Offline with Barbara Burlingame
Rotisserie Jules, South Kensington
Tasted Thursday, February 9, 2006 by Rani with 892 views
Introduction
After a somewhat confusing run-up, a few of us gathered to share some wine and fabulously grilled meat with the lovely Barbara as our non-UK guest.
Flight 1 (3 Notes)
As the starters at RJ are really not worth bothering with, we started with rotisserie chicken, which was delicious... (is there any wine that doesn't go well with roast chicken?)
Flight 2 (6 Notes)
On to an ecclectic (and randomly ordered) collection of Bordeaux. Halfway through this flight we switched to the enormous leg of lamb, which was fantastic. Russell and I were debating whether we should order 1 or 2 legs. We ended up ordering one, and it was quite enough for 7 people. Jeff had pulled out the wrong bottle from his cellar and his "mistake" ended up being the 1986 LLC. We could live with that mistake.
Flight 3 (2 Notes)
The rest of the evening was to focus on Italians, and turned out to be the highlight of the evening, wine-wise.
Flight 4 (1 Note)
Closing
For me, the evening really ended on a high note. We had some very good wines throughout the evening, but the two last wines were my WOTNs - and thank you Barbara for bringing them both! Come again soon... ;-). It's even more gratifying that both of these wines were new to most of us around the table, so have the added value of discovering a new treasure. I can still taste that Acininobili (even though we followed it by sharing a tub of Ben & Jerry's Vanilla ice cream).
1997 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvée 91 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. This champagne obviously needs a few more years to show its true colours. Medium to fine mousse, big bodied, with lots of underlying fruit, herbal notes and a lemony finish. Just hints of butter starting to show but otherwise very tight.
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1997 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 88 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Gold in colour, notes of white flowers, butter and apricot on the nose. Oily in texture, but with noticeable oak on the finish. Nice, but a bit simple.
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1999 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Bâtard-Montrachet 91 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru
This had a weird cloudy consistency - clearly some fault with this bottle, though no signs of oxidation! Slightly muted nose, with orange zest, minerals and melted butter. On the palate quite structured, with good fruit and well-integrated oak. Long finish. After some time in the glass the wine opened up a bit more. Clearly not the best example of this, but still very good.
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