Cold War Nuclear Escalation Wine Club Dinner

Otto e Mezzo, Alexandra House, Central, Hong Kong
Tasted Tuesday, June 29, 2010 by Goldstone with 952 views

Introduction

A selection of the hard-core gang of "bring only your very best wine or I'll raise or treble you" got together and decided to celebrate in style the recent opening of Chef Bombana's restaurant in Hong Kong, as he had hosted us so memorably on several other gatherings when he was at Toscana in the Ritz-Carlton. He put on a special Menu D'egustasion for us that more than maintained the standard.

Flight 1 - Aperitif (1 Note)

  • 1966 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon 91 Points

    France, Champagne

    Deep golden colour with very few bubbles and no mousse. A nice nutty nose........very delicate. It has a fresh and effervescent palate despite the lack of bubbles and a delicate palate which is dry and nutty.....peach stones and Chinese red dates. It gets nuttier and the acidity gets fresher with more time in the glass. Initially, the length is big and it has huge resonance for a Champagne but this was short-lived with time in the glass. Very interesting but an '85 is more my thing.

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Flight 2 - Red Tuna Belly with Warm Chantrelle Mushroom Salad (1 Note)

Both the Tuna and the mushrooms were stunningly good.

  • 1964 Rapet Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne 94 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

    Brought by Benoit along with the 1966 Dom Perignon and the 1977 Bouchard Per et Fils Montrachet. High shoulders fill but a cloudy sunset gold-orange colur in the bottle that made us wonder whether it was even worth pulling the cork. Bronze caramel colour and very opaque in the glass. Surprisingly quite pleasant nose of Vin de Paille and sweaty jockstraps. The palate was only mildly oxidised.....very nutty...almonds...great fresh acidity and an impressive sharp cut to it which belied its foggy colour. Amontillado on the back end. A very pleasant surprise and was 90-91 at this stage. With extended time in the glass it became Mead-like...honeyed and herby tones...with saddle leather soap emerging......it got very rich and gold on the palate and after 2+ hours in the glass (with a couple of freshener top-ups) it went perfectly with the salty hard Italian cheeses. I think everyone else had long before got mesmerised by the Grange '71 and the Margaux '83 (not forgetting the Latour '59) so I was a bit of an outcast of the islands on this one.

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Flight 3 - Lobster Cassoulet on Eggplant Parmigiana, Sea Urchin, Parsley and Green Pepper (1 Note)

This food hit you like a blast of Brittany sea-spray with the follow-on of a very powerful but not heavy sauce.

  • 1977 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet 96 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru

    Brought by Benoit along with the 1966 Dom Perignon and the 1964 Rapet Corton Charlemagne. Low neck fill but perfect cork. Unusually light yellow gold colour. The nose is BAM!....totally stunning....complex, multi-layered light acacia honey, lightly toasted hazelnuts, new oak....stunning and silence-creating for everyone. Initially the palate is overwhelming and mouthcoating acidity that put most people off but it continuously evolved to very minerally, steely, to some butter and then getting bright, bright,bright.......... a very high soprano note but with a slowly-emerging basso counterpoint. Good length ......... and a rolling reverberating resonance in the head on the finish that just goes on and on.........gosh, this is really getting good......long after the last drop is swallowed the saliva glands are working in overdrive.......heavenly but needed work to seek it out. The rest of the gang had long moved on to lusher pastures and looked at me rather pitifully......but this did it for me.

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Flight 4 - Homemade Pappardelle: Lamb Ragout, Porcini Mushroom, Rosemary. (1 Note)

This dish was simply stunning:.....a gush of "Essence of Lamb"...and "Essence of Pasta"...big and beefy. Wow!

  • 1997 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 91 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    Brought by Jean-Paul along with the Ch. Rayes Chateauneuf Du Pape 1997. Fully transparent cherry red in colour. Nose is very pure, high toned fresh cherry and nail varnish, young unintegrated oak but still precise and well balanced. High tones get more pronounced.....violets and strawberries emerge.....even on the nose it is so fresh it makes the mouth water. On the palate it is headachingly young......not much length.....the palate and finish hasn't yet caught up with the nose, although an attractive powdery dryness emerged on the palate with time and then a nice Crunchie Bar chocolate honeycomb developed on the back end and produced an attractive resonance in the head on the finish before the whole wine thinned out fast. Definitely needs another 5-10 years and was completely outgunned tonight, not least as it had the misfortune to precede the Grange 1971.

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Flight 5 - Risotto with Mixed Mushrooms and Beef Tongue. (1 Note)

A green vegetable Risotto which displayed a lovely balance with the Pecorino cheese....then a jelly-like slow-cooked beef tongue finish that was very intense.

  • 1971 Penfolds Grange 99 Points

    Australia, South Australia

    As ever, thanks to Runny and it didn't take too much unabashed sychophancy on our part for him to bring this along......after all, it has become a tradition. Deep, deep rich red colour that is still semi-opaque. The nose grabs you immediately and plunges you down Alice's rabbit-hole....where opium smoke hits you both in smell and taste and also creates an in-the-head resonance that is incredibly rare to experience on the nose......fresh and vibrant, wafts of youthfuil bramble fruits.....all harmony and integration. The palate is just OFMG....rich, sumptuous, velvety, punchy, smoky like a temple and with deep, deep, deep (did I say deep?) fruit......great oak and soft tannin structure that is mirror-polished mahonogy....it has a Pomerol softness and roundness about it but with such power. Gosh......it resonates in the head like bells in Chartres cathedral. Powdery but firm tannins remain on the tongue long after it has been swallowed.....and then begin the reverberations and reveries. Wow! I think it was everyone's WOTN and it even moved Jean-Paul to poetry......which is pretty impressive (the wine...) when considered it was up against Ch. Latour 1959 and Margaux 1983, amongst others. If you love wine, drink one before you die.

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Flight 6 - Colorado Rack of Lamb with Sweet Pepper, Lamb Jus. (2 Notes)

Stunning dish........

  • 1959 Château Latour Grand Vin 96 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Totally opaque deep blood red colour. Looks more like a 1996. Nose is initially all pencil lead in capital letters, then it plunges you somewhere....but won't let you follow......a beautiful woman you glimpsed before she turned away and she certainly hadn't noticed you....detached....aloof.....and even that requires tons of swirling after 9 hours of opening and 3 hours in the decanter. Palate is perfection of roundness and seamlessness, with a great depth of fruit descending the full scale of the piano down to a basso of plum confit and tobacco leaves. Waves of surprisingly light resonance work their way up into the higher reaches of the cortex. Quite lovely but a wine you have to seek out, probably because it is still too damned young. Not a wine for the immediate gratification of most Hong Kongers.....

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  • 1983 Château Margaux 98 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Graciously provided by Daniel. Impeccable fill on the lower neck and a near-perfect cork. Slightly lightening translucent blood red colour. The nose is welcoming, extravagant, pencil lead....wow!...lovely.....eye-closingly good....deep.....rich...velvet dusty curtains......a woman's damp armpit. The palate is initially strikingly acidic but with a tannic harmonious poise that is perfectly balanced....lovely plum, liquorice stick, cinnamon stick and a touch of raw opium....beautifully complex and harmonised....like an orchestra in perfect synch with a trio of opera singers. Resonant. Huge length.....rolling thunder.......constant firebursts on the back end......like your favourite rock track live in a big stadium that you just don't want to end....but even with a couple of top-ups it dropped off a little after 2 hours in the glass and thus didn't win WOTN, although it came close for me.

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Flight 7 - Tajima Short Rib & Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine and Hoisin Plum Sauce, Whipped Potato. (1 Note)

  • 1982 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 93 Points

    Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

    This was Runny's back-up contribution. This was a classic mid-80s Bordeaux semi-translucent colour that would immediately fool you about its orign. Nose is wet tea leaves, rich fresh blackcurrant fruit.....lovely fruit.....fresh acidity balanced perfectly by a laser-precision of blackberry fruit.....quite perfect; I could smell this forever. The palate slightly fails to live up to the promise of the nose....rather taut and acidic but has a high-notes resonance and reverberance that verges on silence-creating. It is only the mid-palate that stops this being an utterly gorgeous wine. I suspect that time will not heal that.

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Flight 8 - A Selection of Fine Italian Cheeses (1 Note)

  • 1997 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve 94 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Very light totally transparent blood red colour. Pure light strawberries nose with lots of high tones and then some violets. The initial palate is just....Wow!...a really unexpected power and intensity of violets and strawberries that explode in the head more than on the palate...a violet explosion..... Still very young and tight around the edges of the palate but very impressive indeed. Needs 5 more years to round out the rough edges on the back end of the palate but.....the length and especially the resonance is simply silence-creating. Gets more tannic in the glass....then fruitier again. Stunning.

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Flight 9 - Wild Strawberry Melba (1 Note)

  • 1959 Château Guiraud 97 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    This was my back-up wine after the Ch. Latour 1959 and had been an incredibly generous birthday present from Daniel, who was here to enjoy it. Upper neck fill and perfect cork. Medium toffee-brown colour. Nose is fresh (yes, fresh...) lychees, and orange, orange marmalade emerging ......"Cointreau on Ice" as someone remarked but on steroids.. Lovely palate of toffee held in place by a lemon creme brulee acidity and structure....this is heavenly....light....understated....but so powerful....ending up with a tart but rich Frank Cooper's Marmalade finale.

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Flight 10 - Hello and Goodnight........ (1 Note)

  • 2005 Henri de Villamont Grands-Echezeaux 89 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru

    The winemaker was hosting a private tasting in the room next door and heard we were having fun so introduced himself, brandishing this bottle as a gift. Nose is a taut and acidic combination of strawberriws and sous bois with some further forest floor fruits emerging. The palate is taut, lean and very young. Some length. Will improve......this is probably in an awkward adolescent spot right now.

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Closing

Wow....a superb dinner matched by blowout wines and shared by a great bunch of close friends and afficionados who had dug deep from their cellars to bring their best stuff. So far it has been dubbed "That Night.....".

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