Cru

Today I spent the day with Brian Hider of The Pluckemin Inn figuring out how to help them further integrate CellarTracker into their upcoming launch of their restaurant.

After a morning discussing their goals at The Pluckemin and looking at their POS system at a smaller restaurant called 'Ocino', I headed into NYC with Brian to check out the inventory management system(s) at Le Bernardin. We stopped off en route at the wine bar at Morrell's, a truly impressive sight to see. I WISH Seattle had something, ANYTHING even close to this. Wow, 100 pours by the glass of interesting stuff, what a shame we had to dash after 20 minutes to meet up with our appointment.

• 2002 Domaine du Closel-Château des Vaults Savennières Clos du Papillon 90 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Savennières

  Mmm, this is right on the mark, very smooth and seamless yet amazingly rich with honey and mineral. I think the bottle in question had been open for a while, but compared to an earlier taste this was more integrated with nary a rough edge to be found. Frankly, it is stunning (and hard to believe) that this wine is packing in 14.9% alcohol, as it is just not obtrusive at all, gorgeous!

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After a brief meeting, we headed over to Cru for an early dinner. We sat down at the bar to peruse the truly impressive wine list (separate bound volumes for red and white that detailed something like 3,800 unique wines and more than 68,000 bottles, HOOHAH!) We grabbed a glass-pour of this crazy F.X. Pichler, and I could have ended the night with this impressive beast of a wine, wow!

• 2000 F.X. Pichler Grüner Veltliner Smaragd 'M' 95 Points

  Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

  Wow, this just shows an insanely crazy explosion of fruit and minerals. This is surprisingly integrated with no rough edges and none of the wacky 'canned fruit cocktail' elements I have seen in some F.X. wines. This has amazing mouthfeel, vibrancy and depth, a stunning, stunning young wine!

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As we sat down for our meal, we were bombarded by three separate amuse bouche courses (one with three different flavors), all while trying to finalize our wine choice and pick a la carte choices for our meal. Talk about over-stimulation, what a blast! I elected to have this capable but somewhat uninspiring young Chablis with a delicious course of roasted langoustine.

• 2002 Domaine Jean Collet & Fils Chablis 84 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis

  Clean, simple and capable with surprising weight behind the lemon and stone flavors. This matched nicely with a dish of roasted langoustines.

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The next two courses were comprised of a truffled pasta dish (yumbo) and then some absolutely perfect lamp chops, and the 1986 Pichon was a particularly obvious deal on the impressive but somewhat pricey list. Man oh man, I am such a sucker for this Chateau!

• 1986 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Alright, here we go! The nose was sultry and screamed of Pauillac with tobacco and cedar. On the palate, this was initially almost resinous with a woody, espresso-driven quality that quickly unwound to reveal the classic Pichon silk robe. With 90 minutes of air this became increasingly generous, yet it also seemed clear this was still very tight, compact and somewhat closed, a fairly classic expression of the vintage. Still, with perfectly seared lamb chops, it is hard to think of a better accompaniment...

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That was the end of the meal, but after returning to my hotel room to catch up with email and write these notes, I broke into a couple of glasses of this beastly young Syrah courtesy of a bottle which Brian had left me with. Hands off if you are sitting on this youngster, as it needs some serious time to settle down!

• 2003 Pax Syrah Cuvée Christine 89 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Wowza, this is a brawny beast. Opaque and intense with tons of melted road tar, caramel, briar and mint, this is a wooly young beast at 15.6% alchohol. At first this seemed a bit prickly, and the alcohol was very apparent, but with aeration this settled back and strutted its stuff. Still, this is is pretty tightly wound, monolithic, young and alcoholic. There is an impressive amount of raw material, but I am a little worried about the balance here. This could easily break into the 90's if it settles down, but for now I would keep hands off.

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