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Archive for Don Cornwell

Spago – 2011 Montrachet

Apr17

Restaurant: Spago [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Location: 176 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 385-0880

Date: March 27, 2019

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Still great

_

This dinner is the third part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. This dinner covers 2011 Montrachet Grand Cru and has for the last several years been hosted at Melisse — however, with the closing of that late great establishment, with some difficult maneuvering, it moved to Spago.

2011 White Burgundy is a vintage for those who prefer elegance and purity over power and concentration. It is the size of the wine that worried some white wine producers – many whites were willowy and gentle with low alcohol and modest acidity levels. This contrasts with the past several vintages – 2010, 2009 and the 2008 – where the overall frame and size of the wine was bigger. With the 2011s now either in bottle or about to be bottled, the wines have gained stature and flesh, though they will remain slim. What the best 2011 whites offer are seductive delicate flavors, purity of expression and delightful aromatics.

7U1A1187

Spago has been an LA institution for over 30 years!

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We were setup in the more intimate (but still quite large) private room. Perfect — as long as we kept the door closed (it’s loud on the main floor).

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Tonight’s special menu.
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1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. BH 97. One of the greatest examples of the ’96 vintage, this wine has it all with elegance, intensity, subtlety and grace, not to mention buckets of unrealized potential that will enable this beauty to improve for at least another decade and perhaps longer. I can only imagine just how good this would be from magnum format! The nose is discreet, reserved and pure with lemon, green apple and layers upon layers of fruit framed by just the right amount of yeast influence that continues onto the exceptionally dry and tight flavors that are crisp and refined as well as superbly intense yet through it all there is this underlying sense of harmony, as though all of the elements are working in concert. The greatest wines, at least those cut from classical cloth, persuade through the subtlest means and so it is with the ’96 Goisses, which is indeed a great wine by any measure. While it is drinkable now, for my taste preferences a lot of potential would be left in the glass and I wouldn’t start in earnest on this for another 5+ years.
7U1A7530
2002 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. VM 96. The flagship 2002 Brut Clos des Goisses is simply stunning in this vintage. Seamless, ripe and beguiling, the 2002 is pure harmony in the glass. Dried pears, apricots, flowers, red berries and spices are some of the many notes that inform this towering, aristocratic wine. At once vertical yet endowed with serious length, the 2002 stands out for its breathtaking balance and overall sense of harmony. Layers of fruit built to the huge, creamy finish. This is a great showing from Philipponnat. The 2002 was disgorged in June 2011.
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Spicy Tuna Tartare, Sesame-Miso Tuille Cone. I’ve had it a million times but it’s still great. The counter play between the crunchy-sweet cone and the soft-spicy interior.
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Carrot. This carrot shaped thing in the soil-like pot (which was black pepper!) was reconstituted out of some kind of carrot puree. A touch sweet and rather delicious.
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Pork belly macaron. Pretty amazing bit of sweet-fatty in a dessert-like presentation. Great textures too.
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A kind of crab tartlet, if I remember correctly.
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A sit down amuse inside an eggshell.
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A kind of foam soup.
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Bread. I always like the crunchy cracker stuff.

Flight 1:

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From my cellar: 2011 Olivier Leflaive Montrachet. BH 92-94. This is the most complex if not the most elegant wine in the range with its broad-ranging nose of pure lemon zest, white flower, anise, dried apricot, peach, petrol and a hint of pain grillé. There is outstanding size and weight to the entirely graceful, textured and sappy imposingly-scaled flavors that are ever-so-slightly riper than those of the Bâtard, all wrapped in a powerful, moderately stony and hugely long finish. There are any number of aspects to admire but what stands out for me is the intensity as it’s breathtaking.

agavin: ranked #4 — awesome considering how reasonable it is (for Monty)
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2011 Domaine Thenard Montrachet. BH 91-94. Here too there is visible but not intrusive wood that sets off a very closed nose, indeed this is almost mute. There is excellent volume and power to the big-bodied, intense and equally closed flavors that possess plenty of underlying tension on the tight, focused and beautifully long finish. This moderately concentrated effort is very much a work in progress.
7U1A7637
2011 Louis Latour Montrachet. BH 92-94. This is aromatically quite similar to the Demoiselles though it’s presently much less expressive, indeed even brooding. The broad-scaled full-bodied flavors are markedly bigger, richer and more powerful with even more dry extract and an attractive sense of lift is provided by the solid minerality that really makes its presence felt on the saline-infused and impressively persistent finish. This is a big wine but not necessarily an especially big Montrachet though make no mistake, this is certainly no shrinking violet as patience will definitely be required.
7U1A7638
RINGER: 2011 Château de la Maltroye Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Dent de Chien. BH 93. A ripe yet cool and wonderfully complex nose offers a broad range of aromas that include citrus and ever-so-mildly exotic yellow fruit along with background nuances of anise, clove, spiced tea and menthol. The intense, dense and focused medium-bodied flavors also brim with a remarkable level of dry extract that buffers the firm acid spine on the explosive and lemon-infused finish where the almost pungent minerality adds additional lift. This is also a remarkable effort and it might catch the La Romanée in time.

agavin: corked
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2011 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. BH 95. There is still a touch of wood remaining on the beautifully complex and wonderfully elegant aromas of spice, floral and white orchard fruit. There is stunning size, weight and sheer punch to the imposingly scaled, cool and admirably pure flavors that possessed an opulent mouth feel before culminating in an explosive and hugely long finish. This is breathtaking in its intensity and should amply reward at least a 15 years of cellar time in magnum format.
7U1A7571
Olive Oil Poached Salmon. Turnip, radishes, bacon oil. Very delicate, soft and lovely.

Flight 2:

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2011 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 96+. Subtly complex, aristocratic aromas of lemon and pure crushed stone. Wonderfully intense and taut, with great mineral depth giving the wine a powerful impression of force. Finishes with explosive energy, an essence of crushed stone and outstanding lingering perfume. It’s virtually impossible to spit this unflagging, tactile wine: the minerality here is almost frightening. The best of these 2011s today, without question, and a wine that transcends its vintage.

agavin: an inexpensive wine
7U1A7641
RINGER: 2011 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard. VM 93+. A model of precision, finesse and delineation, the 2011 Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard bristles with the essence of honey, white truffle, orange peel and nectarine. The 2011 needs a few years to drop some of its baby fat, but the direction it is likely to take becomes apparent with time in the glass. Watching the wine literally become crystalline and pure with air is quite an amazing experience.
7U1A7642
2011 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Montrachet.

agavin: ranked #6 (tied with Ramonet Monty!)
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2011 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet. BH 96. This is aromatically quite similar at this early stage to the La Cabotte. There is an extraordinarily powerful effort with impressive mid-palate density and so much dry extract that it imparts a sappy, even seductive texture to the mouth coating flavors that terminate in a breathtakingly long finish. Moreover, as good as the La Cabotte is, and it is indeed exceptionally good, there is simply no contest between the two wines as there is just another dimension present here. In sum, this beautifully well-balanced Monty is an absolute knockout!

agavin: ranked #5
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2011 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet. VM 96. Pale straw-yellow. High-toned, expressive aromas and flavors of lime, peach, iodine and spicy oak. Large-scaled, spicy and deep, as tactile as a solid without coming across as obviously phenolic. A real essence of Burgundy in its density and concentration. Wonderfully integrated acidity leavens and extends the explosive, smooth finish. No rough edges here. This is 13.6% alcohol but is neither overripe nor lacking in acid spine.
7U1A7582
Pan-Roasted Lobster Tail. Lemon butter, morel mushrooms, pea tendrils, squid ink tuille. A really awesome hunk of lobster with butter sauce!

Flight 3:

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2011 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet. BH 97. The strikingly complex, cool and reserved nose of mostly citrus, stone, floral and white orchard fruit aromas still displays plenty of wood that has not yet been integrated but the density is certainly here to allow that to happen even though it may require 3 to 5 years to do so. In the context of the 2011 vintage this is a superbly well-concentrated wine as the imposingly scaled flavors are a breathtaking combination of size, weight, tension and borderline painful intensity. Despite all of the volume, there is absolutely no heaviness, indeed the acid support is such that this remains impeccably well-balanced on the hugely long and palate staining finish. While it is of course still in the early days for the vintage this is absolutely a strong candidate for the wine of the vintage.

agavin: ranked #6 (tied)
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2011 Marc Colin et Fils Montrachet. BH 94. A deft touch of wood surrounds the strikingly complex citrus, floral, spice and essence of ripe pear scents. This is both bigger and richer than the Bâtard with absolutely superb size, weight and mid-palate density as the abundant dry extract both coats the mouth and buffers the very firm acid spine that shapes the explosively long finish. There is a trace of warmth but that is the only nit in an otherwise stunning Monty.
7U1A7647
2011 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. VM 97. Coche-Duryâ’s 2011 Corton-Charlemagne kicks off a flight of stellar white Burgundies. Of course, the 2011 is far too young to be at its best. Tonight, it is the translucent purity of the citrus and lemon confit flavors that stands out most. This really needs time to be at its very best.

agavin: even more affordable than the MP — not. ranked #3
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2011 Louis Jadot Montrachet. BH 94-97. Here the nose is notably more reserved with aromas of citrus zest, spice, wood toast, fennel and spice hints. This is also a very imposingly-scaled wine with its big, muscular and wonderfully complex flavors that culminate in a long, focused and explosive finish of breathtaking length and intensity. This overtly powerful effort should reward at least a decade in the cellar and drink well for another. A ‘wow’ wine.

agavin: #1 ranked. WOTN
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Slow Roasted Chicken Breast on the Bone. Black truffle, Emmental cheese soufflé. Excellent, for chicken.
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The room in full swing.

Flight 4: dessert

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1990 Château Suduiraut. 92 points. COLOR-copper; NOSE-obvious butterscotch, Pineapple Oil (mix of Pineapple & Petrol), rusty wet copper penny, ; TASTE-Mango w/ maple syrup, brown sugar & butterscotch on it, finishes w/ an Apricot Reduction sauce, I love this wine, outstanding, a bargain, seek this out.
7U1A7625
Madagascar Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, candied almonds, tangerines, saffron syrup.

And the gelato, both scoops were made by me! Score, added Spago to my list of BYOG places!

Nocciola, Espresso e Bacio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with Piedmontese hazelnut to produce a stunning hazelnut base, then adding in house-made espresso caramel and chopped up bacio — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Espresso #coffee #cafe #hazelnut #Nocciola #caramel #bacio

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Gelato – the base is a Fior di Latte but I made it with brown sugar instead of white so it matched the cookies better. Inclusions are cubes of house-made gluten-free (almond flour) artisinal chocolate chip cookie dough with Valrhona chocolate chunks! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #CookieDough #ChocolateChipCookie #Cookie #chocolate #valrhona #BrownSugar #GlutenFree
7U1A7632

Again Sommlier Paul Sherman joined us to coordinate the tasting. He was joined by Spago’s Christie.
7U1A7657
The full lineup. Much more manageable than at the other two dinners.
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This was a great night and lots of fun. The smaller Montrachet night is always more fun than the 30+ wine giant night 1 and night 2.  I just can’t “handle” those flights with 8-9 wines. Almost a chore to get back to them.

The food was really on point as it usually is at Spago for these private events. It wasn’t a TON of food per se — except for the fact that I ate about 6 tuna cones to start (which set me up right). But each dish was delicious and very well prepared.

Service was great and wine service, thanks to Pual and Christie, even better.

Despite being too young, the Montrachet was great as well.

Some of Don’s comments are:

As some of you predicted, the Coche MP did manage to narrowly edge the Coche Corton for the number 2 position by virtue of getting votes from everyone placing it in the top 3.

I was pretty amazed that we didn’t have a single oxidized or advanced wine last night.  I believe that this is only the second time that’s happened at the Mostly Montrachet dinner with the other instance being the 2007 vintage.. This was a bizarre year, with virtually no problems on nights one and three, but lots of issues on night two.

To answer Kent’s question, yes, last night was the third time that the Jadot Montrachet has finished in the top 3 at the Mostly Montrachet dinner, all starting with the 2007 vintage.  Jadot finished 3d in the 2007 dinner, 2d at the 2010 dinner, and 1st in the 2011 dinner.  I thought that the success of the Jadot wines over the three nights pretty conclusively proved that DIAM works.  We’ve now had 30 different bottles over the last three years (many of which came from producers with prior major premox problems – e.g. Montille, Fevre, and Jadot) with no issues.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. 2010 Montrachet at Melisse
  2. Montrachet Central
  3. Melisse – 2008 Montrachet!
  4. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  5. Sauvage Spago
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2011 White Burgundy, BYOG, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Montrachet, Paul Sherman, Spago

Montrachet Central

Apr10

Restaurant: Drago Centro [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 525 S Flower St, Los Angeles, CA 90071. (213) 228-8998

Date: March 14, 2019

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great high end Italian

_

This dinner is the second part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. This dinner covers 2011 Bienvenues-Bâtard, Criots-Bâtard,Bâtard-Montrachet, and Chevalier-Montrachet.

This particular dinner is at Drago Centro, which is the new home for these big dinners after the closing of Valentino. I’ve been a Drago fan (and friend) for years. Celistino Drago has even cooked at our house a bunch of times.

2011 White Burgundy is a vintage for those who prefer elegance and purity over power and concentration. It is the size of the wine that worried some white wine producers – many whites were willowy and gentle with low alcohol and modest acidity levels. This contrasts with the past several vintages – 2010, 2009 and the 2008 – where the overall frame and size of the wine was bigger. With the 2011s now either in bottle or about to be bottled, the wines have gained stature and flesh, though they will remain slim. What the best 2011 whites offer are seductive delicate flavours, purity of expression and delightful aromatics.


Located on busy Flower in DTLA.
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Drago!
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There was a private party outside and the place was packed.

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Fortunately, this time, we were in the vault room which is separate and quiet.
7U1A6851
Our special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

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2004 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvée. VM 95. The 2004 Coeur de Cuvée has gained considerable weight, richness and resonance over the last few years. Brioche, almonds, marzipan, anise and dried flowers are some of the notes that flesh out in a radiant, super-expressive Champagne built on texture and class. The 2004 is every bit as impressive as it has always been. At eleven years of age, the Coeur de Cuvée is just entering an early plateau of maturity that is likely to last for at least a handful of years. Disgorged May 2012.
7U1A6827
Mini crab cakes.
7U1A6833
Sweet breads with caviar. Not my favorite as I don’t love offal.
7U1A6847
Hamachi cones with roe and gold. A little mild in flavor. Could use a bit of spice or something.
7U1A6868
Don imported (former) Valentino Wine Director Paul Sherman to mastermind the wine service for who-knows-how-many-years-in-a-row.
7U1A6870
My friend, chef Celestino Drago checks to make sure everything is in order.
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Grisini.
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Fresh baked bread (Drago has its own bakery for the restaurant group).

Flight 1: BBM & Criots

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2011 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 93+. ale, bright green-yellow. Precise, high-pitched aromas of lime, white flowers and crushed stone. Then juicy and supple on the palate, with enticing sweetness to its pure, sharply delineated flavors of lime and orange. Impeccably balanced Bienvenue with nothing fat or warm about it. Really sparkles on the powerful, mounting finish.
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From my cellar: 2011 Etienne Sauzet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 95. Mint, lime, lychee, jasmine and white pear notes abound in the 2011 Batard-Montrachet. This is an especially tense, vibrant Batard that stands out for its energy, distinction and pure class. Super-finessed throughout, the 2011 impresses on the finish, where its crystalline brilliance dazzles. The style is very much built on precision, energy and minerality, rather than opulence. Today the 2011 is understandably a bit tight, but it should be superb in another few years. What a beautiful wine.
7U1A6926
2011 Domaine Jacques Carillon Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 95+. arillon’s 2011 Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru is total silk on the palate. Subtle, layered and exceptionally polished, the 2011 is all about texture. Exotic white truffle, mint, smoke and Chamomile notes are just starting to develop in the glass, but the 2011 has a long time to go before being ready. Riesling-inflected petrol notes add nuance on the finish. This is a seriously beautiful wine from Jacques Carillon.
7U1A6927
2011 Henri Boillot Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 92-95. Bright yellow. Vibrant nose combines smoke, honey and sexy minerality. More concentrated and sweet than the Criots but with the verve–not to mention the saline density–of Boillot’s Pucelles. Lovely creamy old-viney texture and length. The minerally finish leaves the taste buds quivering.
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2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Light color, smells young and reductive but the palate is smooth doesn’t taste as young as it smells. Interesting wine that’s in a good spot and should remain here for at least a couple of years.

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2011 Hubert Lamy Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 97. There is little doubt Olivier Lamy’s 2011 Criots-Batard-Montrachet is one of the truly great wines of the vintage. Utterly vivid and constantly changing in the glass, the 2011 captivates all of the sense – both hedonistic and intellectual – with a captivating mélange of exotic white flowers, crushed rocks and pears. The bright, crystalline flavors blossom beautifully in the glass in that sweet, perfumed, ethereal style that is the signature of Criots. What an utterly moving, delicious wine this is.
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2011 Louis Jadot Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94. The 2011 Bienvenues Batard-Montrachet is huge. Rich, voluptuous and layered, the 2011 flows across the palate with stunning depth and richness. With time in the glass more subtle hints of almonds, hazelnuts, baking spices and mint emerge, albeit with great reluctance. There is plenty of energy in the glass. It will be interesting to see if the 2011 acquires more polish in bottle. Regardless, there is plenty to admire in a succulent, generous Bienvenues that is likely to offer a broad window of drinkability.
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2011 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 92+. Pale yellow. Youthfully imploded nose hints at peach and smoky lees. Closed in the mouth as well, showing a slight bitter edge to the flavors of herbs, flowers and crushed stone. Best today on the juicy, echoing finish, which shows a subtle saline character.
7U1A6932
2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94-96. Exotic white flowers, ginger, white pepper and lychee are some of the many notes that emerge from the 2011 Criots-Batard-Montrachet, a wine that dazzles from start to finish. The 2011 is pure seduction. Captivating aromatics, beautifully layered fruit and fabulous persistence are the hallmarks. Colin-Morey thought the 2011 needed a little more time in cask, and planned to bottle the wine later in the summer.
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Jumbo scallops crudo, potato cream, onion jello and truffles. Very light dish and attractive plating. I was glad the scallops were raw — as I prefer them that way.

Flight 2: Bâtard-Montrachet

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2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 97. The 2011 Batard-Montrachet boasts serious richness, depth and structure. A wine of pure brawn and intensity, the 2011 impresses for its exceptional balance and harmony, but it is also very reticent and nowhere near ready to show the full breadth of its personality. The finish alone is simply sensational. Readers should give the 2011 at least a few years in bottle to settle down. The Batard is imposing, sensational and regal in every way.
7U1A6966
2011 Domaine Bachelet-Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet.
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2011 Domaine Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 95. Boillot’s 2011 Bâtard-Montrachet is striking. Pear, almond and spice notes open up in the glass, leading to bright fruit and expressive floral notes. In 2011 the Bâtard is linear, powerful and intense. This statuesque Burgundy is best left alone for at least several years.
7U1A6968
2011 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94+. Pale bright yellow. Sexy perfume of lemon, lime, clove and white flowers. A step up in weight and power from the Bienvenue, but still with lovely lift to the generous flavors of ripe peach and spices. Wonderfully energetic, tactile wine with terrific rising length and grip, and a late mineral character that contributes finesse. But this big, rich, backward Batard will need time to express itself.
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2011 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers. VM 92. Pale, bright yellow. Subtle, pure nose offers pear and white flowers. Suave on entry, then juicy and sweet in the middle, with a minty lift contributing to the impression of inner-mouth perfume. Sappy, minerally, sharply delineated Chassagne with a positive iodiney character. This lively wine really coats the palate and lingers, without leavening any impression of undue weight.
7U1A6970
2011 Etienne Sauzet Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 96. Gently spiced notes open into lemon oil and subtle yellow stone fruits in the 2011 Batard-Montrachet. The style is surprisingly weightless for Batard, in fact, this is one of the more refined, introspective 2011 Batards I tasted. The long, persistent finish along is striking. There is no shortage of nuance or finesse in this exceptional wine from Sauzet.
7U1A6971
2011 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 93+. Good full medium yellow. Musky aromas of yellow peach, apricot and minerals lifted by a floral topnote. Boasts impressive volume and palate-saturating breadth but comes across as more closed than the Bienvenue in spite of its richness of texture. Finishes very long, though, with lingering notes of spices and smoke. Pernot recommends waiting three years before opening this.
7U1A6972
2011 Pierre Morey Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94. The 2011 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru blossoms in the glass with light, floral-infused honey. Chamomile, tangerine and hazelnut notes. Rich and voluptuous all the way through to the finish, yet never heavy, the 2011 is a model of finesse. This is another superb showing from Pierre Morey.
7U1A6874
Rigatoni Kamut, swordfish and eggplant ragu. An unusual pasta dish. The texture (al dente) on the pasta was incredible. Really these seemed closer to a picci (but not exactly). Very nice soft mildly rich flavor.

Flight 3: Chevalier-Montrachet part 1

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2011 Domaine Bernard Moreau et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 96. A wine of pure texture the 2011 Chevalier-Montrachet captivates all the senses. Mint, lime, white flowers and Chamomile all vow for attention in a pliant, expressive wine of the highest level. The 2011 has a level of inner richness that is simply waiting in reserve. Another few years in bottle should unlock all of that potential.
7U1A6954
2011 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. VM 97. Honey, almonds, white flowers and nectarines all take shape in Jadot’s 2011 Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles. Exotic white truffle, orange peel and spice notes appear later, adding dimensions of complexity and nuance to this pedigreed Burgundy. The flavors continue to blossom in all directions as the wine opens up in the glass. Simply put, the 2011 Demoiselles is a stunner.
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2011 Domaine de Montille Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Le Cailleret. VM 92+. Lemon, lime, crushed stone and some noble herbal high notes on the nose. Citrussy and penetrating, with a hint of youthful bitterness to the lime leaf and chalky mineral flavors. Very pure, juicy, mineral-driven wine with sneaky depth and a persistent, vibrating finish. This is 12.7% alcohol following about 0.3% of chaptalization, notes Alix de Montille.
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2011 Francois Carillon Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 95+. The 2011 Chevalier-Montrachet is drop-dead gorgeous. Hints of light floral honey, almonds and lemon oil are just beginning to develop, but the Chevalier-Montrachet is mostly a wine of texture and shape. Not a huge wine, the 2011 impresses for its incredible class and nuance. With air, slightly more exotic and tropical notes emerge, providing a hint of what waits for those lucky few who will be able to source this jewel of a wine.
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2011 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 93+. Good bright, pale yellow-straw. Perfumed aromas of peach pit and vanillin oak, lifted by spicy high notes. Rich and concentrated but light on its feet. Shows sweet stone fruit flavors and very good breadth on the front half, then turns firmer and more saline on the back end, finishing dry and brisk, with lingering notes of citrus peel and white peach. Boasts a lovely core of sweet fruit but this will need patience.
7U1A6958
2011 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 95+. Subdued but pure aromas of pineapple, crushed rock and white flowers; less fruity today than the Bienvenue or Batard. Then fat and ripe but with terrific verve to the mineral and spice flavors. With a few minutes in the glass, this highly concentrated, electric wine came across as more tightly coiled, with its energy and cut becoming more apparent. Most impressive today on the extremely long, perfumed back end, which leaves the palate vibrating under a layer of mineral dust. Winemaker Remy says he wouldn’t start drinking this wine for 12 years.
7U1A6883
Cioppino, assorted seafood, lobster broth. Fabulous seafood soup. Really a lobster bisque with various extremely fresh seafood.

Flight 4: Chevalier-Montrachet part 2

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2011 Domaine Marc Morey & Fils Chevalier-Montrachet.
7U1A6960
2011 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 95. Exotic white flowers, lychee, mint and lime blossom in the glass as the 2011 Chevalier-Montrachet shows off its compelling personality. Impeccably pure and layered throughout, the 2011 impresses for its exceptional balance and class. There is plenty of Chevalier richness and honey, but no excess weight or sense of heaviness at all.
7U1A6961
2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 94+. Pale yellow. Slightly sullen, medicinal aromas of pineapple, menthol and crushed stone. Then taut and powerful in the mouth, with little early pliancy to the penetrating flavors of fresh pineapple and crushed rock. All in reserve today and in need of at least several years of cellaring. Classically dry on the high-pitched, echoing finish, which leaves behind piquant notes of dusty pepper, ginger, wild herbs and crushed stone. In the same bracing, mineral-driven style as Colin’s superb Meursault Perrieres and Corton-Charlemagne.
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2011 Domaine Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet.
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2011 Vincent Dancer Chevalier-Montrachet.
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2011 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 94+. Good pale yellow. Ripe, highly perfumed nose combines pineapple, flowers, mint and humid fern. Less obviously powerful than the Batard but offers insidious intensity and a more pliant texture to its yellow fruit and mineral flavors. Tightens up considerably on the back end, finishing subtle and long, with fresh minerality and a strong chalky character.
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Pan roasted breast of duck, kumquat sauce. Great duck. Perfectly cooked and I loved the kumquat sauce (which was an interesting take on the orange duck thing). The forbidden rice was just there.

Appendix Flight: dessert

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2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Eiswein. VM 93. This drinks like a pure and incredibly fragrant Normandy cider laced with lemon, vanilla and fresh strawberry. Weightless in feel, effortless gliding down, yet with incredible tenacity of grip.
7U1A6936
Dark chocolate cremeux, cocoa almond, milk chocolate chantilly. The cake and its cream top was amazing. Really nice contrast of textures and strong chocolate flavors. The ice cream is gelato made by me (Celestino had it plated with the dessert):

After my advanced gelato class, trying a slightly new pistachio formulation — Pistachio Madeline Gelato — base uses my same awesome Pistachios from Bronte Sicily but also a small amount of egg yolk for extra body. I baked the Madelines from scratch and soaked them in hand made Grand Mariner syrup — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #Pistachio #lemon #orange #Sicily #GrandMariner #Madeline #cookie #baking

7U1A6942
This one is also by me:

Getting whacky — Thai Peanut Coconut Lime Chili Gelato — Salty peanuts, Thai coconut cream, lime zest, and serrano chillies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — almost too spicy! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #chili #spicy #thai #peanut #coconut #lime #SavorySweet #Serrano
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Have a few glasses!

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The reveal sheet.
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And the full lineup.

Don’s notes on the wines:

  • It was interesting to “watch the race” for the top wine as I compiled the votes.  The group’s top overall wine was the Bernard Moreau Chevalier Montrachet, which won despite getting fewer first place votes than the number two finisher, the Colin-Morey Chevalier (which was my favorite wine).   Both were spectacular and easily the equal of the best 2010s (and I thought the PYCM Chevalier was clearly superior to his 2010 Chevalier.)   Finishing third was the Jadot Demoisselles, which was easily the best version of that wine we’ve had since at least the 1996.
  • The huge difference in the number of oxidized and advanced wines between night one and night two was disconcerting.  It demonstrates the risk of judging a vintage based on wines from a limited number of appellations.  We had a large percentage of premox on night two, but with almost no premox on night one, at this point the cumulative statistics are right about even with 2010.   (Hard to figure….)
  • The flight of Criots/BBM was maybe the best overall flight of those wines ever.  Carillon was again the favorite of the flight as it usually is.
  • PYCM – Solid performance again, and the Chevy was spectacular, and probably the best he’s ever made. The Criots, Bienvenues and Batard, while all very good, were not as exciting.
  • Jadot  —  Three wines out of the four included finished in the top three over the first two nights. Jadot will go back on my “buy” list for their top wines starting with 2011. DIAM will probably restore their reputation, but the Bienvenues proved that you can still make bad wine despite DIAM.
  • The ringers – the Montille Puligny Caillerets (tied for No. 5 overall) was spectacular in context and nobody identified it as an obvious ringer in a flight of Chevaliers, which is what I had hoped.  The Pillot Clos St. Marc (tied for 11th), which comes from 100 year old vines in the best part of Vergers, also seemed to compete with the Batards, although it didn’t quite have the weight of the top ones.  Maybe matching it with Bienvenues and Criots flight would have been a fairer fight.   Finding really good ringers to include is one of the fun elements of this.
  • Leflaive – amazingly, all three wines were very good to excellent and not advanced or oxidized, though the style isn’t remotely the same as it used to be.
  • Ramonet –  Obviously the least impressive showing for Ramonet since the premox disaster vintages in 1996 and 1999. I’m hoping that the Chevalier was an off bottle, but clearly that was the worst example of a Ramonet Chevy I’ve ever tasted.
  • Pernot – Both wines were again advanced. These wines seem to have notably declined since the 2007 vintage and are too often advanced.
  • Dancer – An enigma. Capable at time of producing spectacular wines (e.g. 2010 MP, the overall night one winner), yet also capable of producing horribly flawed, or in the past oxidized wines.  Two disasters in 2011.
  • Boillot –  On the second pass I concluded the Batard with the “blood orange” aroma was indeed advanced.   Pretty underwhelming showing. Really hard to justify the insane pricing for the Boillot grand crus given the consistently poor premox performance.

Overall another highly education and fun evening. The wines were incredible and it is always amazing to taste so many great White Burgs side by side.

The food was a big step up from Valentino. Much better plating and more modern, sophisticated style. It’s still a touch plain by design as Don likes to keep it understated compared to the wines (while I, myself, am a bit more forgiving in the name of flavor). Service was excellent.

There is a lot to say about this tasting. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. Celistino is a great host and his menu paired spectacularly.

Don has so many wines that the flights were too large. The first was 9 wines! And several were 8. Really this dinner could use 6 flights, no bigger than 5 wines each and about 6 savory dishes. But it’s a long evening as is, so I can understand why that might be pushing it. We debated going to Killer Noodle or KTown after but we were just a little too tired and full.

A great evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. 2010 Montrachet at Melisse
  2. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  3. Melisse – 2007 Montrachet!
  4. Valentino – 2008 White Burgundy part 2
  5. Melisse – 2008 Montrachet!
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2011 White Burgundy, Bâtard-Montrachet, BYOG, Celestino Drago, Chevalier-Montrachet, Don Cornwell, Drago Centro, DTLA, Gelato, Paul Sherman, White Burgundy, Wine

2010 Montrachet at Melisse

Apr16

Restaurant: Melisse [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 395-0881

Date: March 7, 2018

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Really on point

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And so we arrive at Part 3 of the epic three night 2010 White Burgundy Dinner series (Part 1 can be found here). This series of dinners, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell, explores in great detail the best wines of a particular vintage, in this case 2010.

Tonight features “Mostly Montrachet” that is, the wines of the great “Le Montrachet” Grand Cru, often considered the best white wine in the world.

And with regard to the wines. 2010 was a classic year for white Burgundy. The relatively cool growing season maintained crisp acidity, and the reduced crop delivered great intensity of flavour. Moreover, the wines have structure, and although the simpler wines are accessible now, most premiers and grands crus from top estates have a long life ahead of them.

Chardonnay did not suffer quite as badly as Pinot from the difficulties at flowering, but nonetheless crops were reduced. The cool, rather damp summer was not a particular challenge for the grapes, though growers had to keep a close eye on their vineyards for outbreaks of disease. Moreover the hailstorms of mid-September did damage white vineyards in the Côte de Beaune, especially in Meursault, and there was some rot.

Normally one would expect the white grapes to be picked before the red, but in 2010 the harvest was muddled thanks to the uneven ripening. But well organized estates managed the harvest well, and of course in all-white appellations such as Puligny and Chablis, this was not an issue. The wines are similar to the racy 2008s, but with a touch more weight, and white Burgundy aficionados could hardly ask for more.

This particular dinner is at Melisse, one of LA’s few 2 star Michelin restaurants and also one of my favorites (you can find links to three epic Carte Blanche meals at Melisse in the brackets at the top of the post). Let’s just say that Melisse generally has every area of fine dining covered: great food, great wine service, great everything service, etc.

Tonight’s special menu.

Our testing  was setup in the elegant private room just to the right of the entrance. Because it was the private room I could use my flash on the food – yay!

Flight 0: Amuses

1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. BH 97. One of the greatest examples of the ’96 vintage, this wine has it all with elegance, intensity, subtlety and grace, not to mention buckets of unrealized potential that will enable this beauty to improve for at least another decade and perhaps longer. I can only imagine just how good this would be from magnum format! The nose is discreet, reserved and pure with lemon, green apple and layers upon layers of fruit framed by just the right amount of yeast influence that continues onto the exceptionally dry and tight flavors that are crisp and refined as well as superbly intense yet through it all there is this underlying sense of harmony, as though all of the elements are working in concert. The greatest wines, at least those cut from classical cloth, persuade through the subtlest means and so it is with the ’96 Goisses, which is indeed a great wine by any measure. While it is drinkable now, for my taste preferences a lot of potential would be left in the glass and I wouldn’t start in earnest on this for another 5+ years.

Tuna Tartare, Avocado Mousseline, Citrus Tuile. Very Wolfgang Puck, but delicious regardless.

Smoked Salmon, Quail Egg and Brioche. Classic.

Veal Tartare, Capers, Olive, Puntarelle. The weakest of the 3, but not bad.

The awesome Melisse bread, but again missing the bacon one. Still, the brioche rocks.

French butter also rocks.

An amuse of chestnut soup with whipped black truffle! As usual it starts with the middle.

Then in goes the soup. Delicious! And pretty rich which was good as there aren’t enough courses tonight (particularly compared to our epic Carte Blanche).

Flight 1

 

2010 Domaine Thenard Montrachet.

2010 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet. BH 94-97. Interestingly, here the nose is quite similar to that of the Chevalier though without the note of mineral reduction. The massively rich, broad and powerful big-bodied flavors brim with an abundance of mouth coating dry extract that helps to buffer the very firm acid spine that shapes the almost chewy and tannic finish that very much resembles a vinous bomb exploding on the palate. There is a natural sweetness to the mid-palate that is not allowed to become cloying as the hugely long finale is bone dry. This is just flat out brilliant and packed with potential.

2010 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. BH 94-96. This is ever-so-slightly riper than the Chevalier and a bit more aromatically complex as well if not more elegant. There is outstanding richness, volume, muscle and unconcealed power to the large-scaled heavy-weight flavors that somehow manage to avoid any sense of undue ponderousness before culminating in a massively long finish that is almost chewy and tannic. This will require plenty of bottle age but it should be great in time.

Ringer! 2010 Bruno Colin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Blanchots Dessus. BH 93. Mild reduction does not materially affect the otherwise pure white orchard fruit and citrus aromas that introduce concentrated, powerful and intense large-scaled flavors that evidence a taut muscularity before concluding in an attractively dry and hugely persistent finish. This is a really impressive effort and its immediate proximity to Montrachet is very much in evidence in 2010.

2010 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. BH 96. The super-elegant nose displays an exceptionally subtle hint of the exotic along with remarkably complex aromas of spices, white flower, apple, citrus and essence of pear. There is serious size and weight to the big-bodied yet seductively textured, even silky flavors that possess an abundance of mouth coating dry extract. There is a fine minerality to the energetic and quite firmly structured finish that displays genuinely striking persistence. This will require ample cellar time to reach its full apogee.

Black Bass “En Ecailles”. Fennel, White Mushrooms, Green garlic.  Nice soft fish, traditional butter derived foamy sauce, and then that treatment of the scales, all crunchy/crispy. Now to the taste the skin/scales was awesome. But something about its spiky regular texture seriously triggered the latent Trypophobia in me. Just thinking about it is creeping me out 48 hours later! CLICK HERE IF YOU DARE.

Flight 2

 

2010 Louis Jadot Montrachet. BH 94-97. This is completely different and trades elegance for notably more aromatic complexity as here the nose is impressively broad-ranging with its panoply of ripe orchard fruit, rose, lavender and white flower nuances coupled with notes of citrus peel, stone and spices. There is a discreet touch of wood on the exceptionally rich, powerful and strikingly well-concentrated broad-shouldered flavors that brim with mouth coating dry extract before culminating in a massively long finish where, once again, the balance is flawless.

Ringer! 2010 Ceritas Chardonnay Porter-Bass Vineyard. VM 94. I am thrilled that the 2010 Chardonnay Porter-Bass Vineyard captures all of the promise I sensed last year. The inherent richness and depth typical of this site comes through loud and clear. Nectarines, dried flowers and pears all flesh out beautifully in the glass. Soft, open and totally beautiful – yet backed with plenty of bracing minerality – the 2010 is superb.

2010 Maison Roche de Bellene Montrachet. BH 93-96. Noticeable but not aggressive oak does not dominate the perfumed and intensely floral nose of acacia blossom, lemon peel and yellow-fleshed fruit aromas. There is excellent power and drive to the intense and tension-filled flavors that are still on the linear side and this will need time to flesh out, particularly on the sneaky long finish that just seems to go on and on. This packed effort will need a lot of time to arrive at its peak.

2010 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet. BH 98. As with the La Cabotte, there is a lot of unabsorbed sulfur present that renders reading the nose tricky but the aromas are clearly ripe, broad and dense. By contrast, the massive and superbly well-concentrated flavors are a genuinely marvelous combination of size, weight, tension and again, almost painful intensity. Despite all of the muscle and concentration, there is absolutely no heaviness, indeed the acid support is such that this comes across as impeccably well-balanced on the palate staining finish. This is a magnificent wine, in fact this is one of the best wines of the entire vintage and that is obviously saying something as 2010 is very special. A “wow” wine par excellence. Note that like the Chevalier, should you elect to try one of these gems young, which I would strongly advise against, do be sure to decant it.

2010 Louis Latour Montrachet. BH 92-94. It seems that each of these grands crus holds some distinction vis-à-vis its stable mates and if the Criots is the ripest and the Chevalier the most elegant then the Montrachet is the most complex. The superb range of spice, floral, citrus and primarily white-fleshed fruit aromas are given added breadth by the presence of peach, apricot and discreet stone hints. The large-scaled, concentrated and intense flavors possess plenty of mouth coating dry extract as well as excellent if not truly stunning persistence. This is at present exceptionally backward and it’s entirely possible that this will develop even better length and if so, my predicted range will likely be too conservative.

2010 Maison Albert Bichot Montrachet. Tasting, brief note. This had been open approx an hour before I tasted it. Very ripe with lots of floral notes. Combination of ripeness and slight hints of botrytis make this seem fat and forward, but energy emerging at the finish that keeps this nicely balanced. Still, this is advanced for a Montrachet and so I’d err on the side of drinking it younger rather than cellaring longer term.

Maine Lobster, aged Acquerello Rice, Cauliflower and Parmesan. This dish was fabulous. Great lobster and with that strong lobster reduction sauce plus the really nice risotto texture.

 

Flight 3: Almost all Monty

 

2010 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet. BH 97. A blast of pungently toasty aromas and gorgeously complex aromas of resin, petrol, spice, pear, white peach, apricot, honeysuckle and acacia blossom. There is excellent size, weight and punch to the imposingly scaled broad-shouldered flavors that drench the palate in dry extract yet the precision and detail are nothing short of remarkable. There is flat out superb depth of material, all wrapped in a tightly wound yet massively long finish that is borderline painful in its intensity. This is clearly a vinous infant yet one that is already stunningly harmonious. In sum, this is a classic in the making.

2010 Olivier Leflaive Montrachet. BH 94-97. This is expressive to the point of being almost mute though it seems clear that the mostly yellow orchard fruit aromas are ripe as they combine with honeysuckle, spice and floral nuances. The equally ripe and distinctly powerful broad-shouldered flavors brim with dry extract that helps to buffer what is presently a very firm acid spine on the explosively long finish that is moderately austere though not hard. This is easily the best wine in the range though note that plenty of patience will be required as this is still very, very backward.

2010 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. VM 97+. Bright pale yellow. Lime, crushed stone and steely minerality on the nose. Totally unevolved in the mouth, showing powerful mineral austerity and great cut to the flavors of liquid stone, white flowers and white truffle. This outstanding expression of calcaire is all corners today, but it’s still an infant. Finishes with explosive length. Forget about this wine for at least 10 or 12 years. This and the Perrieres will be fascinating to taste side by side in 2025: don’t forget to invite me over.

2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Montrachet. BH 94-97. A discreet application of wood frames notably ripe, indeed ever-so-mildly exotic yellow fruit aromas that exhibit highly complex nuances of spice, stone, lemon, lime and mango. This depth continues onto the pure, detailed and generous broad-shouldered flavors that possess exceptionally good density but also excellent verve on the precise, mouth coating and citrus-infused finish that delivers positively spectacular length. Like the Corton-Charlemagne, this is one very serious effort that should mature quite slowly over the next 15 to perhaps 20 years.

2010 Remoissenet Père et Fils Montrachet Le Montrachet. BH 93-96. If the Chevalier is, in a sense, vertical in its presentation, then this is entirely horizontal with a restrained but incredibly broad-ranging nose of lemon zest, fennel, clove, sandalwood, wet stone, floral and ripe white and yellow orchard fruit aromas. The expansive and wonderfully rich, full and equally ripe broad-shouldered flavors possess plenty of taut muscularity and underlying tension, all wrapped in a powerful, palate staining and stunningly long finish that really fans out as it lingers. In sum, this is an explosive wine of obvious class and grace that should mature slowly over the next 12 to 15 years as this is going nowhere fast.

Nasturtium Crusted Turbot. Fava Beans, Porcini Mushrooms, Brown Butter. Evenone is using Nasturtium these days — but this was an amazing piece of fish.

Flight 4: Dessert


1967 Château Rieussec. JK 94. From a bottle with good provenance, this medium rust-colored, limpid elixer teems with aromas and flavors of crème brûlée, tangerine, honey, peach and vanilla. Medium-to-full-bodied, dense and amazingly vibrant, it balances its sweetness beautifully with fresh acidity. Luscious throughout the middle and lengthy on the back end, this 50-year-old Rieussec has a lot of tread left in its tires. Drink now-2035.

Josiah told me that I’m the first person ever to BYOG to Melisse!

From the Sweet Milk Gelato “lab” (made by me): Fior Di Philly Gelato – Philadelphia Cream Cheese base, with Graham Cracker and Italian Wild Strawberry Topping! The room consensus was that it was so good it was better than the house dessert :-).


Cara Cara Orange Soufflé. Heilala Vanilla Ice Cream.

Close up!

And another. I liked the orange goo with the ice cream.

One of the chef’s tries some Monty behind Don.

The lineup.

Glasses Galore!

A rare sighting of the endangered Michael Z in the wild!



food: As usual the food at Melisse is great. I generally prefer a more mega tasting menu with more flavors and the requirements of matching White Burgundy limited the options, and a couple years at this dinner we had more variety, but I do have have to say that Melisse NAILED the execution on all the savory dishes we had, from the soup on through to the turbot all were really polished and delicious.

service: Excellent as always. Matt knocked it out of the park as the Somm.

agavin on the wines: I love the 2010 White Burgundies and Montrachet is no exception. This isn’t the best age to taste this giant grand cru at either, as the big wines are a bit closed and/or reductive. But still there were some stunners in the batch and the overall quality level was fabulous. Very little advancement.

Voting results of the night (from Don) were:

  • The top ranked wine was the Remoissenet, which was the big winner on night two a year ago.  (As mentioned, this comes from the same source as the Thenard and Sauzet.)Thirteen of the sixteen wines got Top 5 votes, and every wine in the last flight got at least 4 top five votes, which tells you a lot about how good the wines were as a group. 
    Group Ranking Total Points
    1 Remoissenet Montrachet 35
    2 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne 26
    3 Jadot Montrachet 23
    4 Ramonet Montrachet 16
    5 Bouchard Montrachet 9
    6 tie Colin-Morey Montrachet 8
    6 tie Maison Olivier Leflaive Montrachet 8

     

    A pretty amazing showing for Jadot.— matching the third place finish in the 2007 Mostly Montrachet dinner.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2010 White Burgundy part 1

2009 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 2

2007 White Burgundy part 1

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2006 White Burgundy

2004 Red Burgundy

2005 White Burgundy part 1

2005 White Burgundy part 2

2005 White Burgundy part 3

Related posts:

  1. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  2. Melisse – 2008 Montrachet!
  3. Melisse – 2007 Montrachet!
  4. Valentino – 2010 White Burgundy part 1
  5. Melisse Madness
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2010 White Burgundy, BYOG, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Le Montrachet, Melisse, Montrachet

Valentino – 2010 White Burgundy part 1

Mar30

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd  Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: February 7, 2018

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fun and educational!

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This dinner is the first part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. Tonight’s particular dinner covers 2010 Chablis, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne. Other dinners in the series are listed at the bottom of the post.

As usual, the dinner was at Valentino, which has been a mainstay of the LA fine dining scene for decades. I first started coming here in about 1995 and it was a mind blowing change from the usual trattoria and red-sauce style Italians. Valentino is much closer to Michelin 2 star restaurant in Italy, although not as modernist as some of those are in recent years. If food in Italy turns you on, check out my Eating Italy segment.

And with regard to the wines and vintage: 2010 is a classic year for white Burgundy. The relatively cool growing season maintained crisp acidity, and the reduced crop delivered great intensity of flavor. Moreover, the wines have structure, and although the simpler wines are accessible now, most premiers and grands crus from top estates have a long life ahead of them.


Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30+ glasses a person!


Notice the awesome array of glasses in the background. Only about half of them are visible. Few restaurants can handle this sort of thing, as they need over 400 stems of the same type and a dedicated Sommelier with sufficient experience and skill. Ours tonight handled the whole wine service with extreme professionalism and personality.

The whole thing in session.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2002 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. VM 96. The flagship 2002 Brut Clos des Goisses is simply stunning in this vintage. Seamless, ripe and beguiling, the 2002 is pure harmony in the glass. Dried pears, apricots, flowers, red berries and spices are some of the many notes that inform this towering, aristocratic wine. At once vertical yet endowed with serious length, the 2002 stands out for its breathtaking balance and overall sense of harmony. Layers of fruit built to the huge, creamy finish. This is a great showing from Philipponnat. The 2002 was disgorged in June 2011.

Parmiggiano Schegge.

Eggplant Cotoletta.

Grilled pizza.

Calamaretti Fritti.

Branzino & Enoki Mushroom Rolls.

Bread sticks.

Flight 1: Chablis

2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 97. The 2010 Chablis Les Preuses combines the minerality of Valmur and the fruit of Bouguerots in a style that is immensely appealing. The wine’s balance is utterly impeccable throughout. This is one of those effortless, gracious wines that is easy to underestimate because the elements are so seamlessly woven together that nothing in particular stands out. I am blown away by the sheer balance, purity and harmony of what is in the glass. This is a great showing from Fevre and Didier Seguir.

2010 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 96. The 2010 Chablis Preuses is a dense, structured wine bursting with fruit. The typical Preuses bouquet is very much present, but today the wine is young and needs time to settle down. This is a decidedly bold, ripe Preuses that captures the weight and richness of the year. Although insanely vivid and beautiful in the glass, it needs time to fully come together. Today, the minerality appears nearly buried by the sheer weight of the fruit.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. VM 96. The 2010 Chablis Valmur is intense, rich and heady, but also has more than enough acidity to back things up. It is at once rich yet weightless in its expression of fruit, which is rare for Valmur. Hints of slate, crushed rocks, peaches and apricots meld together on the dramatic, enveloping finish. The Valmur is every bit as fabulous as it was when I tasted it last year from barrel.

2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 95+. The 2010 Chablis Les Clos is all about understatement and balance. White floral notes meld into white stone fruit in this utterly gracious Chablis. Clos can at times be fleeting and elusive, and there is certainly some of that in the 2010. Still, it is impossible to miss the wine’s textural finesse and sheer overall balance. I will not be surprised if the 2010 continues to get better in bottle.

2010 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 96. Veins of saline minerality support expressive fruit in the 2010 Chablis Les Clos. White peaches, slate, smoke, crushed rocks and salt are all quite vivid in the glass. It is hard to resist the Clos today, as the fruit is so silky and delineated, yet at the same time it is quite clear the wine has the potential to evolve beautifully in bottle for many, many years. The 2010 is all about silkiness and precision. Today, it has a little less overt ripeness and weight next to the Preuses.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 97+. The very best elements of vintage and site is expressed by one of Chablis’s true visionaries come together in the 2010 Chablis Clos. The aromatics alone are breathtaking, but then endless layers of fruit flow across the palate, captivating all the senses; intellectual, hedonistic and everything else. The Clos has elements of all the preceding wines in the same way Romanée-Conti encapsulates all the wines at DRC. The 2010 Clos shows great balance and class from start to finish. It is a profound wine to savor over the next few decades, although it shouldn’t be touched before age ten. Readers who can find the 2010 should not hesitate. It is a magical bottle of wine.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. VM 95. An intriguing, rich, almost tropical expression of fruit emerges from the 2010 Chablis Blanchot, owing to the warmer microclimate in this site. The Blanchots is ripe, seductive and enveloping. Stylistically it is one of the flashier 2010s here. Layers of fruit build to the deeply resonant, radiant finish. The Blanchot should drink well relatively early.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 95+. Readers will have to be patient with the 2010 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre. Some of the other 2010s are showing much more today, but the Montée de Tonnerre is all understatement and class. Still, it is impossible to miss the wine’s textural finesse and exceptional overall harmony. Everything is simply in the right place in this majestic, compelling Chablis. A gentle hint of spice frames the finish.

Warm King Crab Salad with Cannellini Beans and Citrus Essence.

Flight 2: Meursault

2010 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93. Pale, bright yellow. Aromas and flavors of fresh peach and apricot, lemon-lime and crushed rock. Rich, dense, creamy and seamless, but with firm acidity and strong stony minerality leavening the wine’s sweetness. Very complex and intense Perrieres with superb energy and length. Made from a blend of three parcels.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 94+. Bright pale yellow. Exotic, slightly high-toned aromas of orange, hazelnut and spicy oak. Then much more soil-dominated on the palate, with savory, chewy flavors of liquid stone and salty minerality dominating the wine’s underlying fruit. Tensile, tightly wound Perrieres, in need of five to seven years of patience.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Bouchères. VM 94. Roulot’s 2010 Meursault Bouchères comes across as weightless, perfumed and very beautiful. Floral aromatics lead to expressive stone fruits in this gracious, feminine wine. In 2010, the Bouchères is all subtlety, finesse and understatement. A distinctly salty finish full of tension and energy leaves a lasting impression. This is going to be a fascinating wine to follow over the coming years. The 2010 is the last Bouchères made by Roulot. As part of the purchase of Domaine Manuel, Jean-Marc Roulot acquired the 1.3 hectare Clos des Bouchères, and he prefers to focus his efforts there, as that plot is quite a bit larger than his existing holding in the greater Bouchères.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 94. Knockout perfume of soft citrus fruits, menthol, wet stone and white truffle. Densely packed, saline and seamless; deceptively approachable today owing to its sheer richness and depth of flavor and its very long, sweet aftertaste. But this utterly primary wine has the stuffing for aging. Boillot recommends drinking it in the next year or so or holding it for seven or eight years; he’s convinced the wine will be totally closed in two years.

2010 Domaine Latour-Giraud Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières Cuvée des Pierre. VM 95+. Bright pale yellow. Spicy oak, lemon oil, hazelnut and brown spices on the nose. Boasts superb saline density on entry, then remains tactile and salty in the middle, but with terrific energy to buffer the wine’s volume. There’s outstanding flavor intensity here but not the early tenderness of the basic Genevrieres bottling. Superb lemony minerality gives the finish terrific cut. Really mounts slowly and builds. Latour noted that both this wine and the cuvee classique went back into barrel for additional aging after the August racking; he moved the rest of his wines into tanks, where they remained in mass for another six months.

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 96+. Usually we feature older wines in Cellar Favorites, but given the understandable trepidation consumers have around cellaring white Burgundy, I thought it would be interesting to see how a handful of highly touted white Burgundies are faring. To be honest, I had a selfish reason for wanting to taste these wines. I bought many of the Lafon 2010s (it is my daughter’s birth year), but I did so not really knowing when the wines would be ready to drink or how long they will last. I think I can at least offer a view on the first part of that question, but the second, happily, remains a question mark, in the best sense of the term.Vinous readers will recall that 2010 is unusual in the Côte de Beaune for its combination of both elevated ripeness and high acidity, two attributes one rarely finds in the same vintage. At Lafon, the 2010s were positively electric when I tasted them from barrel and then from bottle. Today, a few years later, the 2010 whites are every bit as impressive. Although projecting drinking windows for white Burgundy these days is fraught with peril, based on this showing all of the 2010s need at least a few more years in bottle with the possible exception of the Goutte d’Or.While the preceding Meursaults all offer a measure of exuberance – albeit in a classically austere style – the 2010 Meursault Genevrières is a much more introverted wine that draws the taster in with its myriad shades of dimension. Deceptively medium in body, the 2010 is all about intensity, cut and inward energy, with the classic reductive flavor profile that is typical of this great site, and breathtaking harmony. The 2010 refreshes the palate with every taste as it continues to grow in the glass. Over the last few years, the 2010 has blossomed into a spectacular Meursault. This is the best showing yet from the Genevrières.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 95+. Orange and lemon zest and pure crushed stone on the reticent nose. A real live wire in the mouth, with great verve to the flavors of lemon peel, white pepper and saline minerality. For such a bracing wine, this one boasts a magically silky, seamless texture. The outstanding, slow-mounting finish boasts pristine grapefruit, lemon and crushed stone elements and outstanding aromatic persistence. This wine finished its malo in June of 2011 and is still an infant today.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 94. Deep aromas of fresh apricot, orange creamsicle, vanilla and spices. Big, concentrated and rich, displaying more power and weight today than the Genevrieres. Dense and silky-sweet but a bit shocked by the bottling and not currently showing the precision or length of the last sample. But this is still long on the aftertaste. Lafon notes that this wine will become more floral as it settles down in the bottle.

Linguine with Sea Scallops Ragu. Not a bad dish, but not the best White Burg pairing and oddly VERY similar to the next dish.

Flight 3: Meursault Perrieres

2010 Henri Germain et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 90-93. Here the SO2 had just recently been adjusted and it was strong enough to render the nose impossible to fairly evaluate. The stony, precise and energetic middle weight flavors possess both excellent complexity and plenty of detail before concluding in a dry, clean, focused and impressively persistent finish.

2010 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93-95. Bright, light medium yellow. Fully ripe peach complemented by flinty minerality. At once thick and bright, with intense stone fruit, oak char and nut oil flavors. Quite serene today after the early malo. This switches to a higher gear on the back half, with its mounting finish showing strong crushed stone minerality, some smoky, petrolly, riesling-like notes, and outstanding persistence.

2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 95+. Locked up tight on the nose. Then thick, large-scaled and powerful in the mouth, with an extraordinarily tactile palate feel to the pineapple and crushed stone flavors. Packed with dry extract. Boasts the concentration, fine-grained texture and sheer sappy density of a grand cru. This brilliant wine finishes with uncanny rising length. I’d love to revisit it in ten years.

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 96.  Bright pale yellow. Very ripe aromas of pineapple, yellow peach and wet stone, lifted by a floral topnote. Wonderfully fine-grained and sweet, but with pungent pineapple and mineral flavors conveying a powerful impression of energy. Finishes very long and lush, with a resounding whiplash of fruits and stone. These 2010s boast outstanding depth of fruit without any heaviness.

2010 Vincent Dancer Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 92-94. This is perhaps the purest wine in the range with its gorgeously complex floral, spiced pear and wet stone suffused aromas. The racy, intense and chiseled flavors possess good mid-palate fat and concentration with plenty of dry extract that buffers the explosive, classy and gorgeously persistent finish where a discreet touch of wood surfaces. This is, in a word, terrific.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93. Much more exotic on the nose than the Charmes, offering aromas of pineapple, hazelnut and marzipan. Hugely ripe and concentrated, but almost tropical in the context of this set of 2010s. Offers grand cru weight and texture, strong acidity and palate-staining pineapple and grapefruit flavors but finishes with a slight youthful bitterness. I’d drink this very ripe wine over the next decade or so while waiting on the superlative Charmes.

2010 Domaine Jean-Michel Gaunoux Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 94. Bright pale yellow. With its aromas of pineapple, powdered stone and tea leaf, this smells a bit sweeter than the Genevrieres. Dense but light on its feet, with terrific inner-mouth perfume to the flavors of lavender, powdered stone and minerals. Taut, elegant, very dry wine with superb cut and rising length. A very clear expression of Perrieres terroir.

2010 Albert Grivault Meursault 1er Cru Clos des Perrières. VM 92. Cool nose of mint, green herbs, some lemon and lemon drops, a bit of sweet oak. A bit oaky for my tastes. The palate shows more energy with good acid, not as deep or wide as I would like from a Perrieres but quite pretty with lemon drops, oak, a touch of the herbal/mint. The finish is the best part showing great drive and brightness with lots of lemon drops and some sweetness from the oak.

Risotto with Lobster and Mixed Seafood. We always get this dish, but tonight it was nearly identical in flavor profile to the pasta and again a bit too tangy/acidic for the Burg. Really we should have had the white cheesy/creamy risotto that was a Valentino specialty back in the 90s, the one that is closer to Risotto gamberi con crema.

Flight 4: Corton Charlemagne

2010 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. VM 96+. Bright pale yellow. Extremely closed nose hints at gunflint and menthol. Dense and pure on entry, then as powerful as a solid in the middle, with explosive lift to the flavors of white pepper, mint and dusty stone. Expands with air to fill the mouth without giving any impression of weight. Finishes with a convincing saline tang and outstanding persistence. This has the structure of a top red Burgundy: I’d forget about it for at least eight years.

2010 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Good bright, pale yellow. Very pure, reticent aromas of lemon, lime and white flowers. Dry and penetrating to the point of painful, with pristine flavors of crushed stone, lime, lemon and ripe but lightly bitter pomelo. Pure energy: this makes the Cabottes seem almost creamy by comparison. Finishes with intense crushed stone flavor and outstanding cut and lift. For the cellar.

2010 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Palish bright yellow. Tight, vibrant nose offers white peach, pineapple, nut oils and brown spices. Juicy and sweet but kept under wraps today by powerful acidity. Still, this remarkably intense wine does not come across as austere owing the full ripeness of the fruit. Wonderfully classy Corton-Charlemagne with a penetrating, dusty, extremely long finish. This held up brilliantly in the recorked bottle. I suspect this wine will shut down in the next couple years.

2010 Domaine Patrick Javillier Corton-Charlemagne. VM 92+. Bright pale-yellow. Very closed nose hints at minerals and spices. Rich, dense and sappy, with almost surprising sucrosite to the flavors of orange zest and stone. Very precise Corton-Charlemagne with a tangy, slightly tannic back end. Forget about this one for at least five or six years.

2010 Domaine de la Vougeraie Corton-Charlemagne Le Charlemagne. VM 94-96. The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne Le Charlemagne is stunningly beautiful. Layers of expressive, voluptuous fruit are supported by persistent underlying mineral notes. The wine blossoms on the palate in all directions, showing off its pedigree and pure class. A vivid, crystalline finish leaves a lasting impression.

2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright yellow-green. Discreet, pristine aromas of white peach, lime, white pepper and powdered stone. Extremely tight and penetrating, with outstanding intensity to its steely, lemony flavors. Conveys a powerful citrus character that’s accentuated on the back end by a bracing crushed stone element. Impenetrable today but built for a long and eventful evolution in bottle.

2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. VM 94+. Good pale yellow. Penetrating aromas of citrus peel, spices, metallic minerality and crushed rock. Tightly wound, gripping and deep, with outstanding concentration and clarity and a density of texture that reminded me of the 2005 here. A flavor of candied lime peel is already quite exhilarating but this wine’s youthfully imploded character calls for at least seven or eight years of cellaring. Today, this is rather like a tighter version of the 2011, and even more closed than a bottle I rated 94 in Issue 164.

2010 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne Quintessence. VM 92?. Bright, pale yellow. Reticent but very pure aromas of yellow peach, hazelnut and vanillin oak; comes across as riper than the utterly primary basic Corton-Charlemagne. Sweet and fine-grained, with a distinctly silky texture to the yellow fruit flavors. I find this less limey and minerally than the basic bottling, without quite that wine’s tension. In fact, the finish shows a slightly exotic apricot quality and a bit of youthful warmth.

Pan Roasted Napa Quail with Parmesan Polenta. Good quail dish.

Flight 5: Dessert

1989 Château Rieussec. VM 92. Lively, complex, fresh aromas of tropical fruit, honey and spicy oak. Sweet and viscous in the middle palate; kept fresh by apple and pear notes and harmonious acidity. Very concentrated and deep. Very long on the aftertaste; has the sheer material to buffer its alcohol. Rieussec switched to later bottling with this vintage: 30 rather than 24 months after the harvest.

Made and brought by me for the meal: Mint Oreo Fudge Triple Threat – Fresh mint gelato base with Valrhona chocolate ganache and mint oreo cookies!

Apple Torte & Apple Fritters with Cinnamon Creme Anglaise.

Looking over the sea of glasses!

There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a good job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. The food was okay, although feeling a bit dated and the menu selection was odd with the two nearly identically sauced dishes. The decor and food are also a tad dated now, very very 90s — and not even as good as I remember back in the 90s. But memory is a funny thing.

There wasn’t quite enough food and the flights were WAY too large. Really this dinner could use 6 flights, no bigger than 5 wines each and about 6 savory dishes. This was more a planning/budget issue than anything under the restaurant’s control.

Thanks to Don C again as always for organizing a super fun and education event! It’s an enormous amount of organization and we all really appreciate it.

Speaking of Don, his compiled results and comments from this dinner are as follows. The top five ranked wines of the evening were:

On February we held the first night of the 2010 White Burgundy and Vintage Assessment Dinners at Valentino Restaurant in Santa Monica.  The dinners were in our usual format with 14 attendees and sommelier Paul Sherman evaluating the wines at each dinner.  All of the wines were served single blind and all of the voting takes place completely blind (with individual written ballots) with the attendees ranking their top five wines by bottle number.  As we usually do, we attempted to include all of the top examples from each appellation.

We tasted 32 different wines from Chablis, Meursault and Corton Charlemagne (four flights of eight wines each).  On February 20 we had 30 different hyphenated grand crus from Montrachet and two ringers – one from California and one from France.  Again, we had four flights of eight wines each.

Here are the top ten wines based on the group rankings from each night:

 

Night One- Feb 7 (Chablis (8), Meursault (16), Corton Charlemagne (8)):

 

Top 5 DC
Group Ranking Total Points Votes Rating
1 Vincent Dancer Meursault Perrieres 29 8 95
2 Lafon Meursault Genevrieres 23 6 95
3 Raveneau Chablis Clos 20 5 94
4 Roulot Meursault Perrieres 19 6 95
5 tie Javillier Corton Charlemagne   [DIAM] 17 7 94
5 tie H. Boillot Meursault Perrieres 17 4 93|90?
7 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee de Pierre 15 5 95
8 Vougeraie Corton Charlemagne 13 4 93
9 Roulot Meursault Charmes 11 4 94+
10 Fevre Clos [DiAM] 8 4 94+

The premox report for nights one and two were very good.   Over two nights, we had the lowest total incidence of oxidized or advanced wines over the past 13 years.  The group consensus was that 3 of the 64 wines were advanced or oxidized (6.25%).  By my count it was 7 of 64 wines (or 10.94%) [ Andy interjects that at dinner 1 basically nothing was premoxed and that he feels Don sometimes see a highly ripe wine as advanced ].  To date, the vintage with the lowest incidence of oxidized and advanced wines was 2004 — (12.7%).  But we still have 16 bottles of “Mostly Montrachet” to taste on March 7.   Once again, none of the DIAM-closed bottles were corked, oxidized or advanced and no one reported any sort of unusual flavors or aromas.  So far, that’s 13 perfect bottles over the last two years.

 

Some Impressions About the 2010 Vintage Based on this tasting:

I will provide details on each wine in the tasting notes, but I found the 2010 vintage more uneven and probably less impressive overall than I had expected – at least for the Cote de Beaune wines.  The Cote de Beaune wines are much riper and more dense (with lots of tropical fruit notes on the aromas) than the early reviews suggested.  And in several cases, particularly in Corton, Meursault and Batard, the acidity level wasn’t as high as expected and in some cases, seemingly not high enough to counterbalance the heavy ripe fruit flavors. [ Andy notes that he LOVED the 2010s – but it’s highly subjective ]

The 2010 Chablis as a group were marvelous.  They have prototype Chablis aromas (lots of oyster shell and green fruit) with excellent Chablis minerality/liquid rocks in the finishes.  The surprise was that this came with about 50% more depth of fruit than most of the classic Chablis years.  This is a vintage in a style that everyone can love – similar to 2002 but with better acidity and abundant minerality.  There were lots of smiles over these wines and no one had any doubts, as we sometimes do when tasting Chablis at 7.5 years.

The Meursault wines were very uneven, and in some cases the wines seemed totally atypical and excessively ripe for Meursault.  Three or four of the wines had Corton Charlemagne weight and density with none of the normal Meursault aroma or flavor markers.  These bottles gave the impression of being too sweet and way too fat for Meursault.  Since I’m a classic Meursault lover, I wasn’t pleased. While there were a handful of really stellar Meursaults (e.g. Vincent Dancer MP, Roulot MP, Lafon Genevrieres, Latour-Giraud Genevrieres Cuvee Pierre, and Roulot Charmes) overall I preferred the flight of 2009 Meursault Perrieres we tasted a year ago, which were exceptional, to the flight of 2010 Meursault Perrieres.  That’s certainly not what I would have expected going into the dinner.

The Corton Charlemagne flight was group’s least favorite flight on night one.  Two of the wines were advanced, one was corked and the BDM seemed quite off to me with an excessively bitter phenols finish.   Overall this flight of wines didn’t impress me.  Some were notably sweet, even for Corton, and the acidity didn’t seem to match the ripeness and sweetness. Only the Javillier seemed to be a classic Corton.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2009 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 2

2008 White Burgundy part 3

2007 White Burgundy part 1

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2007 White Burgundy part 3

2006 White Burgundy

2004 Red Burgundy

2005 White Burgundy part 1

2005 White Burgundy part 2

2005 White Burgundy part 3

Related posts:

  1. Valentino – 2009 White Burgundy part 1
  2. Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 1
  3. Valentino – 2008 White Burgundy part 1
  4. Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 2
  5. Valentino – 2006 White Burgundy
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2010 White Burgundy, BYOG, Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Italian Cusine, Meursault, Valentino, Wine

Valentino – 2009 White Burgundy part 1

May19

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd  Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: March 1, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fun and educational!

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This dinner is the first part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. Tonight’s particular dinner covers 2009 Chablis, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne. Other dinners in the series are listed at the bottom of the post.

As usual, the dinner was at Valentino, which has been a mainstay of the LA fine dining scene for decades. I first started coming here in about 1995 and it was a mind blowing change from the usual trattoria and red-sauce style Italians. Valentino is much closer to Michelin 2 star restaurant in Italy, although not as modernist as some of those are in recent years. If food in Italy turns you on, check out my Eating Italy segment.

And with regard to the wines. The relatively low acidities in 2009, especially low malic-acid levels which accelerated the malolactic fermentations, mean that many white 2009s are relatively soft and rich. Ripe grapes meant no added sugar to boost alcohol levels but yields were relatively high. This suggests they will make satisfying early drinking but should probably be consumed long before the more structured and long-term 2008s. This applies particularly in Chablis to the north of the Côte d’Or.


Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30+ glasses a person!


Notice the awesome array of glasses in the background. Only about half of them are visible. Few restaurants can handle this sort of thing, as they need over 400 stems of the same type and a dedicated Sommelier with sufficient experience and skill. Ours tonight handled the whole wine service with extreme professionalism and personality.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2004 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee. 94 points. Light gold color; citrus, biscuit and lemon zest aromas; bright citrusy flavors with a lightly toasty element which adds complexity; a very long citrus and minerals finish. Very nice champagne.

Parmiggiano Schegge.

Bruschetta with wild arugula.

Shrimp Milanese.

Oysters.

Grilled flat bed pizza.


A word about tonight’s format. Every bottle was served blind, except we were aware of what flight it was and what was in the flight, just not of which wine was which. The reveal was held until the end of the entire evening so that we could vote on favorite wines without bias.

Personally, I’d prefer a reveal halfway through each flight for a number of reasons. True, this would compromise the voting a bit, but that’s not super important to me. I’d prefer to be able to taste the wines both not knowing which was which and knowing, so that I can continue to build up my subjective memory for each house style. I also find it very difficult to remember back across multiple flights for “best” comparisons. I took notes and marked my favorites of each flight and compared those, but I’m not even really sure it’s fare to compare a Chablis to a Corton.

The tasting notes below are cribbed from Don C who organized the dinner.

Flight 1: Chablis

2009 Raveneau Chablis Montee de Tonnerre. 90 points. Light gold color; sweet lemon (Meyer lemon) aromas; very light lemon flavors, and a mid-palate which is mostly some glyceryl effect and some modest minerals; this is a fairly thin wine. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Preuses. 91 points. Color between light and medium gold; distinct honeysuckle aromas that remind me much more of BBM than Chablis; light green apple and citrus flavors; this has better acidity than #1, but less minerality; a light mineral finish. Four tasters thought this was advanced. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Fevre Chablis Preuses. 90 points. Light yellow gold color; very light green apple and lime aromas; on the palate this is thin with a little green apple but not much other discernable character on the palate My score in retrospect is probably generous. This got one vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Raveneau Chablis Valmur. 91 points. Medium gold color; light green apple and some very faint anise aromas; very light bodied wine with mostly minerals and glyceryl elements; the finish is very light but minerally and fairly long (best feature). This got five votes for best in flight and our Somm. Paul Sherman had it in his top 5 for the night. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Clos. 87 advanced. Medium gold color; Lychee fruit and faintly oaky aromas – but as this sat the aromas started to get more like apricot; this has some odd, sour apple juice flavors; there is notable acidity, but the acidity reminds me more of “end acidity” when the wine is oxidizing rather than natural malic or lactic acid. This is definitely advanced. That is also the group consensus. Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Faiveley Chablis Clos. 86 advanced. Medium gold color; light green apple aromas; modestly rich green apple flavors and seemed to be more like a Cote de Beaune wine than a Chablis to me; not all that much to be excited about in the finish though. After some air there were some pineapple notes in the aromas on the second pass. Hard to see this as Chablis and I’m almost suspicious of what’s in the bottle. Three votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Fevre Chablis Clos. 86 advanced. This between medium and full gold color – definitely the darkest of the first flight; forward apple cider aromas with slightly oaky/toasty note – definitely advanced; advanced red apple fruit flavors. This was definitely advanced and the group all agreed. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Raveneau Chablis Clos. 90 points. Medium gold color; aromas of oyster shell and light lime – finally a Chablis aroma set; on the palate, this had richer fruit than the other wines in the flight, but it was still in a lighter and softer style. Some fairly light minerality and a short finish. While the aromas were definitely Chablis, the palate wasn’t and this wine didn’t seem to have anywhere left to go. Five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

Crab cake with white wine caper sauce.

Flight 2: Meursault part 1


2009 Roulot Meursault Charmes. 91 points. Medium gold color; overly sweet lemon/lime aromas – I immediately said “7-Up” with agreement from several in the room; on the palate, it had similar, overly sweet, almost syrupy lemon-lime flavors, but it had very good acidity and a decent finish. This wine strongly reminded me of what I didn’t like when I first tasted the 2009 vintage on release. [NB Retasting this after the reveal, it was impossible to identify this wine as either Roulot or Meursault Charmes] Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Henri Boillot Meursault Charmes. 90 points. Medium gold color; white flowers and pear aromas; lightly sweet citrus fruit on the palate but with some grilled nut background character; this reminds me more of a Meursault than #9; but this one is a bit harsh and almost phenolic on the finish. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Colin-Morey Meursault Charmes. 93+ points. Medikum plus gold color; light white flowers and some lemon – lime fruit aromas; very bright, medium bodied and charming lemon citrus and light pain grille flavors; a very long subtle fruit finish with a minor degree of acidity in the finish. Real Meursault with just a hint of upside. Four votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

Andre Jobard Meursault Charmes. 89 advanced. Between medium gold and full gold color; aromas of cheerios with sweetness (an aroma Ron Movich has traditionally flagged as outright oxidiation); on the palate, the wine is very fat, buttery, and has a sweet caramel flavor. This is exceedingly advanced and the group unanimously concurs. In hindsight my score seems too generous. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres. 94 points. Very light gold color; aromas of green fruit (like Midiori liquer) and oysters; on the palate, intense, bright citrus flavors with excellent acidity and a good dollop of minerality; this also had a very long minerals and citrus finish that just kept improviing as the night went on. A genuinely impressive Meursault. One vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 15th, 3 points (0/0/0/1/1)

2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee des Pierre. 94+ points. Light gold color; bright lemon citrus aromas with a hint of grilled nuts; very bright lemon-lime flavors with lots of minerality and noticeable acidity; some powerful citrus fruit and abundant minerality on the finish – excellent; this has a bit more fat on the finish than #13. Five votes for wine of the flight. My number four wine of the night. Group Rank: Fifth , 13 points (1/0/1/2/1)

2009 Roulot Meursault Porusots. 93 points. Light gold color; aromas of lemon citrus and hints of green midori liquer; very bright wine with good acidity, moderate intensity lemony fruit and intensely minerally mid-palate; nice components but there seem to be mismatches in intensity levels here; fairly long sweet finish. This got two votes for favorite of the flight, but five people thought it was advanced. On my second pass through it definitely seemed to have lost something. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

Risotto al frutti di mare. Some years we have had seconds of this — could have used it tonight.

Flight 3: Meursault part 2


2009 Lafon Meursault Charmes. 92 points. Between light and medium yellow gold color; light lemon citrus and minerals aromas; not much fruit here, but some intense minerality on the mid-palate and finsih; this is classic but dry; nice minerality on the finish. Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Roulot Meursault Perrieres. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; fresh peach and hazelnut aromas; some lemon citrus, with stony, ground rock mid-palate and great acidity; a very long, mostly mineral and light lemon finish. I love this wine for the stoniness and mineral intensity, though some could find it too austere in the fruit department. Group Rank: Fourteenth , 6 points (1/0/0//1)

2009 H. Boillot Meursault Perrieres. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; again peach and hazelnut aromas; unlike #17, this has some fat and richness on the mid-palate, the biggest wine of the flight; a nice minerally finish too. One vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 12th, 8 points (0/1/1/0/1)

2009 Bouchard Meursault Perrieres DIAM. 94+ points. Light yellow gold color; light green apple aromas; clean and bright citrusy flavors; very good acidity here; a very long minerals and fruit finish. There is some upside here. Four votes for best in flight. My No. 6 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tenth, 10 points (1/1/0/0/1)

2009 Coiin-Morey Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Light plus gold color; very subtle white flowers and lemon pastry aromas; on the palate this had some more dense lemon fruit character and minerality; decent acidity; very long minerals and citrus finish. Impressive with some upside. Three votes for best in flight. My No. 3 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for sixth, 12 points (0/1/2/1/0)

2009 Drouhin Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Between light and medium gold color; light green apple aromas that don’t really seem open or developed yet; on the palate this was backward, with very good acidity and had intense mineral-saline character over some light citrus fruit. This one needs time to open, but seems very impressive. Four votes for best in flight. My No. 2 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for sixth, 12 points (0/1/1/2/1)

2009 Lafon Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Between light and medium gold color; very light white flowers aromas; this wine has very bright acidity, light citrus and intense minerality; a long minerally finish too. Two votes for best in flight. This was my No. 5 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for 8th, 11 points (0/0/2/2/1)

Pan roasted Napa quail stuffed with wild mushrooms on soft polenta. Not a bad quail.

Flight 4: Corton Charlemagne


2009 Faiveley Corton Charlemagne. 92 points. Light plus gold color; aromas of pears and white flowers; nice medium density pear flavors, nice depth; it didn’t seem to follow through on the finish though. Group Rank: Tied for 8th, 11 points (0/2/0/1/1)

2009 Javillier Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Just short of medium gold color; this had pear and green apple aromas; also similar flavors; this has an elegant and long finish which distinguishes it from #23. Group Rank: Tied for 15th, 3 points (0/0/1/0/0)

2009 Montille Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Between light and medium gold color; white flowers and pear aromas; this has some greater richness and depth on the mid-palate with good acidity; minerality isn’t obvious here; fruity finish with some acidity. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Vougeraie Corton Charlemagne. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; sweet white flowers aromas; intense pear flavors; this has more power and depth and more minerality than the preceding wines in this flight; it also has brilliant acidity, and very nice minerality; a very long minerally finish.. Two votes for best in flight. Group Rank: 11th, 9 points (1/0/0/2/0)

2009 Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne. 93+ points. Between light and medium gold color; light white flowers and sweet citrus aromas; less depth of fruit than the others, and more citrus here, good acidity, but I found this somewhat dry, almost phenolic on the back of the palate; nice minerals on the finish. May round out with more time. Two votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Third, 22 points (2/2/1/0/1)

2009 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne. 93+ points. Between light and medium gold color; aromas of white flowers and lemon blossoms; on the palate this had some sweet citrus and a long dry minerally finish. Needs more time. This got five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Fourth, 15 points (/3/0/0/0/0)

2009 Bouchard Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Light yellow gold color, the lightest of the flight; light white flowers and green apple aromas; this had relatively simple green apple flavors but an incredibly long structured minerally finish. At first I thought this wine had good development potential, but by the end of the night, I just wasn’t sure. Group Rank: Twelfth, 9 points (0/1/1/0/1)

Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne. 94 points. Just short of medium gold color; light white flowers and green apple aromas; the most complex mix of fruit flavors of the flight – lemon, lime and green apple, with very nice depth and length; a very pretty wine though not as much minerality as some of the others. I liked this even a little more on my second pass. Five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Second, 30 points (3/2/2/0/1)

Colin-Morey Corton Charlemagne. 95 points. Light gold color; very light white flowers aromas with some green apple undertones; very bright green apple flavors which are intense and snappy; this wine is extremely long on the palate and has amazingly good minerality on the finish. A wow wine. Three votes for best in flight (including mine). My number one wine of the night. Group Rank: First, 34 points (2/3/2/3/0)

Sicilian boneless rabbit with prosciutto, caciocavallo, a hint of chocolate. Not sure we needed TWO meat in brown sauce dishes.

Flight 5: dessert

 Fight the hangover!

1976 Schloss Eltz Auslese. Deep brown color; some burnt sugar and apricot aromas; from a personal perspective I had a real problem getting past the strong burned toast and earthy character on this wine that made the sweetness unreachable for me. Not my cup of tea, but I’ve never been a fan of the 1976 German vintage.

Cassatina di rocotta with pistachio gelato. My gelato is much better but the cassata tasted about 80% like a real Sicilian Cassata, which in my books makes it awesome as that dessert is almost impossible to find properly done outside of Sicily.

Conclusions

 No glasses to be found anywhere (else).
 Have a few white burgs!

There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a good job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. The food was solid, although not as bright or modern as some places. The decor and food are a tad dated now, very very 90s — and not even as good as I remember back in the 90s. But memory is a funny thing.

There wasn’t quite enough food and the flights were WAY too large. Really this dinner could use 6 flights, no bigger than 5 wines each and about 6 savory dishes. This was more a planning/budget issue than anything under the restaurant’s control.

Thanks to Don C again as always for organizing a super fun and education event! It’s an enormous amount of organization and we all really appreciate it.

Speaking of Don, his compiled results and comments from this dinner are as follows. The top five ranked wines of the evening were:

The group’s top five ranked wines of the evening were:

1. 2009 Colin-Morey Corton Charlemagne.
2. 2009 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne
3. 2009 Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne
4. 2009 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne
5. 2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee Pierre

The details are all in the attached spreadsheet along with my ratings on the wines.

Of 31 wines, we had 0 corked, 0 oxidized but 3 were advanced (9.7%). In the four months leading up to this dinner I opened 11 different 2009 whites and didn’t experience a single bottle that was either advanced or oxidized. We had four bottles with DIAM cork closures at the dinner and none of them were advanced or oxidized.

Some general comments –

This was the fourth consecutive dinner where a Colin-Morey wine finished either the number one or number two ranked wine by the group (and all of the voting has been totally blind.) BDM Corton made the top five for the first time ever. Vougeraie made a very impressive first time appearance.

Except for the Chablis, the wines from 2009 far exceeded my initial expectations. When the Cote de Beaune wines were released, I thought most of them were excessively sweet (I frequently used the descriptor of “7-Up”). As a result, I cellared very few 2009s. But the Cote de Beaune wines today, for the most part, far exceed my initial expectation. The level of improvement was even more profound than what we experienced with the 2006 vintage.

The bad news for 2009 is that, in my judgment, 2009 is the least impressive vintage of Chablis that I’ve ever tasted – far worse than the 2007s or the 2005s. The Chablis were extremely thin and mostly lacking in Chablis character. The three best wines of the flight, all from Raveneau, were very light bodied wines with some minerality but very little else to commend them. In my opinion, it’s a vintage of Chablis to avoid.

But in contrast to the disappointing Chablis, the flight of Meursault Perrieres was, when considered as a whole, the most consistent flight of Meursault Perrieres, from one wine to the next, that we’ve ever had. Excluding the Lafon Charmes, (which I usually include with the MPs because of those vines’ immediate proximity to Perrieres and the fact that the Lafon Charmes usually tastes more like MP than Charmes), the wines were uniformly very impressive. They were fairly light in color and had varying pleasant fruit esters (mostly citrus, but in two cases green apple and two with some peach) along with grilled hazelnut in a couple of them. They also all had surprisingly good acidity and strong minerality. After writing my notes and provisionally scoring the wines I was astonished to realize that I’d rated every MP at 94 points and it was very hard to pick a favorite in this flight. Four of the wines are likely to improve a little more with additional bottle age (which to me was unexpected for the 2009 vintage.)

The Corton flight, while it had a greater range of variation, was also quite good. The aromas were mostly white flowers and green apple or pear (though a couple had some light citrus elements). The wines were bigger bodied and richer than the MPs, as you would expect. They were surprisingly classic in style compared to how sweet and 7-Up like many of the wines tasted like at the time of release.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2008 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 2

2008 White Burgundy part 3

2007 White Burgundy part 1

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2007 White Burgundy part 3

2006 White Burgundy

2004 Red Burgundy

2005 White Burgundy part 1

2005 White Burgundy part 2

2005 White Burgundy part 3

Related posts:

  1. Valentino – 2008 White Burgundy part 1
  2. Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 1
  3. Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 2
  4. Valentino – 2008 White Burgundy part 2
  5. Valentino – 2006 White Burgundy
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2009 White Burgundy, Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Don Cornwell, Italian cuisine, Meursault, Santa Monica, Valentino, Wine

Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 2

Mar06

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd  Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: March 4, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fabulous!

_

This dinner is the second part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. This dinner covers 2007 Batard-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, and associated BBM and CBM. Part 1, covering Chablis, Meursault and Corton can be found here.

2007 was a vintage was cool and acidic.

This particular dinner is at Valentino, which has been a mainstay of the LA fine dining scene for decades. I first started coming here in about 1995 and it was a mind blowing change from the usual trattoria and red-sauce style Italians. Valentino is much closer to Michelin 2 star restaurant in Italy, although not as modernist as some of those are in recent years. If food in Italy turns you on, check out my Eating Italy segment.


Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30ish glasses a person!


Notice the awesome array of glasses. Only about half of them are visible. Few restaurants can handle this sort of thing, as they need over 400 stems of the same type and a dedicated Sommelier with sufficient experience and skill. Ours tonight handled the whole wine service with extreme professionalism and personality.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2002 Claude Cazals Champagne Blanc de Blancs extra Brut Cuvée Vive Clos Cazals. 93 points. Very nice acidic champy.


Bruschetta with wild arugula, prosciutto, and grana padano “Schegge.” Really nice, and I don’t even like tomatoes. The ham and cheese were what made this, that was a very nice hunk of grano.


Ahi tuna tartare with micro celery greens. We’ve all had tuna tartar before and this was a fine example.


Burrata caprese. The first time I ever had burrata was at Valentino!


Kushi oysters.

Flight 1: BBM & CBM

A word about tonight’s format. Every bottle was served blind, except we were aware of what flight it was and what was in the flight, just not of which wine was which. The reveal was held until the end of the entire evening so that we could vote on favorite wines without bias.

Personally, I’d prefer a reveal halfway through each flight for a number of reasons. True, this would compromise the voting a bit, but that’s not super important to me. I’d prefer to be able to taste the wines both not knowing which was which and knowing, so that I can continue to build up my subjective memory for each house style. I also find it very difficult to remember back across multiple flights for “best” comparisons. I took notes and marked my favorites of each flight and compared those.

agavin: Also, some general comments on this flight. Like the Chablis night, the BBM/CBM flight had a LOT of green apple and a lot of acid. The noses were much more expressive (as is typical of Puligny/Chassangne wines. These wines improved in the glass for the most part and only 2 of them (#2 and #8) were actually enjoyable to drink. Like all tasting at these dinners they suffered from the format in terms of hedonistic enjoyment. It’s a great format for revealing minute differences, but the excess of sameness in a single flight devalues the wines that aren’t drinking as well right now. In a different dinner where they were the only white burgundy and there was a higher food to wine ratio they might be quite enjoyable.

2007 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. Burghound 94. A mild hint of exotic fruit combines with honeysuckle and a slight oak influence before giving way to rich, full and notably generous medium plus weight flavors that possess outstanding mid-palate fat and extract, which serve to buffer the firm acid spine on the wonderfully fine and lingering finish. A lacy, long and stylish wine of finesse rather than power and 2007 is undoubtedly one of the better vintages for the Leflaive Pucelles.

agavin: simultaneously rich and acidic, perhaps a touch advanced.

2007 Louis Carillon Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 39, July 2010: As would be reasonably expected, the Bienvenues possesses a distinctly more elegant if presently highly restrained nose of airy notes of honeysuckle, subtle spice, lemon peel and cool green fruit that is in keeping with the refined, pure, dry and strikingly precise medium-full flavors that coat, and stain, the palate with ample dry extract and outstanding length on the citrusy finish. This achieves its usual stunning quality but the Referts is closer than it usually is. This should peak at about 8 years of age. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good pale color. Very closed nose hints at citrus peel, clove and stone. Tactile and chewy but still quite tight and classically dry, with a strong spine of acid and minerals keeping the rich flavors of citrus fruits, peach and stone under wraps. A distinctly cool style, and very 2007. Finishes with excellent verve. This is about 13.5% alcohol, with a bit of chaptalization. 92+

agavin: very nice. great, great nose. some reduction. Sour but nice with long acidic finish.

2007 Leflaive Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A reserved and quite discreet nose reflects notes of spice, honeysuckle and ripe white peach that complement well the rich, full and intense flavors that are delicious, textured and have a wonderful mouth feel on the beautifully balanced and powerful finish. This is a classic Bienvenues with impressive levels of dry extract yet this finishes quite dry. Lovely, understated and impeccably balanced. 91-93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Pure aromas and flavors of lemon, lime and crushed stone. Wonderfully high-pitched in the mouth, with citrus peel and violet notes lifting the wine and giving it a magically light touch. Very precise Bienvenue with superb acidity and captivating leesy complexity. 93+

Don Cornwell, Wally’s Leflaive Dinner, Mar. 16, 2010: yellow-green color; prominent honeysuckle and sweet green melon (Midori liquer) aromas; fresh lime and green melon or almost lee chee fruit flavors; very good acidity and decent minerally finish; again surprisingly forward but great balance. I liked this. 94

agavin: green apple nose. Taut, with a jolly rancher like vibe.

2007 Pernot Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: An almost invisible trace of wood highlights a similar nose of honeysuckle, rose petal and orchard fruit aromas that slide gracefully into more obviously mineral-driven medium full-bodied flavors that are at once generous yet detailed with excellent volume on the round, naturally sweet and mouth coating finish. This is also quite forward and while it will benefit from a few years of cellar time, this is not a vintage of Pernot’s BBM built for the long haul. 93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Subtly complex aromas of white peach, honeysuckle, minerals, hazelnut and vanillin oak. Sweet and silky yet penetrating on the palate; more expressive today than the Pucelles and relatively open for a 2007 grand cru. Finishes persistent, but without quite the authority of the Batard. 92

agavin: green apple nose. Very tart. After some time hints of tropical.

2007 Ramonet Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: It’s relatively rare when I find the Ramonet Bienvenues to be superior to their Bâtard (though there are any number of vintages where I have found them to be qualitative equals) but 2007 is one vintage where it is. The primary reason is not so much because there is a noticeable difference in the respective underlying materials but rather because the balance of the BBM is better and the acid support is better integrated as well than in the Bâtard. Moreover, after 2 hours of aeration, the BBM had softened considerably and rounded out into something genuinely sublime where as the Bâtard remained taciturn and angular after the same period. The open question of course is whether the Bâtard is simply much more primary and thus less evolved but ultimately will follow a similar evolutionary curve? For those who are risk averse, buy the Bienvenues. And for those who are fans of both wines, buy both but to the extent that you have the choice, I would favor buying more of the Bienvenues because it’s a really, really lovely wine and a surer bet. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, bright yellow. Citrus peel, iodine and lavender on the nose. Citric, tightly wound and light on its feet; seems a bit leaner and less filled in than the Ruchottes today but this is a baby. Will this put on weight with time in bottle? 92+?

agavin: closed at first, then a bit of honeysuckle on the nose. Too tart at first. I didn’t like it for a while, then it opened up a bit.

2007 Hubert Lamy Criots-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet note of pain grillé frames a ripe and exuberantly fresh nose of concentrated citrus and floral aromas that precedes superbly intense mineral-laden flavors that possess a beguiling texture and positively huge length. The abundant sap coats the mouth and despite the density, this flavor profile is linear and crystalline on the explosive and almost painfully intense finish. Terrific juice and highly recommended if you can find a bottle. 94

Stephen Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: funny detergent funk smell. Overly sour, never liked.


Ringer. 2007 J. Rochioli Chardonnay Sweetwater Vineyard. VM 94. Light green-gold color. Intense, mineral-accented citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complemented by smoky lees and iodine. Deep, spicy lemon and bitter orange flavors stain the palate and are given depth by a hint of sweet butter. The mineral qualities gain strength on the finish, which is strikingly pure and very long.

agavin: thinner at first, with lots of reduction. But turned out to be quite pleasant.


Grilled mediterranean branzino topped with fresh fennel, oranges and olives. At first I was like, boring fish. But this was not only a generous portion but very nicely done and a first rate pairing with the wine.

Flight 2: Batard


Stepping up to the next level.

agavin: This flight was so big I accidentally put two of them in the next flight’s group photo! An overwhelming 9 wines! There were more “drinkable” wines (0, 9, 12, 16), but the flight also contained a lot more deep yellows and seemingly advanced wines, plus a few funky ones. Several seemed nearly undrinkable. When I open 12-15 year old Batard/Chevalier (which I do weekly) I have about a 20-25% premox rate, but generally they are generally much more rounded and expressive than these wines. I’m not at all convinced that 8 years is a good age to actually be enjoying Batard. So it’s entirely possible that the heavily oxidized examples will end up as those premoxed bottles, but the others that are closed or funky will resolve themselves.

2007 Vincent Girardin Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A tighter and less expressive nose offers up apricot, floral and grapefruit aromas trimmed in a deft touch of wood that dissolve gracefully into rich, full and concentrated flavors that are actually quite fine even though there is ample dry extract, all wrapped in a powerful and mouth coating finish. This is a big wine yet it has grace and class. Note though that patience will be required. 93-95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good bright yellow. Pure, complex aromas of orange peel, peach, apricot, hazelnut and iodine, along with a faintly exotic suggestion of lichee. Ripe, juicy and energetic, with a more obvious underlying structure and less easy sweetness showing today than the Bienvenue. Sappy, powerful and rich in extract: this really coats the mouth. Quite backward in style, with strong oak spice showing today. The tactile, almost dusty finish is accentuated by strong acidity. 94+

agavin: Slightly darker, with reduction. Very nice though, somewhat rounder although still apple tart.

2007 Colin-Morey Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: In contrast to the nose of the Corton-Charlemagne, there is reduction present here that does compromise somewhat the expressiveness of the otherwise pure and layered white flower, spice and brioche nose that merges into beautifully defined medium plus weight flavors that evidence a discreet minerality on the balanced, long, deep and driving finish. This is less evolved than the prior wine but with great potential. 92-95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale yellow. Very sexy aromas of orange blossom, oily peach, pineapple and smoky lees. At once thick and bracing, with outstanding concentration and layered texture. This huge wine shows strong vanillin oak and outstanding sucrosite that no doubt had a lot to do with the fact that it only finished fermenting its sugars in December of 2008. The parcel is in Chassagne-Montrachet, but at the border with Puligny. Incidentally, Colin sealed his 2007s with soft wax capsules in an attempt to give his bottles additional protection against oxidation. 96

Don Cornwell, Dinner at home, June 14, 2011: (opened because slight leakage detected) Wow. What an impressive Batard. This had the density of a Ramonet Montrachet from an incredible vintage and the minerality of Chevalier. A truly awesome wine. One of the best young white burgundies I’ve ever tasted. 96

agavin: also liked. Pale. Batard + apple nose. Rounder, with jolly rancher finish.

2007 JN Gagnard Batrd-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet touch of brioche highlights the restrained but ripe nose of green apple, honeysuckle, anise and apricot aromas that are elegant, pure and wonderfully refined before merging seamlessly into sweet, intense and unusually detailed big-bodied flavors that reflect slightly more minerality than I typically find in this wine before culminating in an energetic and palate staining finish. A stunner of a wine by any standard but it’s worth noting that while it’s bigger and more powerful than the Caillerets, it’s not finer or more elegant. 94

Steven Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: deeper color. Cider smell, more advanced.

2007 Leflaive Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is also on the ripe side for a 2007 with an ultra elegant nose that is pure, airy and cool, indeed this is unusually elegant for the appellation with its white flower, citrus, pear, menthol, white pepper and light spice hints that are in perfect keeping with the rich, full and broad- shouldered flavors that possess the usual volume and power of a classic Bâtard but do not lose any of the precision or detail on the expansive, mouth coating and hugely long and very dry finish. Like a number of examples in 2007, this is an elegant yet forceful Bâtard. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Knockout nose combines musky pineapple, lime and powdered stone; seems less exotic than the 2008. Wonderfully silky on entry, then explosively ripe and sweet in the middle, with powerful, palate-staining flavors of lime and flowers. Very rich and impeccably balanced, with its sweetness perfectly countered by firm buffering acidity. A great showing for this extremely long grand cru. 95

Don Cornwell, Wally’s Leflaive Dinner, Mar. 16, 2010: (tasted from two different bottles over four hours) Light yellow-green color; some light S02 here [Meadows noticed this too and quietly asked me about it as well. We both agreed this was slightly reductive]; citrus and sweet basil aromas; surprisingly forward and supple for a Batard, doesn’t have the power I expected; very good acidity and a long finish. My separate notes at dinner were almost verbatim identical. Meadows says he thinks the 2007’s will be open for business early but will live for a long time. 94(+?)

agavin: also deeper golden color with ripe cider smell. considerably advanced seeming.


Ringer. 2007 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard. VM 94. Greenish yellow. Vibrant aromas of lime, lemongrass, powdered stone and anise. At once supple and energetic in the mouth, with impressive precision to the peach, citrus and smoky mineral flavors. Tightly wound and taut but not austere, showing a distinct spiciness on the back half. Lively citrus and mineral flavors carry through a rising, spicy finish. These grapes are sourced from four different blocks, all of them planted to the Wente clone, according to Ramey.

agavin: liked this. Medium color. Some reduction on the nose, and a LOT of vanilla oak. Thought it might be new world. But it was rich and balanced.

2007 Ramonet Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 36, Oct. 2009: Initially, the pure, elegant and refined nose of citrus and white flowers was extremely reticent and it required over an hour before it really blossomed. The focused, intense and precise flavors are compact and very tight before culminating in a distinctly angular and only moderately long finish where the acidity is notably prominent. This is unapologetically built for the long haul and while there are some wines in the range that could be enjoyed now, at least with sufficient aeration, it frankly is a complete waste to open this now. The ’07 version is also not especially fleshy or powerful but the balance appears to be good enough to allow it to be great in time but that time is at least 10 years out. In short, don’t buy this if you have any expectations of drinking it within 5 years and again, 10 years will likely be required before it’s ready. 93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Bright, pale yellow. Rich aromas of stone fruits, yellow currant, lees and iodine, plus a complicating whiff of rye bread. Dense and powerful but not at all heavy. Quite youthfully closed but aeration brings up captivating inner-mouth floral character and penetrating talc-y minerality. Wonderfully precise, classy Batard with uncommon complexity. 94+

agavin: closed and flat, didn’t like.

2007 Chateau de la Maltroye Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: The first wine to display any appreciable wood influence that frames the elegant, pure, broad and classy white flower, spice and citrus hints that continue onto the focused but equally broad-scaled flavors that culminate in a rich, full and exceptionally powerful finish that stains the palate with seemingly limitless reserves of dry extract. This is backward but the impressive potential is not hard to see. In a word, stunning. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale color. High-pitched citrus peel, powdered stone and violet on the nose. At once powerful and penetrating, offering uncanny lift and weightlessness for a wine from this grand cru vineyard. A bit closed in on itself initially on the middle palate, but showed much more white peach and citrus fruit flavor with aeration and finishes with almost painful intensity. This, too, needs several years of aging-or a lot of time in a carafe. 94+

agavin: deep colored and cider like, more advanced.

2007 Niellon Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A highly nuanced and layered nose frames elegant, expressive and densely fruited white flower and peach aromas plus strikingly rich and powerful full-bodied flavors that possess so much dry extract that like the Chevalier, this is almost painfully intense. The acid/fruit balance is especially impressive and despite the size and weight, like many examples in 2007, this is actually quite refined. In a word, marvelous. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale color. Lemon, lime, mint, clove and crushed stone on the nose. Rich and pliant but at the same time juicy and powerful; this really resounds in the mouth and grips the palate on the aftertaste. Already showing some personality but needs bottle aging to expand. 93

agavin: medium color. Different somehow, weird. Sour to the taste.

2007 Sauzet Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet hint of post-bottling SO2 is just noticeable enough that I would suggest decanting this for 30 minutes first if you’re tempted to try one young. Otherwise, a restrained and pure nose features notes of white flower, fresh citrus peel and a mix of pear and white peach which lead to richer, fuller and more powerful if not necessarily more concentrated broad-shouldered flavors that possess relatively fine detail and balance on the explosive and gorgeously long finish. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale bright yellow. Deeper-pitched on the nose than the Bienvenues, with peach and white flowers dominating. Large-scaled and rich but precise, saturating and filling the mouth with flavors of white peach, minerals and crushed stone. Offers outstanding intensity without any impression of weight, not to mention superb energy. Terrific juice: I’d wait five or six years on this beauty. 94+

agavin: One of the better ones in the flight. Reduction on the nose, tasted like sweet tarts.


Scallops in porchetta, pancetta wrapped, with pappa al pomodoro & parmesan. The bacon notched this up big time.

Flight 3: Chevalier part 1


And everyone’s favorite vineyard.

This was probably the worst flight (considered as it was drinking now) and a major disappointment. There was a lot of deep colored wines, advancement, and a general closed quality that didn’t favor current enjoyment. 20 was a notable exception.


Ringer. 2007 Ceritas Chardonnay Porter-Bass Vineyard. 93 points. Trademark Ceritas richness, though some of that has been tamed as the days go by, wonderful acidity and overall balance, lovely, complex flavors, nothing ripe or out of place, even some hints of minerality on the finish. Terrific wine. Maybe I’m dreaming, but this could be a top vintage Chablis Preuses, which tends to be a richer vineyard.

agavin: deep color. Rich with caramel tones and maybe a hint of sherry. less acid.

2007 Bouchard Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet touch of oak highlights the naturally spicy floral and high-toned orchard and green fruit aromas before giving way to textured, sappy and almost painfully intense full-bodied flavors brimming with both dry extract and ample minerality on the hugely long and impeccably balanced finish. This is a really lovely wine that possesses everything it needs to deliver a first-rate drinking experience with a decade of cellar time. As good as this is, and it is very impressive, it’s not necessarily superior to the magnificent Perrières though it may require a bit more bottle age to arrive at its peak. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale yellow. Citrus peel, wet stone, flowers and a saline nuance on the nose. Wonderfully ripe, broad and rich but classically dry, with the stony quality currently dominating the middle palate. Best today on the extremely long, grapefruity finish, which opens like a peacock’s tail. 94

agavin: medium color, tart.

2007 Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is a study in elegance as the positively stunning nose displays breathtaking purity of expression with incredibly complex and airy white flower and ripe green fruit aromas that precede beautifully balanced, harmonious and chiseled, indeed even crystalline middle weight flavors that possess outstanding length and knockout depth. This is class in a glass with terrific vibrancy and the palate staining finish is almost painfully intense and about the only nit is a trace of warmth though this is as much due to the superb transparency as the actual level of alcohol. If you can find it, buy it. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good medium yellow. Deeply pitched nose dominated by pear, clove and wet stone. The most vibrant and lightfooted of these 2007s, with penetrating, mouth-saturating flavors of pear, clove, crushed stone and saline minerality. Compared to the Batard, this shows less volume and sheer size but more finesse. Finishes intense and very long, in need of considerable aging. Niellon recommends giving it eight to ten years. 93+

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow color; aromas of SO2 and meyer lemon; great acidity and grip here; again lots of minerality, but this wine is slightly angular and yet viscous — ever so slightly disjointed at the moment; with considerable time in the glass, this improved a lot, and developed a nice citrus and minerally finish. Hence the split score. 94+|95+

agavin: closed and reduced, disjointed, with a sour tropical finish.

2007 Jean-Marc Pillot Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: An expressive nose blends stunningly pure fruit laced with citrus and lime notes that are highlighted by abundant pain grillé influence and leads to rich, full-bodied and sweet flavors of remarkable precision that deliver a strong wet stone character where the firm and bright acidity beautifully frames an impressively long finish that also really coats the palate. This is almost painfully intense and I very much like the underlying sense of energy and overall sense of balance that suggests that the ’07 Pillot Chevalier should age well. 92-94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: (fermented in a new barrel, then racked into a used barrel for aging until April of 2009) Lemon ice, crushed rock and strong smoky oak on the nose. Wonderfully rich and lush, with a slightly aggressive character to the lemon and spicy oak flavors. Best on the back end, where the wine saturates the entire palate without any impression of weight and fills the retronasal passage. But less open now, and drier, than the Clos Saint-Marc, as the oak is currently blocking the wine’s fruit and mineral components. 93+

agavin: medium colored. I liked this. Rich with some reduction and a searing finish.

2007 Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: As with the Bâtard, there is a discreet hint of post-bottling SO2 that is just noticeable – decant. A classic, and radiant, Chevalier nose offers perhaps the purest fruit in the range with a mix of upper and middle register acacia blossom and fresh lemon aromas that are seductively enveloping before sliding seamlessly into strikingly detailed, stony and almost Chablis-like flavors carrying a similar sense of salinity and this is like rolling tiny pebbles around in the mouth, all wrapped in a palate-etching finish of spectacular length. This is breath-taking stuff and the focus and linearity are superb. This should age well for years. Textbook Chevalier. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale lemon-yellow color. Vibrant aromas of lemon, lime, crushed stone and vanilla. Penetrating and precise, with great elegance and definition to the lemon and crushed stone flavors. A distinctly more feminine style than the Batard, with the lowest acidity of these 2007s but plenty of supporting white-soil minerality. This will be the easiest of these grand crus to drink young but should nonetheless age well. 94

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Yellow-green color; white flowers and fresh pineapple aromas; the most fat of the entire group; an “easy” wine; very nice rounded fruit with good acidity and some minerality. Very nice. Later: acidity is now becoming more apparent in the finish. 94+

agavin: medium colored. Rich and tart.

2007 Louis Latour Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A more subtle touch of wood sets off the lightly spiced floral, green apple, white peach and pear aromas that lead to very pure, detailed and stony medium weight plus flavors that possess superb intensity and huge length on the mouth coating finish. This is presently quite understated and does an impressive job of blending power and finesse in a package of impact without heaviness. 94

Steven Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: Deep colored. Quite advanced and sherry like. Not drinkable.


Sauteed santa barbara prawn with herbs & white wine and served on risotto. The prawns weren’t the largest, but they were sweet and tender with a lovely briny taste. The risotto was very delicate, but rich and delicious. Notice the good sized portion too, and we got seconds of the risotto too.

Flight 4: Chevalier part 2


This is the flight everyone was waiting for, as it has the real big guns.

This should be a flight of incredible wines, but there were major disappointments (along with a couple gems). 27 (the Girardin) was incredible, but I thought the Ramonet had an undrinkable potty/sulfur quality (and I love reductive wines). Maybe it will blow off. Again, hard to tell how much the awkwardness reflects their youth.

2007 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database, April 15, 2012: A strikingly complex nose offers seriously impressive breadth with its aromas of ripe, pure and airy nose of white flower, spice and subtle pear aromas. There is excellent richness to the mouth coating flavors that are built on a base of fine minerality, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish that oozes dry extract. This is really a lovely effort that is at once refined yet powerful with an almost painfully intense backend. A very impressive effort that is positively Zen-like in its poise and quiet sense of harmony. A ‘wow’ wine though note that it will need plenty of time to fulfill all of its vast potential. Tasted twice with consistent notes. 96

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 39, June 2010: A strikingly complex nose that is even more complex than that of the Bâtard as there is a great breadth of aromas to the ripe, pure and airy nose of white flower, spice and subtle pear aromas that complement to perfection the rich and mouth coating flavors built on a base of fine minerality, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish that oozes dry extract. This is really a lovely effort that is almost as powerful as the Bâtard but as one would expect, finer and even a bit longer with an almost painfully intense backend. A very impressive effort that is positively Zen-like in its poise and quiet sense of harmony. A ‘wow’ wine though note that it will need plenty of time to fulfill all of its vast potential. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Ineffable, discreet aromas of powdered stone, lemon peel, tangerine and flowers are complicated by an almost metallic minerality. Wonderfully succulent and silky in the mouth, but with a firm stony edge that gives it a rather uncompromising quality. An ethereal essence of wet stone minerality, this powerful, concentrated, classically dry wine is also compellingly smooth on the reverberating aftertaste. 96

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow-green color, closer to gold than the others; the aromas are more floral than most and there’s some citrus as well; this wine seems bigger, fatter and softer than the others [N.B. for Leflaive, not what I expected] yet has good acidity; after about two hours this was showing some meyer lemon and good minerality and length in the finish. 95+(?)

agavin: Deep colored. Somewhat advanced but acidic.

2007 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet, indeed almost invisible, touch of wood frames extremely primary aromas of white flower, wet stone and a spice component that are very cool, pure, elegant and restrained with brilliantly detailed, classy and refined medium plus weight flavors delivering a borderline painfully intense and palate staining finish that goes on and on. This seems to be extracted directly from liquid rock and this has that ‘wow’ factor in spades. Don’t miss it. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Knockout nose combines apple, white flowers, crushed stone and saline minerality. The palate delivers the mineral energy of this vintage in spades, with citrus and stone flavors offering outstanding precision and staining the palate on the back end. This was a knockout from barrel and has turned out splendidly. Boillot rates this as one of his best Chevalier vintages to date. He also told me that it was always his dream to make Chevalier-Montrachet. “I would sooner lose all the other crus,” he told me. “Chevalier-Montrachet is the greatest terroir for white wine, while Musigny is the greatest for red.” 96

Don Cornwell, Middle Eastern Dinner at Michael Zadikian’s, Aug. 8, 2009: (Wine now open two days) Light yellow color; aromas of white flowers and meyer lemon; this had a wonderful density to it – strong minerality, citrus and power yet with viscosity not unlike Batard in a great vintage; very long minerally/citrus finish. Really impressive for two-day open 2in3. 96

agavin: medium colored. Closed nose, with green apple taste and a lean finish.

2007 Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This too is mildly reduced which also knocks down the expressiveness of the reserved, cool and classy floral, citrus and subtle spice aromas that complement the textured and relatively concentrated flavors that exhibit really beautiful detail and an exuberant minerality that culminates in a long, explosive and tension-filled finish. A stunner of a wine that should also be capable of aging for the next 15 years. 93-96

Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2008: Crushed stone and a violety topnote on the highly aromatic nose, with a complicating saline nuance. Superconcentrated, dense and sweet, with superb inner-mouth lift to the mineral-driven flavors. This, too, boasts a chewiness rare for the vintage. The finish is penetrating and utterly palate-staining. This may still have a gram or so of sugar yet to ferment. 94-97

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow green color; Light to medium gold color; very light lemony a4romas; tight, lemony flavors which expanded a lot in the mid-palate and had good acidity and grip; very long citrus and minerals finish.. Impressive. 95+

agavin: paler yellow. A bit of spritz and tartaric acid crystals. Reduced on the nose. Acidic, but quiet nice.

2007 Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: Given the almost extreme reticence of the Bâtard, I was moderately surprised to see how wonderfully expressive this positively brilliant wine is already. The nose is simply stunning with a supremely elegant and kaleidoscopic range of spice, floral, citrus, stone and pain grillé notes that is the perfect complement to the racy, detailed and equally complex middle weight flavors brimming with the underlying minerality advertised by the nose, all wrapped in a driving, delineated and explosive finish. As good as the Ramonet Chevalier is, in the 10 vintages that it has been made, I can’t think of one where it’s the equal of the Montrachet. However, 2007 just might be that vintage. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, bright yellow. Citrus pith, green apple, Anjou pear, licorice and dusty stone on the nose. Dense, tactile and sappy, with superb mineral lift and precision. This boasts a tight core of crushed stone and citrus flavors and terrific purity and energy but will also require extended aging. Expands impressively on the back half and finishes with superb mineral persistence. 93+

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow-green color; white flowers and pears aromas with a very faint hint of mint; bright, indeed brilliant citrus with very strong minerality on the mid-palate and fabulous acidity; the finish is quite long and very minerally. Superb wine [Ramonet?] 95+

agavin: straw pale, but a terrible potty nose of sulfur. Tasted like toilet too. Yuck.

2007 Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows: not reviewed

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Bright medium yellow. Very ripe, expressive nose offers yellow peach and white flowers. Opulent, shapely and very ripe, in a distinctly sweeter style than the Batard. Gives an impression of lower acidity too, but there’s plenty of acid here. I suspect this one will shut down in bottle. Girardin, who bottled most of his crus in April and May of this year, noted that the 2007s really only started to express themselves in February, and that many of his fellow producers bottled this vintage too early. 94+

agavin: best wine of the night. Straw pale, lots of reduction, and a massive massive palette and finish.


Veal tenderloin with wild mushroom sauce served with rosemary roasted potatoes, haricots verts, carrots. Also a lovely dish, and a good bit of it. The meat was nice and tender and the sauce was fabulous.

Flight  5: Dessert


2001 Château de Fargues. GV 93. COLOR-beautiful dark golden; NOSE-much more honey; honey meets chlorine; very intriguing; hints of apricots; TASTE-outrageous weight on the mid-palate; Honeycomb cereal; really, really heavy pear component; I’m loving the orange peel aspect; very youthful Sauterne, not ready yet – it’s gonna get better from here; solid acidity, but a little flabby in the mid-palate which concerns me a tad; nice long finish; very bright; star fruit on the finish; little hints of pineapple; I’m enjoying this wine; it’s got BIG potential; RP-94/96; GV-93

agavin: a nice young sauternes. Not super thick or unctuous, but good.


Pistachio creme brulee. I like creme brulee and this was a great one, not so unlike a green tea one I’ve had at Takao.  Great stuff.

Above is the flight list after being revealed.

And the full array of revealed bottles.


That’s more or less two people’s glasses!

agavin on food: There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a great job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. Last month when we were here for the Chablis tasting, the food was solid but not enough of it. Not only did they drastically increase the quantity but the mix of dishes was far superior. Valentino might not be the modern Italian in town but they still really know how to cook.

agavin: 2007 as a vintage has this super acidic green apple vibe across the board. Interesting, like with 2005 we had a much higher percentage of advanced wines with these bigger grand crus than with the Chablis and Meursault. Overall, there were a lot of disappointing wines for hugely scored big whites from great producers. It’s hard to totally assess. The really oxidized wines are probably dead, although bottles probably vary. But a lot of the wines might just be in a funny state. I’m not sure 8 years from vintage is a great time for huge grand crus. I don’t drink them at this age myself, usually waiting at least 5 more years. I can’t help but think a bunch of these will outgrow their ungainly youth. What remains to be seen is if all that acid integrates and rounds out.

Don: The top six wines of the night by group ranking/voting were:

1. 2007 Girardin Chevalier (with 8 of 13 first place votes)
2. 2007 Ramey “Hyde Vineyard” Chardonnay
3. 2007 Colin-Morey Chevalier
4. 2007 Carillon Bienvenues
5 (tie) 2007 Colin-Morey Batard Montrachet
5 (tie) 2007 Girardin Batard Montrachet

David Ramey’s wine was the first California ringer ever to finish in the Top 5 wines. The Rochioli Sweetwater made a very good showing in the Criots/Bienvenues flight as well, tying for seventh overall. Several people, myself included, thought the Rochioli was Bienvenues. I thought it was the Ramonet BBM and it was my second favorite wine of the flight after the Carillon BBM.

The oxidation results this time were closer to prior years. Six of the 27 wines, or 22%, were either oxidized or advanced.

But what was the biggest shocker of the night was that both the Leflaive Chevalier and Leflaive Batard were oxidized, the Leflaive Puligny Pucelles fully ready to drink (one participant felt it was advanced) and the Bienvenues, while not oxidized or advanced, didn’t impress anyone. This is definitely NOT a good development.

Don’s reviews of each wine can be found here.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2007 White Burgundy part 1

2006 White Burgundy

2004 Red Burgundy

2005 White Burgundy part 1

2005 White Burgundy part 2

2005 White Burgundy part 3

Speak to the hand of Fu

Related posts:

  1. Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 1
  2. Valentino – 2006 White Burgundy
  3. Valentino – 2005 White Burg part 2!
  4. Valentino – 2004 Red Burgundy
  5. Burgundy at Providence
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: 2007 White Burgundy, California, Don Cornwell, Italian cuisine, Santa Monica, Valentino, White Burgundy, Wine
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