Dinner at French Kitchen

Elsa and I had dinner with Chad, William, Jillian and Leonard. It was a really good meal, with Jean-Charles du Bois' excellent cooking at a wonderfully discounted price of $68++ for the degustation and very nice wines brought by everyone.

soft poached hen's egg en cocotte with green asparagus and forest mushroom velouté

• NV Comte Audoin de Dampierre Champagne Premier Cru Cuvée des Ambassadeurs Brut 88 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru

  Pretty decent Champagne. Small bead with a gentle effervescence. Nose was a rather Chardonnay-led mixture of high-toned lemon notes along with lots of minerally graphite and chalk notes. Palate was clean and balanced, with some ripe lemons hinting at a little dosage, but backed up with a real steely backbone of bittersweet mineral and lemon pips. Finish had some yeast notes along with an unusual gin and tonic like twist - part of that bittersweet minerality spiked with a whiff of juniper berries to my palate. Very food friendly.

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traditional lobster bisque with tiger prawn beignet and leek custard

• 2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  A pretty good wine.... BUT... a major, major disappointment after how well it showed at the Domaine. Nose was as lovely as I remembered it. Delicate floral and honeysuckle notes were mixed with lots of chalky minerality, a touch of lime, juicy melon-flavoured gummies and a slight tropical undertone, all infused with buttery, mushroomy cream notes. Nice and complex without being overstated. The palate was where the letdown was though. Oily textured, a little soft on the acidity for a 2005. It sure was rich and had plenty of good weight, but was rather simple across the flavours profile, with buttery, creamy malolactic notes dominating along with a touch of smoky minerality moving into an integrated, stony finish with quite a bit of oak dancing around. The fruit seems to have receded into hiding somewhere. The quality of the material is evident, but this was a long way away from the complex layers of flavour that we had the last time. One bottle left - I am not going to touch it for years yet.

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char grilled filet of quail with home-made tarragon gnocchi, fricassé of chanterelle mushrooms, summer truffle vinaigrette

• 2005 Kooyong Pinot Noir Meres 91 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Mornington Peninsula

  This showed pretty well on the night. Lovely colour on the wine, clear bright and prettily blushing. Decanted for awhile, the nose was rather more tell-tale new world pinot than when I last tried it. A touch of burnt rubber showed some reduction, and when that blew away, I got lacy notes of perfumed flowers, slightly candied cherry and some woody, earthy tones. All very high-toned and extremely bright. Very pretty. Palate opened just as brightly, almost overly so, with a rush of acidity having an almost sharp edge. Nice flavours though. High-toned cherries, again a little candied, some eucalyptus, a touch of flowers, a little smoke - all wrapped in plush, velvety tannins. Quite a bit of depth here and plenty of verve and energy, if all just a little too primary and linear at the moment. Otherwise, very enjoyable all the way into the finish, which showed some smoky mineral and more brambly eucalyptus notes. A really pretty wine. It went superbly well with the quail as well, which toned down the acidity and really brought out the minerality in the wine. Needs some time in the bottle yet. Another year or two should do this wine some good.

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granité of seasonal fruits

pan seared beef fillet with sautéed wild mushrooms, crushed parsley ratte potato, bone marrow and light beef jus
fresh duck liver seared à la plancha with caramelized rhubarb, honey sablé and cherry syrup

• 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Beaune 1er Cru Grèves Vigne de L'Enfant Jesus 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru

  I thought this was very good. Really interesting nose - it opened with soy, black chicken soup and a whiff of matchstick flint, and moved into darl cherry and cassis, smoke, earth and leather with plenty of wood spice. With time, the meaty note came out even more, taking on an unusual canned luncheon meat whiff with a little touch of vinaigrette. It all came together very nicely though. Quite, quite lovely. However, it was on the palate where the wine really shone for me. Clearly showing off the quality of the vintage, it had impeccable balance with plenty of depth. Clean acid caused the mouth to salivate at the attack, before fine and silky, but still grippy tannins carreid focused flavours of dark cherries, damson plums and a touch of preserved lime into a long, round finish that showed a toss of dried earth, some orange peel and more of that Beaune spice. Very integrated and showing pretty well. This went very nicely with foie gras, beef and even the little side of asparagus.

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• 2002 Nino Negri Sfursat 92 Points

  Italy, Lombardia, Valtellina, Sforzato di Valtellina

  What an unusual wine. Very good though. I idenitified it as Nebbiolo after a long period of confusion and head scratching - but thought it was some super-sweet 2003 Barolo. Turns out this was made out of air-dried Nebbiolo grapes. Strange, but really good though. Interesting nose opened with very Italian whiffs of sundried tomatoes and maybe ketchup, along with herby tones that brought to mind oregano and majoram. This gave way to sweet cherry tomatoes, earth and with time, the tell-tale smoky tar and hisbicus / violet flowers. All very high-toned though, as opposed to the deeper tones one gets with a Piedmont. Palate was nice and clean, without the stern structure of a young Piedmontese Nebbiolo wine. Plenty going on though. Good freshness, lovely plush structure, rather complex flavours of sweet cherries, spice, smoke, cigar ash, all moving into a longish finish with more wood spice and tar. Not quite together when first poured, it pulled together to present a really nice wine towards the end of the evening. Went very nicely with the beef.

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champagne sabayon with pear marmalade and strawberries
sautéed vanilla infused strawberries with Sauternes, pear granité and crème Chantilly

• 2003 Künstler Hochheimer Hölle Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel 94 Points

  Germany, Rheingau

  Third time, best showing yet. Nose was deep and lovely, with little drops of petrol sprinkled over earthy mushroom tones, rich fig and apricots and iron and chalk flecked minerality. Where this wine really stood out was in the absolutely impeccable balance on the palate though. Confidently walking that thin line between sweetness and acidity, the wine had Chad saying "this is what Riesling is all about". Fresh and lively, it had complex flavours of honey and nectar, orange notes and flower tones just dancing across the palate. Finish was seamless, flowing from the mid-palate into long notes of lemon and stoney mineral. Excellent. Absolutely beautiful with the Strawberries, Sauternes and Cream dessert.

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