Mouton Madness: SDR's BWE Thursday Night Dinner

Our little band of BWE brothers gathered at Equinox restaurant at the behest of SDR. Equinox was the site of our 2007 gathering and more recently host to the Obamas for Michellle's birthday party. We were Tom (in DC) and Gail Wheltle, Jay (Mr. Vino) and Peggy Winton, Jim Howaniec, DavidG, and of course our hosts Stuart (SDR) and Kathy Roberts.

Stuart as usual put together a superb program of food and wine, working with chef Todd Gray, and sourcing multiple bottle from his cellar, with a few contributions from the rest of us. We had a private room, the wine cellar, for the evening, and it couldn't have been a nicer setting for what was to follow.

A selection of seasonal appetizers was passed as we all mingled and said our hellos - though it had been a year since we'd been together in Miami, it felt like no time had passed at all. Smoked salmon, lobster, and duck confit were among the canapes. The duck was to die for. These went great with the '85 Krug.

• 1985 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut 95 Points

  France, Champagne

  Yellow-gold color, still a reasonable amount of effervescence, great nose that kept changing as the wine developed in the glass. At first a bit of mature caramel and pineapple, which quickly gave way to doughy citrus and lime and apple. Nicely complex on the nose and in the mouth, fully developed, medium bodied, with the bready, apple-y and citrus-y components all playing off one another. Long finish. This is at peak and shows no signs of being tired - should hold for many years.

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We sat down to the first course of grilled Manchester quail salad with long grain brown rice, Georgia pecans, amd Maille mustard vinaigrette. A very tasty dish with nice complex flavors that matched the wines well.

• 1990 Château Montrose 97 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Dark red to rim, though lighting was dim. Really rich forward nose of layered ripe fruit, saddle leather funk (but clean funk), meat and minerals. Very full bodied, mouth coating ripe fruit, richer than expected for a St. Estephe, a little linear at first despite being decanted 3 hours earlier, it continues to open over the coursre of the evening to become much more complex. Long smooth finish. Still young, but fabulous now, this will go for decades.

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• 1989 Château Montrose Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Dark red to rim. Dark fruits, minerals, not as much funk on the nose as the '90 Montrose, and a bit muted. Medium body, decent fruit, but doesn't deliver as well as other bottles, short finish. Revisited at the end of the evening, it has become even more muted and a hint of TCA is detectable.

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• 1982 Château Calon-Ségur 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Medium dark red, lighter than the '89 and '90 Montrose in this flight. Beef, blood, steel and minerals with some cassis/cherry on the nose, some hints of coffee come later. Full bodied, lots of tannins, dark cherries on the palate, with beef blood and steel, medium finish, stern stuff, an iron fist in an iron glove, quintessential St Estephe but this isn't my sweet spot in Bordeaux.

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Next up was sauteed yellowfin tuna medallions with rissole of Jerusalem artichoke, baby turnips, and black truffle jus. The tuna was excellent but I didn't get much truffle sense here. Decent match with the wines, but the wines were the focus of this flight.

• 1988 Château Mouton Rothschild 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Dark red. Soy sauce, cassis, minerals on nose. Medium body, decent fruit concentration, no green or veggies like some '88s, but a bit restrained and overwhelmed by the tannins, especially on the mid and back palate, medium-short finish. Certainly plenty of tannins for it to last for decades, but doubtful that there is enough fruit there to make it turn into anything magical. We all had a good laugh about Suckling giving this 100 points.

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• 1985 Château Mouton Rothschild 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Medium red, some lightening at rim. Nose is very expressive - soy sauce, herbs, cassis, hint of cedar. Medium body, showing some sweet maturity on the palate with nicely evolved fruit, good balance, and a medium-long finish. May add some additional complexity with time but fully mature now.

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The next flight was served with a choice of striploin of beef with Yukon Gold potato tots, English walnut butter and baby spinach, OR, raviolini of roasted veal with buttered leeeks, cabernet wine reduction, and Parmesan Reggiano. Most of us selectied the raviolini of veal, and it was out of this world. Great flavor definitions came together to create a complex sum that was greater than it's parts. For me, the food actually stole the scene from the wine in this flight. I was also getting a bit swept away by all the wine and found it a little tougher to focus on this flight.

• 1970 Château Montrose 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Medium-dark red with lightening at the edges. Nose of cassis, dried fruits, stones, leather, blood. Medium-full bodied, good fruit concentration, pretty stern tannins, another iron fist wine with the gloves off, good finish, should go on for decades. Another classic old-style St. Estephe. Great if you love the style, I like it but it's not my definition of nirvana in Bordeaux.

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• 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Medium-dark red, lightening at rim. Really nice complex nose of cassis, cedar, soy, and tobacco. Medium-full body, complexity follows through on the palate with good balance, medium-long finish, sweet classic aged-Bordeaux notes. My favorite of this flight, it seems at peak and should hold.

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• 1966 Château Mouton Rothschild 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Light red, orange at rim. Another expressive nose with good complexity - spice/soy, cassis, cedar. Medium body, good balance, complexity carries through to the palate with nice aged sweet Bordeaux notes, you can really see the connection between this and the '70 Mouton in the same flight. This was just a little less concentrated and giving - perhaps a little tired compared to the '70 but not in any way over the hill. Stored in a subterranean cave by a compulsive European collector, it was certainly well preserved. I think Stuart may have preferred this to the '70, but I thought the '70 a bit richer.

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A selection of goat, blue, and cow's milk cheeses were served with this flight, which put the spotlight back on the wines. WOW! I got my second wind and had no trouble regaining focus for these babies.

• 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Dark red to rim. Classic soy, cedar, cassis nose, rich but still young, not showing the sweet complexity of the previous flight's '66 and '70 Mouton, but extremely appealing. Very full bodied, lots of fruit and tannin in perfect balance, but not as evolved and complex or as richly ripe as the other '82s in this flight. Over an hour or two it did open more, and overtook the Lafite, but it couldn't catch the Latour. This is still a baby. Nice long finish with plenty of non-harsh tannins. Some around the table felt it was not the best '82 Mouton they'd had, but was much more open than it was 5-10 years ago. This particular bottle would have benefitted from another 5 years in the cellar or a day-long decant, but it still gave great pleasure.

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• 1982 Château Lafite Rothschild 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Dark red to rim. Cedar/lead pencil, flowers, dark fruits on the nose are showing a nice complexity but still too young to show classic sweet-aged characteristics. Medium body, rich pure fruit with nuances of complexity, smooth, long finish. Really outstanding but its elegance was overpowered by the '82 Mouton and the '82 Latour in this flight, and it (unfairly) suffered in comparison. Will continue to improve.

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• 1982 Château Latour Grand Vin 98 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Dark red to rim. Most intense nose of the flight, with dark ripe fruits, cassis, and cherry jumping from the glass mixed in with some smoky cedary notes and with some time in the glass some coffee notes as well to produce a fascinatingly complex nose. Full bodied, with rich ripe layered fruit and complex undernotes of leather, earth, and hints of tar. Nice long finish with lingering complexity. Really forward and giving for a young Latour, it hasn't yet developed the sweet complexity of truly aged Bordeaux, but it is as interesting on the palate as it is on the nose. I really love this stuff - it was challenged but never seriously threatened by the elegance of the '82 Lafite or the complexity of the '82 Mouton. My WOTN.

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Dessert was a banana citrus parfait with black sesame tuille, vanilla bean cream, and spiced pineapple coulis. This was a killer match with the Yquem.

• 1975 Château d'Yquem 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  Golden-yellow color. Oranges, pineapples, vanilla on the nose, very intense, but I am not getting much honey/honeysuckle. Intense fruit and great balancing acidity on the palate, some nuttiness and coconut peeks through with time in the glass, this just starts to open up as the last drops are drained. A great Yquem but could it still be too young? An inspired match with the spiced pineapple coulis and vanilla bean cream.

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Chef Gray's menu went from strength to strength. Highlights for me were duck confit appetizers and the raviolini of veal with buttered leeks, Cabernet wine reduction and Parmesan Reggiano. The latter was just stupendous. Best wine/fod match was the dessert with the Yquem - a pretty nice trick as I don't usually find desserts to complement dessert wines that well.

Service was excellent, just attentive and friendly enough without being ingratiating. We shared a few tastes with the chef, who generously shared some chef-ly anecdotes and little of the excitement they experienced with the Obama's visit.

Despite my best intentions to kick off the BWE festivities without going overboard, my plan to take only tasting sips and pour out the excess went out the window when faced with these wines. Conversation grew more lively as the evening progressed and we found ourseleves being swept up in the company, the food, and the wine. Me perhaps a bit too much, as I launched into a few too-raunchy stories before we had finished draining the last bottle. But my BWE brothers tolerantly indulged me, and we all said goodnight and headed off to BWE Central at the Westin by cab, ready to recharge our batteries for another day. Altogether a fabulous evening, kudos to SDR for pulling it off!