40th Birthday Dinner

We took over this small restaurant for the dinner and brought in most of the wines ourselves, as well as the cheese. Had twelve guests and went through fourteen bottles in total. Great way to turn 40!

• NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Réserve / La Française

  France, Champagne

  This one we bought off the restaurant's list. Served this as people were arriving, mingling, etc.
  
  Does the job fine, but nothing special. I always find the mousse to be a little heavy on this wine, especially compared to the nose, which is a little lighter than many. Some toast, a little apple/grapefruit, very slight honey or similar sweetness on nose. Plain, crisp, direct attack in the mouth. What can I say? Refreshing, fun, everybody likes bubbles to start the night. It does the job.

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• 2000 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Chassagne-Montrachet

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet

  Also off the restaurant's list and served with two courses:
  
  Amuse – Miniature croissant flavored with anchovy puree
  Assiette de campagne – A small piece of lightly smoked duck, a sublime
  uni and egg scramble served in the egg shell, and a piece of smoked
  shellfish
  
  I like this wine. It gets a little oak, but not more than the wine can stand up to, even in this vintage. The little bit of smokiness goes very well with the duck. This wine is by no means to be confused with a top premier cru, but it managed to provide enough interest to drink through two short courses and bridged the various elements well. Stood up to the anchovies and smoke, but didn't overpower the delicate uni dish. Nose is what I call broad...not really nuanced, but a good solid attack of white fruit and light toast. Cycles among apple, light citrus, pear, maybe an occasional bit of sweeter fruit. Palate is solid throughout…no weakness here. A hint of acidity, a bit of creaminess, fruit is more underneath than on top of this, but not out of balance. Again, this wine is not going to live forever or be confused with a Ruchottes or Morgeot, but it is good solid drinking and a fair choice when ordering off the list.

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• 1997 Zind-Humbrecht Tokay Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal

  France, Alsace

  This one was mine and was served with a choice of two dishes:
  
  Sautéed foie gras with a sautéed apple and sherry vinegar sauce
  or
  Gratin of langoustine tails with spinach
  
  The sherry vinegar sauce was only very lightly acidic and did not threaten the wine. The langoustine dish was in a very rich Americaine-type sauce.
  
  This was not a VT, but the basic Jebsal. I've got four more of these and I'm really glad. As rich and unctuous as you hope for from the grape and the domaine, with the freshness and zing to make it all work. I really admire ZH for their single vineyard zeal and think they are astounding with late harvest wines. I'm not always comfortable that the smaller wines will be in balance but this one sure was. I'm becoming convinced that their style really does well with Pinot Gris of any size. I opened and poured a tiny bit of this wine from each bottle about two hours before it was served just to make sure I was taking clean wine. (Didn't really want to chill backup bottles unless there was a problem.) Man, as soon as the cork came out, the perfume just leapt out. I was actually a little worried it might be bordering too much on VT style for the food. However, despite the sweet orange and cinnamon honey nose, the wine was zippy on the palate. I'd love to know how much RS it actually had. It was so unctuous and viscous, there must have been some, but against the foie you couldn't tell. Others report it did equally well against the langoustine. Awesome now with a long life ahead of it.

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• 1988 Pierre Bourée Fils Charmes-Chambertin

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

  This one was also mine. Served with amadai (a kind of snapper) in an umami-rich preparation (mushrooms, a little kelp stock, etc.).
  
  Okay, this was the major moment of the night for me. I hadn't tasted this wine in a long time and was nervous about it. There were so many things I wanted to show/go right here – underrated vintage that I really like – red burgundy/umami thing – old school producer/negociant.
  
  On the other hand, there was a lot of risk – some 88s are still tough and tight – Bouree wines get little or no destemming and a fairly warm maceration and fermentation – even though Charmes is a little lighter, the whole Gevrey area can come around slowly. And all this was matched against a white fish! This pairing was either going to be brilliant or a disaster.
  
  I double decanted the wine at about 6:00 pm. A strong whiff Burgundy funk when the corks came out. (That's a good thing to me, by the way.) Rather closed and tight on the nose when tasting the dregs...a little dust, a little funk (not quite crottin, but definitely in the stable), some very tight sour cherry fruit. Tannins there but much more subtle on the palate than I had feared. Reasonably stingy with the fruit in the mouth, but a surprising sweetness on the finish. I headed to the restaurant pretty excited about what might happen.
  
  Several hours later, when poured at the table, much more open! Still some funky element, but with much more open cherry and plum fruit and some general spice and floral notes popping up every now and then. Nice and clear, drifting toward lighter color at the edges, but not looking very aged, particularly since wines of this style tend to start life a little lighter. On the palate, the sweetness had moved into the mouth, along with a bit of brambly fruit. Good long finish. This puppy absolutely sang with the amadai, as well. I love experiments that go well.
  
  This wine is far from coming apart, but with ‘88s it probably makes sense to drink them as soon as the tannins are resolved, which is now. Unlike many of the ‘83s and some of the ‘88s, the fruit on this '88 has outdistanced the tannin and I can't wait to find an occasion to hit the other four bottles I've got left.

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• 1985 Château Pontet-Canet

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  This one was also mine and was served with a choice of two dishes:
  
  Roasted quail stuffed with rice and garnished with foie gras
  or
  Entrecote with sauce Bordelaise
  
  I really enjoyed this vintage in the early and mid-90s but, strangely enough, have had fewer examples recently. The wines drank well when they were relatively young, but seemed to have enough stuff to hang on for a while as well. This vintage also seemed to be priced pretty well, as it got lost a bit in the run of the ‘80s. Though they are at different ends of the spectrum, I've probably drunk and enjoyed more ‘85s and ‘88s than anything else from that decade. I certainly think those two have presented the best QPR over time.
  
  I recently drank an '89 Pontet Canet that stunned me and had seen some older good notes on the '85 (though the reviews on the '85 PC have not been universally good).
  
  I double decanted these at the same time as the Bouree bottles. While these didn't have the exploding funk of the burg, they were – all in all – showing more fruit and gave me more confidence they would work at dinner. More evolution in color, but still solid and reasonably deep. No longer opaque, but not something I could hold up to a soft light to figure out how much sediment I was dealing with before opening. Nose was restrained but classic Pauillac. Cedary, tiny bit of vanilla, clean sharp dark berry. Palate was very slightly chewy with tannin, but tannin was more underneath the same fruit that showed on the nose. At that point, little complexity, but enough structure and fruit to make me comfortable.
  
  When served with the quail, it underwhelmed me. I wasn't sure whether it had closed up or fallen apart. In retrospect, I think two things happened. First, the fat in the foie garnish may have been a bit much. Second, I do think it went dumb for a while. It was the same wine, same Pauillac aromas, but basically little to no fruit on the nose or palate. Perfectly pleasant drinking (and more pleasing to those who had the entrecote), but a bit of a disappointment.
  
  (Next morning, a quick sip from an unfinished bottle had opened up nicely and had fruit once again. Next evening, the last bit with a piece of well-aged Comte was really enjoyable, but fading again. I've got three more of these and would love thoughts from anyone with recent experience. My best guess is that I'll pop one soon with a little plain roast chicken, see how it does over six to eight hours and make a decision on the other two then. I don't have the feeling there's any evolution left, but I'm baffled as to why these went dumb for hours.)

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• 1990 Château Rieussec

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  This one was also mine. We popped these to have available with cheese and with dessert. At the same time, there was also Pinot Gris, burg, and claret left on the table, so it was "grab what you like" time with the cheese.
  
  Cheese – Pouligny St. Pierre, Epoisses de Bourgogne, Comte, Camembert de Normandie, Fourme d'Ambert. All were AOC and all except the Fourme d'Ambert were lait cru. It may have been as well, but I couldn't find anything on any sign at the cheese counter to indicate. (I brought the cheeses myself and was really happy with the selection I had at the market. Tokyo may be expensive, but it presents a wealth of choice compared to Bangkok and Seoul, my two prior residences.) Each of the cheeses was in good shape and at a reasonable state of aging. I like them all, but I had forgotten how good the Pouligny is at about middle age – not yet goaty-funky, but already taking on a little color and strength.
  
  Dessert – Pastry filled with roasted whole chestnut and a bit of marzipan
  
  Okay, this was one wine I had no doubts about. As long as they weren't cork-skunked, I knew these would work. I've had the dessert before and knew it was a great match.
  
  I don't drink a lot of Sauternes, but enjoy it in the right circumstances. The few 1990 Sauternes I've had have been spot on and so was this. Rieussec made a great wine that year, significantly darker (in color and flavor profile) than their typical Fargues wine. This was big-time botrytis – honey and that piercing smell that lets you know there's plenty of zing under the layers of sweet. This just went on and on and on – honey, lemon, butterscotch, candied citrus, middle eastern flower water, caramel, swirling and switching and mixing. Amazing with the Fourme d'Ambert and similarly in synch with the dessert.
  
  Unfortunately, I don't have any of this left. There was a little bit in the bottle stuck in my fridge when we came home from the restaurant. I picked up a little veined cheese on the way home from work Monday night and finished it off. What a shame I don't have any more; this wine has at least several decades left. (But it's also amazing now!)

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On an absolute scale, the Jebsal and the Rieussec were the best wines of the night. For pure pleasure and interest and food match, the Bouree was the winner for me. I love that style of burg.