Dinner at Benu

E and I had a really nice dinner at Benu, the much feted restaurant of the ex-French Laundry chef de cuisine Corey Lee. The food had quite a familiar ring to it - it reminded me of the East-West fusion wave in fashionable Paris restaurants like Yamt'Cha, Sola or ZKG. "Chinese Laundry" if you will. The meal was very good, all 16 courses of it, but not incredibly special. In fact, while a lot more expensive than what the aforementioned new wave Paris hot-spots, I would not say it was noticeably better than any of these. Wines by the glass were decent but nothing to shout about, so we focused on Sake instead along with a couple of loose glasses.

• NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  From a 375ml that seemed to have a good amount of development to it, this was a very good bottle of Krug NV. It had a very nice nose - typical Krug - with aromas of freshly-baked bread and yeast, red apples, some kumquats, and a faint whiff of mineral and musk. The palate was nicely rounded. It was still fresh and bright with some zip to its acidity, but this was more marked by fresh ripe fruit, with apples and the fore and kumquat flavours at the edges, then anything else. There was a nicely mellowed sense of richness and power to this, with a nice sense of complexity to, seasoned as it was on the midpalate and finish by some spicey hints and a nice touch minerality. Good stuff - very yummy.

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• 2009 Vignobles Yves Cheron Gigondas Grand Montmirail Vieilles Vins 88 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas

  This was decent rather than great. It had quite a sweet nose, with lots of blackberries and dark cherry aromas showing alongside some garrigue and wild flowers, some pepper, and then a rather surprising layer of funky wet earth aromas and a suggestion of hot stones. Nice stuff, quite typically Gigondas apart from the sweeter than usual ring to its bouquet. The palate was rather meatier than the nose would suggest, with beef broth notes and a touch more funk ringing alongside dark-fruited cherry, plum and blackberry flavours. It was well-balanced and very drinkable, with a good dose of acidity and some silky tannins. Simple though, and a bit short, but otherwise a perfectly serviceable wine, good for early drinking.

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• 1968 Blandy's Madeira Verdelho 88 Points

  Portugal, Madeira

  This was a bit disappointing. It was not a bad wine by any means, just not very good either. It had a really unusual nose - there were some typical salty, seawater and salted plum notes, a touch of fig aromas, but these were accompanied by a whoosh of funk and a strange whiff of penicillin - not the nicest nose in the world. The palate was a bit better. More fig notes here, some sour plums, boiled pears, and a sweeter, slightly perfumy ring of something that reminded me of wilting flowers. Balance was okay apart from a touch of heat on the palate that I did not really liked. It did have a nice long finish though, with A long spicy finish with a nice ring of roasted nuts just the tiniest hint of the penicillin picked up on the nose. Overall, this was pretty decent, but not what I would call a nice wine. I just could not get pass those penicillin notes.

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