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Elite Wines at Elite Restaurant

Nov05

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: September 17, 2018

Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is. On this particular night I met Paul R and a bunch of his friends out here for Burgundy night — sure it was a week night and 2 hours in traffic, but great Burgundy and Chinese is worth it!

They actually have a couple private rooms, but this time we had the small one, although it was certainly big enough for the 8 of us. The above photo is the same room, different dinner.

1996 Deutz Champagne Cuvée William Deutz Rosé. JG 91. This is a very young bottle of Rosé that offers up excellent promise on both the nose and palate, but I would be inclined to give the wine at least a couple more years to really allow it to blossom. The bouquet is deep, young and classy, as it offers up scents of tart cherries, orange peel, sourdough, a touch of new leather and a lovely base of soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with lovely focus and bounce, bright acids, tiny bubbles and good length and grip on the slightly muddied finish. I suspect that a bit more precision will come on the backend with further bottle age.

2000 Deutz Champagne Cuvée William Deutz. JG 93. The 2000 Cuvée William Deutz is a deep, young and powerfully-built wine with superb depth and structure for long-term aging. The bouquet is really quite fine, offering up a deep and classy nose of apple, wheat toast, tangerine, some gentle leesy tones, a lovely base of soil, a touch of fresh nutmeg and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with excellent focus and balance, elegant mousse and excellent length and grip on the crisp and complex finish. This is a very classy bottle of bubbly that is already drinking very well and which will continue to age gracefully for a couple of decades.

Peanuts on the table.

From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. JK 94. Insanely pretty- aromas of cherry, sweet tea, violet, rose and potpourri. On the palate this shows cherry, tea and lavender. Picks up mineral elements as it sits in the glass. Flavors of cherry liqueur, mineral, rose water and mineral. Balanced, with a long finish. Just awesome.
Cold BBQ Plate with Macau style BBQ pork belly, Char Sui, roast chicken, and jellyfish. Good stuff all around, particularly both porks.

2001 Domaine Denis Mortet Chambertin. VM 92+. Full, bright red. Brooding, very ripe aromas of black fruits, licorice, graphite and gunflint, all lifted by a subtle oaky perfume. Big, broad, rich and okay, with powerful, dense black fruit flavors and excellent length and thrust. Five or six years in bottle should bring greater refinement as the wine loses some of its baby fat.

Peking duck. Despite the fact that I’ve been to Elite 20+ times, I’ve never had their peking duck — didn’t even know they offered it. It wasn’t bad at all. Sure they offer only the buns, not the pancakes, but it was still darn good.
2007 Domaine Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin. BH 93. A moderately complex but quite densely fruited nose of earthy red berries, underbrush and warm earth tones leads to silky, rich and round broad-shouldered flavors that possess taut muscle but no hard edges or tannins, in fact the mouth feel here is quite sophisticated, all wrapped in an impressively intense, mouth coating and harmonious finish. The structure is dense but fine and this should benefit from at least a decade of cellar time. A Griotte of class, grace and distinction.

Duck part deux, which is mixed with water chestnuts etc and served with…

Lettuce cups.

Here it is as you eat it.

2001 Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese. VM 94. Tangerine and sassafras aromas put one in mind of Erden. On the palate, honey and rich marzipan sweetness are leavened by tangerine citricity and the whole suffused with pungently smoky minerality. A hundred grams of residual sugar are brought to heel by 10.5 acidity and heaps of extract. The braid of fresh fruit, botrytized, faintly caramelized fruit and minerals here is uncanny. Juicy and refreshing in the finish even as it is profoundly botrytized and rooted in its classic red soil terroir. Smoke and almonds linger longest of all.

Santa Barbara prawns with garlic. Very simple prep, but good. Way, way better than the steamed bugs at Newport Seafood.

1989 Domaine Bruno Clavelier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveau Vieilles Vignes. a rare wine, you don’t see Combe d’Orveau that often.

Steamed pork with salty fish. Yeah, it looks like the cat barfed up on a plate, but it’s really delicious with a mild porky flavor.

Sautéed scallops. Simple, to go with the wine, but nice.

2001 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. BH 93. Knockout aromas of wonderfully intense black and red cherry fruit loaded with cassis and a touch of new oak introduce medium-bodied, sweet, harmonious, very expressive and long flavors all underpinned by racy minerality and firm structure. The tannins are prominent but ripe and the density of extract is impressive and this both coats and stains the palate. As it always does, this delivers finesse with real mid-palate punch with near perfect grace. For my taste, I would hold this for another 1 to 3 years but it would be no vinous crime to be drinking this now. Note to be sure to serve this cool as the alcohol becomes noticeable if it becomes a bit too warm.

House special lobster. Super delicious with lots of juicy lobster meat.

2001 Louis Jadot Chapelle-Chambertin. BH 93. A still very fresh nose is just now beginning to display the initial hints of secondary development that leads to rich, intense and beautifully well-detailed medium-bodied flavors that ooze a fine minerality on the vibrant and impeccably well-balanced finish. There is a touch of austerity present on the finale that serves as a balancing element to the naturally sweet mid-palate. This has reached that point in its evolution where it’s still on the way up but still far enough along where it can be drunk with pleasure. In sum, this is really lovely juice and a classic Chapelle.

Mushrooms and other vegetables in brown sauce.

2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. 95 points. Prum calls this wine “typically somewhat reserved vis-a-vis the Graacher Auslese” but I apprehend a level of sheer flavor intensity that goes beyond the other wines here today, with apple, honey and spice supported by a volatile esterous note of botrytis and even a prickly Eiswein-like whiff of chili pepper. Impressive custardy richness in the mouth, yet ripe, refreshing citricity keeps the wine dynamic and salty minerality helps extend the finish. (In the interest of full disclosure I pass on Prum explanation that this is one of “three or four comparable lots” of Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese which will be bottled separately.

Seafood chow mein. I always love this dish, particularly when the sauce soaks into them and softens them up. Oh so good.

2006 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes. VM 93-96. Good full ruby-red. Incredible nose melds wild cherry, mocha, brown spices, iron, orange peel and underbrush. Like liquid silk on entry, then hugely concentrated in the middle, with an extraordinarily fine-grained texture and no easy sweetness. Impeccably balanced, soil-driven wine that finishes with noble tannins and great persistence. This is Clos de la Roche, not pinot. As of November, one of the most promising wines of this stealth vintage.

I wish I knew what they called this fried rice as it’s super awesome with that chopped pork and whatnot on top!

2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 93. The intense stoniness of this wine is immediately evident as it suffuses every aspect from nose to finish. An ultra elegant aromatic profile features notes of acacia, pear and dried rose petal before sliding gracefully into detailed, driving and explosive medium-bodied flavors that display cuts-like-a-knife precision on the almost aggressively mineral-driven finish that seems to go on and on. A study in purity and a classic Perrières.

Gotta love the Mango Pudding.

A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and all the crab dishes. The private room was great and we had a stunning lineup of (mostly) Burgundy. A wine or two had serious issues, but that’s par for the course. I feel that Burgundy shows off by far at dinners where it dominates (although it can mix fine with Champy). You can’t easily go back and forth between the big extracted wines and the more subtle Burgundy.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Elite, Elite Restaurant, Paul Rosenberg, Peking Duck, SGV

Dirty Dumplings

Nov13

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: October 8, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places and so the Dirty Dozen is heading there on this lovely (hot) Sunday afternoon for a blind tasting of “great French white wines that are not champagne or Burgundy.”

We have the private room, of course.

We even had a satellite (non drinking) table.

2011 Michel Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil sur Oger Blanc de blancs. 90 points. huge mousse with lots of persistent fine bubbles. sweet nose of sweet rolls and perfume flowers. youthful, fresh, acidic palate. flavors of pistachio, lime, and mineral. long finish. needs to rest a couple of years but should be good as it puts on weight.

Jennifer brought: NV Ruinart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 92. Pale yellow. Complex, high-pitched aromas of orange zest, lemon pith, iodine, smoky minerals, anise and jasmine. Sappy and tactile on the palate, offering impressive volume to its ripe citrus and orchard fruit flavors accented by smoke and minerals. Finishes tangy and long, with lingering smokiness and an echo of anise.

XO sauce. Umami goodness.

Flight 1:

Warren brought: 2005 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Buisson Renard. 92 points. Un nez évolué, complexe, avec des nuances de sucre d’orge. Viennent ensuite les arômes de fruit de la passion, avec du poivre blanc. Un vin d’une superbe complexité aromatique, qui m’évoquait un cru chablisien avec de l’âge.

Arnie brought: 2014 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex. 94 points. Think I killed a baby here.
Decanted the wine for a small hour, but the acidity was still very high and harsh. Not what I remember from a Silex. Think it is better to wait a few years before tasting this wine. Next appointment with this wine in 2020 😉

Albert brought: 2001 Château de Fieuzal Blanc. 90 points. Light straw gold colour. Nose is warm straw and a bit of cow poo then fresh peach and white apricot. Palate is thick, oily and unctuous without being at all cloying…..peach stone, confit peach, fresh almonds, fresh honeycomb.Heady, resonant and reverberant.

Pork Shui-Mai. Also great versions of the classic.

Tofu wrap. Mostly vegetables wrapped in bean curd. Hot and soft and delicious.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Spicy jellyfish. I like this stuff, but not everyone at the table is a fan.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Flight 2:

Yarom brought: 1997 Château Laville Haut-Brion Blanc. VM 89. Complex, expressive aromas of lemon, honey, ginger, quinine, butterscotch and fresh herbs, plus a waxy suggestion of semillon. Supple and ripe, with moderate depth of flavor and good citric cut. Seems a bit stunted by the August ’98 bottling. Finishes with good but not outstanding length.

Ron brought: 2002 Lur-Saluces “Y”. 92 points. Positive surprise. Thought it would have been way past maturity, but this was quite a beautiful bottle. Nicely developed tertiary aromas, soft acidity. A little bit too warm on the finish dominated by the alcohol (14,5%). But a nice and very interesting bottle.

From my cellar: 2009 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc. Parker 98. Smith-Haut-Lafitte hit a home run with their red Pessac-Leognan and came very close to perfection with their dry white Graves. Possibly the best dry white the estate has produced since the proprietors, the Cathiards, acquired the property in 1990, this wine exhibits a sensational fragrance of buttered citrus, honeyed melons and a touch of grapefruit, lemon zest and orange rind. It also displays grapefruit on the attack and mid-palate as well as real opulence, terrific acidity and length. Drink it over the next 15-20 years. Astonishing!

Elite BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. 4 tins disappeared in like 4 minutes.

Dumpling. This one had peanuts and some other seafood bits inside.

Golden Corn BBQ Pork Rice Noodle. Historically in our family we called these “slime.” This was some excellent slime.

Scallop Dumpling. This was one of the best scallop dumplings I’ve had. There are all sorts of trefy goodies in there.

Flight 3:

Larry brought: 2011 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Pale gold. Nectarine, pear and lemon curd on the nose, with complicating vanilla and mineral qualities gaining strength with air. Broad and fleshy but impressively focused, offering juicy orchard fruit flavors and a bitter note of citrus pith. Precise, dry and nervy on the strikingly long, penetrating finish, with its sexy honeysuckle and ginger notes.

Brian brought: 2012 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Bright yellow. Assertive aromas of nectarine, violet and smoky minerals, with a gingery nuance adding lift. Broad and silky on the palate, offering densely packed orchard and pit fruit flavors that become spicier with air. The mineral note comes back strong on the finish, which lingers with excellent tenacity and building smokiness.

Fried Meat Stuff Dumpling. With a title like that, I had to order. This was the chewy fried rice coating with sweet ground meat paste inside. Kinda delicious except it was fairly hollow (not enough filling).

Layered beancurd. Only my second time having this flaky beancurd layer cake. All texture but it was really great.

Dumpling. Mystery inside with meat and peanuts.

Baked BBQ pork dumpling. Little flakey. pastry triangles stuffed with the usual red BBQ pork.

Pea tendrils and garlic. Colon sweeper.

Baked chicken bun. Delicious slightly sweet crunchy exterior top filled with chopped seasoned chicken meat.

Fried shrimp ball with almond. This is the usual shrimp cake but coated in almond. It really added a nice texture. Quite fun.

Flight 4:

Avi brought: 2003 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée. VM 93. Exotic aromas of candied peach, menthol, tea and spices. Supersweet, ripe and complex, with suggestions of lemon verbena and garrigue At once exotic and powerful, with firm structure and little obvious heat showing today. Finishes extremely long and shapely, with exotic suggestions of oriental spices. Serve this with spicy Asian dishes, Mazoyer suggests, adding that this wine should be drunk soon or laid down for 15 years.

David P brought: 2012 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. VM 94. Vivid yellow. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe melon, nectarine and mango, and powerful mineral and floral elements add vivacity and lift. Broad, sappy and deeply concentrated, offering intense orchard fruit and pit fruit flavors that stain the palate while showing surprising vivacity. Strikes a deft balance between richness and finesse, picking up ginger and honey flourishes on the back half. Clings with outstanding energy and persistence on the finish, leaving sappy pear nectar and floral notes behind.

Arnie brought: 2005 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. 90 points. This was terrific. Floral on opening, then loads of stone fruit with a hint of spice and pineapple, great depth and a long finish. Best bottle of three I purchased; showing signs of age and depth.

Elite fried rice. A bit of everything.

House Roasted Duck. The duck does not suck. In fact, it was great. There was that usual authentic Chinese bone factor, but the taste was first rate.

Seafood chow mein. Excellent, always one of my favorites.

Lobster noodles. The lobster itself was good in one of those light white Chinese sauces, but the noodles are soggy.

Too full for dessert but we had dessert wine.

Ron bonus: 2001 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. VM 93. Bright deep yellow. Smoky camphor, peach and a hint of honeyed pineapple on the showy nose. Enters the mouth fresh, lively and precise, then turns slightly austere, showing noteworthy tannic bite to its orchard fruit and sweet spice flavors. A touch of marmaladey botrytis adds complexity on the lingering, ripe, rich finish. In 2001, high-quality botrytis targeted the Pinot Gris, so that a Sélection de Grains Nobles was produced with the grapes from the vines nearest to the river Thur; it was the grapes from Zind-Humbrecht’s other wines in the Clos that were used to produce the bottling I describe here. Check out these numbers: only 13.6% alcohol, 30 g/l residual sugar, and 6.1 g/l total acidity. Utterly irresistible right now; in fact, I don’t think there is much to gain by holding onto it any longer. I remember first tasting this wine when it was released, and it struck me then as uncharacteristically ready to drink from the outset, but the wine’s iodiney minerality is starting to take center stage from the fruit elements. In 2001, a cold and rainy September had many producers anxious, but the warmest October on record to that point ensured a clean, glitch-free harvest. “This was a rare year in which we were out harvesting in tee shirts, thanks to 28°C days in October,” Olivier Humbrecht reminisced. And at 36 hectoliters per hectare, 2001 was also a very generous year for production by the standards of the Clos.

The cheat sheet.

My notes.

The votes.

Another awesome Chinese feast. Jennifer did all the wine organization (thanks Jenn!). I ordered the food and too much of it, so much that we didn’t have room for a dessert course.

This whole thing was <= $50 including paying for the winner AND a huge tip. Food was very fresh and on point. A large percentage of my fiends who go to dimsum think it’s the best in the SGV. I personally agree, with next best being King Hua. Certainly Elite, King Hua, and Lunasia are also at the top, but slightly below and there is a tier even slightly below that including Sea Harbor, World Seafood, Grand Harbor. Wines were pretty good. I liked the Viognier and some of the other areas besides the Rhone better. Not a fan of those heavy Rhone whites.

One of the best Dirty Dozen meals I’ve been too — I like these Chinese lunch ones best — because I love Chinese food.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Other Hedonist festivities.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, colon sweeper, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Elite, Elite Restaurant, French wine, hedonists, Wine

Elite – King Crab Custard

Nov23

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: November 21, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is.

But Charlie chose it as the site for his legendary birthday feast, not only because of how good the food is (and it is good), but because they have a nice private room, great service, and are very Burgundy friendly.

They actually have a couple private rooms, but this time we had the small one, although it was certainly big enough for the 10 of us.

NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut V.O. 2006 disgorgment. VM 95. The NV V.O. (Version Originale) presents slightly darker, more burnished tonalities of Chardonnay. Almond, marzipan, dried rose petals, spices and anise blossom in an ample, generous Champagne built on volume, but supported by insistent veins of minerality. Hints of trademark Selosse oxidation make the V.O. a bit more eccentric, especially for readers who might not be familiar with these Champagnes. V.O. emerges from parcels in Avize, Cramant and Oger, all Grand Cru villages. The vintages are 2006, 2005 and 2004. This bottle was disgorged on October 15, 2013 and bottled with no dosage.

agavin: delicious. Super rich and tasted more like a 90s Champ.

Peanuts on the table is a Chinese staple.

2001 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 93. This is a big step up in power and weight with a gorgeously complex nose of minerals, white flowers and minerals that leads to pure, muscular, fantastically detailed and precise flavors just oozing with sappy extract. This is quite concentrated and there is a certain regal classiness that separates this from all of the prior wines plus the length and vibrancy are simply incredible. This will require a few years of bottle age to completely integrate as the finish is very firm and quite dry for an ’01 but all of the requisite material is here for this to evolve into a superb Les Clos.

agavin: a little closed and reductive at first, but opened up into a green apple monster.
Suckling pig. We preordered this little fellow. He’s kinda sad, but he sure tasted great. Really just a fabulous bit of pork and cracklings. The sweet sauce on the side is great too.

After we ate all the easy bits they took away the pig face and limbs and chopped them up for sort of a “piglet: the return” dish. A little too boney and nasty for me.

Charlie brought: 1995 Coche-Dury Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères. Burghound 88. Golden color though with no hints of browning. As one would reasonably expect, the nose has now gone completely secondary fruit though there is no sous bois or undue exotic notes in evidence and introduces flavors that are classic Puligny in style with their understated, delineated and pure character and clear minerality that shapes and defines the mid-palate plus a crisp, intense and fine finish for a wine of this level. This has always been a somewhat lean effort for a ’95 and it remains that way and to my taste, should be drunk up over the next few years as the acidity may begin to dominate the finish if held for much longer. To be clear, there is no danger of this falling over the edge, just that the balance may become compromised in time.

agavin: our bottle was a bit oxidized. Old enough not to be premoxed, but heading downslope. Still, it had a lovely complexity and brulee.

We also went all out tonight and got the giant crab! Here he is alive!

From my cellar: 1996 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Chevalières. Burghound 91. Coche always seems to be able to coax another dimension out of his array of villages level vineyards and the Chvalières is no exception with its completely mature nose of hazelnut, orchard fruit and hint of reduction that doesn’t carry over to the precise and mineral-driven middle weight flavors that offer a fine sense of focus and energy on the punchy and lingering finish. This is lovely juice that has arrived at its apogee but should remain here for at least another decade.

agavin: Charlie opened a bottle of this exact wine at his birthday 2 years ago and I immediately bought some. Expensive, but a total stunner then and now. Reductive, with a staggering nose and real depth. Most in the room agreed it was one of the two best whites of the night.

And in his first prep: Garlic fried ginger crab. Leg sucking yummy.

2002 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 94. A supremely elegant nose of white flower and limestone notes are followed by sweet, pungently mineral and ultra precise middle weight flavors that offer simply incredible focus with an almost painfully intense, stunningly long finish. This\nhas just now arrived on the front edge of its peak drinkability though some may prefer a few more years in the cellar first. In sum, this is really lovely juice that should age gracefully for several decades.

agavin: a young monster, but fabulous.

But nothing compared to prep 2: Garlic steamed crab. This was incredible. Just plain 15 minute old crab steamed with garlic. Oh so good.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 96. Here the nose is notably tighter and more reserved with aromas of citrus blossom and zest, spice, smoke, fennel and hints of acacia that introduce big, muscular and wonderfully complex broad-scaled flavors that culminate in a long, focused and explosive finish of breathtaking length and intensity. This should reward at least a decade in the cellar and drink well for a similar period thereafter. This too is terrific and very Bâtard and like the Combettes, the ’08 version is one of the very best young examples from Leflaive that I have ever seen.

agavin: The group joked that this was premoxed. But no, it was nice, young and fresh but dominated by reduction and will almost certainly be even better in a few years.

And version 3: King Crab Head Custard. This crab gave great head. The custard was amazing, soft and tofu-like with bits of crab mixed in. About as perfect a white Burgundy pairing as exists.

Fred brought: 1996 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. Burghound 94. Ultra pure and refined white flower and hazelnut notes introduce crisp, delineated and wonderfully refined, linear and nuanced middle weight flavors that culminate in a bright, racy and extended finish. This is incredibly youthful at 9 years of age and should age for 25 years. A great, great ’96 of uncommon elegance for Charmes.

agavin: another stunner. Got better and better through the night too.

Then garlic fried lobster. A truly great lobster prep. Crunchy, salty, and oh so garlicky.

Amanda brought: 1996 Domaine Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH? In its youth and up to 2003 or so, this was a brilliant wine and one of the best examples of Bienvenues that I have ever tasted chez Ramonet with an almost painful intensity and superb cut and detail. However, the last 4 bottles that I have tried, and from multiple sources have all displayed unacceptable levels of oxidation and were essentially undrinkable. It’s not clear whether good bottles exist or not but my luck with it has not been good.

agavin: well, our experience jives with Meadows because this was super oxed. 🙁

Another super special. Winter melon soup. Served fresh in the winter melon!

This doesn’t necessarily look like much, but it was an amazing mild soup. I had 2-3 bowls of it. Delicate lovely broth, and all sorts of bits of goodness in there. More like one of those traditional Japanese soups. There was pork, chicken, seafood bits, crab from our crab of course, mushrooms, and this fibrous soft yummy thing that might have been melon. Hard to say.

Amanda brought: 1969 Camille Giroud Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers. 93 points. A late release from the domaine. This was showing quintessential Nuits, with a simply massive dose of rustic earth on the nose and palate. The mushroom note was also quite prominent, though I think it’s more reasonable to chalk that up to its age. This was showing amazingly fresh for its age thanks to some bright acids. I’d never be able to call this as an almost-50-year-old wine blind. The ripe and prominent fruit makes this taste a lot younger than it is.

agavin: very fresh for its age. Browned out in the glass after about an hour.

String beans with sausage. A richer version of the usual prep.

1996 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée St. Vivant. VM 94. Deep red-ruby. Knockout nose combines raspberry, violet, coffee, licorice, spice and smoky oak. Superb richness and volume without excessive weight. Thick for a ’96, but kept bright by tangy Oriental spices and a lively floral nuance. Extremely long on the aftertaste, with noble tannins. Classy juice.

agavin: good stuff. Very much in the house style.

Roast squab. Succulent little birds, heads and all.

Erick brought: 1990 Domaine Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes. Burghound 92. A beautiful and now fully mature, complex and pure red berry fruit nose that has taken on secondary nuances is trimmed in noticeable oak that continues onto the supple, rich and still fresh middle weight flavors that offer excellent detail and plenty of finishing vibrancy. This is carrying a bit more oak than I personally like but there is no question that this is a quality ’90 that delivers a high quality drinking experience and should continue to do so for another decade, perhaps longer.

agavin: very nice, but at a sufficient level of maturity (bricking) that I’d drink up.

French style beef. Good with the reds.

2005 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 96. The magnificently pure and airy essence of notably ripe dark pinot fruit, cassis and menthol remains reserved and cool with its exceptionally rich, classy, sweet and vibrant mineral-driven and large-scaled flavors that are shaped by powerful if buried tannins. While magnificently long, this stunning Ducster is completely shut down at present and it would be a vinous crime to open one at this very early point in its development as the ’05 is built for the very long haul, indeed 20 years may be too soon. In my view, the ’05 Ducster is destined to take its place alongside the greatest vintages of the past, and while the words “best ever” are presumptuous in a wine with such a distinguished history, the mere fact that it has the potential to be among the very best ever is praise enough.

agavin: we decanted for a while. Even so, while there was tons of fruit, there was so much tannin that it needs AT LEAST another ten years.

Pea greens. Not the pea tendrils, but the older version of the same. With garlic of course.

1994 Vega Sicilia Unico. Parker 96-98. The 1994 Unico is a blend of 80% Tinto Fino, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot (presumably 2% is unknown varieties) that was picked from September 28. It is very intense with notes of raspberry, wild strawberry and mulberry with sensational minerality and vigor. There is a Margaux-like florality to the 1994 that blossom with aeration. The palate is rounded and supple on the entry with great weight and backbone. There is real substance here, similar to the 1996. It expands in the mouth with ravishing notes of blackberry, strawberry, citrus lemon, orange peel and a touch of cedar. There is enormous weight on the finish, a behemoth of a Unico. This is very potent, but it still requires several years in bottle. 96,280 bottles produced. Drink 2019-2040.

agavin: We decanted, very nice.

Dried scallop fried rice. Salty with a lot of umami.

1983 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Parker 90-94. A stunning wine, Pichon-Lalande’s 1983 has been gorgeous to drink for a number of years. It is one of the finest 1983s, especially for a northern Medoc. The color remains a dark ruby/purple, with slight lightening at the edge. The knock-out nose of roasted herbs, sweet, jammy black currants, and pain grille is followed by a full-bodied, gorgeously concentrated and well-proportioned wine with low acidity, plenty of glycerin, and a savory, highly extracted, fleshy mouthfeel. This has always been one of the stars of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: Now-2008.

agavin: in really great shape and lovely

Seafood chow mein. I love these crispy noodles.

The sauce soaks into them and softens them up. Oh so good.

1991 Domaine Bertheau (Pierre et François) Bonnes Mares. Burghound 87. Bricking now though still showing a bit of elegant cherry/berry fruit influence on the nose leading to slightly sweet, somewhat light flavors that offer good complexity but not much density. There is good complexity and overall, this is pretty rather than profound and performs more like a good but not special premier cru rather than a big grand cru like Bonnes Mares. In short, this is perfectly good but frankly a bit disappointing for a wine at this level.

agavin: a third bottle left over from the night before.

Dessert buns. These fluffy buns are shaped like peaches, which have traditional happy symbolism in China. They had a bit of sweet paste inside. Perfectly nice (for Chinese desserts).

Another awesome Chinese feast. A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and all the crab dishes. The private room was great and we had a stunning lineup of (mostly) Burgundy. Only one wine had any serious issues (the 96 Ramonet) and this dinner showed the power of high quality producer Burgundy — particularly in context of a dinner without too many big reds (only really the Unico and older Bordeaux). I feel that Burgundy shows off by far at dinners where it dominates (although it can mix fine with Champy). You can’t easily go back and forth between the big extracted wines and the more subtle Burgundy.