| | This meal was a night of putting names to faces. Yaacov Barselah and I joined Mike Steinberger and John Gilman for a really fun meal at corkage-free Monday at Apiary in NYC. The food was solid, service a bit slammed at times, but very wine savvy, very friendly, and just an all around awesome experience. As we arrived and sat at the bar for a few minutes we broke into this one. - 2000 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru
A really fun nose, seashell and snap, some mineral stink. The palate is soft at perhaps, JohnG thinks too soft and maybe on its way to premox, but as the evening waxes I thought this gained in grip and acidity on the finish and was only getting more vigorous with time.
With a terrific crudo of Hamachi these followed. - 1994 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Rockstar showing. Amazing notes of honey and beeswax are soon followed by a fun kaleidoscope of marzipan and clove. The palate was powerful, oily, but not oppressive. There was some discussion that this had some of those nutty oxidized flavors from the weird sleeping phase these can go through, but clearly this was emerging from that slumber and showing awfully well. We revisited it a few hours later, and it was rocking. Terrific stuff.
- 1996 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune - France, Alsace
Deep color. Diesel nose. Too sweet and soft and tired. Bad cork or some other form of oxidation? I have only had CSH twice before, the 1979 and the 1997, and this bore no resemblance to those taut, mineral beauties. Too bad. (FLAWED)
My next two courses were a very nice sweetbread (not quite as crispy as I like) and an awesome pork chop atop a bed of black beans. The Rhones were screamingly good with the pork. - 2002 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
The word that leaps to mind on this is PURE. The nose takes a while to wake up and never really struts, but the palate is GORGEOUS, supple, pure, clean, delicate, feminine, seductive Pinot. This is a wine to lead me to the dark side for sure...
- 1983 E. Guigal Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Nice wine, a touch past prime. Smoke and pine. Soft cherry fruit, fading, acids taking over. Really a lovely drink for sure, but it paled in comparison to the 88 Guigal Cote-Rotie served alongside.
- 1988 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Snap! Meat and gunpowder and blood. Utterly at peak, maybe not as much bacon and pepper as I might like, just juicy and bloody, perfectly mature. With a pork chop and black bean dish I was in absolute heaven.
- 1989 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Wowza. I have had some great bottles of the 1989 Rayas, and this is among them. Dense, spicecake, slightly sweet, pine, pure and intense Grenache, just smouldering, white pepper, everything in balance, everything I want in a Rayas.
And finally with some cheese. - 2004 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Eiswein #23 - Germany, Nahe
Mmm, I love a good Eiswein, and this was really good. Crystalline intensity, concentrated grapefruit, some honey, but clean, focused, rich, cutting. It doesn't quite match my memory of a surreal 2002 I had once, but these are always awfully special.
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