one-dimensional and put it back in the cellar for a while.
* A Brovia (?) 2003 Dolcetto d'Alba was, well, 2003. Pruney and overripe. A shame, although I caught a drift from the other end of the table that some folks liked it better than we did.
* Clos de Papes 1999 Chateauneuf-du-Pape was very good indeed, even though I thought it might be just starting to wake up from a down period. Tight but classical Chateauneuf, big and chewy and lasting.
* A 1997 Gevrey-Chambertin was doing very nicely, thank you. A much older Burg (1983?) drew a lot of anticipation, but was hopelessly corked - the offending bottle never got down to our end of the table.
* Speaking of older wines, a 1979 Chateau Figeac Saint-Emilion was splendid. Earthy and showing slight, acceptable oxidation, some of us thought it was just starting the downhill curve; others jeered and laughed at us for thinking so. We all enjoyed it.
I'm sure I've overlooked some seriously good bottles, but that's about the best I can do with a reconstruction from memory with no nights to guide me on the morning after.
It was a fine evening, and nice to see quite a few of the NY gang again. Thanks to Jay for organizing.
But in fairness, I didn't think it was showing terribly well.