Dinner at The Ledbury

Tonight was a brilliant dinner at The Ledbury with my friend Chris. Some really world class food in a very comfortable environment. I really should have been photographing the food, nearly all of which played beautifully with texture. Alas I was having too much fun with conversation to obsess about the food.

On its own and with the amuse of a quail egg in a crispy nest with a chestnut puree and then with a scallop ceviche and frozen horseradish powder. Just brilliant.

• 1999 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut

  France, Champagne

  Utterly delicious wine by the glass. Very vinous, round, and weighty Champagne. Still quite young but actually more impressive and pleasurable than some 1999 Cristal tasted a day earlier.

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With perhaps my favorite dish, an amazing dual treatment of mackerel. The wine was simply perfect with the rich and oily fish.

• 2009 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Reserve Lamm Kamptal

  Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal

  Wowza, not a small wine by any measure, but I simply love where this is going. Some sort of slate or schist or some such mineral element on the nose, dancing amidst the obvious fruit. The palate is rich but not over the top and really quite electric. Not terribly spicy and a touch round but with excellent energy. I really need to drink more Gobelsburg, as it always bring me such pleasure.

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This was very nice with a truffled raviolo filled with partridge and perfect with a lamb and Jerusalem artichoke dish.

• 1991 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Always a treat. This seems to be finally drinking in its oak. It started a bit more masculine than I normally expect for a Mouline, but with time it softened considerably. Killer aromatics of smoked meat and blood and a touch of pepper but with the meat as the very dominant element. Very long and powerful palate, caressing, good acidity but maybe just a tad more time in bottle would help deal with all of the raw material.

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