Montrachet :: All Things Andy Gavin

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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.

Spago has been an LA institution for over 30 years!

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).

Tonight’s special menu.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pork belly macaron. Pretty amazing bit of sweet-fatty in a dessert-like presentation. Great textures too.

A kind of crab tartlet, if I remember correctly.

A sit down amuse inside an eggshell.

A kind of foam soup.

Bread. I always like the crunchy cracker stuff.

Flight 1:

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

Olive Oil Poached Salmon. Turnip, radishes, bacon oil. Very delicate, soft and lovely.

Flight 2:

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

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.

2011 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Montrachet.

agavin: ranked #6 (tied with Ramonet Monty!)

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

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.

Pan-Roasted Lobster Tail. Lemon butter, morel mushrooms, pea tendrils, squid ink tuille. A really awesome hunk of lobster with butter sauce!

Flight 3:

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)

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.

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

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

Slow Roasted Chicken Breast on the Bone. Black truffle, Emmental cheese soufflé. Excellent, for chicken.

The room in full swing.

Flight 4: dessert

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.

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

Again Sommlier Paul Sherman joined us to coordinate the tasting. He was joined by Spago’s Christie.

The full lineup. Much more manageable than at the other two dinners.

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.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2011 White Burgundy, BYOG, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Montrachet, Paul Sherman, Spago

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

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

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2010 White Burgundy, BYOG, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Le Montrachet, Melisse, Montrachet

Melisse – 2008 Montrachet!

Mar10

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

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

Date: March 8, 2016

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome again

And so we arrive at Part 3 of the epic three night 2008 White Burgundy Dinner series (Part 1 can be found here and part 2 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 2008.

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. In Burgundy, in 2008, up to the middle of June, when the moon was full on the 18th., the season had been cool, wet and miserable. The flowering was late and drawn out, promising a late and uneven harvest. The next six weeks happily saw a marked inprovement: plenty of sun, not too much rain – and what there was was sporadic and localised – though it was warm rather than hot. Temperatures rarely exceeded 30°C. Then the weather deteriorated. There was more rain and less sun right through to mid-September. A bleak summer indeed! Overall there was less precipitation on the Côte de Nuits than the Côte de Beaune, and less still in the Côte Chalonnaise. Chablis seems to have enjoyed the mildest weather of all. But inevitably, the incidence of mildew, oidium and botrytis became ever more serious as the weeks progressed. At various times from the beginning of May onwards, hail damaged the vineyards of Marsannay, Volnay and Meursault, Chassagne and parts of the southern Màconnais and northern Beaujolais.

At the last minute, however, more benign conditions returned and continued well into October. The harvest kicked off in the Beaujolais, as I have said, on September 15th. A week or more later the growers began to attack the Mâconnais and to some extent the Côte de Beaune. But many in the Côte d’Or held off until Monday 29th or even, in the Côte de Nuits, into October, and were able to profit from natural sugar levels of 13° and higher. It was the latest harvest for some years, requiring 110 or more, not 100, days from flowering to fruition.

Our testing was setup in the elegant private room just to the right of the entrance.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Amuses

2002 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 98. Honey, almonds, butter, tropical fruit and brioche are some of the notes that emerge in the 2002 Dom Pérignon. Here the flavors are bold, rich and exotic, as they have always been, while the textural feel is one of pure exuberance. The 2002 remains dense, honeyed and totally voluptuous on the palate, with more than enough density to drink well for decades The style will always remain opulent to the core.

The first amuse is a Melisse staple. On the spoon are sphereized grapes dusted with pistachio. An explosion of grapeness.

Black Truffle Cheese Tart. Like a mini cheesy quiche.

Wagyu Beef Tartare. On a puffed rice. Soft and crunchy. All yummy.

Beef Béarnaise. Taking a card from the Jose Andres deck, the sauce was actually inside the little hush puppy-like thing.

The bread. I’m particularly partial to the green basil bread and the bacon bread (far left).

The starter for an amuse soup.

Spring pea soup. I like the combo of the warm soup and cool butter.

Flight 1

2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet. Burghound 98. At the risk of waxing poetic, the nose is genuinely like a spring day in a garden with utterly beguiling and multifaceted aromas of an implausibly broad variety of flowers, spices, discreet pain grillé, roasted nuts and a hint of garrigue that complements the dense, brooding and very serious flavors that are borderline massive yet, like the Cabotte, betray absolutely no sense of undue weight or blowsyness. The explosive finish stains the palate and coats the mouth with dry extract and this is one of the greatest examples of this wine that I have ever seen from Bouchard but be prepared to be patient. A true ‘wow’ wine.

agavin: one of my favorite wines of the night, certainly of the flight. Long finish.

2008 Remoissenet Père et Fils Montrachet Le Montrachet. VM 92. The 2008 Le Montrachet is a bit reserved at this stage. It shows good depth and energy in its fruit, yet remains heavily marked by the oak, which dominates the flavor profile and also dries out the finish a bit. I much prefer the approach the Maison took with the 2009.

agavin: nice.

From my cellar: 2008 Louis Latour Montrachet. Burghound 95. This is clearly the most backward and reserved wine in the range as the restrained nose reveals only hints of white flower, citrus and green fruit aromas that are trimmed in a noticeable touch of pain grillé. By contrast, the muscular and big-bodied flavors explode on the palate as there is a chewy texture to them yet the ample minerality present adds lift to the powerful and hugely long finish. This is not a Montrachet of finesse in 2008 but the abundant amount of dry extract should insure that it matures, and then drinks, over a very long period.

agavin: nice, but a little hot.

2008 Lucien Le Moine Montrachet. Burghound 93-95. Somewhat curiously, this is actually more elegant and refined aromatically as well as more powerful and more concentrated yet despite the jaw dropping size and weight, it remains focused, balanced and harmonious. We’ll see in time but at present, I give the Chassagne cuvée a slight edge.

agavin: more cloudy in the glass, a bit flat and flawed. Worst wine of the flight for sure.

2008 Louis Jadot Montrachet. Burghound 93. A moderately toasty nose of peach, apricot and citrus aromas that verge on the exotic and this character continues onto the delicious, generous and sappy medium-full flavors that offer real volume and mid-palate fat if not much finesse and the finish, while impressively scaled and persistent, seems to lack the focus that I expect from great examples of the vineyard. To be sure, this remains a very fine wine but at the moment, it’s not a genuinely great one. We’ll see in time whether it finds its center; if so, it will certainly merit a higher rating as the underlying material is clearly present.

agavin: very rich

Stonington Maine Diver Scallop. Salsify, Polenta, Sauce Perigourdine. A very nice rich dish with a variety of mushroomy flavors.

Flight 2

2008 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet. Burghound 96. The fresh and incredibly dense nose is inexpressive to the point of being almost mute and only aggressive swirling manages to coax glimpses of the floral, white and yellow orchard fruit, oak, spice and citrus suffused nose. By contrast, the gorgeously rich and massively-scaled flavors explode on the palate and in a distinct divergence from the Chevalier’s finesse, this is a bulldozer of a wine. No, this is not especially elegant at present but it has enormous potential though note that ample patience will be required.

agavin: very reductive

2008 Blain-Gagnard Montrachet. Burghound 95. A stunningly broad yet restrained nose displays breathtaking purity of expression, offering up incredibly complex and ripe white flower and green fruit aromas that complement beautifully balanced, harmonious and impressively scaled flavors that possess huge length and knockout depth. This is class in a glass with terrific vibrancy and the palate staining finish is almost painfully intense as there is so much extract that the palate impression is borderline chewy. This should age for several decades.

agavin: lots of acidity

2008 Marc Colin et Fils Montrachet. Burghound 95. What was a grudging nose has become notably more expressive now that it has been in bottle for almost two years with pretty and highly complex notes of white peach, pear, spice hints and ample pain grillé in evidence. There is nothing subtle about the huge, indeed even imposing flavors that brim with dry extract that completely coats and stains the palate yet there is ample acid support that keeps everything in perfect balance and harmony. In fact, the balance is so impeccable that I would call this a Zen wine that is somewhat less forbidding than I originally thought and thus I have reduced my suggested drinking window by two years. Indeed, there is sufficient mid-palate fat present that this could even be drunk now though there is so much upside that it would be a shame to leave so much of it on the table at this early juncture.

agavin: maybe a touch advanced, lots of botrytis.

2008 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. Burghound 93-96. A perfumed and simply knock-out nose features highly perfumed notes of honeysuckle, acacia blossom, sandalwood and yellow orchard fruit aromas that give way to powerful, rich and dense full-bodied flavors that possess obvious muscle and simply huge length on the overtly austere, deep and palate staining finish. This is a dazzling effort that will only add to the already immense reputation this wine enjoys but note that patience will be required.

agavin: darker and quite rich.

Black Bass “En Ecailles”. Hope Ranch Black Mussels, Fava Beans, Shellfish Emulsion. 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 3: Not all Monty

2008 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 95. A trace of reduction is not enough to mask the amazingly pure, cool and airy citrus peel, rose petal and essence of stone aromas that precede the energetic, intense and gorgeously well-detailed flavors that brim with plenty of palate staining dry extract. The explosive and mildly austere finish is shaped by firm but ripe acidity that is impeccably well-integrated and this should age effortlessly for years. This is textbook Perrières.

agavin: probably my favorite wine of the night! Just awesome. Reductive. Massive. Long. Textbook.

2008 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Montrachet. Burghound 94-97. A riper if less elegant nose presents a broad range of yellow and white orchard fruits with ample floral, spice and citrus nuances that also are reflected by the massively endowed big-bodied, powerful and muscular flavors of imposing size and weight, all wrapped in a palate staining, chewy and hugely long finish. One expects Montrachet to be great and the ’08 from Pierre-Yves Colin does not disappoint.

agavin: another fabulous wine with a long finish

2008 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet. Burghound 97. A highly expressive and radiant nose offers the purest fruit in the range as it offers up a mélange of upper register acacia blossom and freshly cut lemon-lime aromas trimmed in a discreet amount of wood. The nose is followed by strikingly detailed, stony and powerful broad-scaled flavors that culminate in a palate-etching finish of spectacular length. This is breath-taking stuff as balance is perfect and this should age well for years.

agavin: This bottle or at this moment wasn’t my favorite. Just too rich and hot (alcoholic).

2008 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 98. A fantastically complex and beguilingly fresh nose of extract of liquid stone, green fruit, citrus zest and elegant floral notes dissolves seamlessly into rich, intense and beautifully mineral-driven broad-shouldered flavors that culminate in a superbly long and bone dry finish of positively Cistercian-like austerity. This is a wine that is absolutely packed with potential and I wouldn’t dream of opening a bottle before it had at least 10 years of bottle age and probably 12 to 15. I should note that this is anything but seductive yet I find the incredible delineation and purity of expression to be nothing short of brilliant.

agavin: another great wine. Lots of reduction and acid. Long finish. Not as great as the MP right now (I think it needs more time), but still very good.

Dover Sole Filet. Potato Gnocchi, French Horn Mushrooms, White Wine-Brown Butter Jus. Another great fish, although I miss the chicken from year.

Have a few glasses.

Flight 4: Dessert

1994 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese. MFW 100. Dark orange yellow color; petrol and baked lemon nose; tasty, sweet, baked lemon and lime palate with depth, minerality and uplifting acidity; long finish

Rustic Caramel Apple Tart. Heilala Vanilla Ice Cream. Pretty much a perfect version of this traditional dessert. Great crunchy pastry texture.

Petite fours. pate de fruits, cannelles, macarons, cookies, chocolates.

The chef de cuisine.KEN TAKAYAMA. Chef Ken was born in Saitama, Japan and, from early childhood, was raised in Monterey Park, Ca. Straight out of high school, Chef Ken got his start at Kayo , a neighborhood restaurant in Monterey Park, learning traditional techniques for preparing robata, sushi, and tempura. Chef Ken’s previous experience in the kitchen also includes working under Christophe Moreau for Patina Pastry of the Patina Group in Burbank.

Chef Ken cites his grandmother as a huge influence on his family. She was a remarkable artist who drew and sculpted in leather. “Both of my siblings, Eriko and George, and I all followed creative career paths due to her powerful artistic sensibilities that she shared with us.”

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 last year at this dinner we had more variety, but still there were some nice dishes here.

service: perfect.

agavin on the wines: Like the other two 2008 nights, all these wines showed a strong vintage character, namely that rounded, ripe, lots of botrytis. But the Montrachets were in general drinking fabulously. Almost any of these wines would be fabulous additions to more normal lineups. There were no premoxed wines in my opinion, with only 2-3 showing very slight touches of advanced notes on the nose. Nothing was obviously corked, although the Le Moine was flawed somehow. The Monty character were often strong and present.

Overall quality was quite high, but there was some serious doubt in the group as to how long to hold this vintage.

Voting results of the night were:

1 Coche MP
2(tie) Coche Corton
2(tie) Colin-Morey Monty
4(tie) Bouchard Monty
4(tie) Sauzet Monty
6 Ramonet Monty
7 Remoissenet Monty
8 Blain-Gagnard Monty

Don’s detailed notes can be found here.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

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

By: agavin
Comments (6)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2008 White Burgundy, Melisse, Montrachet

Melisse – 2007 Montrachet!

Mar22

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

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

Date: March 19, 2015

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome again

And so we arrive at Part 3 of the epic three night 2007 White Burgundy Dinner series (Part 1 can be found here and part 2 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 2007.

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

2007 is a classic white Burgundy vintage made from an upside-down growing season in which April was literally the warmest month. The year began with a very early flowering thanks to record heat in April, and a cool and fairly dismal summer followed. Most of the best growers picked their chardonnay in warm, dry weather during the first half of September – quite early, but not as early as the mid-May flowering would have predicted. The wines from the better makers show noteworthy transparency to terroir. Those who harvested relatively late often brought in thoroughly ripe fruit with healthy acidity levels and no obvious signs of overripeness. The skins of the chardonnay grapes in ’07 were mostly in good shape, in spite of wet, cool weather in June and July.

The 2007s are characterized by fresh citrus and white stone fruit aromas, plenty of minerality and floral lift, and good levels of acidity. Many are like fleshier versions of the 2004s, which sounds like a near-perfect formula for white Burgundy to this taster. Although I think of the typical style of 2007 as being pure, focused, minerally and racy, in fact there’s a creaminess without heaviness or other exoticism to many of the wines that buffers their acidity and gives them great early appeal. So please forgive my tendency to refer to the former style as the classic 2007 character. This is true in theory, but in the mouth there are many lovely 2007s with noteworthy generosity of texture. Incidentally, a number of producers told me that the wines were very awkward in the early going, and benefited tremendously from a longer élevage.

Our testing was setup in the elegant private room just to the right of the entrance.

Tonight’s special menu.

Less glasses tonight than on the first two dinners in the series, as we have fewer wines and fewer drinkers.

Flight 0: Amuses

1996 Philipponnat Clos de Goisses. Burghound 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.

agavin: Really a great mature champagne with years of life in it.

Liberty Duck Breast, Marche Cherry, Caper Chip. Awesome smoky little chip with an Asian sort of vibe.

Santa Barbara Ridgeback Prawn Ravioli. The shrimp is the ravioli and the ravioli is the shrimp. Tasted like a great har gow.

Beef Bearnaise. Taking a card from the Jose Andres deck, the sauce was actually inside the little hush puppy-like thing.

The bread. I’m particularly partial to the green basil bread and the bacon bread (far left).

Hamachi with radish. I’m not sure what was in that creamy blob, but the overall combo was fabulous.

Flight 1: Montrachet

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.

2007 Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de la Guiche

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: In contrast to the relative expressiveness of the majority of the prior wines, here the nose is decidedly restrained, offering up only grudging notes of pain grillé that frame pure aromas of white flower and fresh pear with subtle spice notes that continue onto the balanced, long and gorgeously refined big-bodied flavors that exude a distinct stoniness while building towards a powerful, mouth coating and palate staining finish that delivers striking persistence. A distinguished effort that will age for years because of the excellent underlying material and impeccable balance. 93-96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very ripe aromas of apricot and smoky oak. Big, rich and sweet, with sexy hints of smoke, nutmeg and brown sugar. Tactile and chewy but without any excess weight. This big boy seems accessible already but offers enticing high notes for such a ripe wine. The smoky oak element recurs on the back end. This will need time to show its inherent soil complexity. 94

agavin: a bit deeper yellow. rich oak, grew quiet nice with time, lovely nose, long acid finish.

2007 Prieur Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This too evidences a subtle application of wood but does not intrude on the transparency of the array of very floral, peach, pear and menthol aromas that serve as a sweeping introduction to the huge, rich and extremely powerful tautly muscled flavors that possess copious amounts of dry extract that completely drench the palate on the incredibly long finish. This is a massive Montrachet with flat out painful intensity and for those who enjoy dramatic whites, this fits the bill. A ‘wow’ wine and then some but for the patient. 94- 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: (still on its lees in barrel) Pale, bright yellow. Compelling aromas of peach, fresh apricot and iodiney minerality. Silky on entry, then dense, powerful and large- scaled in the middle. This is really stuffed with fruit. There’s a juiciness here but this tactile wine is almost too easy today. Plenty of alcohol too, at 13.8%. 91-93

agavin: med yellow, sulfur on the nose to start, strong green apple, mellowed after some time in the glass

2007 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database, Feb 2, 2012: Mild reduction initially reduces the expressiveness of the otherwise fresh and impressively complex lemon, stone and acacia blossom-infused nose that leads to equally complex and beautifully delineated middle weight flavors that ooze a fine minerality before culminating in an overtly austere but explosive, linear and compact finish of superb length. While this could of course be drunk now, for my taste it is still much too young. However, if you’re going to try one out of curiosity I would strongly advise decanting it for at least 30 minutes first as the flavors take their timing opening up. Tasted twice recently with one bottle being a bit more forward than the one described above. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good pale yellow. Knockout orange and mineral nose projects an impression of force that continues onto the palate. A wonderfully silky wine of outstanding intensity and lift. This has the fine-grained texture of a grand cru, not to mention the combination of suavity and power that characterizes the best examples of Perrieres. The palate-staining finish features a whiplash of flavor. The candid Coche was quick to say that the crop level here was a healthy 52 hectoliters per hectare, but it tastes like half that. I should note that the finished wine is much more classic and vibrant than a more glyceral barrel sample I tried last year, and Coche has also upped his opinion of this beauty. 95

agavin: light straw in color, lots of sulfur reduction, green apple palette, long long acid finish.

2007 Henri Boillot Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is also strikingly pure, refined and fantastically elegant and while the kaleidoscopic nose is more restrained and primary still, the density of the fruit with its associated depth is quite simply sublime. Notes of white truffle, citrus, rose petal, anise, brioche and clove merge into concentrated, powerful, delineated and stony flavors that are big but not necessarily massive and culminate in a finish that is even more persistent than that of the Chevalier if not necessarily finer. Still, what this gives up in delicacy it more than makes up for in size, weight and power. A classically proportioned Monty. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2008: Very closed nose hints at lime, botanical herbs, clove and minerals. Chewy, tactile and uncompromisingly dry, with a powerful dusty minerality carrying through on the long, stony finish. Extremely young and unevolved today. 92-94

agavin: middle yellow, rich open nose, acidic and green apple taste

Stonington Maine Diver Scallop Grilled Leeks, Cardoons, Crème de Brandade.

Flight 2: Montrachet

The next flight, even more Monty.

2007 Bouchard Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database, April 9, 2010: (with thanks to Dr. Michael Chen). A stunningly complex range of fruit, citrus, floral and spice aromas complement to perfection the very rich, full and strikingly concentrated broad-scaled flavors that are supported by plenty of dry extract that buffers a firm core of ripe acidity on the beautifully intense and flat out incredibly lingering finish. What really impresses me about the ’07 though is that despite the impressive heft, the finish remains laser-like in its focus. A ‘wow’ wine in every sense except for one, which is that this is not an imposing or massive vintage for this wine. Otherwise, this is sensational, especially in terms of its impeccable balance. Note that at this early juncture, there is essentially no difference between the magnum and 750 ml formats save for the impression that the magnum is, not surprisingly, even more backward. 97

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: While not more elegant than the Cabotte, this is quite a bit more complex with a stunning range of fruit, citrus, floral and spice aromas that complement to perfection the very rich, full and strikingly concentrated broad-scaled flavors that are supported by plenty of dry extract that buffers a firm core of ripe acidity on the beautifully intense and flat out incredibly lingering finish. What really impresses me about the ’07 though is that despite the impressive heft, the finish remains laser-like in its focus. A ‘wow’ wine in every sense except for one, which is that this is not an imposing or massive vintage for this wine. Otherwise, this is sensational, especially in terms of its impeccable balance. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar: not reviewed

agavin: pale yellow, sulfur on the nose, a bit of potty even to the taste, thin finish

2007 Louis Latour Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A deft touch of wood serves as a background presence for the reserved but fresh and bright floral, citrus, brioche and spice aromas that are strikingly complex and broad and complement the full-bodied flavors that are deep, dense and massive with exceptionally powerful drive and intensity on the gorgeously long and palate staining finish. This is an impressive wine blessed with great underlying material, perfect balance and superb harmony plus it’s built for the long haul. Note however that the expressiveness of the nose aside, the flavors are like a block of stone and thus I would suggest not opening a bottle for the next few years as it would likely be a complete waste. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar: not reviewed

agavin: medium deep yellow, rich nose, nice citrus finish, grew better and better over time

2007 Le Moine Montrachet Cuvee C

Allen Meadows, Burghound: not reviewed

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: From the Chassagne side: Reticent nose dominated by nutty oak. The palate shows an almost candied ripeness to the citrus liqueur, iodine and wet stone flavors. Wonderfully sweet and densely packed wine of noteworthy solidity. Mounts impressively and broadens out on the vibrant, very long finish. 93-95

agavin: a bit deeper yellow. rich lovely nose. powerful and drinking well now

2007 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database April 23, 2012: (with thanks to Herwig Janssen and Hal Borthwick). This is completely different from its ’08 counterpart with a wonderfully layered and relatively expressive nose that features ripe but cool green fruit, apple, rose petal and ample mineral influence that continues onto the imposingly concentrated and powerful flavors that terminate in a lemon-infused and intensely stony finish. This is strikingly persistent and while there is some austerity present it is much less so compared to the ’08. I quite like this and it’s a vintage that will certainly age well but be enjoyable young. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: The most austere nose of these 2007s: apple, pear, crushed stone and oyster shell minerality. Saturates the palate with a flavor of liquid stone, without leaving any impression of weight. Very dry and penetrating wine with powerful underlying structure and great energy on the extremely long finish. Even more closed today than the Caillerets, but then this wine from marne blanche soil typically ages like a red. It will be interesting to compare this wine with the 2006 bottling a decade hence. The earlier wine is more glyceral, but this 2007 may possess even more energy. 95+

agavin: pale yellow, sulfur and sweet tarts on the nose, sweet tarts on the palette

2007 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard. Vinous 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: medium yellow, reductive nose, rich oak, guessed it wasn’t a Burgundy

Out comes a whole giant slab of turbot!

Atlantic Turbot Porcini Mushroom, Celeriac, Black Barley.

Roasted Celery Broth is poured on top. A fabulous bit of moist fish.

Flight 3: Coche-Dury

And the final set of blockbusters.

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: deep yellow, rich complex nose. slight vinegar sharpness to taste, very tart, short finish?

2007 Jadot Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: An almost invisible hint of wood frames stunningly refined if restrained, elegant and ripe floral, green fruit and spice notes with a most interesting touch of violets that can also be found on the rich, full-bodied and delicious flavors that possess ample underlying tension with plenty of finishing punch and vibrancy on the hugely long finish. This is a powerful but not massive Montrachet with buckets of dry extract and the class is obvious as is the impeccable balance of the linear and palate staining backend. 93-96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar: not reviewed

agavin: medium yellow. sulfur at first, then really nice nose, then fell off? Reduction at first on palette, then opened way up. Quite nice.

2007 Le Mone Montrachet Cuvee P

Allen Meadows, Burghound: not reviewed

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: (There’s another barrel from the Puligny side but this one was only about a third of its way through its malolactic fermentation, which did not start until August of 2008. This sample showed a higher pitch, a captivating aroma of orange blossom and great finesse of texture, but was still youthfully imploded at the end of May.) not rated

agavin: Medium yellow. Thin, menthol, reductive nose. Rich palette and long finish. Opened into one of my favorites.

2007 Ramonet Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 36, Oct 2009: In contrast to the incredibly backward Bâtard, the Montrachet is somewhat more open and accessible with a soaring nose of floral, citrus, orange peel, spice and a suitably discreet touch of oak yet as impressively broad as it is, it is completely evident that there is plenty in reserve. This is also true of the almost painfully intense and focused medium plus weight flavors that possess ample amounts of extract that buffer the very firm acid spine on the hugely long finish. While it should not be a surprise, given that not only is this Montrachet but a Ramonet Montrachet at that, don’t open any of these anytime soon. The ’07 version is not ever going to be one of the power vintages for this storied wine but I suspect that it will take its rightful place among the greats but only in time and that time isn’t soon. Patience absolutely required. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, bright, green-tinged color. Subdued yet wonderfully nuanced aromas of powdered stone, white flowers, gingerbread, spices, sage and mint, complemented by sexy oak. Large-scaled, tactile and deep but with no impression of excess weight. Thick and broad from start to long, rocky finish. With extended time in the recorked bottle, this outstanding big boy turned steelier and drier, showing a penetrating grapefruit pith quality and remaining remarkably fresh. This outstanding Montrachet will almost certainly merit an even higher score seven or eight years down the road. 95+

agavin: paler yellow. Closed nose, rich flavor with a lot of acid.

2007 Sauzet Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is ever-so-slightly riper and less restrained aromatically than the Chevalier with a densely fruited nose offering lightly spiced pear, white peach, lemon-lime and a hint of honeysuckle plus a touch of clove and anise that merge seamlessly into concentrated, powerful and weighty flavors that are not massive but they are focused, well-muscled and impressively scaled all the same and culminate in a superbly complex and deep finish that reminds me a lot of the 2002 version as it seems to come in wave after palate drenching wave. This is not as elegant and pure as the Chevalier but it somehow manages to deliver yet another dimension. In sum, an absolute knockout. Amazingly, this rivals the ’93 as the best Montrachet Sauzet has ever made, and anyone who has tasted a well-stored bottle knows that is high praise. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale lemon-yellow. Reticent nose hints at lemon, clove and iodine. Large-scaled, fat and rich, but plush more than complex today in spite of its steely underpinning. This builds slowly and inexorably, filling the mouth and continuing to expand on the back end. A seriously concentrated Montrachet with the structure of a red wine. At 41 hectoliters per hectare, this wine featured the lowest crop level among the Sauzet 2007s. Really floods the palate with flavor. 95+

agavin: medium to pale, apple, apple, and more green apple. Tiny hints of advancedness?

Chef Josiah Citrin brings out the savory pièce de résistance.

Inside this dish, reminiscent of King Joffrey’s wedding pie:

Three hens nestled in hay. They were slow cooked to keep all the moisture inside.

Roasted Jidori Chicken, Smoked Carrots, Brasied Swiss Chard, Potato Mousseline.

This was probably the best chicken dish I’ve ever had. The meat absolutely perfectly cooked and juicy, the mashed potatoes amazing, and the jus pulled it all together. The carrots had this amazing “spiced” (as in pumpkin and spice) flavor.

Just my glasses.

Brian Kalliel, Melisse’s Sommelier, sucks his thumb while waiting for our endless debating and voting over the wine. It took forever before we revealed the blind wines. I, myself, was pacing about at the end of the room.

The whole array of bottles.

Dessert

1989 Freiherr Langwerth von Simmern Hattenheimer Mannberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese.

1994 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese. MFW 100. Quince, lemon, petrol and honey. Impeccably balanced palate thanks to resonating acidity – it is sweet, intense and incredibly long. Brilliant stuff.

Check out the color of the 89 (left) vs the 94 (right).

Apple Tart Fine. Caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Pretty much a perfect version of this dessert.

Petite fours. pate de fruits, cannelles, macarons, cookies, chocolates.

food: As usual the food at Melisse is just stunning. I generally prefer a more mega tasting menu with more flavors and the requirements of matching White Burgundy limited the options, but still there were some stunning dishes here, in particular the turbot and chicken. And the chicken. I’m normally not even a chicken fan! The amuses were great too with a complex Franco-Japanese vibe.

service: perfect.

agavin on the wines: Like the other two 2007 nights, all these wines showed a strong vintage character, namely that super tart green apple sweet tart acidity. But the Montrachets were in general drinking fabulously. Almost any of these wines would be fabulous additions to more normal lineups. There were no premoxed wines, with only 1-2 showing very slight touches of advanced notes on the nose. Nothing was corked. Quite a number were highly reduced with a lot of sulfur on the nose, even degrading to “porta potty.” But this blows off with years in the bottle or hours in the glass.

The guessing of the more experienced Chard hounds was unusually inaccurate tonight. A lot of the typically “inferior” (for great wines) Montrachets were drinking the best tonight. These included the Louis Latour, the Jadot, and the Prieur. My best guess is that the more forward styles served to round out the wines and balance that searing acidity. I cannot understate the amount of tartness in these wines (or any typical 2007s). By the last flight my tongue was just buzzing with it and I had total palette fatigue. I had to use the sweet wines and the cannelles to try and wash it away.

Overall quality was quite high, but there was some serious doubt in the group as to how long to hold this vintage. Some felt that the acidity will remain and eventually overwhelm the fruit, leading to tight thin wines. Personally, I’d propose waiting a small number of additional years and pairing up with acid friendly food.

Don on the wines, plus official rankings:

RANK		Total	Rating
1	2007 Latour Montrachet	36	96
2	2007 Prieur Montrachet	27	95
3	2007 Jadot Montrachet	23	96\|97
4	2007 Le Moine Montrachet Cuvee P	20	95
5	2007 Le Mone Montrachet Cuvee C	14	94
6	2007 Coche Meursault Perrieres	8	95++
7 tie	2007 Ramey Hyde Chardonnay	7	92
7 tie	2007 Ramonet Montrachet	7	94++
9	2007 Drouhin De Laguiche Montrachet	4	96
10	2007 Bouchard Montrachet	3	96
11	2007 Leflaive Batard Montrachet	1	95
12 tie	2007 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne	0	95
12 tie	2007 Boillot Montrachet	0	93\|92A
12 tie	2007 Sauzet Montrachet	0	92A?

The five names at the top of the “leader board” have never been there before. Make no mistake, the Latour, Prieur and Jadot were absolutely awesome wines. The Le Moine wines also showed quite well. So at the risk of catching some more flack from Mounir again, I’m sending him a copy of this results email again so that he can see how well his two Montrachet cuvees did. (There wasn’t the faintest hint of oxidation this time.)

Don thought that the really youthful wines of the night that needed more time to show how great they really are were the Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres (yes, we also tasted a bottle of this wine on night one) and the Ramonet Montrachet.

David Ramey’s 2007 Hyde vineyard Chardonnay did double-duty as a ringer this year and it did very well even with the much stiffer competition among the Montrachets. (Don didn’t think last night’s bottle showed as well as the bottle we had with the Batards on night two, but it was still a well-liked wine with one first place vote.) Mr. Ramey has clearly established, on both nights two and three (as well as in past vintages which operated with different voting rules), that his Hyde Vineyard bottling definitely belongs in the conversation when assessing the world’s best chardonnays.

There were no oxidized wines last night and the group overall didn’t think we had any advanced wines (although myself and two others thought that the Boillot Montrachet and Sauzet Montrachet were advanced and the Boillot Montrachet was almost borderline oxidized.)

From the premature oxidation perspective, looking at this on a historical basis, the 2007 vintage performed very well. From an overall perspective, the 2007s were, by the narrowest of margins, the best-ever performing vintage from a premox perspective that we have had to date (in the years of this testing series).

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

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

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2007 White Burgundy, Chef Josiah Citrin, Dessert, Josiah Citrin, Melisse, Montrachet, White Burgundy, Wine

Pate de Bourgogne

Sep24

The best Hedonist dinners are the ones like this. The crew: small. The theme: world class Burgundy. The food: superb. The setting: magicial.

The setting was a lovely Hancock Park home and garden.

This particular dinner was hosted by Hedonist, and restauranteur Adam Fleischman. Adam needs no introduction and as the mastermind behind Umami Burger, Smoke Oil Salt, 800 degrees, and a ton of other concepts he is a man with endless energy, ideas, and a talent for doing it right.

Our table.

And my artsy “magazine style” shot.

The menu. The food tonight comes from Gorge Restaurant and Charcuterie (all produced by Adam). Chefs and co-owners Elia Aboumrad and Uyen Nguyen were both at the house whipping up just an amazing sequence of dishes that paired superlatively with the wines.

Everything had that understated contemporary country elegance.

2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. IWC 95. Bright gold. Pungent aromas of candied orange, buttered toast, pear skin and vanilla, with a smoky nuance that gains power in the glass. Stains the palate with intense pear liqueur, citrus pith and brioche flavors, picking up notes of licorice and candied ginger with air. A bright mineral note adds lift and energy to the finish, which clings with superb tenacity and lingering smokiness. This complex, concentrated Champagne is showing very well right now but has the legs to age for years to come.

2004 Coche-Dury Meursault. Burghound 91. Soft mineral reduction does not materially detract from the green fruit, citrus, stone and slightly smoky nose that introduces detailed, pure and attractively intense middle weight flavors that possess excellent vibrancy on the taut, linear and refined finish. This isn’t quite as complex or concentrated as the ’02 version (see herein) but the sheer persistence is most impressive. And in the same fashion as the 2002, this has reached an inflection point of maturity where it could be enjoyed now or held for a few more years depending on how one prefers aged white burgs. For my taste, I would hold this for another 2 to 4 years but many people will find the current state of maturity to be perfect now.

agavin: I just have to mention again that Coche makes THE BEST village white Burgs. Period. It takes a producer at the level of Leflaive or PYCM to even make a grand cru as good as this village. It is a village, and so doesn’t have the depth or power of a great grand cru but it does just soar.

Smoked oyster Mousse. Beef jus en gelee, Crisp baguette. Like creamy smooth pure oyster concentrate. Fabulous paring with the caviar on top and with the champagne.

1985 Stony Hill Chardonnay. 89 Jeff Leve. With the color of an aged Sauternes, the oily textured, concentrated wine is low in acidity, with honeysuckly, caramel, citrus peel and butterscotch. When first poured, the wine seemed oxidized, but it improved in the glass after 10-20 minutes. This was quite a wine considering it was a 30 year old California Chardonnay.

agavin: I stole this review from my friend Jeff Leve (on a different night) — but it was dead on accurate with our bottle too.

1999 Domaine Leroy Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 94. This wine possesses a genuinely staggering nose of superb complexity with all of the green apple and minerality that one associates with classic Corton-Charlemagne. The chiseled, precise, intense medium full flavors are rich, sappy and brilliantly delineated with superb depth and breadth on the explosive backend. A very serious wine that has so much mid-palate sap that it can actually be approached now with pleasure yet it will age for at least a decade, perhaps more. In a word, brilliant. Consistent notes.

agavin: Well, Leroy is one of those few producer’s who can make a wine to outshine a Coche village (the 99 Coche CC would be a fair pairing). This Leroy just had all that Grand Cru depth and complexity with a tremendous minerality (petrol). A real fresh bandaid quality.

Trout. Mi-cuit en roulade, fried shallot rangs, confit lemon zest & tomatoes, tuna just. This dish had a bright bright acidity to it that was really fabulous. The fish itself melted in the mouth like great sushi.

2002 Domaine Marc Morey & Fils Montrachet. Burghound 94. This is an exceptionally impressive effort by any standard with a pure, ripe and highly complex nose of fennel, white flower, citrus and orchard fruit aromas trimmed in a discreet touch of oak spice that can also be found on the rich, powerful, concentrated and equally pure big-bodied flavors that possess admirably vibrancy and outstanding length. Not surprisingly for a young Montrachet, this is still on its way up and it will be another 3 to 5 years before this peaks and it should be capable of holding at that level for up to another decade. A beautiful wine.

agavin: When we first tried this wine I tasted something unusual in the palette. Not a flaw, but one of those unusual complexities you get in great Burgundy that is unexpected. Perhaps it was what AM above describes as fennel, as I initially thought of it as slightly medicinal. This isn’t criticism but a note on the complexity possible in wines of this caliber.

Rabbit Rillette. 24hr confit, house pickled romaneco cauliflower. Sort of like a very french sandwich. The whole pickle and pate thing. Even the cauliflower tasted exactly like cornichon (i.e. vinegar). The mousse/pate itself was mild and a bit gamey, letting it work with and not overpower the Montrachet.

From my cellar: 2005 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet. Burghound 96. In contrast to the expressive noses of the 3 prior grands crus, this is positively discreet and almost reticent by comparison and only vigorous swirling would coax the broad-scaled nose to reveal itself, offering up notes of anise, peach, pear, citrus, orange blossom and honey that also merges seamlessly into textured, sweet, powerful and robust full-bodied flavors that possess a seductive mouth feel yet excellent precision and cut as well. This is a big wine and not overly refined but the sheer depth of material is almost hard to believe and as such, this will eventually transform into something very, very special. Patience required however.

agavin: As I have a whole bunch of these, and this is the first I opened, I’m pleased. It was a monster. On first taste powerful intense acid. Then we left it open for an hour or two and it hit the glass like a beast. The nose was all Montrachet with that coiled massive power that you only get from the world’s greatest Chardonnay vineyard. Wow. wow. My favorite in a line up of really stellar whites.

Wild pheasant terrine. Black truffles, organic arugula salad, mustard. I would have thought this was a country French pork pate, although perhaps a hair lighter. Either way just fabulous.

1949 A. de Luze & Fils Graves Royal. Old old sweet Bordeaux. There wasn’t so much sweet left, but for the age it was holding up darn well.

Foie Gras torchon. Fig confit, fines herbes salad, Grapefruit marmalade. Wow! Basically straight foie with fig. The salad had a nice astringency that countered the heft of the foie. Wow again. Just stupendous.

1999 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 96. In contrast to the general style of the vintage, this is still aromatically austere though with coaxing, reveals wonderfully complex aromas of a simply incredible array of black fruits, earth, spice, crushed herbs and notes of chocolate with flavors that are huge but fine, powerful but subtle and rich yet detailed with a stupendously long finish that offers intense minerality. This is genuinely stunning juice and not to be missed if you have the chance. Tasted multiple times with consistent notes.

agavin: Our bottle was surprisingly open and ready. There was an odd brett thing going on, and the balance wasn’t perfect, but this was an extremely hedonistic and enjoyable glass.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 96. One of the finest wines of the vintage, this is simply a spectacular effort that has captured every bit of the potential it originally displayed in cask. Restrained and backward nose of a fantastically complex mix of blackberries, spice, cedar, soy, anise and dried herbs followed by full-bodied, multi-layered flavors of amazing length. Opulent and lavish yet all remains exquisitely balanced and this is astonishingly precise. A real stunner of a wine that is as classy and graceful as they come. As good and classy as the ’02 if not quite as structured.

agavin: The 2001 drank much younger than the 1999. Lots of acid and cherry tones. It just got better and better as the night went on. It needs a few more years but there was that kind of singing balance that bodes extremely well.

Duck Sausage. Housemade choucroute, orange cream sauce. I love sausage, and although I’m not usuually the biggest krout fan this dish was just flat out great too.

1991 Domaine Leroy Richebourg. Burghound 93. Madame Bize made superb ’91s virtually across her entire range and this wine is no exception with its deep, rich, complex nose and flavors that display remarkable depth, including earth and tobacco notes. The finish is subtly complex and still quite structured but the tannins are ripe and buffered by plenty of extract. In sum, this is dense and intense and should continue to improve for years to come. Consistent notes.

agavin: This was all Richebourg. It just reeked of the specific place and time.

1995 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg. Burghound 93. This too is reserved and restrained with an almost completely closed nose that reveals only glimpses of fresh black fruit even after extended aeration. The flavors however are rich and offer excellent detail and are underpinned by dense yet ripe tannins and good extract. I very much like the style of this though it is clearly for the patient and I suspect this will always have a rather strict personality. This has put on a bit of weight and a bit of richness since the big Richebourg tasting in ’01 and appears to be better balanced than the prior bottle but otherwise, it is quite similar.

agavin: A brooding powerhouse!

Tournedos Rossini. Potato puree. GORGE garlic glaze. Foie Gras. This was just the best beef dish ever. Haha, maybe, but it was just stupendously good (and rich). Pure tender beef, truffle, foie, and yummy potatoes and reduction. The sweetness of the glaze helped counter all that fat. It might be overkill, but it totally worked.

2007 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée St. Vivant. Burghound 94. An ultra elegant, pure and quite delicately fruited and spiced nose that is extremely fresh, floral and expansive that is more layered still as it introduces seductively textured, detailed and gorgeously delineated middle weight flavors that possess laser-like focus if less density than is usually seen with this wine. Indeed, this is rather like a ballerina with limited power and weight but the watch word here is purity, purity and purity. I quite like this but it will strike some as unduly light though I believe the underlying material is present such that it will add weight in bottle as it ages.

agavin: The oak was very present when we first poured it (as you’d expect for a way too young grand cru). But even from the get-go it just screamed RSV. As the evening wore on it opened and opened and opened. This will be a stellar (it was stellar) wine.

1990 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. Burghound 94. This remains quite darkly colored with obviously ripe, borderline aromas that are clearly Vosne in origin with loads of spice and secondary nuances to the black fruit and earth aromas that are followed by sexy, sappy and intense middle weight flavors that culminate in a mineral-infused, sweet and energetic finish that delivers outstanding length. This is sufficiently ripe that it is perhaps not a beacon of terroir but it remains unmistakably Vosne in basic character. This is really quite impressive and to my taste, it has arrived at its peak though one that should hold for a number of years to come. Tasted multiple times with mostly consistent results.

agavin: The Beaux Monts was probably my favorite red of the night, and it was the only premier cru. It even tasted like it. As it really came off as full on Beaux Monts. But wow, what a terrior play. Just all VR spice and depth. Fabulous.

1834 Barbeito Madeira Malvazia Reserva Velha. 96 points. A wine made before the civil war! Strong cinnamon with brown notes. Beautiful with a lingering finish that goes on and on. Quite a lot of acidity for a 160 year old wine.

agavin: delicious!

Strawberry Rhubarb St Honore. Vanilla bean cream puffs, crisp puff pastry, vanilla chantilly. This was very French — and delicious. Light, sweet (perhaps more sweet than it would have been in France) and with that perfect pastry texture.

Chocolate Macaron.

Overall, this was just one of the best dinners we’ve ever done. And those of you who follow know that is a HIGH bar. Every element was in balance: setting, weather, people, food, wine. That is what wine (and hedonism) is all about. You can take the above (magnificent) wines and put them in a more clinical setting and they’d come off well — but when you pair it all up properly it rounds out the flaws and emphasizes the best qualities.

Bravo! (And thanks Adam for setting it all up)

more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

The after diner antics begin. You had to be there!

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Adam Fleischman, Allen Meadows, Burgundy, Champagne, Corton-Charlemagne, Cru (wine), Hancock Park, hedonists, Montrachet, Wine

Melisse Madness

Jun17

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

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

Date: June 12, 2014

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome in all ways

It’s always a challenge to come up with a new spot for my birthday dinner. I tried a couple new places and after struggling with annoying policies and restrictions came back to proven slam dunk Melisse. They have the private room. They have the food. They can handle all the wines effortlessly.

I brought a lot of good stuff and so did my friends.

Liz set the tone with this mag of 1995 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut. IWC 93. Medium straw, with a powerful mousse. Dense and earthy on the nose, with strong toasty and buttery tones layered on ripe apple and pear fruit. This is both very ’95 in a positive sense and very Pol Roger. Fat and round in the mouth, with extravagant flavors of buttered toast, ripe orange and poached pear, complemented by subtle notes of cinnamon and mace. A lush, velvety Champagne that completely fills the mouth with flavor and creamy texture. This would go wonderfully with absolutely anything-or on its own.

Oh, and then this 1988 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut. IWC 94. Classic, subtly complex Champagne aromas of toast, toffee, citrus peel, and yeasty fresh apple. Rich, full and ripe, with great depth of flavor and truly insinuating intensity. Complex notes of butterscotch and toasted nuts. Ripe, harmonious acids give this remarkably smooth wine excellent backbone for further aging. Extremely long. I rated this wine 93(+?) a year ago, and it has certainly delivered on its early promise. A pinnacle of the ’88 vintage.

Tomato two ways. Usually the initial amuse at Melisse is grapes, but this time, it’s tomatoes, both goat cheese and pistachio crusted and sphereized.

The white Burgundy flight!

1979 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Chassagne-Montrachet. 85 points. The wine has seen better days, and had strong notes of sherry. But it wasn’t totally without virtue. As it sat in the glass for an hour or two it rounded out a bit.

1989 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet. 93 points. Soft and with classic Montrachet terrior this was a really delicious example of fully mature great white burg.

From my cellar: 1993 Maison Roche de Bellene Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières Collection Bellenum. 90 points. Other than the 79 this was the least complex of our whites, but it was still very MP and quite delicious.

Naked Cowboy Oyster. Apricot Lane Avocado, lemon cucumber, meyer lemon granite. A truly delicious and bright flavored oyster prep. The granite in particular was lovely, standing in for a squirt of lemon.

And a version with no oyster.

Have a few white burgs!

Egg Caviar. Soft Poached Egg, Lemon creme fraiche, american Osetra. Delicious as always. As Larry commented, “I could have eaten 3-4.”

The amazing Melisse bread, including bacon bread!

And really really rich butter.

Wild Japanese Snapper. Wild radish pods, cilantro and apple milk. Soft and bright flavored again.

Sweet Pea Veloute. Whipped Black Truffle. This is the inside of the soup.

And with the soup itself.

From my cellar: 1998 Jacques Prieur Montrachet. Burghound 92. Quite closed and borderline austere on the nose with reticent aromas of fresh cut citrus followed by powerful, almost painfully intense flavors. This is completely unevolved and quite angular just now though it stops short of actually being hard. However, there is terrific sève and such solid underlying material that this should mature into a marvelous Montrachet but it will require a few years before the steel backbone softens.

agavin: 96 points. Outstanding, and oh so Monty.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. IWC 92. Complex, subtly perfumed aromas of apple, pear, minerals and nutmeg. Dry, steely and penetrating, with brisk acidity giving the wine an almost painful firmness today. Extremely closed, even dry-edged, but very long on the back end.

agavin: 93-94 really grew and grew in the glass with serious grand cru complexity.

2001 Coche-Dury Meursault. Burghound 90. Relatively deep golden. A pretty and fully mature nose of really lovely complexity, especially for a villages level wine, dissolves into intense, round and utterly delicious medium-bodied flavors that offer exceptionally good Meursault character and an abundance of minerality on the long finish. This still vibrant effort continues to pack plenty of flavor authority and one that has arrived at its peak of maturity. I would suggest drinking this up over the next 5 to 7 years or so as there is no additional upside development potential. In sum, this is a simply terrific wine for its level. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

agavin: 96 points. Meadows never gives these village Coche’s their due. Pretty much the whole table found this to be the best white Burg of the night. A lot of reduction and a long finish really sold it.

Forbidden Fruit. Apricot and Date. This is not the fatty liver of a water fowl. Definitely not.

Wagyu Beef Tartare. Black Olives, capers, cornichon and smoked tomato. Here one smeared some meat on a crisp, and then added some of the aioli-like orange stuff. Delicious!

We began to run low on white so Liz opened this! 2011 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 93. This is also highly perfumed with a pronounced floral component dominating the other aromas that are composed of citrus, seaweed, iodine and mineral reduction while leaving no doubt that this could be nothing other than Chablis. There is excellent size, weight and muscle to the overtly powerful and well-concentrated flavors that exude a fine minerality on the extract rich finish. This explosive effort is almost aggressively saline and should improve for up to a decade in bottle.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Fava beans, morel mushrooms, young garlic.

And with a bit of “jus.” Delicious!

The red Burgundy line up.

From my cellar: 1969 Maison Roche de Bellene Volnay 1er Cru Santenots Collection Bellenum. 86 points. Interesting but the fruit was pretty faded and it had this vegetal menthol red pepper taste that wasn’t very pleasant. Bummer. The 66 I had of same was awesome.

From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. John Kapon 94. The 1983 Clair Dau Bonnes Mares was excellent, and another solid 1983, which I have been enjoying here and there over the past couple years. Black licorice dominated initially, opening up into nutty, Burgundian fruit. The flavors were also licorice, and the wine was fleshy and tasty with a nice finish, in a good spot and a good showing for this oft forgotten vintage in Burgundy.

agavin: This was my third bottle of this wine, and while it was still good, it didn’t have nearly as much fruit as the others.

Lobster Bolognese. Perfect, just so small!

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From my cellar: 1985 Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots. Burghound 91. Pale ruby but not yet bricking. A lovely and expressive mix of now mostly secondary aromas yet with traces of primary and still fresh fruit, spice and subtle earth aromas that are very Vosne in basic character. The sweet, rich and still quite precise middle weight flavors offer a mouth coating and culminate in a still somewhat firm finish that suggests ample minerality just below the surface. This is an impeccably balanced and understated wine that is classic Drouhin and classic ’85 that is drinking perfectly now and should continue to do so for another decade, perhaps a bit longer.

agavin: 90 points. This wine had a touch of funk or unbalance to it, but was still very vosne and quite enjoyable.

From my cellar: 1990 Georges Lignier et Fils Clos de la Roche. Burghound 88. A pretty cherry-fruit infused nose that is still relatively fresh leads to rich and vibrant medium full flavors that are bit edge and tannic on the now slightly astringent finish. While the mildly rustic tannins are not resolved, I would be drinking this anyway as it risks drying out with extended bottle age. No other recent notes.

agavin: 93 points. Lots of fruit, fully mature, delicious.

Oregon Porcini. Asparagus, young garlic and parsley

And with a bit of green foam.

Sockeye salmon. with mushrooms and beure blanc.

Stonington Maine Halibut. Courgettes and Lemon basil.

1994 Domaine Jean Gros Richebourg. 92 points. Nice.

1996 Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée. Burghound 93. Medium ruby color. Fresh and still entirely primary, elegantly perfumed violet and black fruit aromas introduce round, sweet, brilliantly delineated middle weight flavors of considerable breed and class deliver a racy, long and stunningly pure finish. The basic character here is interesting as the strikingly seductive nose is wonderfully expressive yet the flavors, and especially the finish, are somewhat somber and reserved though notably less so than they used to be when I last tasted this four years ago. While with 60 minutes or so of aeration this can be enjoyed now, it’s clear that several more years of cellar time is in order first. Tasted thrice with consistent notes.

agavin: 94 points. Deeper colored than the other red burgs and really fab.

Aged liberty duck. The meat had that gamey aged quality and was delicious.

With the serious meats, a few “beefier” reds.

1990 Lafite-Rothschild. Parker 96-97. Medium garnet-brick colour. Earthy, Provence herb seasoned aromas of warm cassis and stewed plum with nuances of smoked duck, cracked black pepper and dark soy. The palate leads with structure – medium to high, finely grained tannins and medium to high acid. Plenty of complex fruit to flesh out the mid-palate with a long, layered finish.

1982 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 100! Still stubbornly backward, yet beginning to budge from its pre-adolescent stage, this dense, murky ruby/purple-colored wine offers up notes of graphite, sweet caramel, black cherry jam, cassis, and minerals. The nose takes some coaxing, and the decanting of 2-4 hours prior to service is highly recommended. For such a low acid wine, it is huge, well-delineated, extremely concentrated, and surprisingly fresh. Perhaps because I lean more toward the hedonistic view of wine than the late Michel Delon, I have always preferred this to the 1986, but the truth is that any lover of classic Medoc should have both vintages in their cellar. This wine has monstrous levels of glycerin, extract, and density, but still seems very youthful, and tastes more like a 7 to 8-year-old Bordeaux than one that is past its twentieth birthday. A monumental effort.

1982 Penfolds Grange. Parker 97. The 1982 is another superb example of that. One of the jammiest, most precocious Granges when it was released, it has never gone through a closed stage and continues to drink beautifully. A full-bodied, opulent Grange, it reveals an inky/purple color to the rim as well as a beautiful nose of crushed blueberries, blackberries, smoke, toast, roasted herbs, and road tar. This dense, plush, expansive, seamless, seductive 1982 has not changed much since I had it nearly a decade ago.

agavin: awesome!

Prime beef rib eye cap. Young leeks and Chanterelle mushrooms.

With the jus.

Egg, grains, and beans.

Ron felt we needed some more white Burg, so he pulled out this 2000 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 90. Interesting notes of fennel, green Chablis fruit and straw introduce medium weight, slightly austere, understated, precise flavors that deliver plenty of complexity and length but lack the same density as the 2001 Montée. To be sure, this is an excellent wine and Raveneau may have been a bit too modest in his comments about the vintage as this is really lovely if not genuinely incredible.

Tartiflette. Reblochon, smoked bacon, and potato. A delicious bacon version of potatoes Lyonnaise. Sort of.

And Stewart really wanted to open his Champagne! 1985 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JK 96. A quick glass of 1985 Krug got me ready for the trip back home. Full of vitamins, spice and intense game, this fresh and perfect bottle of 1985 was great with a spicy and long finish, still young!

Strawberry. Balsamic, Sheep’s yogurt, graham cracker, and black pepper. Sharp and delicious!

Ron brought this crazy 115 year old port that came in a cool box.

Here’s the bottle.

And the port. Check out the viscosity. Like motor oil! But delicious.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate. Soufflé, mouse, and tarte.

A different chocolate dessert.

White Nectarine. Boysenberry, ginger, and vanilla. Like a miniature fruit ala mode.

Petite Fours. Gels, peaches, chocolates.

Cookies, macarons, cannelles.

Most (but not all) of the wines!

All in all, a rather amazing birthday. An embarrassment of great wines, company, and food!

Melisse has two Michelin stars, and it deserves every ounce of them. The service is amazing too. The setting is not as fully formal as some French three-stars, or the service quite so orchestrated (that level is more amusement than actually pleasant), and there are no zany carts for teas and sugars, but the food and creativity demonstrate Melisse’s deserved position as one of America’s top kitchens. I ‘ve gone several times a year for a decade and it keeps getting better and better!

For another Melisse meal, click here.

Or for other Foodie Club meals, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bouchard Père et Fils, Champagne, Chassagne-Montrachet, Foodie Club, Maison Joseph Drouhin, Melisse, Montrachet, Pol Roger, Wine, Winston Churchill

Burgundy at Providence

Apr10

Restaurant: Providence [1, 2]

Location: 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 460-4170

Date: April 9, 2014

Cuisine: Cal French

Rating: Awesome food

After the joyous chaos that was the last Hedonist epic Burgundy Dinner at Jiraffe, our fearless leader Yarom was under some pressure to reign things into a more manageable format with food more in keeping with the stellar wines (Jiraffe has very good food, but we just ordered 2 courses ala cart for 25+ wines!). So that lead us to Providence, which along with Melisse is one of LA’s best upscale restaurants.

This time we have a custom pre-arranged menu and a private room, plus only 12 people. All good things, as when you get more than 12 people it is hard to pour a single bottle of wine around (plus more than 12-14 wines is a little out of control).

And, we had our own full time Somm. We sure kept him busy as he was working furiously and non-stop from the moment we arrived until the end. Dealing with 12-14 wines, 150+ glasses, and all the associated management and pouring is a lot of work!

1978 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. 97 RJ Wine. Light medium apricot gold color; beeswax, tart lemon, baked citrus, honey nose; tasty, gorgeous, medium bodied, rich, tart lemon, tart kumquat, mineral, tart apricot palate with great balance; long finish.

agavin: I found the wine to have an oxidized (mature) character. I was skeptical at first, but it REALLY grew on me. A great (very) mature Champagne. I wouldn’t hold though!

Our first amuse was a bit of “dark and stormy” jelly. Basically the rum cocktail in new form.

Scallop “taco.” This spicy leaf (nasturtium, a bit like shiso) contained a mixture of scallop and some grain. It was scrumptious. As Yarom puts it: “a 10!”.

Creme fresh with salmon crisps. The crisps are actually salmon skin. The Ikurka (salmon eggs) were incredibly fresh too.

Bacon pea soup. This little cappuccino was incredibly delicious. Super creamy it tasted strongly of bacon. Yummy little peas were in the bottom.

2005 Louis Latour Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 92. Compared to the opulence of the typical Criots, this is discreet to the point of being subtle but the aromatic breadth here is really quite impressive and is set of by a deft touch of wood and hints of anise and clove that can also be found on the rich, full and powerful flavors that possess plenty of mid-palate fat and dry extract yet the finish is clean, pure and well balanced. Often wines this big and ripe come across as heavy but this one isn’t.

agavin: Our bottle was badly premoxed. Tasted like dry sherry.

2005 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 91. An exotic, indeed even tropical fruit nose is trimmed in ample wood toast that introduces rich, full, forward and sweet flavors that possess excellent depth and density yet perhaps not quite the elegance and precision that I’m used to seeing with this wine. To be sure, it could just be an early stage and that this will tighten up with time in bottle but it’s unusually accessible at present. The benefit of the doubt is offered as the track record is too good not to do so.

agavin: What a difference. This had that strong reductive quality that I love in good white Burgundies. A young wine, but a nice long finish too.

Wild fluke (rhode island). Egg yolk emulsified with dashi, black truffle, crispy rice, cucumber.

Delicious. Lots of different ingredients, but when you got them all together it really sang with strong unami notes.

Fancy salt and butter. There was also an amazing bacon bread (not pictured).

2003 Louis Latour Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 92. This too is quite aromatically expressive and while this is no model of finesse either, both the aromatic and flavor profiles possess stunning complexity and in contrast to most big, sappy and muscular white, this manages to retain an unusually fine sense of balance and delivers a palate staining finish. It’s dramatic but there’s substance behind the size and weight.

agavin: Sorry Louis, 1 for 3. This bottle was also badly Premoxed.

2005 Morey-Blanc Montrachet. 93 ponts agavin. Much, much better than the Latour below this was too young, and a bit coiled tight, but a tasty wine with a long acid finish and a good bit of reduction.

2005 Louis Latour Montrachet. Burghound 94. Aromatically this resembles the Corton-Charlemagne with its backward, cool and reserved nose that offers a bit of everything including spice, brioche, brown butter, acacia blossom, pear, peach and even a hint of the exotic that introduces full-bodied, serious, textured, powerful and sleekly muscled flavors that are both classy and stylish, all wrapped in a hugely long finish. A dramatic and impressive Monty that will require ample patience as it’s not open for business today.

agavin: This bottle was in solid shape, and tasty enough, but truth be told, both the Ramonet Batard and the Morey Blanc were better wines.

Santa Barbara spot prawn. Spring greens, prawn jus, fennel. Yum. The prawn was perfectly cooked and the reddish (tomato, garlic?) sauce delicious. The salad factor was nice too.

1993 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 87. Despite this wine’s vaunted reputation, I have frankly never understood what all the excitement is about. It displays muted, earthy, somewhat dull fruit followed by medium weight, slightly woody flavors (though not new wood) underpinned by supple tannins and barely average length. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with the wine, it just fails to scale the heights achieved by many of the great Ponsot Clos de la Roche vintages of the past.

agavin: I agree with Meadows. This was an enjoyable (and probably slightly past prime) wine, but it was a bit a-kilter, a hair cloudy, with a little bitterness on the finish.

1997 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche. Burghound 91. A very ripe but not roasted nose of spicy red pinot fruit trimmed in subtle earth and underbrush notes leads to elegant and moderately powerful flavors that deliver much better than average delineation than is typically found in this vintage. This is not an espeically big or dense wine yet there is a lovely inner force and though the flavors have not quite arrived at their peak, neither are they too far off. I would hold for another 2 to 3 years and drink this over the ensuing 5 to 8.

agavin: A much nicer CDLR. This was young even, ripe, with still a bit of oak on it. Long singing fruit finish.

Risotto. Wild mushrooms, parmesan. This was a very mild risotto, and went very well with the wine. I actually thought it was the weakest dish, but it was still great, the food was just really on point tonight and it could have used a cheesier quality.

Live the fun!

1988 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. Burghound 87. Quite elegant and pure pinot aromas that don’t offer a great deal of complexity and the flavors are supple, rounded and while there is no astringency, there isn’t a great deal of Bonnes Mares character either. There is good balance and acceptable length but it is surprisingly light and forward for both the vintage and the appellation. Drinking well now.

agavin: Despite Meadow’s reserved rating, this was a really tasty wine. Lots of fruit and while it had powerful tannins, it didn’t have that coiled austere quality that so many 88s have.

1994 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot. RJ Wine 92. Slightly lighter medium red color with pale edges; focused, cherry nose; light medium bodied tart red fruit with sap; medium finish.

agavin: We loved this wine. It had that Leroy thing. Long, long finish, and lots of complexity. Pale strawberries. Really nice.

Wild Alaskan Halibut (Sitka). Turnip, jalapeno, puffed rice. A mild dish, but wonderfully cooked and the buttery sauce really made it delicious.

From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. John Kapon 94. The 1983 Clair Dau Bonnes Mares was excellent, and another solid 1983, which I have been enjoying here and there over the past couple years. Black licorice dominated initially, opening up into nutty, Burgundian fruit. The flavors were also licorice, and the wine was fleshy and tasty with a nice finish, in a good spot and a good showing for this oft forgotten vintage in Burgundy.

agavin: I’m biased, as it was my wine and older (which I like), but this was clearly WOTN for me. I’m glad too because I have 4 more bottles. It really sung. Long, long berry finish.

2003 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg. Burghound 93. This too is very aromatically reserved with only glimpses of spicy and exotic perfume that speak of very ripe, even slightly surmature crushed berries, plum and spice because even though the nose is reticent, the intensity of the fruit is magnificent. The flavors are opulent and sumptuously proportioned with massive amounts of sap and dry extract that completely stains and coats the palate before exploding on the hugely long finish. Yes, this is a big, indeed enormous wine but one that never loses its sense of balance and the velvety backend largely buffers the very firm tannins. There is not necessarily great complexity yet but this is the one wine in the range that could easily surprise to the upside as the raw material here is exceptional and while the style is clearly particular relative to what it normally delivers, it has that “wow’ factor.

Bonus bottle from Larry: 1999 Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 93. Big, spicy and intense aromas are presently framed by more oak than this wine usually displays young yet there is such impressive density of both fruit and flavors that it should absorb it over the next couple of years. That niggle noted, this is very classy juice with terrific complexity, breed and excellent length. As such, while this should drink relatively early for a Clos de Bèze, the balance and overall harmony are such that I suspect this will live for a long time.

agavin: Meadows was pretty on here.

Liberty Farms duck (sonoma county). Zuckerman farms colossal asparagus, almond, morels. Wow, this was a great dish. Some of the best duck I’ve had (other than really good Peking duck) in a long time. Paired fabulously too.

Bonus bottle from Yarom: 1970 Château Bellevue Sauternes. 90 points. Very nice, very mature dessert juice.

Chocolate Marquise. Chocolate sorbet, candied nibs, creme chantilly. Seriously tasty. Chocolate, icing, and the powdery stuff added a nice bit of crunch.

Passion fruit jellies and peanut butter and jelly (strawberry?) macarons. They tasted like awesome PB&J.

Overall, a first rate evening. On of our best fancy Hedonist events yet as it was intimate and under control. The company and conversation were great.

The wines varied a bit from solid to spectacular. The way to really hit it in Burgundy is to go: great vintage, great producer, great vineyard, but because of the sky high cost, most of these wines hit on only 1 or 2 of these axises. Still, some of them were really lovely wines. Next time we should try Burghound score of 94+ and 1999 or older (for red).

The food was pretty awesome. I was skeptical before coming, as we didn’t have a ton of courses (last time I was here I had 12-16), but it ended up being enough food and really really delicious. The kitchen totally nailed it. Every dish was delicious. They also really took care of us. The private room was great, the Somm was great, table service was great. Rock on Providence!

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Allen Meadows, Bâtard-Montrachet, Bonnes Mares, Burgundy, Burgundy wine, hedonists, Montrachet, Providence, Richebourg, Wine

Mostly Montrachet at Melisse

Mar01

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

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

Date: Feburary 27, 2013

Cuisine: California French

Rating:?

And so we arrive at Part 3 of the epic three night 2005 White Burgundy Dinner series (Part 1 can be found here and part 2 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 2005.

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

Our testing was setup in the elegant private room just to the right of the entrance.

Tonight’s special menu.

Less glasses tonight than on the previous occasions, as we have fewer wines and fewer drinkers.

Amuses

1988 Alain Robert Les Mesnil Reserve Tete de Cuvee Champagne. This rare vintage Champagne from magnum was wonderful and very fresh for it’s age (25 years!).

Blue Fin Tuna (Toro), Chrysanthemum, Pistaschio and Mlack Mustard. This dish borrows stylistically from LA’s Japanese influences. In many ways it’s very similar to the “Toro Tartar with caviar” at Matsuhisa/Takao.

Liberty Duck breast on shrimp toast? A pork rind? Tasty.

A spoonful of Lobster Bolognese. This is one of my favorite dishes at Melisse and I could have eaten a whole portion.

A Melisse staple. Grapes two ways. Out of the spoon are half grapes coated in goat cheese and pistachio. On the spoon sphereized grapes dusted with pistachio. The first has a nice contrast of the sharp cheese and the fruit, the second is an explosion of grapeness.

The official amuse, which was a bit of Santa Barbara Prawn (ebi) with avocado in a citrus sauce.

Flight 1: Montrachet

2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Pale color. Steely wet stone, pear, apple and nutmeg on the nose, with floral and spice nuances adding complexity. Large-scaled, dense and oily, with deep pineapple and nut flavors framed by penetrating acidity. Finishes with outstanding palate-saturating length. Not quite as impressive as the Chevalier-Montrachet but this is built for slow development in bottle. 94+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: An incredibly fresh¡ pure and elegant nose of acacia blossom and distinctly ripe orchard fruit displays added nuance from the gorgeously exotic spice notes that seem to change every few minutes. The palate impression is breathtaking as the classy¡ pure and finely detailed big-bodied flavors possess both seriously impressive power and wonderful refinment that continues onto the multi-dimensional¡ dense¡ long and palate staining finish that delivers simply dazzzling length. This is very much of a baby¡ particularly in magnum format¡ and will need plenty of time to really open up so be prepared to wait. One other aspect bears mentioning and this is how vibrant this is. Many ’05 whites are a bit heavy yet this is impeccably well-balanced with all the freshness¡ verve and acid support that one could wish for. In short¡ this is stunning. 97

This was one of only two wines in this flight that wasn’t advanced in some way. Arguably it was the best.

2005 Marc Colin et Fils Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound: Here there is absolutely no issue with the integration of the wood because it is at best a background presence on the equally reserved but fresh and bright aromas that are strikingly complex and broad. The full-bodied flavors are deep, dense and massive with an exceptionally powerful drive on the gorgeously long finish. This could actually surprise to the upside as everything is here, including great material, perfect balance and superb harmony and it’s built for the long haul. 94

The Marc Colin was also still youthful and in the top two of the flight.

2005 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Pale yellow-straw color. Sexy nose melds fresh pineapple, stone and musky quinine. Large-scaled and showy, with superb fruit intensity and a sweet, tangy quality to the flavors of lemon, lime, pineapple and quinine. A huge and superripe wine with superb building length. This has the balance for extended aging and may well shut down in the bottle. Philippe wanted to harvest these vines early but his father Joseph wanted to wait-“like he did in ’59,” said Philippe. In the end, the last batches of fruit came in with potential alcohol of 15% but no rot. 95

Allen Meadows, Burghound: A gorgeously fresh and highly complex yet still rather primary white flower and notably ripe orchard fruit nose introduces broad-shouldered and powerful though refined flavors that retain excellent cut and terrific detail on the perfectly well-balanced and strongly lingering finish. There is so much dry extract present that this has a chewy texture on the vibrant¡ driving and explosive finale. It’s abundantly clear that this is very much on the way up and this is a while that will require another 4 to 6 years to arrive at its peak. The other aspect that I very much admire about the ’05 Monty is how light on its feet it is because some ’05 whites can be a bit ponderous¡ this is really quite graceful. 95

We tried this both from 750ml AND from magnum. The 750ml was significantly advanced, and the magnum less so, but still not stunning.

2005 Louis Jadot Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Pungent, very ripe aromas of spiced apple, marzipan, honey and hazelnut. Large-scaled, round and impressively rich, but with slightly disjointed flavors of superripe fruits, nuts and fresh herbs. Very full but not heavy. This seemed to harmonize a bit with aeration and should be superb with extended bottle aging, but I wouldn’t broach a bottle now (if you do, pour it into a carafe). From the Chassagne side and thus a bit less vibrant, especially in the 2005 vintage. 92+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: Moderate oak frames more reserved white flower and acacia blossom aromas that introduce round, rich and sumptuous full-bodied flavors that possess a suave mouth feel because there is dry extract here to burn and this extract confers an almost thick but not heavy palate impression on the imposingly persistent finish. Like the Bâtard, this is presently almost painfully intense and should age well. 95

Our bottle was oxidized and bordering on unpleasant.

2005 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Aromas of iodine, clove, apple and minerals. Superrich, fat and sweet but a bit youthfully subdued, even musclebound today (this was moved from barrel ten days before my visit), with the fruit in the deep background. But this rock-solid wine boasts terrific acidity and palate-staining persistence. There’s virtually no sign of new oak today, and yet this wine is very difficult to taste. Lafon told me this was the first time he ever picked his Montrachet later than DRC. 94-96

Allen Meadows, Burghound: Here the incredibly fresh and vibrant yet discreet nose reveals even more aromatic breadth that is brimming with spice, toast, honeysuckle and acacia blossom, all of which introduces broad-shouldered yet tangy full-bodied, notably ripe and utterly classy and sophisticated flavors of striking depth and length. What is perhaps most impressive though is that such a big wine retains such solid delineation that continues on to a palate staining, wonderfully intense finish. In short, this is just flat out brilliant. 94-97

Somewhat advanced.

True Day Boat Scallops. Camelina Seeds, Celeriac and Meyer Lemon.

The bread. I’m particularly partial to the green bail bread and the bacon bread (far right).

Flight 2: Montrachet

2005 Henri Boillot Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Captivating floral nose of clove, iodine and linden tea. Wonderfully sweet, seamless and full, showing outstanding density without undue weight. This has the texture of a red wine. An extremely young Montrachet with great intensity of flavor and inner-mouth floral lift. This will require, and repay, a decade or more of cellaring. Finishes with compelling sweetness. 96+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: This is almost as elegant as the Chevalier with a perfumed and wonderfully classy nose that is airy and pure, featuring a beautiful mix of floral and ripe orchard fruit aromas nuanced with hints of spice, honeysuckle and citrus that can also be found on the almost painfully intense, textured and focused full-bodied flavors that are a mix of the size and weight of the Bâtard and the delineation of the Chevalier, all wrapped in an explosive finish that spreads out on the palate like the proverbial peacock’s tail. A choice but what a wonderful choice! 96

Perhaps a little advanced, but one of the better wines of the flight.

2005 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Pale color. Compelling nose melds peach, nectarine, iodine, nutmeg and spicy, charry oak. Tactile and vibrant in the mouth, with superb intensity and density to its flavors of citrus fruit, apple and crushed stone. The finishing flavors of dusty stone and citrus peel saturate the palate. This is more backward than the Batard today but its inherent flavor intensity is more obvious. 94+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: This is a massive wine of immense proportions but it’s also a very generously oaked wine that has ample toast, vanilla and wood spice yet as much oak as there is here, it can’t hide the elegance and purity of the ripe orchard fruit that has exactly the same character on the highly toasted but wonderfully deep full-bodied flavors underpinned by ripe citrus infused acidity and huge length. I have seen quite a number of vintages of this wine in its youth and this one seems to be all over the place, at once given to excess and blurriness on the mid-palate to tight, firm and focused on the finish. It is also, like the Chevalier, at distinct odds with what I am used to seeing with this wine and while my appreciation of its style is neither here nor there in terms of quality, I can’t say that I like the style here. However, it is a most impressive wine and while I don’t believe that it will go down as one of the all time great vintages of one of the most storied wines in Burgundy, it is indisputably a huge wine of immense proportions and for fans of size, weight and power that have the entry scratch (or can find a bottle), I would put this on your short list of the ’05 vintage. By contrast, if you’re a fan of what’s been done with this wine in the past, you may be less enamored. 93

The only really good wine in the flight, but still a little funky, with some bitterness in the finish.

2005 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet

Fairly maloactic, but one of the better wines of the flight.

2005 Lucien Le Moine Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer: Deep aromas of menthol, rocks, white truffle and iodine. Superrich and mouthfilling; as tactile as a solid, and like a red wine in texture. This begins quite linear, then expands impressively on the back half, and finishes with superb building length, texture and grip. Uncompromisingly dry Montrachet with a near-perfect balance between its strong material and fresh acidity. 95+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: In contrast to the expressive noses of the 3 priorgrands crus, this is positively discreet and almost reticent by comparison and only vigorous swirling would coax the broad-scaled nose to reveal itself, offering up notes of anise, peach, pear, citrus, orange blossom and honey that also merges seamlessly into textured, sweet, powerful and robust full-bodied flavors that possess a seductive mouth feel yet excellent precision and cut as well. This is a big wine and not overly refined but the sheer depth of material is almost hard to believe and as such, this will eventually transform into something very, very special. Patience required however. 96

Strong advanced notes of sherry and somewhat thin.

2005 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound: As one would expect, and has always been the case in my experience chez Fontaine, this is the class of the cellar with its gorgeously complex nose, indeed by far and away the most complex wine in the range. The aromas are ripe, pure and elegant, indeed one can simply smell this and be knocked out which then dissolves into textured and classy flavors that possess excellent mid-palate fat and buckets of dry extract on the opulent, refined, mouth coating and palate staining finish that is decidedly austere but not aggressively so. In short, this is a baby and will require plenty of patience from those fortunate enough to acquire a few bottles. 94

Advanced and acidic.

Dover Sole Filet. Potato Gnocchi, King Oyster Mushrooms, Wild Spinach.

This dish was on the boring side, despite the truffle.

Have a few glasses!

Flight 3: Coche-Dury

This extra flight isn’t Montrachet, but instead three wines by top producer Coche-Dury. These were made in a very traditional manner and do not exhibit the oxidation problems endemic of many of the other wines in the vintage. All three were excellent.

2005 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières

Stephen Tanzer: Tight, stony nose is youthfully subdued but vibrant. Distinctly less showy and fat today than the Genevrieres but already displays superb energy and thrust, with sharply delineated flavors of lemon, lime and minerals. All cut today and in need of extended bottle aging. As backward as this is, its deep sweetness suggests that it will be more than outstanding. 94+

Allen Meadows, Burghound: A wonderfully expressive and broad nose of ripe, pure and elegant pear, white peach, floral notes and liquid rock. The intense and broad-shouldered flavors are not only quite concentrated but seriously powerful with buckets of mouth coating dry extract yet the palate impression is cool and refined with no trace of heaviness on the massively long finish. The really astonishing thing about this wine is just the sheer amount of extract it brings to the party yet there is more than enough acidity to keep everything in perfect balance. Along with the ’90 Coche Perrières when it was in its prime, this is the best young example that I have ever tried. To be sure, it is still very much in its infancy but I am confident that this will be reference standard juice in due time as it is already genuinely remarkable. 97

Really a rather wonderful Chardonnay at this point.

2005 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières

Stephen Tanzer: Wonderfully aromatic nose of tangy soft citrus fruits and crushed stone. Dense, silky and sweet, with perfectly integrated acidity framing the rich, broad fruit flavors. A wonderfully complete Meursault whose powerful, explosive fruit builds inexorably on the back end. This must be the best bottling to date from these vines, now 60 years of age. 94

Allen Meadows, Burghound: A relatively closed but clearly quite ripe nose is composed of floral, white peach, pear and a hint of the exotic plus a discreet application of wood toast. The concentrated, powerful and broad-scaled flavors possess an abundance of mouth coating extract with excellent energy, particularly in the context of the vintage, all wrapped in a powerful and hugely long finish. This is a big Genevrières that carries its weight well, but note that despite the impressive richness, this is a long way from being ready. 94

A strong sense of sweetness, almost a touch Riesling like.

2005 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne

Stephen Tanzer: Steely aromas of citrus peel, apple blossom, wet stone and nutmeg; an essence of this grand cru. Wonderfully sweet and rich, gaining breadth and texture as it mounts on the back half. As dense as this is, it’s all about energy and verve today. A monumental, utterly complete Corton-Charlemagne that combines extraordinary subtlety and complexity with intense, palate-staining minerality. As long as anything I’ve tasted from this vintage. 98+

Lots of citrus and mineral. Fabulous.

Overall, this flight was BY FAR the best of the night.

Roasted Jidori Chicken. Baby Broccoli, Braised Yuba, Vadouvan Spice. There was also a reduction sauce poured over top, but I forgot to photo it.

This was probably the best chicken dish I’ve ever had. The skin was delightfully crispy and the meat absolutely perfectly cooked and juicy.

The whole array of bottles.

Standing is Brian Kalliel, Melisse’s Sommelier. He’s quite the master, and did an impeccable job with this complicated tasting.

Moi.

Dessert

2005 Turley Roussanne Alban Vineyards Late Picked Reserve. Stephen Tanzer says, “Orange-amber color with an unfiltered appearance. High-toned dried apricot, caramel and floral aromas offer an exhilarating penetrating character. Extremely thick and sweet but with pungent racy acidity giving lift to the saline dried apricot and peach flavors (the actual acidity level, which Jordan told me was around 17 grams per liter, is virtually off the charts). An incredibly concentrated wine with a chewy, tactile, extremely long finish that’s hard to scrape off the palate. This x-treme wine, from grapes harvested at 55o Brix, took 20 months to finish its alcoholic fermentation.”

This wine was cloudy and tasted much older than 8 years. It was rather wonderful, but very unusual with a honied apricot thing combined with some kind of exotic herb vibe. Elderberry? Hard to pinpoint.

Tarte Tatin!

Apple Tarte Tatin. Ricotta Ice Cream, Black Sage Syrup.

With the syrup added. The herbal note in the syrup went perfectly with some of the peculiar (but good) herbal tones in the wine.

Overall, 2005 is a problematic vintage with regard to aging. And it’s the best wines that suffer the most. The Montrachets just plain aren’t worth the money right now, and very few of them are likely to be getting better. Many are already past their prime or headed toward steep decline. Perhaps things were too ripe for these top vineyards. Perhaps it has something to do with vinification.

You could pretty much spot the problem wines in the glass as their color was several tones darker (toward the amber). 2005 Grand Crus should still be straw/green yellow.

That all being said, it was a fabulous night and we had a great time. It’s always interesting to get such a concentrated look at winemaking and it really broadens one’s ability to distinguish nuance in the specialized area of Burgundy tasting. Plus, the company and food were great! There are a lot of really sensitive palettes in the room and it’s great to collate and integrate the various opinions.

Part 1 (Chablis, Meursault, and Corton-Charlemagne) at Spago can be found here.

Part 2 (Batard-Montrachet, Criots Batard-Montrachet, Batard-Montrachet, and Chevalier-Montrachet) here.

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