French Wine Tasting Dinner at Renée's

Tasted Friday, April 18, 2014 by peternelson with 561 views

Introduction

Thanks to Renée for hosting such an amazing evening with great company, excellent food, and legendary wines! Here are my 2 cents. Feel free to take issue or chime in with your favorites. I found that they were all at such an extraordinarily high level and feel my scores are pretty conservative. Loved them all and I would be hard pressed to list my favorite, although I loved the Confuron and the Mouton for the reds.

Flight 1 - Blind Bubbly (1 Note)

  • 2004 Nyetimber Classic Cuvée 92 Points

    United Kingdom, England, Sussex, West Sussex

    Renée's: Light bread dough, bisquity note with green apples, fresh lemon, and pear tart; vibrant, searing but refreshing acidity, well proportioned, long, and acted like a vintage Blanc de Blancs. Well done!

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Flight 2 - Smoked Salmon on Wheat Bread (2 Notes)

  • 1995 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 93 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

    Renée's: Minerally, steely, still reticent; pear tart, wet rocks, powerful, great structure and balanced acidity. Opened up later and gave more fruit and depth. Fantastic and in perfect shape. Still on it's way up.

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  • 1985 Jean Noel Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets 93 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru

    Renée's: there's a bit of attractive reduction off the bat, with pecans, honey, asian pear, soft floral notes of fresia; aromas are exquisite, complex, and vibrant. It's just starting to lose a bit of structure--acid is slightly below threshold. This should be drank now with great pleasure. Although I loved this, I felt the '95 Bonneau Corton-Charlemagne had more depth and stuffing. Classic Puligny vs. Corton.

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Flight 3 - Fire Roasted Eggplant (2 Notes)

  • 1995 Jean-Jacques Confuron Clos Vougeot 95 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

    Renée's: Clove, anise, blackberry and black cherry; sauvage animale character to this that I loved; silky, pedigreed, good acidity to support the formidable power in this wine. Awesome.

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  • 1964 Joseph Drouhin Clos Vougeot 92 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

    Renée's: This looked great from the start with a faded but colorful ruby-brick hue with strong fading and light transparency; subtle perfumey notes of exotic spices, dried spices like coriander, allspice; still a hint of lightly sweet small red berries, "fraises des bois", molasses and brown sugar. Could not imagine this would have held up so well and tasted just right. Happy 50th birthday!

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Flight 4 - Beckham Prime Rib; Leg of Lamb with Herbs; Orzo (4 Notes)

  • 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild 95 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Renée's: Great solid dark ruby color with a little garnet fading; aromatic with spices, black and red cherry, sweet cigar spices, red and black licorice, soft leather, forest floor and a bit of sauteed mushroom or truffle; silky medium body with soft, fine, but still ample tannins; powerful but perfectly balanced. This is in great shape and still very strong. Great with the prime rib. 95-96

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  • 1970 Château Palmer Flawed

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Renée's: In great shape, but unfortunately it was corked.

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  • 1970 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 91 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

    Renée's: This was pulled as a replacement for the corked '70 Ch. Palmer. Still in good shape, but not up to par with the '70 Mouton. Showed some dark red fruits still lingering with a metalic-mineral character. Notes are sketchy as it was getting quite late!

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  • 1985 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape 93 Points

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

    Renée's: This label is pre-"La Crau"; showed sweet red cherry, raspberry, red licorice, white pepper and dried spices with anise and a little garrigue. Silky, still good fruit, no real barnyard or oxidation, and holding up very well for its age. Fantastic with leg of lamb with dried herbs.

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Flight 5 - Cheeses; Almond-Orange Cake (1 Note)

  • 2001 Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey 93 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    Renée's: Another knock out wine to end the evening: starting its middle age with marmalade, lemon zest, apricot; intense, light on its feet with lovely balance. So delicious with the (orange peel?) and almond cake. Would love to try this again in 10 years but drinking very well now.

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