On the nose the overall character is raspberry with quite a feral edge to it, there is something distinctly animal about it, more than just earthy. Its a very complex nose, evolving over minutes and half hours to take on a deeper earthy character- black soil with tobacco and hints of vegetal rotting - think deciduous forest floor - mushroom and decay.
On the palate it has a definate red fruit character, an intertwined blend of cassis, redcurrant and morello cherry with quite a savoury, almost leaf-like finish. The surprising element about the wine is the strength of acidity remaining, very cleansing making the wine feel remarkably youthfull despite its 19 years of age. Really stunningly good wine, almost wasted on its purchaser (no actually truly wasted on its purchaser, and I mean that in a totally non disrespectful way, but the dude was half cut and only drank about a glass and a half, leaving the rest to us), shame it was the last one.
And on the subject of DRC, we got the news this afternoon that we didnt recieve any this year in our allocation, which is a bit of a disappointment, given our long term purchase history of the wine. I appreciate it can be difficult deciding allocations, especially when the wines are produced in such small quantities and demand is becoming stratospheric especially with emerging new markets who are cash rich and eager to appropriate the "right" labels, but it would seem that loyalty is a dying commodity, as it doesnt pay the bills.
Showing posts with label DRC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DRC. Show all posts
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Les Grands Vins de Bourgogne - Gourmet Dinner
Last night was the finale to the 2007 Gourmet calendar our Burgundy Dinner. Ive been anxiously anticipating this event for a while now, and apart from a few traumas with numbers the preparation seemed to go quite smoothly. We ended up with 51 covers last night, which if memory serves me equals our largest gourmet to date the Krug Dinner we did back in 2005. Last night did however set two new records - most numbers of glasses on the table per setting (seven per person) and latest finish (2:30am).
We started the evening with a champagne, after all at £210 per person we couldnt really expect everyone to drink Cremant de Bourgogne!! Keeping with the Burgundian theme however we started with Jacques Selosse Initiale NV. Winemaker Anselme Selosse trained in Burgundy and he has brought the style and techniques of Burgundy to Champagne. A fervent believer in Terrior and practicing Biodynamic agriculture Anselme vinifies each of his grand cru vineyards seperately in small oak barriques. Weekly battonage and malo-lactic fermentation give the wines a richness of character and depth of flavour almost unknown in champagne. These are almost like sparkling Montrachets!! Needless to say the rich style of his wines isnt to everyones palate and some folks found it a challenge - particularly those fans of more pinot dominated champagnes. We got the last 18 bottles of this, and now have to wait until next year for some more!!
The first course wine was a Meursault-Charmes from Domaine Roulot. Now I'll confess that Im not the biggest fan of Meursault. Im not keen on the floral, perfume character that some meursault has. This wine showed huge bottle variation, so much so that we had to do a cheeky little "assemblage" with some of the bottles to try and even it out a little. It was also quite reductive, with a slightly cheesey aroma (they're squeezy, they're cheesey theyre squeezy cheesy peas.)But the decanting seemed to take care of that and the result was quite a nutty style, almost approaching a Puligny style of white. Roulots holdings are at the Puligny end of Meursault so perhaps there is something in that. The wine was paired with an artichoke veloute (aka wine-killer soup) with smoked flaked cod. It actually worked quite well, although the wine wasnt that popular with about 40% of the room.
The intermediate was a paella of rabbit with clams and chorizo and that was paired with Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet "Clavoillons" 2002. OMG a match made in heaven. The puligny was divine - rich buttery nose with a soft vanilla aroma, reminding me of my grannys victoria sponge mix! The feedback was fantastic, it seemed that everyone loved this wine.
Main course was paired with Jean-Jacques Confurons Clos Vougeot 1999. Out of a case of twelve we had one casualty to TCA, the third lost bottle of the night (three more to come!!). This was fabulous - rich in fruit with an understated earthyness, fine tannins and an elegant finish. This wine became the star of the night, everyone raved about it.
The main attraction was served with the cheese course - two different Domaine de la Romanee Conti wines - both from the same vintage. The first was a Romanee-St-Vivant - elegant and feminine in style it was slightly shy to start slowly giving up its fruit to reveal soft graceful berry flavours with none of the earthyness of the more masculine DRC's. The acidity seemed to be sharper and more defined and the tannins were very smooth and understated. The second was a bit more brutish - La Tache - big earthy notes with more defined oak structure to the flavours with the black cherry flavours coming out towards the end, almost like a black forest gateaux. It was a shame that we were only able to serve a mere mouthful as I had six bottles of each wine to pour over 50 people. But the opportunity to taste such wines comes up so infrequently and to be able to taste two different wines side by side is even rarer so I dont think the guests begrudged us the size of the measures.
We had to cheat a bit at the end, as we struggled to source a dessert style wine from Burgundy. I know there are a few late harvest chardonnays, mainly from the Maconnais but I was unable to secure a sample, much less the quantity we desired, and bearing in mind the price of the evening, we felt it might be best to chuck in a cheeky wee Sauternes to finish the night off. Last year we got such a good response to the Chateau Coutet at the Moutnon dinner that I thought, why not get Coutet on again, however this time we went for a younger vintage 2001. H, the pastry chef came up with an excellent Mandarin based dessert which was divine with the wine.
And that was it, the end of 2007 Gourmet calendar. All we had to do was to wash and polish 357 Riedel Cristal glasses, by hand and we could go home. By 2am the final glasses were being polished and re-boxed until next time, and then what had been a long, but very satisfying day had come to an end. The feedback has been great, and now Ive got to come up with an idea to end next years calendar on an even bigger high. Suggestions on a postcard please!!
We started the evening with a champagne, after all at £210 per person we couldnt really expect everyone to drink Cremant de Bourgogne!! Keeping with the Burgundian theme however we started with Jacques Selosse Initiale NV. Winemaker Anselme Selosse trained in Burgundy and he has brought the style and techniques of Burgundy to Champagne. A fervent believer in Terrior and practicing Biodynamic agriculture Anselme vinifies each of his grand cru vineyards seperately in small oak barriques. Weekly battonage and malo-lactic fermentation give the wines a richness of character and depth of flavour almost unknown in champagne. These are almost like sparkling Montrachets!! Needless to say the rich style of his wines isnt to everyones palate and some folks found it a challenge - particularly those fans of more pinot dominated champagnes. We got the last 18 bottles of this, and now have to wait until next year for some more!!
The first course wine was a Meursault-Charmes from Domaine Roulot. Now I'll confess that Im not the biggest fan of Meursault. Im not keen on the floral, perfume character that some meursault has. This wine showed huge bottle variation, so much so that we had to do a cheeky little "assemblage" with some of the bottles to try and even it out a little. It was also quite reductive, with a slightly cheesey aroma (they're squeezy, they're cheesey theyre squeezy cheesy peas.)But the decanting seemed to take care of that and the result was quite a nutty style, almost approaching a Puligny style of white. Roulots holdings are at the Puligny end of Meursault so perhaps there is something in that. The wine was paired with an artichoke veloute (aka wine-killer soup) with smoked flaked cod. It actually worked quite well, although the wine wasnt that popular with about 40% of the room.
The intermediate was a paella of rabbit with clams and chorizo and that was paired with Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet "Clavoillons" 2002. OMG a match made in heaven. The puligny was divine - rich buttery nose with a soft vanilla aroma, reminding me of my grannys victoria sponge mix! The feedback was fantastic, it seemed that everyone loved this wine.
Main course was paired with Jean-Jacques Confurons Clos Vougeot 1999. Out of a case of twelve we had one casualty to TCA, the third lost bottle of the night (three more to come!!). This was fabulous - rich in fruit with an understated earthyness, fine tannins and an elegant finish. This wine became the star of the night, everyone raved about it.
The main attraction was served with the cheese course - two different Domaine de la Romanee Conti wines - both from the same vintage. The first was a Romanee-St-Vivant - elegant and feminine in style it was slightly shy to start slowly giving up its fruit to reveal soft graceful berry flavours with none of the earthyness of the more masculine DRC's. The acidity seemed to be sharper and more defined and the tannins were very smooth and understated. The second was a bit more brutish - La Tache - big earthy notes with more defined oak structure to the flavours with the black cherry flavours coming out towards the end, almost like a black forest gateaux. It was a shame that we were only able to serve a mere mouthful as I had six bottles of each wine to pour over 50 people. But the opportunity to taste such wines comes up so infrequently and to be able to taste two different wines side by side is even rarer so I dont think the guests begrudged us the size of the measures.
We had to cheat a bit at the end, as we struggled to source a dessert style wine from Burgundy. I know there are a few late harvest chardonnays, mainly from the Maconnais but I was unable to secure a sample, much less the quantity we desired, and bearing in mind the price of the evening, we felt it might be best to chuck in a cheeky wee Sauternes to finish the night off. Last year we got such a good response to the Chateau Coutet at the Moutnon dinner that I thought, why not get Coutet on again, however this time we went for a younger vintage 2001. H, the pastry chef came up with an excellent Mandarin based dessert which was divine with the wine.
And that was it, the end of 2007 Gourmet calendar. All we had to do was to wash and polish 357 Riedel Cristal glasses, by hand and we could go home. By 2am the final glasses were being polished and re-boxed until next time, and then what had been a long, but very satisfying day had come to an end. The feedback has been great, and now Ive got to come up with an idea to end next years calendar on an even bigger high. Suggestions on a postcard please!!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A Pair of 88's.
When you boil it down to simplistic terms, then virtually nothing separates them. The occupy the same commune of Flagy-Echezeaux, The same viticulturalist, winemaker, facilities, everything. Admittedly between them lies the vineyards of La Grand Rue (monopole of Francois Lamarche) and La Romanee Conti, but one is La Tache, and the other is Richebourg, the domaine is Domaine de la Romanee Conti and the vintage is 88. Tasted as a pair sold to Mr B, one of our favourite regulars.
The 88 Richebourg was opened first. When I plucked them from the cellar, it was quite noticeable how thinner the bottle was compared to the more current releases. The wine itself had a tighter nose than I was expecting for the age of it, the fruit was quite shy at first, but thinking about it, it was possibly due to the temp as much as the wine, after all winter is drawing in, and the cellar temp is closer to 12degrees now. Once the fruit started showing it was restrained, under-ripe raspberries and berry fruits, with hardly any other aromas to show. On the palate it was green, very tight and mouth puckeringly sour to start with, but it soon loosened up a bit and the berry fruit flavours became a bit more defined. I was quite surprised by the tightness of the wine, after all it's nearly out of its teens, I guess I was expecting more earthy notes, leathery, tobacco etc. Considering the price (even the cost price never mind the list price!) I was expecting more wow, but what I got was probably more [meh] than anything else.
Onto bottle number two. Expectations considerably lowered by the experience of bottle number one, I was blown away by this bottle. The nose hit you the minute the cork left the bottle, ripe wild strawberries with black earth, tobacco and a touch of mushroom woodyness. Fan-bloody-tastic!!! The colour was remarkable clear, although there was a fine suspension starting to show, the rim a glorious brick red colour against a cerise core. On the palate it was elegant, soft supple tannins gliding across the flavours of strawberries and raspberry. Divine. Needless to say this bottle got served second, in order to lift the first one.
Were doing another vertical of DRC on the upcoming Burgundy dinner on the 5th December with a pair of 98's Romanee St Vivant and La Tache. I pray that the 98 La Tache is halfway as good as the 88, and the night ought to be a winner.
Speaking of winners, Im off down to London on Tuesday for the Hotel Cateys Awards dinner, where Im in the running for an award under the Food and Beverage Service Category. Im up against some good competition, so we shall have to see how I fare, but I understand that there were over a hundred nominations in that category, and I made it to the final four, so thats a massive achievement in itself.
The 88 Richebourg was opened first. When I plucked them from the cellar, it was quite noticeable how thinner the bottle was compared to the more current releases. The wine itself had a tighter nose than I was expecting for the age of it, the fruit was quite shy at first, but thinking about it, it was possibly due to the temp as much as the wine, after all winter is drawing in, and the cellar temp is closer to 12degrees now. Once the fruit started showing it was restrained, under-ripe raspberries and berry fruits, with hardly any other aromas to show. On the palate it was green, very tight and mouth puckeringly sour to start with, but it soon loosened up a bit and the berry fruit flavours became a bit more defined. I was quite surprised by the tightness of the wine, after all it's nearly out of its teens, I guess I was expecting more earthy notes, leathery, tobacco etc. Considering the price (even the cost price never mind the list price!) I was expecting more wow, but what I got was probably more [meh] than anything else.
Onto bottle number two. Expectations considerably lowered by the experience of bottle number one, I was blown away by this bottle. The nose hit you the minute the cork left the bottle, ripe wild strawberries with black earth, tobacco and a touch of mushroom woodyness. Fan-bloody-tastic!!! The colour was remarkable clear, although there was a fine suspension starting to show, the rim a glorious brick red colour against a cerise core. On the palate it was elegant, soft supple tannins gliding across the flavours of strawberries and raspberry. Divine. Needless to say this bottle got served second, in order to lift the first one.
Were doing another vertical of DRC on the upcoming Burgundy dinner on the 5th December with a pair of 98's Romanee St Vivant and La Tache. I pray that the 98 La Tache is halfway as good as the 88, and the night ought to be a winner.
Speaking of winners, Im off down to London on Tuesday for the Hotel Cateys Awards dinner, where Im in the running for an award under the Food and Beverage Service Category. Im up against some good competition, so we shall have to see how I fare, but I understand that there were over a hundred nominations in that category, and I made it to the final four, so thats a massive achievement in itself.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Romanee St Vivant 1972
Danny was on top form on Saturday, hes got the fire back in his belly, which is great, because I wasnt on form at all. Danny had set himself a target of selling a £250+ bottle of burgundy, and bugger me if he didnt go and sell two of the sods.
A random table of three, towards the later end of the evening, Id already approached the table to see if there was a particular style of wine they were looking for, but the guy was happy browsing. Id just taken another order when I saw Danny approach them and set to work.
Watching him work it took me back a bit to my younger days when I was full of enthusiasm but frankly lacked the knowledge to back it up. I had kind of lacked that inner voice telling when to stop and sometimes it got me into some very tight spots. In my first head sommeliers position I allowed myself to get carried away with the wine-list, filling it with trophy wines and constantly expanding it, getting ever bigger with each new wine that I tasted and enjoyed. It became an ego-fest, ever more personal, until one day I realised that I was the only one that could sell it, they were my wines, and the guys in my team that I was supposed to be teaching and guiding, didnt have a clue where to start. That was when I knew I wasnt really ready for the position I was in, and after discussing it with the HR manager I left for a new, more junior position elsewhere. I can see a lot of parallels in Danny, hes younger than I was, full of enthusiasm, but he doesnt know his limits, he has yet to experience that crash, that one humbling moment that keeps the ego in check and allows us to grow in our positions. Much as I hate to say it, when it comes I hope it is hard, and I hope it comes soon, because he has the potential for greatness whatever direction he takes in the industry.
So hes only managed to persuade the guy to take Bin 99 - DRC Romanee St Vivant 1972. I didnt think the guy was the sort to drop that kind of money on a bottle of wine, but once again Ive proven that appearances can be deceptive.
The nose if quite light at first - strawberries, a bit of earthyness about them, but then the feral character kicks in and there is a muskiness about the wine. The wine itself is very cloudy, a very fine suspension of particles, it doesnt say anything on the bottle about being filtered or fined, but if I had to guess Id say it wasnt filtered before bottling. I didnt taste this one, as it was late in the evening, and I wasnt feeling very well. Danny did, and was full of superlatives for it. The customers enjoyed it, which is of course the main objective.
All in a great wine then. Not too shabby for £270 a bottle. Fine and Rare are knocking it out at £483 a bottle according to wine-searcher.com, so I reckon its a steal at £270!
A random table of three, towards the later end of the evening, Id already approached the table to see if there was a particular style of wine they were looking for, but the guy was happy browsing. Id just taken another order when I saw Danny approach them and set to work.
Watching him work it took me back a bit to my younger days when I was full of enthusiasm but frankly lacked the knowledge to back it up. I had kind of lacked that inner voice telling when to stop and sometimes it got me into some very tight spots. In my first head sommeliers position I allowed myself to get carried away with the wine-list, filling it with trophy wines and constantly expanding it, getting ever bigger with each new wine that I tasted and enjoyed. It became an ego-fest, ever more personal, until one day I realised that I was the only one that could sell it, they were my wines, and the guys in my team that I was supposed to be teaching and guiding, didnt have a clue where to start. That was when I knew I wasnt really ready for the position I was in, and after discussing it with the HR manager I left for a new, more junior position elsewhere. I can see a lot of parallels in Danny, hes younger than I was, full of enthusiasm, but he doesnt know his limits, he has yet to experience that crash, that one humbling moment that keeps the ego in check and allows us to grow in our positions. Much as I hate to say it, when it comes I hope it is hard, and I hope it comes soon, because he has the potential for greatness whatever direction he takes in the industry.
So hes only managed to persuade the guy to take Bin 99 - DRC Romanee St Vivant 1972. I didnt think the guy was the sort to drop that kind of money on a bottle of wine, but once again Ive proven that appearances can be deceptive.
The nose if quite light at first - strawberries, a bit of earthyness about them, but then the feral character kicks in and there is a muskiness about the wine. The wine itself is very cloudy, a very fine suspension of particles, it doesnt say anything on the bottle about being filtered or fined, but if I had to guess Id say it wasnt filtered before bottling. I didnt taste this one, as it was late in the evening, and I wasnt feeling very well. Danny did, and was full of superlatives for it. The customers enjoyed it, which is of course the main objective.
All in a great wine then. Not too shabby for £270 a bottle. Fine and Rare are knocking it out at £483 a bottle according to wine-searcher.com, so I reckon its a steal at £270!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
DRC Echezeaux 1988
The surprise sale of the night. It boiled down to a toss-up between this and the Grand Echezeaux 1998, both the same price. My advice, go with the older wine, and lo and behold he did.
A light almost clear garnet colour with a good deal of suspension. (I was extra carefull bringing it up from the cellar.) On the nose it had a wonderful soft aroma of strawberry jam - the expensive sort with loads of soft fruit and easy on the sugar. There was raspberry too and a touch of griottine cherry at the finish with just an essense of feral muskiness at the end. On the palate it was slow to deliver but then the flavours seemed to build to a crescendo of soft fruit, light elegant spice again finishing off with the cherry and a slightly animal savoury character that i cant quite identify.
Bloody good wine, and a relative steal at only £270 a bottle.
A light almost clear garnet colour with a good deal of suspension. (I was extra carefull bringing it up from the cellar.) On the nose it had a wonderful soft aroma of strawberry jam - the expensive sort with loads of soft fruit and easy on the sugar. There was raspberry too and a touch of griottine cherry at the finish with just an essense of feral muskiness at the end. On the palate it was slow to deliver but then the flavours seemed to build to a crescendo of soft fruit, light elegant spice again finishing off with the cherry and a slightly animal savoury character that i cant quite identify.
Bloody good wine, and a relative steal at only £270 a bottle.
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