Bryan's Steaks and Bordeaux at the Hedonist's

Mr. Manlin graciously hosted a group of Chicago folks last night for some giagantic Bryan's NY Strips ala Manlin, along with some great bordeaux. This was my second experience with Bryan's, but my first with their Burnt Farms strips. I have to say that I'm usually pretty jaded about such things and have never found my old standby Gepparth's Prime strips to be lacking in any way, but these steaks were truly superb. Scott ordered mostly ~30 day aged, but also included one ~60 day aged for comparison. To my taste, the 60 day were too much - definitely a stronger flavor, but gamey and not worth the tradeoff in moisture in my opinion. The 30 day on the other hand, literally melted in your mouth and tasted as if they were butter-infused! Not sure if mere mortals can actually get these things, but I will certainly try in the future!

Everyone brought along a bottle or two of bordeaux, and they were all served blind in flights.

With a delicious array of sliced salumi

• 2002 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrières

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Pale white/yellow color. Medium tight aroma of white fruit and mineral. Tight on the palate as well, but good stuffing for the long term.

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• 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Also still pretty tight here. Similar minerality to the Sauzet but with perhaps a bit more acidity. Nice but young.

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• 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Easily the most open for business of the three 02s. Still has good mineral and acidity, but more lushness with good white and yellow fruit on the palate.

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Intermezzo while Scott cooked the steaks...

• 1999 Frédéric Magnien Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru

  Full deep red. Nice well-made red burg. Medium bodied with good cherry fruit and oak notes, but not much of the Vosne spice I usually look for.

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With the steaks and grilled vegetables

• 1975 Château Haut-Brion 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Full coffee red color with little lightening. Medium sour black fruit nose with coffee notes. Mineral and black fruit on the palate with coffee notes as well. Fruit is still there, but melded in to the background. Tannins are fully resolved. Like the last 70s era HB I had, this one actually took quite a while in the glass to 'come back alive' and the last sip was by far the best, probably meriting a higher score...

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• 1996 Château Haut-Brion 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Full red/purple color. Big briar black fruit nose - clean. Nice rich round sweet black fruit on the palate. This bottle was open for business and quite nice - easily best of the flight.

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• 1982 Château Cos d'Estournel Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Sadly this bottle had some kind of issue. It had a really musty mushroom gamey nose and kind of damp flavors on the palate. Past bottles from the same case/cellar have been great.

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With a second serving of steak!

• 1996 Château Lafite Rothschild 97 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Full opaque black/red color. Big nose of sweet black fruit and pencil lead with just a hint of green pepper after some time. Incredible rich dense sweet black fruit on the palate, with even a chocolate note that I rarely see in bordeux. I was shocked to find out this was the 96 as I would have expected it to be much more tannic and tight. After Scott's splash decant, this bottle was surprisingly open for business! Easily WOTN in my opinion, though a few others thought maybe the 86.

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• 1989 Tertre Rôteboeuf 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  Full opaque black purple color. Full cassis liqueur nose. Big rich tight coffee black fruit with some sweetness and a long finish. A lovely wine that probably suffered a bit from the company.

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• 1989 Château Clinet 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  Full opaque black color. Big bright acidic sweet black fruit nose. Huge cassis round red fruit with a nice hint of sweetness.

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Impromptu pull from Scott's cellar!

• 1986 Château Lafite Rothschild 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Full opaque black/red color. Clean full aroma of black fruit, mineral, and graphite. Full black fruit on the palate with licorice notes and a long coffee finish. Really lovely.

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• 1998 Château Lafite Rothschild 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Full purple/black color. Pale aroma of black cassis with briar hints. really lovely focused red and black cassis fruit with coffee notes, but still pretty tightly wound. Needs substantial time.

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• 1983 Château Rieussec 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  Deep golden color. Great caramel sweetness on the palate. Drinking great at the moment.

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Oveall, a great time was had by all as usual!