Olympia, WA
Tasted Saturday, November 22, 2008 by Eric with 1,387 views
Justin Wells has been begging me for a while to make the trip down to Olympia for an evening of great food and wine, and the occasion finally presented itself on his 31st birthday. Also joining us was Justin's wife Zoe and Harlan Bernstein who made the trip up from Portland.
As we milled in the kitchen, Justin put together a couple of appetizers to pair with this beautiful Raveneau: a crab and goat cheese dip wit some citrus served atop cucumber; and a little peel and eat shrimp boil. Yummy!
Our first sit down course was a killer seafood pot pie what was highlighted by a fantastically subtle shrimp stock. The Coche was a haunting accompaniment to the dish.
As good as the prior courses were, now we moved into overdrive on the food and wine pairings. A beautiful duck confit served atop braised cabbage with a cherry reduction sauce of some sort just kicked butt with a pair of DRC's. The GE was tired but lovely and matched incredibly with the food. The Richebourg was a lovely beast that really got me going.
Next up was a deconstruncted cassoulet, a nearly jello soft hunk of sous vide pork belly served atop a wonderfully savory cassoulet. And what better to pair with the pork than two of the greatest expressions of Syrah ever invented? Oh man, shoot me now!
Next up were simply prepared Brian Flannery aged strips served simply with just a little red wine and veal reduction on the side. Oh yeah, killer Bordeaux and killer prime beef, no going wrong here. The Beau is a better wine, but the Margaux delivers the goods right now.
We retired to watch some Lord of the Rings (I was inspired by the incredible Uruk Hai noises that Franklin the bulldog makes.) With a cheese tray Justin opened one more Bordeaux.
I was pretty much done at this point, but Justin came along with one more treat.
Many thanks to Justin, Zoe and Harlan for a fantastic evening of food and wine (and to Zoe and Justin in particular for putting up with Harlan and I diving incessantly into politics all night long).
1997 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre 92 Points
France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru
Some textbook notes of seashell give way to a tightly wound palate that is loaded with lemony goodness. While this was quite rich when first poured, it positively exploded about 30 minutes later gaining a great deal of palate presence and much more expansiveness. I have not tasted a lot of Raveneau, but this baby made it clear that these take at least a decade to even begin to want to play.
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