Introduction

This was another gorgeous, leisurely Sunday wine lunch at Donato. The food, prepared by Chef Pedro, went beautifully with our wines. What made this wine lunch great was a combo of the theme, including mature Cortons and Clos des Lambrays; the strong showing of most of the wines; and the terrific food pairings.

We started with a flight of white Burgs with some bottle age on them. I was expecting the '96 Leroy Meursault to show well--unfortunately the first bottle was corked, so I opened another. Although the second one was fine, it was still the least of this flight. Best was the '99 Les Referts from Maison Le Manoir Murisaltien, a producer whose wines I'd never tried before. The Leflaive Clavoillon and Javillier Meursault were also quite good. Our shrimp starter and then truffle and mushroom puree went beautifully with these wines.

Our very strong second flight consisted of a '90 Jadot Bonnes Mares, showing very well, and a duo of Clos des Lambrays from '98 and '99. The group's WOTF was the Jadot, but this was an immensely satisfying flight of maturing Grand Cru red Burgundies all around. The '98 Clos des Lambrays slightly edged out the '99 for me, for drinking now. Both show that the vineyards of this Grand Cru, which was elevated to that status in 1981 and substantially replanted in 1979, have matured and are thoroughly worthy of Grand Cru status. Adnd our pasta with boar ragout went very well with the flight. We then moved on to a flight of Cortons, that was also very strong, especially the '76 Bonneau du Martray and a very youthful '90 Faiveley Clos des Cortons Faiveley. The roasted pork belly in the dish for this flight sang with the Bonneau du Martray.

Our final flight on this glorious occasion was a trio of Chateau Climens--1983, 1986 and 1988--from half bottle. All were quite good, but the '86 was my wine of the day.

We've had a number of great lunches, with a lot of great wines, at Donato, but it's hard to imagine a more harmonious and delicious meal of wines and pairings than this one. But we'll try again tomorrow, with a great line up of Left Bank Bordeaux, including six from the fabled 1982 vintage.

Flight 1 - Whites (4 notes)

Flight 2 - First Red Flight - Bonnes Mares and Clos des Lambrays (3 notes)

Flight 3 - Second Red Flight - Cortons (3 notes)

Flight 4 - Climens Finish (3 notes)

Closing

Chef Pedro