what to eat with Château Peymartin

Hi everyone!

My cousin brought me a bottle of Chateau Peymartin 2000, a Saint-Julien (Borde!aux). Is it a very good wine? What are its main caracteristics? I would also like to invite my cousin and his wife for dinner and serve them the wine with a dish that would be very appropriate.

Any suggestions???

Thanks

Hello Anne-Marie. First let me admit that I have not had the wine of which you speak. I do know though, that this is the 2nd wine of Ch. Gloria, which is a well thought of, if not a top class producer in St. Julien. The properties where the grapes are grown are varied and sundry in location, however they are all well situated. I would not think the wine would sell (in the USA) for much more than $15-20, but knowing that the 2000 vintage was a very good vintage I would not hesitate to say that the wine would fare well at a dinner where beef or lamb is the main attraction.

2000 was a great vintage. I would probably go this way on the menu:

Roast leg of lamb with Rosemary and Garlic

Sauce of red wine and pan dripping reduction

Truffled Mashed Potatoes (I keep some black truffle salt around for this) or just boiled potatoes with butter and parsely

Haricots Verts steamed and buttered

I have never had this wine but I haven't had a stinker from the 2000 vintage either.

[Jenise]

Anne-Marie, you've received good advice. Peymartin is the second label (the best grapes go into the first label) of a good St. Julien producer. The wine is probably mostly cabernet for flavor and structure with some merlot for enhanced aroma and softness. The vintage produced very ripe wines, the type that show well early, and this type of wine shows particularly well with hearty stews and roasted red meats. You can't go wrong with any good dish in your repertoire involving beef or lamb. It would be almost impossible to offend this wine, except with sugar as it's a very dry wine.

Dear wine guru,

thank you for answering my question. Mmmmm... Everybody seems to recommand beef or lamb.

That wine is not distributed in Quebec so it was harder for me to get a reference...

Do you think we should drink this wine now or wait a couple of years??

Thanks for the menu.

the lamb with garlic and rosemary: I can smell it already!

I will try that and come back to you

Thank you Jenise for this very detailed answer!

[Jenise]

Dear wine guru,

thank you for answering my question. Mmmmm... Everybody seems to recommand beef or lamb.

That wine is not distributed in Quebec so it was harder for me to get a reference...

Do you think we should drink this wine now or wait a couple of years??

My reccomendation is drink it now. Too early is better than too late. But what you might do is open it in the morning of the day you plan to serve it. Take a wee taste. If it tastes wonderful, put the cork back in and wait for dinner. If it's a little tight in the taste--that is, the smell is big but the taste is small, pour about an ounce in a 'decoy' glass. The wine in the bottle, with the newly enlarged surface area exposed to air will oxygenate throughout the day. Meanwhile, come back and taste the decoy from time to time. That will tell you how the wine in the bottle's doing, which is fun. If at any point you think the wine's already perfect (not too tannic, shows lots of fruit), throw the cork back in: it's ready for dinner.