Dinner at Le Pichet with Dan Kravitz

Dan Kravitz of Hand Picked Selections was swinging through Seattle on business, and it was my honor put together a small gathering of Seattleites for a dinner at Le Pichet. Eric LeVne (that's me), Michael Gordon, Scott Gruner, Steve Saxon, Adam Noble and Jeff Twersky joined Dan for dinner at Le Pichet. Given that Dan is the primary importer for Pegau we couldn't help but to skew heavily to Chateauneuf du Pape.

Dan started by pouring us a wine from a vineyard he purchased. Darned good value for sure!

• 2008 Domaine Cabirau Côtes du Roussillon Malgré Les Fonctionnaires

  France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Côtes du Roussillon

  A bit hot on the nose moving to a very ripe palate. Tasted blind this screamed of 2007, warm, ripe, verging on OTT yet alluring. The palate was fantastic though, peppery, pure, screaming of Grenache. A warm, easy and delicious wine with a sense of place. At $20/bottle this is silly good.

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At this point all of the wines were on the table, but I chose to go after them in this order. Heck of a flight to start, and I could have gone home before the food arrived and just a few sips and been pretty happy. Seriously, SERIOUSLY nice wines.

• 1989 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This was my bottle, and at first I was worried. It was a firm but messy cork with no shortage of dried wine on top. It started as a bit of a slow burn, but pretty quickly it was clear this was quite sound, very mature, and very pretty. Totally resolved, as soft and supple as I have ever seen in a Pegau, faintly Burgundian in profile but with a warmth to the personality, spike cake and macerated cherries, supple, tender, really very pretty and sumptuous.

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• 1990 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This is a wine I have had a dozen or more times, and I think this was the fourth or fifth time I have had this as a side by side with the 1990 Laurence. While was a solid bottle of the 1990 Reservee, this was the first time I have ever preferred the 1990 Laurence to the Reservee. Nonetheless, this was pure, bloody, slightly sweet and primary, just a deliciously roasted bit of Chateauneuf. This was a touch more feminine and understated than I am used to, delicious, but just not as brash and wild as this can be at times.

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• 1990 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This is my eighth note on this wine, and this was clearly, easily and obviously the best bottle I have ever had. It helps when the bottle comes from the primary importer's cellar. A crazy, CRAZY nose, leather, funky, whips and chains, definite Chateaneuf Dominatrix territory, this moves to a palate that is dark, brooding, loaded with soy and blood and pepper. While I usually find this wine a bit dry, this one was fresh, pure and juicy with a singing and screaming cherry element. One of my easy favorites of the evening. Thanks Dan!

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Next I moved into the "rest", and these were awfully delicious as well.

• 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This is my "goto" wine on the entire planet, and this was a great albeit very gamey bottle. Warm, and easy, roasted and ripe, screaming of leather and and saddle and tilled manure, if you can tolerate the farmyard I don't know how you can not swoon over this wine. No one was apparently going crazy over this one, but somehow the bottle was completely drained in a matter of mere minutes. I would have loved another pour, as I thought this was just screamingly good.

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• 1989 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  I tend to love this giant killer of a wine, and it started in a very promising way with deep, intense color on first pour. The palate offered less than I hoped for, nicely peppery and loaded with sweet cherries and bramble, this seemed to break up rather quickly. As it sat in the glass it seemed to lose color and was clearly quite cloudy. On any other night I think this one have been one to savour, but in this lineup it ended up a bit lost. Still a terrific pour.

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• 1988 Clos du Mont-Olivet Châteauneuf-du-Pape Flawed

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark soy, roasted tomato, clearly cracking up and moving towards a cooked wine. Bad luck.

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• 1994 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Mmm, a youngster! No shortage of deliciousness here though, and it's fun to feel something with a bit more grip and vigor. I can tell why this one one of Dan's favorite vintages, and this one is screaming of blood and pepper and freshly killed deer. Especially bloody, pure and intense. I circled back to this one 3 or 4 times, and while it's not a huge vintage of Pegau it is gloriously satisfying.

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Finally as some cheese arrived we had some bubbles.

• NV Pierre Boniface Vin de Savoie Les Rocailles Brut de Savoie

  France, Savoie, Vin de Savoie

  20% Chardonnay; 20% Altesse, 60% Jacquère. Dan needs to end an evening with bubbles and/or acid, and this most certainly fit the bill. A bit bracing but hyper-clean with limestone and chalk and frothy and vigorous mousse. On the fresh and clean scale this gets high marks, utterly pure and refreshing albeit pretty simple and linear.

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Yum that was lots of fun, thanks everyone!