Jim's & Angelo's Birthday Wines at Vie

Another great dinner to celebrate Jim and Angelo's Birthdays.
Nice venue with great service, although a bit noisy. Eight courses served and clearly used great ingrediants featuring local farmers. Although a few stunnig dishes, no perfect wine food pairings, and some flavor combos seemed a bit muted in several dishes. That being said, I would go back in a second as overall experience was grand. Courses included Wild Salmon fritter, Sturgeon with sturgeon caviar, canard foe gras, turkey gizzard confit, roasted duck, wood grilled beef deckle with rare trumpet mushrooms, zamorano, and peach almond crumble with goat yogurt ice cream.

• 1979 G. H. Mumm & Cie Champagne René Lalou 95 Points

  France, Champagne

  Impressive stuff. Crisp nose featuring caramelized nuts with creamy lush element.
  Rich creamy in the mouth, very full with pleaseant nutty quality from age. Fat and dense flavors with good acidity to create good balance. Nice complexity for an older wine. Faded with time in glass with more distinct oxidated features, so drink up ! 95

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• 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  Light in color with slight golden hue.
  Good floral nose with and light sweet fruit edge. Clean and vibrant.
  Nice weightly wine featuring sweet baking apples in a creamy style. Some slight earthy quaility on finish. Wine was nice, but a bit below my expectations as not very complex at this stage 93
  Some thought wine was a touch musty maybe even some TCA that I did not pick up.

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• 1985 Charles Mortet Chambertin 96 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru

  Classic mature Grand Cru Burgundy.
  Aromas of rich and complex sweet strawberry and earth with elementsof cherry blossoms. Immediatly drew me into the wine.
  Soft sweet rich flavors of red berries, cool slate, and wet soill. Quite complex and elegant in distinctly feminine style. A beatiful wine like a peacock strutting its feathers. A regal and elegant wine. 96 Thanks Angelo

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• 1990 Fougeray de Beauclair Bonnes Mares 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru

  At Vie:
  Big dark black fruit roasted rich and concentrated.
  Concentrated mineral driven with dark berry fruit. Graphite earth masculine. 93

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• 1979 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Leafy briary dried black fruit aromas with very slight green edge that is primarily mineral driven.
  Nice sweet dried blackberry charred flavor with mild herbal quality. Smooth and well integrated. a nice drink featuring dried fruits in slighlty rustic style. 90

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• 1978 Château Mouton Rothschild 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Nice dark nose showing black mineral and slight herbal note.
  Dried black fruit in somewhat light style. Dominated by rustic earthy quality. Fun to try and decent drink, but a tad simple with some green notes on finish. Good, but far from profound.

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• 1994 Joseph Phelps Insignia 97 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  A simply great California styled Cab. Lush sweet creamy raspberry driven aromas, a wow wine from the get go. On the palate, ripe fruit bowl featuring all the goodies...red cherry, raspberry, and strawberriy. Intense ripeness with sweet concentrated flavors superbly supported by well integrated acid and tannins. This is the real deal and drinking great. Comes across still quite youthful and feels like still room to develop even more. Wow. This is not for old world palates, but for hedonists. 97 This is second time I had over last four months, consistent notes.

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• 1976 Jos. Christoffel Jr. (Christoffel-Prüm) Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Beerenauslese 91 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Clear boytritis nose showing bright concentrated lemon nose. I picked up a VA-like quaility, I found a bit off putting.
  Nice lush sweet flavors of ripe peach and good balance with decent depth of flavors. Seems younger than vintage. Ok finish. Good solid wine, especially for age, but did not not my socks off, slighlty weired edge. 91

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My favs of the night included Chambertin, Insignia, and the 1979 Mumm's. Not a bad wine in the bunch, can's wait for the next birthday dinner in October!