Notes from a dinner with wine friends. I have some older wines that need drinking and creating a dinner to feature them is the best way to accomplish that.
1990 Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Cuvée Rare – this turned out to be delicious. Fresh and with good mousse given the age, lemon and almonds in the mouth and a long, long finish.
2000 Montaudon Champagne Brut Millésimé – a decade younger, and showing citrus romas and maybe a hint of pineapple. Clean acidity. Not bad.
Served with Dijon Gruyere Gougeres and caramelized fennel and anchovy bruschetta (the anchovy, even in small amounts, really wakens the taste in this dish.
2003 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Heimbourg – this was getting a bit long in the tooth. After it warmed a bit it showed a decent nose, some mineral, and a fair bit if terminal acidity, which worked well with the food.
Served with a chestnut and apple soup that is quite rich unless the accompanying wine has sufficient acidity to lighten it. This one did.
1993 Domaine du Closel-Château des Vaults Savennières Clos du Papillon – these wines, acidic when young, mellow with age and drink well about 6-7 years on, and in old age become golden and interesting wines (in a style that often surprises many people). Waxy nose with caramel and fig, and then on palate a dead dry wine with a smooth finish.
Served with Belgian endive, blanched and wrapped in ham and served with a Gruyere béchamel sauce.
1996 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu – opened during a pause waiting for the main course (it had been a back up for the Savennieres). Dark gold and a waxy pineapple and lemon nose, Finishes just off dry. These last a long time, but IMO this one was better a couple of years ago.
The main course was accompanied by a pair of blind wines served seriatim rather than side by side as I feared the first might be weak and overwhelmed by the second.
1970 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste – medium colour, and a nose of cedar and earth with an interesting hint of smokiness. On palate, medium body with decent fruit and length. Not a heavy weight for a 1970, and definitely in its dotage, but nonetheless enjoyable, and in fact much better than I had feared. For that reason I served the other bottle shortly after we’d tasted this wine.
1975 Château Léoville Barton- I have a small stash of 1975s, an often misunderstood vintage that many people write off without appreciating what they are. (Presumably they’d also have written off such vintages as the 1928 for being too hard and tannic for the first few decades of life). The 1975s have always been a race between high tannins that require many years to soften, and slowly declining levels of fruit. If the fruit exits before the tannin softens, you have a wine that is never worth drinking. If they manage to hit that window where the tannins are sufficiently soft for enjoyment while fruit remains, they can drink very well indeed. This wine was in a nice place. The nose was of sweet cedar, tobacco and red fruit, backed by old leather, and the wine has mellowed into a very nice well rounded claret with a smooth long finish. Results will vary with bottles of this age, but this one was a winner.
Served with boned leg of lamb, stuffed with black olive tapenade and roasted at fairly high heat, which melts the fat out but leaves the meat fairly tender – served medium. It was accompanied by simple steamed new potatoes, served with a saffron scented aioli, and grilled asparagus with a sun dried tomato vinaigrette that was very tasty.
1977 Dow Porto Vintage – I had opened this about six hours before service. Last time I’d opened one, I found it to be on the hot side and not ready for prime time, and I wanted an update. Pale colour now, with clear rather than browning edges, and little of the heat I’d noted in the nose, replaced by a nuttiness – walnuts, chestnuts (perhaps influenced by the soup I’d served) and hints of orange peel and ripe dark cherry. The chestnut and cherry persisted into the palate and added cocoa and some spice. Finish was of good length and showed good balance. Best bottle of this I’ve tasted – interesting that others’ notes indicate that they believe it to be hitting senescence while to me it seems to be just hitting stride. I’d been fortunate enough to have the 1977 Taylors the week before and it surpassed this wine, but I think it would be asking a bit much for the Dow to show any better than it did for us.
I served a cheese plate with the Port, along with a half ripe pear that I had stuffed with Roquefort, crème fraiche and Cognac and walnut bits.
We then had non-wine accompanied dessert, a walnut date cake,