Archive for Sage Society – Page 2

Drappier at Petrossian

Jul07

Restaurant: Petrossian Beverly Hills

Location: 321 Robertson Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90048. (310) 271-6300

Date: June 3, 2017

Cuisine: Caviar +

Rating: Perfect food for Champagne!

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Liz Lee of Sage Society organizes some of the best wine maker dinners. Tonight’s showcases Drappier Champagne, a house in Southern Champagne near Chablis that splits the line between House and Grower.

And what goes better with Champagne than caviar? Not much. So she hosted it with a special meal in the private room at Petrossian Beverly Hills.

Before we step into our room I’ll show the front area which splits caviar bar and restaurant.
All sorts of high end delectables like macarons.

Chocolates.

Tons of caviar of course.

Fancy salts, etc.

And Louis XIII.

The private room is lovely.

NV Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. VM 89. Light yellow-gold. Pungent aromas of orange pith, dried apple and toasty lees, with a hint of chamomile in the background. Fleshy and broad on entry, then tighter in the middle, offering bitter pear skin and quinine flavors and a touch of blood orange. Finishes with good grip and cut, leaving a subtle smoky note behind.

While we sip champagne some foie gras gougers.

And buckwheat blini with with creme fraiche and caviar.

The first round of “official” Champy (more details later).

Tonight’s special menu, so long it ran to both sides of the paper!

And a special kosher-style variant for my wife!

Here is Liz introducing our guest:

On the left: Charline Drappier of Drappier Champagne! Charline is 8th generation (I think) owning and operating Drappier.

This flight is all zero dosage offerings:

NV Drappier Champagne Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 91. Light yellow. Vibrant quince, orange zest and green apple aromas are complemented by smoky minerals and honeysuckle. Stony, sharply focused citrus and orchard fruit flavors show very good energy, turning juicier and deeper with air and picking up a melony quality and a hint of anise. Finishes on intense notes of dusty minerals and ginger, with very good clarity and persistence.

NV Drappier Champagne Brut Nature Zero Dosage Sans Ajout de Soufre. VM 89. The NV Brut Nature Pinot Noir Zero Dosage André et Michel Sans Ajout de Souffre is the same wine as the Brut Nature Pinot Noir Zero Dosage (although from different base vintages) vinified and aged with no sulfur. This is a relatively soft, caressing zero dosage Champagne with a relatively round, open core of candied, perfumed fruit. Tasting the two NV Brut Natures together it is hard to say with precision how much of the wines’ characters are due to the sulfur treatments versus the underlying vintages themselves. Sweet, earthy tones add a touch of complexity to a very Aube-like expression of Pinot.

NV Drappier Champagne Rose Brut Nature. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

Chilled Shellfish.

Oyster with Ponzu.
Blue Crab with Green Apple & Avocado.

Maine Lobster with Creme Fraiche. Perfect with the rose! Really nice and meaty lobster.

Quinoa Salad, smoked almonds.

This flight is all blended Champagne with different grapes and styles:

NV Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. VM 89. Light yellow-gold. Pungent aromas of orange pith, dried apple and toasty lees, with a hint of chamomile in the background. Fleshy and broad on entry, then tighter in the middle, offering bitter pear skin and quinine flavors and a touch of blood orange. Finishes with good grip and cut, leaving a subtle smoky note behind.

NV Drappier Champagne Charles de Gaulle Brut. VM 91. Light yellow-gold. Potent, mineral-tinged Meyer lemon, pear and buttered toast aromas show very good clarity and a hint of anise. Sappy and focused on the palate, offering bitter pear skin and blood orange flavors that deepen and expand with air. Rich yet lithe Champagne with strong finishing cut, lift and stony persistence.

NV Drappier Champagne Blanc de Blancs “Signature”. VM 91. Pale gold. Candied lemon, lime pith and white flowers on the fragrant nose, with deeper orange and buttered toast qualities emerging with air. Juicy flavors of pear and Meyer lemon show impressive depth and cut, with a gingery nuance adding energy. Bright, focused and mineral-driven on the clinging finish, which leaves behind notes of honeysuckle and brioche.

NV Drappier Champagne Quattuor IV – Blanc de Quatre Blancs. VM 91. The NV Brut Blanc de Quatre Blancs Quattuor is laced with hazlenuts, almonds, orange peel and dried pears. There is an attractive, oxidative quality that mkes the the NV Quatre Blancs quite appealing. A gracious, crystalline finish adds considerable finesse and weightlessness in this expressive, layered Champagn., The wine keeps getting better and better with time in the glass, so some advance aeration is probably a good idea.

Cool knife.

Toasted Brioche.

Smoked Fish Plate. Tsar Cut Natural Salmon, Smoked Sturgeon, Cold Smoked Trout, Creme Fraiche.

Smoked Fish Plate, Tsar Cut Natural Salmon, Smoked Black Cod, Cold Smoked Trout, Creme Fraiche.

2006 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée. VM 92. Vivid yellow. Potent citrus pith, poached pear and floral scents are underscored by a smoky mineral quality and pick up a buttery nuance with air. Fleshy and dry on the palate, offering ripe orchard and citrus fruit flavors and a deeper suggestion of buttered toast. Shows very good energy and thrust on an extremely long finish of building florality and spiciness.

2008 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée. 91 points. Big bodied, lots of newly baked bread, yellow apples, slightly nutty, softish – yet decent acidity.

Caviar Egg Royale. Soft Scrambled Egg, Caviar, Chive. A purer version than the richer Melisse take (with creme fraiche). This tastes like omelet with caviar — lots of caviar.

Celery Root Soup, candied chestnuts, croutons, chives. Really nice veggie soup, very creamy.

NV Drappier Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 89. Dark orange-pink. Exotically perfumed scents of raspberry, pungent herbs, candied rose and smoky minerals. Fleshy and supple in texture, showing a floral accent to its red berry compote and tangerine flavors. Lush and broad but lively too, finishing with a hint of spiciness and good floral persistence.

2008 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée Rosé. JG 94. The 2008 Drappier “Grande Sendrée” Brut Rosé is composed of a blend of ninety percent pinot noir and ten percent chardonnay. The wine is produced using only first pressing juice, with the saignée method utilized with a three day maceration for the pinot noir, before the chardonnay is added. The 2008 was finished with a dosage of six grams per liter and was aged six years sur latte. The bouquet is outstanding, offering up a superb synthesis of delicacy and complexity in its constellation of wild strawberries, white cherries, wheat toast, dried rose petals, a lovely base of chalky soil and gentle smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with a fine core, elegant mousse, brisk acids and excellent focus and grip on the very, very long and youthfully zesty finish. Very refined juice that will only improve with further bottle age.

1996 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée Rosé. 92 points. Very full, rich, and vibrant… many years left on this great grower champagne and a historic year.

Beef Tartare. Prime Flat Iron Steak, Capers, shallots, chives, crostini. Very nice tartar.

Beet Tartare, red beets, crostini.

2002 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut.

1995 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. VM 93. The 1995 Brut Carte d’Or, tasted from magnum, is gorgeous today. Light honey, smoke, dried pears, spices and toasted almonds are some of the many nuances found in this rich, textured wine. This magnum was disgorged in December 2008, which has allowed the wine to develop gorgeous tertiary complexity. The 1995 is in a gorgeous place. It can be enjoyed today, or cellared for another decade-plus, especially of readers want to experience more tertiary nuance. This big, broad-shouldered Champagne captures the essence of the Drappier style to the fullest.
Grilled Octopus. Beurre Blanc, Leek Fondue. Super tender. Truffles Risotto. Very mild and spring-like.

1990 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée. VM 93. The 1990 Brut Grande Sendrée shows the warmth of the vintage in its dried apricots, flowers and honey, with pretty suggestions of mint on the finish that add an element of freshness. Soft and enveloping throughout, the 1990 Grande Sendrée impresses for its overall balance, restraint and enveloping sense of harmony.

1989 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. 91 points.

Seared Foie Gras & Yellowfin Tuna. Ginger Ponzu, Cilantro, Sesame, Nori. Really nice combo of bright acidic fish (because of the ponzu) and the foie.

Yellowfin tuna, ginger ponzu, cilantro, sesame, nori.

1979 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. VM 87. Pale copper color. Mature, enticing aromas of meal, toffee, brioche and melted butter. Creamy, toasty and soft on the palate; completely resolved and best suited for near-term drinking. Lacks real grip and verve but offers lovely ripeness and good depth of flavor. A bottle of 1969 Carte d’Or Brut was well past its best days.

agavin: under rated, really very very good

1976 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. 92 points. Rather youthful, minty, ripe, honeyed nose – honey on a piece of rye bread. Very friendly and likeable.

1959 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. 95 points. Super youthful. Very lively beautiful old moose. Long Carmelly finish.

Cheese from the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop. St Angel triple creme, cow’s milk. Le Secrete de Compostelle, raw sheep’s milk from Basque. Comte, 36-month aged raw cow’s milk from France.

The lineup.

And the water lineup.

Another stellar dinner from Liz and Sage Society! Very educational with Charline Drappier there and the way in which Liz has arranged the wines. Different flights explored different aspects of the Drappier style: like zero dosage, the broader blended style, or the more focused vintage styles. We wandered across the decades as well and the older vintage wines showed particularly well.

Plus Liz does an absolutely amazing job with the food pairings. There was plenty of food, and lots of different items, not the anemic 3-4 courses some people do with giant flights. Petrossian’s food was very good too. I’ll have to go back with a smaller group but it certainly won’t be this epic if I do!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Newest Oldest Sushi
  2. Krug at Il Grano
  3. Salt’s Cure
  4. Elite Champagne Brunch
By: agavin
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Vietti Centro

Jan27

Restaurant: Drago Centro [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: January 22, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great high end Italian

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Back to Drago Centro for “yet another” Barolo dinner, this time hosted by Liz Lee of Sage Society and featuring Luca Vietti and the impeccable wines of Vietti, one of the most prestigious Barolo producers!

Located on busy Flower in DTLA.

We had the private room and a LOT of stems!

The special menu.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. A super impressive bright young Champ.

Smoked salmon on fried toast.

Lobster potato croquettes.

Chef Celistino Drago in white, and our hostess Liz Lee of Sage Society in black on the right.

2015 Vietti Roero Arneis. 91 points. A very nice bright food wine.

Scallop crudo, EVO, yuzu dressing, parmesan crisp. Super bright and delicious with a bit of a Japanese vibe. Perfect wine pairing too.

Non shellfish version with yellowtail instead of scallop.

2011 Vietti Barbera d’Asti Superiore Nizza La Crena. VM 92. The 2011 Barbera d’Asti La Crena is deeply marked by the heat of the vintage and the inherent richness that emerges from these old vines. Black plum, dark cherries, licorice, melted road tar and smoke race across the palate in a deep, super-ripe Barbera that needs considerable bottle age to shed its baby fat.

agavin: our co-host Luca Vietti planted this vineyard 25 years ago!

2013 Vietti Barbera d’Alba Vigna Vecchia Scarrone. 90 points. Ripe, intense black fruit. Long, complex, rich and tasty. This is one I wish I could have spent more time with. It is very young and there is a lot going on. Should age beautifully.

agavin: Luca’s great grandfather planted these 100 year old vines right at the end of WWI!

Bread.

Quail and foie porchetta. Fig jam. This was the oddest dish of the night, cold quail (with the bone) stuffed with foie and pressed into a lump. Tasted pretty good, but the cold thing was a touch “unusual.”

For the vegetarian, a lovely Sicilian pasta with almond pesto.

2012 Vietti Barolo Castiglione. VM 93. The 2012 Barolo Castiglione is a gorgeous, radiant wine. Sweet red cherry, pomegranate, wild flowers and spices all meld together in a sensual, radiant wine endowed with striking presence and intensity. In 2012, the Castiglione is especially lifted, radiant and expressive, with striking purity and nuance. With time in the glass, the wine freshens up considerably, so aeration is a good idea for readers who want to open the 2012 early. This is a striking, seriously delicious Barolo from Vietti.

agavin: I really liked this elegant blended Barolo, made up of a number of grand cru vineyards.

2012 Vietti Barolo Brunate. VM 94+. A dark, powerful wine, the 2012 Barolo Brunate is the most brooding and inward of these wines. With time and a good bit of air, the Brunate becomes a bit more precise and nuanced, yet it remains a bit monolithic next to the other wines in the range. A host of savory herbs, licorice, tobacco and dark fruits meld into the huge, explosive finish. There is no shortage of depth or character, but increasingly the Brunate is being outclassed by some of its siblings. The competition is pretty tough at Vietti these days.

2012 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito. VM 96. The 2012 Barolo Lazzarito impresses for its precision and class, two qualities that aren’t easy to find in wines from this Serralunga site. Iron, smoke and white pepper lift from the glass in a vertical, structured Barolo endowed with real pedigree. A rush of pomegranate, red cherry jam, wild flowers and blood orange meld into the huge, bright finish. In 2012, the Lazzarito reconciles power and finesse like few vintages in the past. For the last few years, the Lazzarito has been knocking on the door of the big boys in this lineup, the Rocche and Ravera. Today, the Lazzarito makes a strong statement that it has arrived.

Spaghetti chitarra, venison and mushroom ragu. Celistino always knocks this kind of “traditional” pasta out of the park. Just a gorgeous meaty winter ragu. It might be almost a “simple” Bolognese, but this was a deathly good dish. The texture of the delicate pasta was delicious and the rich meaty/mushroomy ragu. Bellissimo!

The vegetarian pile O veggies.

2013 Vietti Barolo Rocche di Castiglione. A lineup of three giant monster Barolos!

2013 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito.

2013 Vietti Barolo Ravera.

Prime NY steak, chives sabayon, potato puree. Delicious!

The branzino version for the meat adverse.

Glasses anyone?

1999 Vietti Barolo Castiglione. VM 90. Medium ruby. Vietti’s Castiglione is a pretty, accessible Barolo. It offers a perfumed, floral nose and soft red fruit on a medium-bodied frame with fine but firm tannins and excellent length. My experience with this Barolo suggests it will reach full maturity around age 15. In 1999 Vietti did not bottle its Riserva Villero and that fruit ended up in the Castiglione, which no doubt contributes to this wine’s sense of overall balance.

2001 Vietti Barolo Rocche. VM 94. The mid to late 1990s were a period of considerable change in Piedmont, as the differences between traditional and more modern-leaning producers were especially marked during this time. Initially quite awkward, the 2001 Barolo Rocche takes a good few hours to come together. Now, fifteen years after the vintage, the track record for the 2001s is not as consistently brilliant as I had hoped. As a group, the wines are maturing faster and more unevenly than some of the surrounding top vintages, such as 1999 and 2004. Vietti’s 2001 Barolo Rocche is a good example of that. I very much like the wine’s demi-glace-like richness, but the bouquet only comes into focus after the wine has been opened for a number of hours. Even so, the 2001 gives the impression it will age faster than the 1999 tasted alongside it. These are pretty small quibbles, though, as all the wines in this flight are truly superb.

agavin: drinking superbly right now.

2001 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito. VM 92. The 2001 Barolo Lazzarito has aged quite well. Smoke, tar, incense and iron are some of the many notes that emerge from this powerful, intense wine. The Lazzarito shows considerable density and muscle, both of which will allow it to age gracefully. During this period Lazzarito was the wine that saw the greatest amount of French oak, and those notes, while present, are also nicely integrated.

Braised short ribs, risotto truffles. Amazing dish. Simple class truffle risotto perfectly executed with a nice fatty bit of meat on top!

And a version without the meat — still great.

1996 Vietti Barolo Brunate. VM 92+. Moderately saturated medium red. Complex, aromatic nose of redcurrant, camphor, mint, tobacco and brown spices. Lush, fat and chewy; denser and richer than the Castiglione Falletto bottling. Shows the powerful backbone and toothcoating tannins of the vintage. Late suggestion of mint.

agavin: powerful and racy.

1998 Vietti Barolo Lazzarito. VM 93. Saturated deep red. Highly perfumed nose combines raspberry, lead pencil, spices, dried flowers and truffle. Juicy, tight and high-pitched; sturdy, powerful and very firm. Finishes with serious but fine tannins and outstanding length. Very vigorous, youthfully unevolved Barolo with considerable aging potential.

agavin: drinking amazingly right now

1989 Vietti Barolo Rocche. VM 94. The 1989 Barolo Rocche is a bit reticent on this night. Although the 1989 is pretty, our bottles aren’t quite as explosive or intensely perfumed as the best examples can be. At its best, the Rocche is one of the finest 1989s. On this night though, the 1989 is merely outstanding. Much the same is true of the 1990 Barolo Rocche, which is very good, but also not quite as memorable as it has been in the recent past.

Assorted Italian Cheeses. Moleterno black truffle sheep pecorino. Roccaprina creamy goat cheese. Cassatica creme buffalo cheese.

Celistino drago in white and Luca Vietti in front of him in the blue sweater.

The full lineup.

Overall another stunning evening from Sage Society. The wines were incredible and it was amazing to taste such a variety and lineup (including 3 grapes and many grand cru Baroli) from such a storied producer — and even more amazing (and storied) to here Luca Vietti’s entertaining tales about the wines.

Plus, the food and service were amazing. Celistino is a great host and his menu, created by him and Liz Lee paired spectacularly. A great evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Drago Centro
  2. Sauvages at Drago
  3. Big Bottle Madness at Kali Dining
  4. Salt’s Cure
  5. 1960s Barolo at Officine Brera
By: agavin
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Korean Closer

Jan23

Restaurant: Sun Nong Dan

Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222

Date: January 18, 2017

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Tasty!

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We left our epic traditional sushi dinner the other night at Ginza Onodera a bit hungry and so headed east to Korean Town for Second Dinner!

Sun Nong Dan is a 24 place serving up delicious Korean Stews.

Typical mini-mall Korean joint interior.

The menu is essentially a couple different tunes along the same theme.

Banchan include kimchee.

Pickled radish or turnip.

Colon sweeper spicy greens.

Plus there is this dipping sauce for the meat in the main event.

Koh Galbi Jjim. Braised beef short ribs, ox tail, and a spicy red sauce. The short rib was deliciously tender. The ox tail full of flavor but much bonier. The whole thing was served at tongue searing temperatures — but the red sauce was thick, both a tad sweet and spicy at the same time and wholly delicious.
This was some seriously good spicy beef stew!

Particularly soaked over rice.

Sun Nong Dan really hit the spot after our lighter “first dinner” and I definitely DID NOT leave hungry! Note that there is no alcohol here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Homestyle Korean Double Dinner
  2. Hanjip Korean BBQ
By: agavin
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Newest Oldest Sushi

Jan20

Restaurant: Ginza Onodera

Location: 609 La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. (323) 433-4817

Date: January 18, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Fabulous nigiri, expensive, not enough food

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Los Angeles’ amazing homegrown sushi scene has recently been invaded by high end entrees from outside the city. I recently visited Sushi of Gari for some new style sushi, and Ginza Onodera is a Tokyo import using ultra traditional methods.

The decor is clean. Not as neat looking or stylish as Gari but bright and attractive.

The pottery is very artsy Japanese.

For wine, our small party, organized by Liz Lee of Sage Society, brought all high end late disgorgement champagnes.

Erick brought: 1990 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut Collection. 97 points. Like a Grand Cuvee on fire. Rich, vibrant, with a complex maturity.

The sashimi dipping sauce.

Halibut sashimi.

From my cellar: 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé P2. 97 points. Floral aromatic start with red berry, red cherry, and ripe apple. Similar flavors with intense concentration, finishing with energizing minerality. In fact very similar to the 1996 “P1” in the next glass, but with just “more” of almost everything good.

Liz brought: 1995 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé P2. VM 95.5. The just-released 1995 Dom Pérignon Rosé P2 is stunning. Young, delicate and vibrant in the glass, the 1995 has it all; expressive aromatics, crystalline fruit and fabulous overall balance. Cranberry, mint, hard candy, cinnamon and dried rose petals are laced into the super-expressive finish. The 1995 P2 is sweet and layered, but with lovely veins of chalky minerality that give the wine its sense of energy. A delicate, floral finish rounds things out nicely.
Comes with a super fancy box.

Blanc and rose.

Smoked mackerel sashimi. Lovely smoky flavor.

The chefs hard at work. Despite a frenzy of effort the sushi was so labor intensive it was about 20 minutes between morsels!

Baby barracuda sashimi. Certainly the best bit of barracuda I’ve had.

Out comes a typical Japanese ceramic container.

Caviar and uni custard. Egg custard is a classic Japanese dish and I love it — this one was particularly decadent with the caviar and uni!

Hokkaido taco (octopus). Very tender, with a nice bit of chew.

Monkfish liver. This monkfish liver was DEEPLY marinated in a sweet soy. It was probably the softest and arguably most delicious version I’ve had. Melted completely in your mouth.

Cod Sperm Sack Tempura. Soft and delicate with that fluffy brain-like texture of the cod sperm. Pretty delicious if you don’t think about what you are eating.

House made ginger. Very sweet and soft. I love ginger and this version was almost like a candy ginger. Delicious.

Goldeneye red snapper.

TLiz generously opened this second bottle:

1990 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P3. 99 points. Spell binding bottle of Champagne. Disgorged in 2014, there was so much brioche here, I thought I was in bakery. There was a vibrancy and energy to the wine that keep all that pure fruit right out in the front. The effervesce was exactly what it needed to be with textures that promoted its beautiful finesse character. Worthy the money? That is another issue. But price aside, this is in contention for one of the best bottles of Champagne I have ever tasted.

Sardine with ginger. Very pickled and super delicious (if you love vinegar like I do).

Buri wild yellowtail.

Kohada gizzard shad. Another very marinated cut.

Fermented squid gut. Like a pasta in uni sauce. Very strong earthy fermented taste. A bit sweet. I thought it was delicious, but if you don’t like umami “aggressive” Japanese fermented seafood flavors and slimey texture it might freak you out.

Razor clam nori taco. Like a hand roll with no rice. Very much a charred flavor with a constrast between the perfect roasted nori and the crunchy/chewy clam. Very interesting and nice.

Blue fin tuna.

Two kinds of marinated fish roe with slices of daikon. Almost like charcuterie — fishy charcuterie. A touch sweet and quite salty. I loved these. Great texture contrast to between the crunchy daikon and the chewy dried roe.

Chu toro. Amazing.

Collar toro. A special cut from the collar (kami toro). They only get 2-4 prices out of the whole fish!

Chefs plating the next dish.

The covered bowl of miso.

Red miso soup. Earthy and appropriate on a rainy winter night.

Hokkaido uni sushi. Fabulously soft.

Eel sushi. The dry sea eel type I think, with salts and eel sauce. The eel sauce was incredibly sticky and caramelized.

Omelet is considered the measure of a traditional sushi chef.

Tamago (omelet). Very light and fluffy.

Green tea and sesame pudding? Whatever it was exactly it was delicious with a very strong wonderful macha flavor.

Special roasted Japanese tea.

Bags of pickled ginger to go.

Our executive chef, Yohei Matsuki!

Overall Ginza Onodera has a very strong distinctive traditional style. The rich is basically oozing with red vinegar and has a strong assertive quality — but it does stay together well. The fish was very aged and marinated and each piece of nigiri crafted so as to balance with the particular qualities of the fish. I can’t fault the taste, texture, or presentation of nearly any of the dishes. They were pretty spectacular. And I love straight nigiri. Individually these are much more enjoyable than the odd combinations at Sushi of Gari for example.

And service was warm, very Japanese, and excellent.

My issues with Onodera are a high price point (about $300 for food) / quantity ratio. The price itself is high, but not outrageous at all given the labor involved (and certainly not offensive like Urwasawa). But there is also a fairly slow rate between pieces (at least 15 minutes), and not ENOUGH pieces for my big nigiri appetite. I could easily have eaten 2-3 times as many. They might as well have just served me pairs. I would say that for pure nigiri QUALITY in volume this is the best I’ve had outside of Japan. Yamakase has some fabulous nigiri too but you only get a few (plus a whole lot of other dishes). Now I may be biased, but Yamakase is a “better deal” in that you get about 4X the calories for similar money. But it’s really a totally different (if both Japanese) cuisine as Onodera is pretty much straight straight sushi and Yamakase a modern creative Kaiseki. Still, if you want to experience the exquisite art of perfectly crafted nigiri — Onodera is the top right now in LA.

But we were so hungry we went afterward (after midnight!) to Korea Town for some hearty stew!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

The full wine lineup.

Related posts:

  1. Artsy Toppings – Sushi of Gari
  2. Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase
  3. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  4. Mori Sushi – A Top Contender
  5. Shunji Sushi – Nonstop Nigiri
By: agavin
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Alsace at the Cal Club

Nov07

Restaurant: Private Club

Location: Somewhere in California

Date: October 26, 2016

Cuisine: American

Rating: Fun

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I end up at the California Club all the time for wine dinners, but tonight was a special treat as I was invited by Liz Lee of Sage Society to join the Alsatian group and Anne Trimbach (of Trimbach wines).

The Cal Club is a true California institution, left nameless, a private bastion of the old California.

They don’t make them like they used to!

Tonight’s special menu. The chef is Alsatian and so he “cooked it up.”

Tonight I forgot (didn’t really get the chance) to photo the wines. So you will just have to imagine what all those great bottles of Trimbach looked like.

Giant dinner party!

Northern Halibut, Poached oysters in butter.
Roast Shelton Farms Turkey, Confit leg , chestnut & cabbage dressing. Thanksgiving comes early this year!

Roast Rack of lamb, spinach, carrots and salsifis.

Warm Vermont cheese oma, poached pear.

On the far left Anne Trimbach, then to the right chef Jean-Marc Weber.

The different colors. I’m not sure I had a Trimbach pinot noir before this.

Traditional Peach Haeberlin. Probably my favorite dish of the night — but I do have a sweet tooth.
Cookies.

All and all a fun evening. The venue was great. The service was great. This kitchen handles an enormous volume, yet these dishes were all really nice, and many fabulous. They aren’t the most modern looking, but they tasted really great and were fabulously paired with the wines.

The star of the show was of course charming Anne Trimbach, who is back on the road evangelizing her family wines after having brought a new (human) Trimbach into the world — congratulations Anne!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Hanoi – Club Opera
  2. Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu
  3. Riviera Country Club – Gluttony with a View
  4. California Dreaming
  5. Trimbach Republique
By: agavin
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Krug at Spago

Oct24

Restaurant: Spago [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: October 20, 2016

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Impressive

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Today’s lovely luncheon is a combo Sage Society Krug event!

Nothing like Krug for lunch.

It was located in “Prive” one of the Spago private rooms.

Krug Grand Cruvee 163 Edition – ID 215034. 94 points. Mint, white flowers, pastry and yellow orchard fruit meld together in Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée. This is one of the very best versions of the Grande Cuvée I can remember tasting in recent years. The impression of total silkiness on the palate is classic Krug. Even though this release is exceptional today, I would be tempted to cellar a few wines for the future, as the best Grand Cuvées age effortlessly. This release is based on 2006 and includes wines from 11 vintages going back to 1990.

Falafel fritters.

Spago staple, sweet sesame cones with ahi tartar.

Pork belly macaron. Pretty awesome! Half dessert, half savory.

Salmon, creme fraiche blini. Another Spago classic that doesn’t disappoint.

The serious looking “krew”.

We got Krug goodies. A cookbook, and the history of the domain.

Spago bread. This one was olive.

Le menu.

Krug Clos du Mesnil 2002 – ID 115024. VM 96. The 2002 Clos du Mesnil is brilliant right out of the gate. Vibrant, focused and crystalline, the 2002 hits all the right notes. Lemon peel, grapefruit, slate and white flowers give the 2002 its high-toned personality. The ripeness of the vintage has softened some of the typically angular young Clos du Mesnil contours. Best of all the 2002 is a rare Clos du Mesnil that drinks well right out of the gate, even if it will surely be more complex with more time in bottle. The 2002 has been absolutely stellar on both occasions I have tasted it so far. The 2002 was vinified by Nicolas Audebert, who is now making the wines at Rauzan-Ségla and Canon.

Sunnyside Up Egg, rye crisp, potato chip espuma. A classic champagne pairing of egg and caviar.

Wolfgang Puck materialized to say hi and grab his glass of du Mesnil!

Krug 2002 – ID 315043. 92-94 points. I have tasted Krug’s 2002 Vintage on multiple occasions but have yet to encounter a bottle that is fully expressive or that lives up to the level of the year. The 2002 needs several hours of air and even so, it remains incredibly reticent, both by Krug standards and relative to the other Champagnes of the vintage, nearly all of which have been released by now. My best advice to Vinous readers is to taste the 2002 before making a decision on whether to buy it or not.

Pan Roasted Maine Lobster Tail. Vanilla Dressing, Mizuna, Bartlett Pear. Interesting vanilla tone with the pear. Perhaps my lobster was very slightly overcooked.

Krug Rose – ID 414068. 94 points. The NV Brut Rosé is brilliant and finely-sculpted in the glass, with floral aromatics, pulsating minerality and chiseled fruit. Less austere than it can be, the Rosé impresses for its combination of tension and textured, phenolic weight. There is so much to like.

Slow Roasted Veal Loin!

Glazed carrots, wild mushrooms, chardonnay reduction. This was the best “prime rib” I’ve ever had — super tender as it was veal. Oh, and there were truffles too. The reduction was fabulous as well.

Krug 4 ways.

Standing is Maggie Henriquez, President and Directeur General of Krug! (the title makes me think of Napoleon). We learned a lot about Krug!

Krug Grande Cuvee 158th edition – ID 108002. A super rare “based on 2002” Grand cuvee. Amazing!

And an older Krug Grande Cuvee, probably from the 80s. Very slightly corked, but mostly blew off and was rather lovely.

Petits fours & Mignardises. I ate like a whole plate.

The lineup.
Maggie and Liz Lee of Sage Society, our hostess and superlative organizer.

I’m always blown away by the quality of Krug. Really, just one of those domains that makes sure the quality is always top notch.

Spago too continues to be fairly impressive. Service was flawless and the food was very good. Particularly that veal was stunning.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Krug at Il Grano
  2. Sauvage Spago
  3. Spago – 2005 White Burg part 1!
By: agavin
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1960s Barolo at Officine Brera

Jun08

Restaurant: Officine Brera [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1331 E 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 553-8006

Date: June 2, 2016

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Some of the best (new?) Italian in the city!

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Officine Brera is one of LA’s hottest 2016 openings and I’ve been waiting for an excuse to haul myself Downtown for months. Another modern “rustic” Italian by the team that brought us Factory Kitchen, including master chef Angelo Auriana, plus Brera brings in some new blood in the form of Mirko Paderno who rocked it at Oliverio.

The actual restaurant is behind us, but like many recent hot openings (including Factory Kitchen), Brera is located in the “Arts District”, a bombed out region of DTLA not far from skid row that is rapidly up and coming.

The area offers a mess of old brick 40s warehouses and factories which are being lovingly converted, allowing large spaces at reasonable rents (for now).

And inside the gigantic warehouse/factory space has been reconfigured with highly attractive duct work. Who would have thought that grungy 70 year-old factory windows could look so good?

Tonight’s special dinner was organized by Sage Society wine guru Liz Lee (left), shown here with Francine Ferdinandi the wine director at Officine and Factory Kitchen. The theme: 1960s Barolo and Barbaresco!

Tonight’s special menu.

1998 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. VM 95. The 1998 Comtes de Champagne is a different story altogether. This is a sexy, up-front Comtes endowed with lovely richness in its fruit and open, expressive aromatics. It remains an impressive, inviting Comtes that should also continue to develop nicely in the bottle for at least another decade plus.

Farinata. Chickpea “pancake” cooked in the 750 degree wood oven.

This simple dish of chickpea flour and olive oil is fabulous covered with strong black pepper.

Flight 1:

2010 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. AG 94. Borgo del Tiglio’s 2010 Ronco della Chiesa shows what this hillside site in Cormons can do in cooler vintages. Still bright, focused and intensely saline, the 2010 bursts from the glass with grapefruit, lime, mint and crushed rocks. The 2010 will probably be appreciated most by readers who like tense, vibrant whites. Next to some of the other vintages, the 2010 lacks a little mid-palate pliancy, but it is quite beautiful just the same. I especially like the way the 2010 opens up nicely in the glass over time.

From my cellar: 2010 Paolo Bea Arboreus. 90 points. This is a very special and somewhat odd wine. Very floral and fruity nose with strong apricot and honey notes. On the palate this seems like a different wine with a much drier impression with quite high acidity. This makes the wine seem somewhat confused about what sort of wine it wants to be. This is not objectively speaking a great wine, though it is good, but I just can’t resist the charm of the aromas. 90-91 points, based mainly on the nose.

Salmone Crudo. Copper river salmon, green apple, mustard seed, lovage, oil. A lovely and interesting salmon tartar which paired fabulously with the Bea Trebbiano.

Porcini Salad. Shaved foraged porcini mushrooms, sunchockes, Grana, Culatello, fried parsley. A wonderful early little “salad” that went better with the cooler more herbal Borgo del Tiglio.

Flight 2:

1967 Prunotto Barbaresco Riserva. Very dry and tannic.

1967 Gaja Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo. 90 points. The best of this flight, with good balance, some fruit, and strong tannins.

From my cellar: 1964 Gaja Barbaresco. JG 93. Cloudy. At first a little disjointed and flat. An hour or so later lovely, perfume nose. On the palate, this is sweet upfront with a metallic hint. Long finish. Improves in the glass, turning savory and long, richer and sweeter. This is really interesting and enjoyable. Better with food than by itself.

Nastrini al Sugo Divitello. Homemade egg tagliatelle, oxtail veal shoulder sauce, aged reggiano. A wonderful example of traditional braised meat ragu. The meat reduction at the end was to die for.
Risotiata Officine Brera. Carvaroli Arborio Rice, Summer Black Truffle, Fine Herbs, Snail Ragu. Perfectly firm and creamy rice with a really interesting snail center.

Flight 3:

1967 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva Antichi Vignetti Propri. 94 points. Gorgeous stuff. I have always really liked 1967 in Piedmont, and this was a great example of the vintage. It had an intriguing nose, starting out earthy and meaty, with a whiff of smoke in here, then showing flecks of exotic spice, like cardamon and cloves, and a little boiled herb, and after some time, sweeter red cherries and flowers. Lovely, complex stuff. It was on the palate where the wine shone though. There was still some richness to the wine, with lovely sweet fruit flavours of red cherries and berries – something that I often associate with the better wines of the vintage; but this was also wed to a wonderful clarity and purity of expression, with a nice transparency underpinning the fruit, so that the wine came across as elegant without being precious about it. After a fine midpalate with a little smoky undertone, the wine then settled into long, gentle finish that started with a twist of black tea and ended in a little kiss of spice and herb. There was just that remnant of masculine structure as well, otherwise, this could well have been confused with a Barbaresco with its sweetness and elegance. A delicious Barolo, seemingly at peak, this was absolutely singing on the night.

1967 Cantina Mascarello Barolo. JG 95. Color was initially pale red, with orange bricking to the rim. darkened considerably as the night went on. Initial mustiness on the nose blew off. Nose was classic barolo- roses, tea, cherries and slightly decaying leaves- waves upon wave. The palate was fantastically alive with a warm velvet texture, pure cherry fruit with considerable elegance and amazing persistence. awesome wine.

From my cellar: 1967 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barolo. JG 94. Dried cork that took a bit of effort to extract. There’s a good bit of earth and dirt on the nose, a hint of manure, and some ripe fruit elements. The palate is quite jammy (somehow) with plenty of fruit. This is a pretty big Barolo, even at almost 50 years old. The tannins are still present, and you can feel them quite prominently on the palate. Here’s hoping that the bottle funk will blow off in the time before dinner. (Dinner) This now displays gorgeous ripe red fruit on the nose, with a few light high-toned elements. The palate has a good balance of the same ripe red fruit, earth, and animale. Fully resolved tannins, this is good to go now. I would suggest a half-day decant before consumption. This bottle did clean its act up quite nicely in those few hours.

agavin: best of this flight IMHO.
Cannelloni Gratinati. Braised Beef Cheeks, rolled pasta, swiss Chard, Black summer truffle. Rich and delicious.

Flight 4:

1964 Cappellano Barolo. JG 94. Smoky black cherries on the nose. Elegant and expansive in the mouth. Still has some tannin. Long, elegant. Still has some richness and sweet fruit.

1961 Franco Fiorina Barolo. JG 92. I thought our bottle was a touch corky. Others thought it wasn’t cork. Not sure, but it definitely had a cardboardy nose.

1961 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo. 93 points. Lots of sediment. Beautiful, full, round, and lush old barolo. Really fantastic, and exactly what I am looking for in a wine like this.

1961 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo. VM 93. Fascinating. Amazing color. Virtually no browning for a 51 year old wine. Fruit was vibrant and in tact. Earthy bouquet, round and pure on the palate. lengthy and elegant finish. Many years ahead for this wine.

Carne Borina. 24 days dry aged rib eye, corn polenta, natural jus, fried piopini mushrooms.

Gianduiotta. Hazelnut choccolate creme, candied nuts. Classic Italian flavors if not the most traditional form factor.

Overall another amazing evening.

Food. The food at Officine is very good. It’s very Italian, with a fairly non Italian “vibe” to the place and a more modern share plates style. Tonight it was particularly on point, individually plated as it was, with each dish being tuned (many off menu) by Chef Angelo himself. This was a different meal in style than my previous visits, with less variety (family style you get more tastes) but more tuned up cuisine. Anyway it was fabulous and I was plenty full.

Service. Service was great and we were treated like family. Wine service in particular is a real standout. Opening and managing all those old Baroli is quiet a chore and Francine spent most of the evening with us.

Atmosphere. I love the big factory look. It’s a little loud, but not as bad as some (Bestia!). We had 8 people in the back where it wasn’t quite as deafening.

Wines. We didn’t have a bad wine tonight. Some a little tannic, one maybe partially “corky” and one a little oxidized. Pretty amazing for 50ish year old Nebbiolo! The pairings were perfect as the cook tasted, chose, and cooked every dish to match!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More Sage Society dinners.

Related posts:

  1. Hedonism at Officine Brera
  2. Rhone at Officine Brera
  3. Republique of Old Nebiolio
  4. Factory Kitchen – Fabulous
  5. Tony Terroni
By: agavin
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Food as Art – Tempura Endo

Jan04

Restaurant: Tempura Endo

Location: 9777 Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210 USA. 310-274-2201

Date: January 3, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese Tempura (Kyoto style)

Rating: Like being back in Japan, including the price 🙂

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My friend Liz Lee of Sage Society invited me to a pre opening dinner at Beverly Hill’s latest high end Japanese restaurant.

Tempura Endo is a new branch of a traditional Kyoto style tempura restaurant. As they say on their website: “Savor our exquisite Kyoto-style tempura in a most traditional setting in the ancient capital of Japan. the ingredients for our delectable tempura feature the choicest seasonal delicacies. Indulge yourself in exquisite Kyoto-style tempura at Tempura Endo.”

The frontage and interior is modern Japanese elegant.

Tonight’s maxed out Omakase menu.

The plate is pre-prepared with a variety of salts, soy sauce, and lemon. “The delicately seasoned original dipping sauce, made with a secret recipe and carefully selected salt, enhance the natural flavors of the tempura. Premium quality cottonseed oil made from the finest guarantees the amazingly crisp, light, healthy tempura.”

Even the toothpicks are artful.

Liz brought: 1999 Bruno Paillard Champagne Nec Plus Ultra. AG 94. Vivid yellow-gold. Potent, smoke-accented aromas of pit fruits, melon and honey, with a sexy floral overtone and building minerality. Lively, sappy and seamless, with intense nectarine and candied ginger flavors and notes of buttery brioche and anise. Shows a compelling blend of richness and vivacity, with no rough edges. A refreshingly bitter note of citrus pith adds lift and cut to the smoky, strikingly long finish, which leaves notes of honeysuckle and poached pear behind. a 50/50 blend of chardonnay and pinot noir that was aged for 12 years on its lees and disgorged in January, 2012.

Cold Tempura Appetizer. Kyoto-eggplant, minced shrimp, ginger dashi gelee. Very Japanese, with that mild savory flavor lent by the dashi. Interesting textural interplay between the jelly, the bits of ginger, and the cool eggplant.

Amuse Tempura.

Corn tempura. A quarter turn of kernels skimmed off the cobb. Perfectly fresh. The frying style here is light and fluffy, with a nice crispy texture, but without any taste of oil. It serves to enhance the ingredients rather than distract from them. The was eaten (as recommended) with the rice salt.

Shrimp bread tempura. Tasted more like a bit of pan fried shrimp toast. Delicious. This was eaten with the green tea salt.

Liz brought: 1992 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 92. Deep golden. When this wine is good it’s terrific but these days it often isn’t. After years of being a relatively closed wine, particularly in the context of the vintage, this has arrived at its full maturity and is now wonderfully expressive with ample breadth and depth that complement well the admirably rich and full but delineated flavors that offer better fine acid/fruit balance plus excellent length. While not a great vintage for this storied wine, it still is really quite lovely plus, if well-stored, remains a lovely effort. Still I would suggest drinking up sooner than later as my experience, even from perfect storage, has been very inconsistent with several oxidized examples.

agavin: our bottle was a bit flat. No nose at first, although this blossomed. So did the taste, but it never really reached the heights one would have hoped for.

Sashimi course.

Abalone sashimi. Nice crunch and mouth feel.

Toro sashimi. Melt in your mouth good.

Sea bream sushi. Took this simple fish to new heights.

Wagyu sashimi. The beef is from Miyazaki Prefecture in Japan, one of the most elite sources of genuine Wagyu beef. It completely melted in your mouth, silky smooth. Almost certainly the best beef sashimi I’ve ever had.

Just appreciate the geometry of the sauce tray — ignoring the white blob at the bottom.
From my cellar: 2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. Parker 94. The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape blanc (80% Roussanne and the rest Marsanne, Picpoul, and Bourboulenc) possesses classic notes of orange marmalade, honeysuckle, and rose petals, a full-bodied, unctuous texture, gorgeous purity and richness, and a stunningly long finish. It can compete with the finest full-throttle, dry whites of France as well as the world. It is difficult to find a better white Chateauneuf du Pape than Beaucastel. Much like their reds, their whites are made in a style that is atypical for the appellation. It is put through full malolactic, and one-third is barrel fermented, then blended with the two-thirds that is aged in tank. Extraordinarily rich and honeyed, it is ideal for drinking with intensely flavored culinary dishes.

Endo’s Tempura, style 1. On the left, classic shrimp. They use a bit of wine in the batter, either Chardonnay or Sauvignon blanc, depending on the type of thing being fried. This tempura is eaten primarily with salt, in this case the yuzu salt.

And the shrimp head, which was certainly the best fried shrimp head I’ve had. It was rich, and paired nicely with the Rhone.

King crab tempura. A great piece of fried crab. Light and delicate — although hot.

Sea urchin (uni) tempura. Santa Barbara Uni, wrapped in seaweed, and lightly fried. The uni was still soft and buttery.

Daikon radish, as a palette cleanser.

Eaten with a bit of soy sauce.

From my cellar: 2011 Veyder-Malberg Riesling Bruck. 92 points. First beautiful straw chablis like color, nose of oil can like and lead pencil, the finish is very long smooth and lasting for over a minute. Awesome wine…

Sillago with shiso tempura. A very crispy light fish wrapped in yummy shiso.

Abalone tempura.

This pure butter was provided.

To top the abalone. The result was crispy, with a wonderful combination of textures and richness.

Pea Croquette tempura. A crispy pea pod.

The next course comes in a bag.

Taro with truffle! Very light and delicate.

Then the Refreshment Tempura.

Flambed sweet potato. Sweet and crispy. Like the ultimate high end version of one of those sweet potato desserts served at some Chinese Restaurants.
Yuzu Granite. Delightfully refreshing.
Caviar for the next course.

The roe was used to top this Tempura Style 2 Scallop with Truffle and Caviar. The truffle is layered in the middle. This was one of my favorites.

Sesame Tofu. Soft and gooey inside with a hint of sesame, with a touch of heat too from some daikon. A delightful ponzu too.

Wagyu tempura. The richest tempura you’ll ever have!

Special Salada. Tempura carrots and various stripped vegetables with a zesty dressing. Delicious.

Green tea.

Tempura Bowl.

Ten Don. Egg and various other bits all fried together over rice. This is a high end version of what they serve at Hannosuke. Another of my favorites. I love the egg yolk on the rice.

Red miso soup.

Tsukemono pickles. Nice with the rice.

Chef Satoshi Masuda works the frier.

Traditional pressed sugar candies to go with the special tea (that’s coming).

Each of us got to pick our own tea bowl!

A specially trained member of the staff prepares the tea in the “tea nook.”

The above video shows the entire ceremony.

The special green tea. It was strong, without any bitterness.

Very soft sesame ice cream. Light and delicious.

A close up of the tea.

Overall, this was some spectacular tempura and a lovely meal. In every way it reminded me of various dinners in Japan: the small intimate room, the friendly staff, the small courses of exquisite food, the high price tag (although it’s also similar in price to Totoraku and Yamakase). I also understand this kind of food is inherently expensive, because the staff is large (relative to the guests) and the technique labor intensive. You’ve never had fried food with this attention to detail! But it will be interesting to see if LA appreciates that.

Also, in terms of experience, once they officially open they plan not to allow corkage, which is something I’d like to see changed. They have a very straightforward wine list, and wine guys like us have way too much interesting wine to go that way. If I were eating here again under those rules I’d go with sake (which I do like), but still, not allowing outside wines precludes this as a wine dinner destination — and that is 99% of my fine dining.

Still, as we have such a fine collection of great Japanese restaurants in LA, it’s nice to have yet another with such a different style of cuisine.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hannosuke Tempura
  2. Food as Art – N/Naka
  3. Food as Art – Takao
  4. Food as Art: Sasabune
  5. Food as Art: R.I.P. The Hump
By: agavin
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Krug at Il Grano

Oct09

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

Location: 11359 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.477.7886

Date: October 7, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome night! Krug & Sal both rule.

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Sage Society’s Liz Lee has been planning this epic dinner for a long time. She’s a huge champagne fan, and Krug is one of her favorites. We are joined by Mike Hoagland from Moet Hennesy, representing Krug. Plus lots of Krug itself!

Il Grano’s private room. We drank from the special Riedel Joseph Krug glasses the house had specially made.

2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. 94 points. A yeasty nose that is at once fresh yet carries hints of secondary development is attractively complex and layered with mostly floral and citrus notes that are trimmed in a brioche character. The secondary aspect carries over to the equally yeasty flavors that are supported by a moderately fine mousse that adds a sense of lift to the dry, clean and utterly delicious finish without being aggressively effervescent. This is almost invariably a very good cuvée and the most recent release is consistent with this admirable track record. Note that while this could easily be enjoyed now I would be inclined to hold it for at least another 3 to 5 years first though this of course depends greatly on how you prefer your Champagne.

Tuna tartar.

Corn pudding and oyster leaf. Kind of slightly weird, and hard to get the leaf off the spoon.

Truffle potato croquetas. Like a truffled tater tot.

Cutterfish fritto. Salty, tender, delicious.

Our special menu.

Our chef Sal Marino, always an amazing host.

Liz Lee of Sage Society, who organized this whole thing.

Mike Hoagland is a Champagne Specialist at Moet Hennesy, which means he evangelizes Krug (along with Dom P and others).

He explained the different wines in a fascinating way. I had long wondered about how champagne houses make such quantities yet keep quality and consistency. Apparently, Krug buys and grows about 400 separate parcels of land, mostly 1re and grand cru Champagne (well all Champagne). 150-200 or so of these are blended together every year to make the Grand Cuvee, and this gives them a tremendous toolbox to mix up a really stunning blend. Plus, they don’t just use one year, but as many as 11 different vintages — although there is a “main” base vintage (usually about 10 years prior to release). Below is the “re-created 2006”, just released.

2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. 94 points. A yeasty nose that is at once fresh yet carries hints of secondary development is attractively complex and layered with mostly floral and citrus notes that are trimmed in a brioche character. The secondary aspect carries over to the equally yeasty flavors that are supported by a moderately fine mousse that adds a sense of lift to the dry, clean and utterly delicious finish without being aggressively effervescent. This is almost invariably a very good cuvée and the most recent release is consistent with this admirable track record. Note that while this could easily be enjoyed now I would be inclined to hold it for at least another 3 to 5 years first though this of course depends greatly on how you prefer your Champagne.

1990s Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. 96 points. This mid 90s grand cuvee was much more amber, deeper, richer, nuttier. Really quiet lovely and in great shape. Apparently it contains a blend of different vintages some as old as from the 70s.

Wild Japanese Snapper Crudo. Tomatoes from Sal’s garden.

Moving into a little more wine discussion, vintage Krug is a blend of vineyards all from a single year.

2003 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 95. Light yellow. Powerful, complex bouquet evokes fresh peach, pear, floral honey, green almond and smoky minerals. Deep, palate-staining citrus and orchard fruit flavors show outstanding vivacity for a hot vintage, picking up ginger and talc notes with air. The strikingly long, sappy finish features zesty orange pith, smoky minerals and an echo of honeysuckle. I’d be in no rush to drink this one. Speaking of waiting, I had the chance to revisit the 2000 Vintage Krug and it has begun to pick up the smoky, weighty and nutty character that long-time fans of this producer crave. It’s still plenty young but already unmistakably Krug, with a chewy texture and a sexy floral nuance dominating right now.

agavin: very approachable right now

2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 95. Brioche, dried pear, smoke, almonds, chamomile and wild herbs are all laced together in Krug’s 2000 Vintage. A wine of striking depth and resonance, the 2000 is absolutely gorgeous today. The first signs of very early tertiary complexity have begun to appear while the acidity is softening, both of which make the 2000 delicious today. At the same time, there is no hurry. I imagine the 2000 will still be gorgeous 20 years from now. Slight elements of reduction linger on the close. The blend is 43% Chardonnay, 42% Pinot Noir and 15% Pinot Meunier, a rare vintage in which Chardonnay is quite high.

agavin: taught and more acidic, but very deep.

Sea bass, cauliflower mushroom, oven dried tomatoes. Blistered almonds and basil salad was tossed in pistachio oil and was raw. Delicious!

1998 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. Bright gold. Ripe orchard fruits, peach pit, toffee, marzipan and dried flowers on the pungent, smoky nose. Broad and fleshy on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, offering palate-staining pit fruit nectar, apple pie and brioche flavors, enhanced by a toffeed quality. Closes spicy and very long, with resonating smoke and toasted hazlenut qualities.

1996 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 98. The 1996 Vintage is magnificent. A towering, explosive Champagne, the 1996 delivers the house’s signature breadth in a full-bodied, structured Champagne with enough pure density and acidity to age well for decades. Warm nutty and spiced overtones add nuance on the finish. The 1996 is just beginning to enter the early part of its mature stage, where it is sure to remain for several decades. Krug’s Vintage is one of the truly epic wines of the year.

agavin: a massive powerful acid bomb of a wine!

Poached Main Lobster. Roasted Squash, Lobster Sauce. A really lovely bit of lobster with that bisque-like sauce.

Guinea Hen Consommé, autumn vegetables. Savory and lovely.

Below we are lucky to try side by side two variants of 89 Krug, the “original” which was released perhaps around 2000, and the “collection” which is the same blend, but sits on the lees two years longer and then is held at the house for many many more years. It therefore represents a perfectly stored example.

1989 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. While the ’89 is not a current release, I happened to have the opportunity to taste it again in August so I included the note here: a positively spectacular nose that is now fully mature and quite yeasty with real breadth and depth leads to rich, fresh, sweet and intense flavors that also seems to have loads of barely concealed reserves of power and depth, finally explode on the hugely persistent finish. I’ve had better Champagnes but not many and this is a seriously impressive effort that can be drunk now or held for years to come.

agavin: I loved the nutty mature quality of this. Liz’s bottle was in amazing shape.

1989 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut Collection. AG 96. The 1989 Brut Collection is all of the things a gorgeous, mature Champagne should be. Autumn leaves, tobacco, mint, licorice, dried pears and sweet, exotic spices all waft from the glass in this totally complete, layered wine. The 1989 is a big, huge wine, rather it is a Champagne that impresses with exceptional overall balance and total finesse. I have had the 1989 Collection several times, but this is by far the finest bottle I have run across. When Krug is firing on all cylinders, there really is no substitute.

agavin: slightly more refined and younger than the non collection version, but very similar.

Tagliolini.

With fresh white truffles. Simple, but a lovely champagne pairing.

1979 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JK 95. Start with a hint of oxidation but with air got fresher and richer. Brioche, baked apples, orange peel and anise. It displays rich palate and thoroughly enjoyable.

agavin: Wow. Maybe the best champagne I’ve ever had. A monster, and so fresh, although certainly “mature” tasting.

1966 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 100. One of the most gorgeous, viscerally thrilling wines I have ever had the privilege to taste and drink. Where to start? Impossibly finessed, crystalline and weightless, the 1966 captivates all the senses with its breathtaking beauty. Hints of apricot, wild flowers and chamomile grace the palate in an utterly exquisite, textured Champagne that still retains surprising freshness and clarity for its age. The 1966 is simply timeless. There are only a handful of Champagnes that play in this rarified stratosphere. Many of them come from the Krug cellar in Reims.

agavin: mature and in great shape, not as wow as the 1979, but still a stunner.

Pheasant, sunchoke puree, speck polenta. Mild and perfectly cooked juicy poultry.

Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 94. The NV Brut Rosé is brilliant and finely-sculpted in the glass, with floral aromatics, pulsating minerality and chiseled fruit. Less austere than it can be, the Rosé impresses for its combination of tension and textured, phenolic weight. There is so much to like. This release (ID 213027) is based on the 2006 vintage. The blend is 59% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay and 8% Pinot Meunier. Disgorged Spring 2013.

older Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. AG 95. An older bottle, I’m not sure how much older, obviously made in a different year from a different blend. More mature and salmon colored, but not even slightly faded.

Look at the pale rose colors. This photo is fairly faithful.

Lamb neck Osso Buco. Bone sucking good. I was literally sucking at it for a while. Super tender and flavorful. Paired well with the roses too.

Selection of cheeses. Small, but very nice, particularly the blue.

Another stunner of a dinner.

Food was right on point. Perfectly paired (thanks Liz and Sal). Really great stuff. Sadly, Il Grano is closing at the end of 2015, after 18 years. Chef/Owner Sal wants to try a new concept as people don’t seem as enamored of fine dining and white tablecloths as they used to be. Sigh.

The Krug was amazing. I have a newfound respect for Krug. I will be buying more, as it’s a seriously likeable champagne and really made with the kind of exquisite care that typifies the best wines in the world.

Also, Mike Hoagland from Krug was fabulous company. Very educated, smart, and interesting. He regaled us with all sorts of stories and details about the winery. I really learned a lot more about how champagne is made, particularly blended champy.

Thanks Liz!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long journey through Northern Italy.

Related posts:

  1. Never Boaring – Il Grano
  2. Eight Legs at Il Grano
  3. Il Grano part 2
  4. Il Grano – Only 19 courses?
  5. Il Grano Birthday
By: agavin
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Salt’s Cure

Sep30

Restaurant: Salt’s Cure

Location: 1155 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 850-7258

Date: September 26, 2015

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Really tasty

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Liz Lee of Sage Society really knows how to organize a dinner. Not only does she find some of the best chefs in town, but the wine is always crazy good.

Liz has long been a fan of Salt’s Cure, and now that they are moving to a new larger space wanted to do an epic dinner in the new location. Well, this is a very “soft” opening with regard to the construction, but the food and service are fully worked out.

This particular dinner was BYOB, and ended up with more than 25 wines for 15 people. All great too!

Our special menu for the night.

NV Champagne Savart Champagne L’accomplie. 91 points. Apricot, peach, wild flowers, honey, spices and mint all meld together in the NV Brut L’Accomplie. Here the style is round, succulent and approachable, with lovely up-front intensity and volume. The current release is 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, based on the 2010 vintage with the addition of 45% Réserve wines. This is a very pretty wine, although the limits of the 2010 vintage are impossible to fully overcome.

Mussels with lemongrass.

NV Godmé Père et Fils Champagne Brut Reserve 1er Cru. Burghound 92. A markedly yeasty and impressively complex nose of various dried white fruits, particularly apple and pear, leads to equally complex, bold and robust flavors that are supported by a firm but not aggressive effervescence on the clean, dry and slightly austere finish. This is not an especially elegant Champagne but I very much like the frank character and the Réserve designation in this case is well warranted because it’s clear that there is a substantial percentage of older wine in the blend. Lovely and this could easily be drunk now but there is so much underlying material that this would make a great choice to age for another 5 to even 10 years if you enjoy the flavors of older Champagne. Recommended.

Crabcakes and tartar sauce. Lots of good solid crabby taste.

2002 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Rosé. VM 95. Light, bright orange-pink. Heady mineral- and yeast-accented aromas of dried red berries, blood orange, buttered toast and tea rose. Densely packed and expansive on the palate, offering intense raspberry, cherry compote and floral pastille flavors and a smoky overtone that gains strength with aeration. The mineral quality comes back strong on the silky, focused finish, which goes on and on. An outstanding blend of power and finesse.

Steak tartar on potato crisp. I really liked these.

Chef Chris Phelps on the left, organize Liz Lee on the right (standing).

2009 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons. VM 94. The 2009 Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons is remarkably polished and balanced throughout, with plenty of vintage 2009 radiance. Apricot pit, smoke, peach and spice overtones take shape in a striking Champagne. Although quite open and expressive today, the 2009 is also holding back a considerable amount of pure, unbridled power as well as potential. Ripe and racy to the core, yet with no excess weight, the 2009 stands out for its exceptional balance. Dosage was 4.7 grams per liter, a bit higher than normal. Péters told me he thought the drier vintage needed a little bit more sugar.

NV Taittinger Champagne Nocturne Sec. VM 90. Bright yellow. Deeply perfumed aromas of poached pear, melon, nectarine and lemon curd are complemented by suggestions of buttered toast, anise and chamomile. Plush and broad on the palate, offering ripe citrus and pit fruit flavors with a touch of chalky minerality adding cut and lift. A floral quality builds slowly with air and carries through the spicy, sappy, gently sweet finish. I like this Champagne’s balance of fruitiness and vivacity and there’s no way that I’d have guessed that its dosage was so high.

2012 Prager Grüner Veltliner Stockkultur Smaragd Achleiten. Grapefruity, short finish, lots of acid.

Chicken liver pudding with soft pretzels and pickles. A great mix of bread, fatty liver, and bright acidic pickles and onions.

2008 Hanzell Chardonnay. 91 points. Carmel, citrus…nutty finish. Quite elegant. Drink over the next 2 yrs. Didn’t taste like Chardonnay!

Plum, cherry tomato and ricotta with basil vinaigrette. A nice bright salad.

1993 Kalin Cellars Chardonnay Cuvée LD. VM 92. Pale green-gold color. Knockout nose of orange blossom, minerals, apple and hazelnut. Thick, rich and uncompromisingly dry; already showing superb inner-mouth perfume of orange oil, apple, flowers and spices. Brisk but harmonious acids frame the deep flavors perfectly and contribute to the impression of strong structure. Finishes quite powerful and long. “This wine was still totally dumb six months ago,” notes winemaker Terry Leighton, who won’t release a wine until it ready for its close-up. Leighton’s LD bottling is from a north-facing slope, while the LV vines face south.

Chilled tomato soup with grilled cheese. The sandwich was fairly straightforward, but the soup was awesome, lots of vinegar, almost like a gazpacho.

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

Mackerel Toast with Sauce Gribiche. Tasty, but a real tough wine pairing with all that salt, vinegar, and strong briny tones.

2012 Domaine de Montille Meursault Perrières 1er Cru. Burghound 92. Here too strong sulfur and reduction render the nose impossible to assess. As one would reasonably expect this is intensely mineral-driven with an excellent sense of energy and tension to the saline-inflected flavors that display only moderate depth on the otherwise wonderfully long and well-balanced finish. My range offers the benefit of the doubt that more depth will develop with age.

agavin: Friend and dinner companion MZ owns a chunk of this estate and this was the first vintage from his collection! Very bright and delicious.

2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 93. More noticeable wood spice than in the prior wine combines with wonderfully pure green fruit and white pear aromas underscored by intensely stony notes, leading to ripe, chiseled, vibrant, wonderfully precise flavors that offer excellent definition. This really coats the palate and the finish lingers for several minutes. I like the punch here yet the intensity is delivered in an ultra refined, classy and pure style.

Yellowtail with succotash. I’m not used to having yellowtail fully cooked, but it was a nice flaky fish in this format.

2001 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Fourneaux. Burghound 89. Much finer and purer than the Suchot with detailed, precise, very earthy fruit and a subtle touch of finishing minerality. There is virtually no rusticity and while this is firmly structured, the tannins are almost completely buffered by an impressive sappiness that coats the palate.

1999 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin. VM 89. Full medium red. Floral, sappy aromas of red fruits, nuts and game. Tangy red fruit flavors are kept bright by healthy ripe acidity. Finishes with very good length and grip. An unusually strong showing for this cuvee.

2002 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. Burghound 93. Strong oak spice presently dominates the nose with round, sweet, rich and impressively complex flavors that deliver stunning length. This is quite a powerful wine yet there is almost no rusticity and I very much like the obviously high quality material. As with several wines in the range, my score awards the benefit of the doubt regarding the oak.

Roasted Chicken with Herbed Gravy. Chicken and mashers!

1998 Domaine Bruno Clair Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Petite Chapelle. Very bright, like cherry juice.

1999 Domaine de L’Arlot Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos des Forêts St. Georges. Burghound 92. More serious than the ’99 Clos de l’Arlot though not quite as ripe with color that is almost black as is the fruit with crushed herbs and intense minerality, succulent flavors and excellent pinot character. There are sizeable tannins that are completely wrapped in velvety fruit and this displays a slightly sweet finish. This is really very fine and fresh and while this is not a truly dense wine, it has filled out better on the mid-palate than I originally predicted. It will also need a bit more time as well to really arrive at its prime drinking window. Consistent notes.

1991 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie. VM 93. Dark red color. Classic aromas of black raspberry, smoked meat and bacon fat. Dense, spicy and sweet on the palate, with sappy inner mouth perfume. Kept firm and fresh by pepper and mineral components. Finishes long and subtle, with dusty, even tannins. A beauty.

Chorizo with sweet onion puree and peppers. Tasty sausage, although with some heat.

2002 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 95. A heavily toasted nose with spice, wood and tar nuances frames ripe but fresh black pinot fruit and cassis aromas that also display an extraordinary panoply of secondary nuances, including earth, underbrush, leather, soy and spice. The powerful, rich and utterly delicious big-bodied and very concentrated flavors coat and stain the palate and completely buffer the now softening tannic spine on the superbly long finish. In short, this is flat out incredible juice and while it’s clearly quite oaky, the wood somehow works quite well with the wine even though it’s far from invisible. As to drinkability, I would probably opt to hold the ’02 Charmes for a few more years but it could easily be drunk now with pleasure.

2001 Emmanuel Rouget Echezeaux. Burghound 91. This closely resembles the style of the Beaux Monts with its lighter ruby color and ultra elegant pinot spice aromas followed by medium weight, pure, complex, quite refined flavors and a creamy, slightly toasty finish. Relatively light by the standards of many vintages of this wine but it is so elegant that is it hard to fault.

2002 Mommessin Richebourg.

Duroc Pork Chop. Sides Farro Bowl, Mashed Potatoes, & Wood Roasted Seasonal Vegetable.

Louis Jadot Latricières-Chambertin. I can’t remember the vintage.

From my cellar: 1991 Camille Giroud Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. 93 points. Very rich with strong vosne spice.

1996 Domaine Leroy Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots. VM 94. Excellent deep ruby-red color. Subdued but vibrant aromas of cassis, blackberry and violet. Superb sweetness and flavor intensity; penetrating flavor of spicy blackberry. Lovely acidity gives the wine juiciness and great cut. Very persistent and fine on the finish. Has fruit of steel. Great Nuits-Saint-Georges premier cru.

Duck, Oatmeal Griddle Cakes & Fruit Compote. This was a pretty awesome duck. Basically duck and pancakes, like a non-fried version of chicken and waffles?

Mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Grapefruit pie, date brownie. The brownie was much like a sticky toffee pudding.

Overall this was a really great night. A warm one too in this rough and half finished space. But for all the walls being unpainted, the staff both in the room and in the kitchen did a great job. The food was really solid. Excellent execution and slight variants on fairly classic ingredients and dishes — this isn’t radical food — but just very well done with a lot of flavor. We had A LOT of it too. Boy were we full.

The wines, and we had more than a few of them, were pretty spectacular. Perhaps a few too many great red Burgs pilled up on the last 2-3 courses, but one yummy bottle after another. We even managed our best at pairing with some difficult pairings (picked mackerel!), mostly because Liz is a master of pairing and brought some good ringers.

All around great times.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Red Medicine is the Cure
  2. Babykiller Birthday
  3. Sage at Oliverio
  4. Pistola with a Bang
  5. Republique of Vosne
By: agavin
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A’postrophe – Filipino Fusion

Jul15

Restaurant: A’postrophe

Location: Downtown LA

Date: July 11, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Filipino

Rating: Really fabulous flavors

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Liz Lee of Sage Society put together this special popup dinner at the apartment of chef Charles Olalia.


The chef (above) is a young Filipino with an instinctive knack for cooking. Over the last 12 years he has cooked at such establishments as the French Laundry, Patina, Coi, Mar’sel, and more.

The crew helping us out (+ Edith). Chef on right next to his lovely wife.


His downtown apartment plays host to the dinner for 13.

The menu is essentially Filipino comfort food reinvented through Charles’ fine dining experiences.

It should be noted that this was a BYOB event with most people bring roughly 2 bottles. They were loosely organized by course. Liz brought a whole bunch of great champagnes like…

NV Robert Moncuit Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 91. Pale gold. Pungent, mineral-laced aromas of pear, honey, lemon pith and white flowers. Densely packed orchard and citrus fruit flavors are enlivened by chalky minerality and a hint of ginger. Refreshingly bitter and precise on the finish, with the mineral note strongly repeating.

Amuse of toast with onion jelly and green onion. A nice crunch and sweet onion flavors.
2009 Bochet-Lemoine Champagne. A bit richer than the first one.


2005 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 95. The 2005 Dom Pérignon opens with the classic Dom Pérignon bouquet. Warm toasty notes meld into expressive fruit in a supple, silky Champagne endowed with stunning depth, nuance and complexity. Sweet floral notes add lift as the wine opens up in the glass. Overall, the 2005 is a relatively delicate, gracious DP, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up with persistence and its open, totally inviting personality. Today it’s hard to see the 2005 making old bones, but it is a gorgeous wine to drink while the 2004 ages. In 2005, the release is scheduled to last about six months, which means production is down around 50% over normal levels. All I can say is the 2005 is fabulous, especially in a vintage that required considerable sorting to eliminate rampant rot in the Pinots.

Brand new!

Duck egg with uni. Yum! Plays up both these ingredients.

The pandesal or salt bread. The outside is a bit salty but the inside nice and sweet.

And it is served with this sweet distillate of coconut milk, basically a coconut caramel.

Coco jam. Really fabulous with the bread.

1999 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Cuvée Creation. VM 93. A big, explosive wine, the 1999 Brut Cuvée Création is gorgeous today. Perhaps it is the extra time in bottle or the magnum format, but the 1999 has really come along nicely over the last few years. Yellow stone fruits, licorice, flowers and spices are all framed by French oak in a voluptuous, full-bodied Champagne that should drink well for the better part of the next decade. Disgorged: December 2012.

2005 Domaine Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos St. Jean. Burghound 93. Chez Niellon, among his 1ers I almost always find the best in class to be either the Clos Truffiàre or the Champs Gain but much to my surprise, in 2005 that distinction goes to this wine. The nose is wonderfully complex and broad with ripe but reserved floral, citrus and menthol hints introducing rich, full and intensely mineral-driven flavors that coat the mouth on the explosive finish. This is an exceptionally impressive effort that will age beautifully on its impeccable balance.

agavin: I wouldn’t have thought this was a white Burg. It had a golden premoxy color, but didn’t taste premoxed — more like a mature Cal Chard.

2003 E. Guigal Ermitage Blanc Ex-Voto. VM 96. Medium gold. Incredibly complex bouquet of yellow plum, dried apricot, peach, floral honey, yellow Chartreuse, blonde tobacco and anise (among other things). Deeply concentrated and almost surreal in its expression of honeyed, ripe and dried fruits; its sappy, clinging texture; and its powerful impression of extract. The endless finish is surprisingly bright, with no tiring or cloying qualities. This should be served in homeopathic doses, such is its intensity and depth of flavor.

agavin: very gold and complex. I continue to have mixed opinions about these white hermitages. I have a moderate collection of them, but they might be too intense and hot for my taste.

Summer tomato salad. Salted egg, scallions, rice crisp. According to fellow Foodie Club founder and Filipino Erick, this is traditionally a condiment eaten with rice and salted with the salted egg. Here it is served as a salad. The vinegar and salted egg helped really compensate for the sweetness of the tomatoes to give it a very nice balance.

1989 Château-Grillet (Neyret-Gachet) Château-Grillet. 93 points. A bit closed in the beginning, the wine opened up with time in decanter. Intense mineral nose of flint, stone, white pepper, some beeswax, stone fruit. Very clear and impressive depth. In the mouth the wine is medium + body with some fatness in the beginning. The acidity is high giving perfect contrast to the fatness. Lively, vibrant with intense aromas in the mouth. Length is long with mineral, salivating finish. My first old Château Grillet and this wine really need patience in contrast with many other Viognier from Condrieu.

agavin: our bottle had a touch of cork.

2013 Caro’s Ridge Chardonnay Cavalleri. Hot hot cal chard. Not my thing at all.

Avocado Ravioli. Fried anchovies, black rice, lemon aioli. I really liked the salty/fishy crunch of the anchovies. I could munch on them as a snack food.

From my cellar: 1999 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 91. Big, powerful and rich aromatics of honey, oak spice and limestone merging into intense, medium weight flavors and a penetrating, relatively fine finish. While not especially big or complex by the standards of classic Bâtard, it is quite intense with beautifully textured, luxuriant, almost opulent flavors.

agavin: 93-94 points. Rounded, as seems typical for 99. Honied almost. Drinking very nicely.

2003 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 93. The nose is ultra elegant and pure with virtually no trace of oak yet curiously, the crystalline and mineral-driven flavors presently display more than a trace of wood toast. That niggle aside, this is an explosive effort with near perfect balance and huge length. This is my favorite of all the Boillot ’03s, not because it is necessarily qualitatively superior but in terms of sheer class it has no equal.

agavin: More minerality than the Batard. Very very nice.

Longsilog. Creamed rice, soft cooked egg, caramelized longganisa. This redefined Filipino breakfast food was pretty awesome (and I’m sure the original greasier version is too). The sausage was both spicy and sweet and paired awesomely with the rice and eggs. A 9 or 10 by my book.

2011 Emrich-Schönleber Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Großes Gewächs. VM 95. Savory aromas of cling peach, wild herbs and lemon peel. Luscious passion fruit and saline minerality form infinite layers on the palate. Densely packed, elegant and spicy on the dazzling finish, this is without doubt one of the three best dry rieslings of the vintage. Hats off!

agavin: Awesome. 95 points. Laced with grapefruit peel.

1997 Marcassin Chardonnay E Block Hudson Vineyard. 94 points. Golden color;fresh baked bread, light vanilla,nutmeg bouquet;subtle tangerine,lime flavors,complex, creme brulee flavors become stronger with time; unlike younger Marcassin’s this has very lively crisp acid in the finish- very Burgundian in it’s light touch instead of usual Calif heaviness; no hotness on the finish, just slowly fades to brioche.


Another Liz champy: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. Burghound 94. Medium rosé hue. A restrained and highly complex nose, that is not especially fruity, displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively soft supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé and as such, while this could be drunk now with much pleasure or held for further development; it is going to be extremely difficult to stay away from! In short this is stunningly good and should only serve to add to the mystique of this cuvée. I should note that while I am not always wowed by the Krug Rosé this latest incarnation is strikingly good.

agavin: really nice, and a great pair.

Santa Barbara Prawns. Glass noodles, shrimp roe. Another perfect dish. The prawns were moist and succulent with yummy roe and prawn guts. All this soaked down into the glass noodles. They were baked perfectly such that a crispy layer formed at the bottom of the pan and could be scrapped off to enjoy.

F.X. Pichler Grüner Veltliner Reserve Dürnsteiner Kellerberg. Missed the vintage, but it was very good.

2001 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl. VM 90. Highly aromatic nose combines candied apple, mint, lime and a suggestion of banana chips. Dense, rich and chewy, with spiced apple and light resiny flavors over a firm mineral spine. Gives a softer, less adamantly dry impression than the Clos Hauserer but finishes with palate-cleansing freshness.

Steamed Black Cod. Lumpia Vegetables, soy garlic sauce. Super tender fish served over a mixture of the vegetables usually used in lumpia, Filipino spring rolls. Very nice.

From my cellar: 1996 Domaine Bruno Clair Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fontenys. agavin 91. Nice lively ruby in the glass, the nose had notes of black pepper, roasted meats and lots of cherry – the palate was dense with a real iron/meat character to it, alongside some evident tannins- a fairly big wine.

2002 Domaine Bruno Clair Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Petite Chapelle. Burghound 89. Gorgeous crushed red fruit aromas lead to slightly dilute if seductive flavors underpinned by relatively fine tannins and a dusty finish. There is very good intensity here and if the flavors add weight, my score may be conservative.

What Filipino dinner would be complete without some suckling pig? In this case just the belly!

Lechon Cebu. Lemongrass, On Choi, Liver jus. Look at those fatty slabs. Served over rice and smothered in the rich liver sauce this was pretty incredible, although about 80% of the way through my slab I hit a wall of intense fullness. The skin was BBQed to that perfect crisp too.

1993 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. Burghound 92. Earthy, deep and wonderfully fresh fruit leads to dense, solidly tannnic, beautifully delineated and focused, rich flavors of exceptional purity and length. While the finish is firm, it is by no means hard and there is excellent buffering sève all underpinned by vibrant acidity. There is plenty of wine here but this is a wine for the patient and it should live for years to come.

2010 Caro’s Ridge Malbec. Rounded, big, hot, young Malbec. Not really a pairing for anything we were eating, but would have been a nice grilled meat wine.

Bulalo. Braised mushrooms, bok choi, bone marrow broth. For a bone marrow soup dish this was surprisingly “light” and incredibly tasty simple broth.

2011 Saracco Moscato d’Asti. VM 90. Saracco’s 2011 Moscato d’Asti wraps around the palate with serious depth and richness. Green apples, pears and white flowers flow through to the expressive, nuanced finish. Like most wines of the vintage, the 2011 is richer than normal, but there is no shortage of personality or pure class here.

agavin: I loved this frothy blend of fruit and aromatics. Really quiet nice.

1998 Müller-Catoir Mußbacher Eselshaut Riesling Eiswein. variously 94-98. Lemon candy and pear drops in the nose. Juicy and elegant in the mouth, featuring pear nectar and peach preserve, with just a faint sharpness to the acids. Finishes with peach, vanilla and mineral salts.

agavin: a much more classic intense sweet wine, very different from the Moscato.

Iced Buko. Macapuno, sweet red bean, micro greens. Basically a coconut sorbet popsicle served over sweet candied red beans. Pretty awesome actually.

The chef and his lovely wife.

Family members helped out.

Overall, this was a really fabulous meal (as always when Liz Lee is involved). Certainly the best Filipino food I’ve had. Charles really took it to the next level with better ingredients and presentation than the usual buffet action I’m used to. That being said, I’ve never been to the Filipines itself where I’m sure there is much excellent eating to be had. But even independent of these relative judgments this was just a very good, very lively meal.

We had a fun time with the wine too. At Liz’s request Charles toned down certain of the wine phobic ingredients (garlic and vinegar) to pair better with our exotic mix.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Liz introduces the chef

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By: agavin
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Cassia – Vietnamese Reinterpreted

Jul10

Restaurant: Cassia

Location: 1314 7th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 393-6699

Date: July 7 & November 10, 2015, July 7, August 26, and October 3, 2016 and January 28, 2020

Cuisine: French Vietnamese Brasserie

Rating: really tasty

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My friend Liz Lee of Sage Society organized this July excursion to the brand new French Vietnamese Bistro from Chef Bryant Ng and the group that brought us the excellent Sweet Rose, Rustic Canyon, and Milo & Olive.

Also, merged in, are photos from dishes we ordered at an impromptu Hedonist dinner in November.

Ng made himself famous the other year with Spice Table Downtown, now I’m happy to have him Westside.

The space is oddly located on 7th street (never been to a restaurant there before despite 21 years in Santa Monica) but its large, light and airy.

Check out those high ceilings.
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A specialty cocktail. Mango Mezcal Fizz. Mango infused mezcal, Brovo dry vermouth, passionfruit, lime, egg white.


The creative menu. This is not your usual brasserie. I mean, it feels like one, but the dishes are so Vietnamese inspired. I ate my way through Vietnam last year, and the ingredients feel very authentic. The presentation is all new.
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The menu January 2020 — a few dishes have changed.

Liz as usual orchestrated our wine brings, in this case Champy, Riesling and the like.

From my cellar: 1990 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. VM 96. Rich, multidimensional, highly aromatic nose of pear, red berries, apple, honey, toast and spice. Extremely rich and concentrated, with its medium to full body leavened by bright citrus notes and compelling minerality. Great inner-mouth aromas. Conveys an impression of powerful yet remarkably fine raw materials. The spicy finish offers exceptional persistence and richness.

agavin: our bottle was a bit oxidized and tired. sigh.
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Kaya Toast. Coconut jam, butter, slow cooked egg. This is listed under appetizers, but really tasted like a dessert. It was pretty awesome though, with the flavors of sweet coconut French toast.

Jellyfish Salad. Shredded organic chicken, crispy rice, green leaf, sesame-bacon dressing. Delicious, with the jellyfish adding a nice crunch/chew.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé. VM 94+. Relative to many other recent vintages, the 2004 Dom Pérignon Rosé comes across as quite delicate, feminine and graceful. Floral notes are woven throughout, adding to a very appealing and attractive sense of lift. It will be interesting to see if the 2004 puts on weight in bottle. At the moment, the 2004 is a bit understated, but I will not be surprised if at some point it takes off given the extremely positive way in which the 2004 blanc has developed over the last few years.

agavin: This was not tired at all!

Cucumber Salad Watercress, grilled avocado, charred tomatoes, clay oven bread croutons. A fine salad, although not mind boggling.

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Green Papaya Salad. Watercress, purslane, spiced walnuts. Not bad, but not as “Vietnamese” as we expected.
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Masumoto Farms Nectarine Salad. Bibb lettuce, herbs.
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Vietnamese Caesar Salad. Anchovy croutons, dried figs, herbs, red onion, white anchovies.

IMG_5908
Raw spicy scallops. A very small dish, with a bit of corn, dried shrimp, ham, onion and mint for flavor and crunch. Tasty, and despite the white look, not too mayo-ish, but hard to get onto the spoon.

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Grilled Chicken Wings. Cucumbers, sweet chile sauce. Not bad at all. Nice tangy salty spicy sauce. I actually liked the cucumbers soaked in it.

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Vietnamese “Sunbathing” Prawns. Fresno chiles, garlic, Vietnamese hot sauce — very hot actually.


2013 Zardetto Prosecco Zeta. Pairs great with food. A very simple wine, but its simple fruit allows it to go with anything.
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CHARCUTERIE PLATTER. Salted Pork with Grilled Bread, Sichuan Lamb Ham, Singaporean Grilled Candied Pork, Vietnamese Meatloaf, Smoked Red Sausage, Cabbage Relish.

The Singaporean Grilled Candied Pork had a substantial heat and was sweet and delicious. The Sichuan Lamb Ham was a bit like Spanish ham. The smoked sausage was great, and I particularly loved the rich meatiness of the “meatloaf” — not unlike dumpling filling. The cabbage relish added to the softer ones as well, plus the herbs. Mixing the herbs and pickles with the meat in the same bite was quiet lovely.
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Smoked Salmon Dip. Pickled shallots, horseradish, grilled country bread. Nice kick from the horseradish and an interesting mix of textural elements between the soft spread and crunchy bread. I really liked this dish.

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Chopped Escargot. Lemongrass butter, herbs.

Spread on the pizza-like bread this was staggeringly good. It might have been the dish of the night.

Vietnamese Pâté. Pickled chiles. A similar presentation. Looks a little like barf.

But it tasted great. Super rich and meaty. I’m a big pate fan and this didn’t disappoint. I liked the added crunch of the pickles.
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Fried Cauliflower w/ fish sauce. So fried they were like fried shrimp.
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Cold Sesame Noodles. Young soybeans, cucumbers, crushed walnuts. Spicy with blue crab. I had to try this because I make my own Dan Dan Mein. This had some spice, but none of the savory complexity of my version.


1997 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Weissenkirchen Ried Klaus. agavin 93. Herbal and complex, delicious.

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Spicy Wontons. Cod, shrimp, country ham, napa cabbage, roasted chile oil. These had some heat, not unlike Numb Taste Wontons, but with a bit of a fishy tone.

2001 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Trocken Zwerithaler. agavin 90. More oxidized than the 1997, this had an unusual cilantro/basil finish!

Chino Valley Egg Custard. Sea urchin roe, braised mushrooms. Very soft egg custard was extremely pleasant, although the sea urchin just didn’t stand out like one might hope.

2001 Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach Steinberger Riesling Kabinett Goldkapsel. agavin 91. Medium sweet. Quiet nice.

Cereal Scallops. Hazelnuts, chiles. These were super tender and reminded me of Eastern Shore fried scallops from my childhood.

1996 Domaine Touchais Coteaux du Layon Réserve de nos Vignobles. agavin 94. Super sweet and delicious.
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Coconut lemongrass curry. I don’t remember what was in here, but it was an awesome creamy coconut and lemongrass curry with a bit of spicy heat. Pretty similar to the amazing snail curry I’ve had at Phong Dinh.

Pig tail. Special order. Looks at that disgusting thing and all the fat.

I tried carving off some of the meat and not much fat and wrapping it with the herbs. The first bite was piggy, but the finish was actually quiet nice. Erick gnawed on the bone!

1998 M. Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Barbe Rac. Parker 94-96. Chapoutier’s 1998 Barbe Rac is close to full maturity. It exhibits an abundance of Provencal herbs intermixed with new saddle leather, kirsch, framboise, and spice box. The intoxicatingly heady, complex aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, lush, succulent style of wine with a relatively high alcohol/glycerin content and loads of fruit. This wine is drinking terrifically well after going through an awkward stage about two to three years ago. Drink it between now and 2020.

agavin: Nice and grapey. Young, but drinking great right now.

Vietnamese Pot Au Feu. Creekstone farms short rib stew, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, bone marrow, grilled bread, two sauces.

We had five people and it was a few too many to really split this. The broth was very nice, and quiet interesting when doped with the sauces — but I didn’t get much and it was hard to experiment.

Grilled Lobster. Shallots, Asian basil, pistachio butter (Half or Whole).

The meat itself had a wonderful grilled basil flavor. Hard to split five ways though.

Whole Singaporean. White Pepper Crab. Same splitting problem with the crab, and there wasn’t much meat on this Dungeness. But the sauce was great with a real potent white pepper kick. I love pepper crab. None beat the ones I had in Singapore.

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Black Cod. Anchovy broth, Chinese romaine, lychee relish, herb salad.
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Beef Rendang. Beef cheek curry, jasmine rice, sambal, kaffir lime, peanuts. This had some heat to it, but was a spectacularly delicious curry dish. That rich red/meat/nutty curry over rice and the interplay of soft and crunchy textures. Yum!

Grilled Spicy Lamb Breast. Sichuan peppercorn, cumin, sambal, jasmine rice, sesame sauce. This was a nice dish, fairly Indian in vibe. There was that loose lovely Indian rice, which although labeled as jasmine in the description sure seemed like Basmati. Then the juicy bits of pork and a bit of heat. Nice stuff.

Grilled Chinese Broccoli. Caramelized fish sauce. Pretty good for straight up veggies.

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Grilled Dwelley Farms Corn. Scallion-coriander butter. Sort of like Mexican street corn!

Charcuterie Fried Rice. Chinese bacon, lap cheong, salt pork, salted fish, lettuce. Really tasty fried rice. Loved the sweet Chinese sausage.

Grilled Pork Belly Vermicelli. Thin rice noodles, oysters, pickled kohlrabi & carrots, herbs, green leaf, peanuts.

Again a hard dish to split five ways as that little bowl of meat/broth didn’t stretch far enough. It was delicious and Pho-like with the noodles and herbs.

Here is the combined soup, which was quite excellent.
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Smoked Beef Short Ribs. Spicy Chinese BBQ sauce, pickled Chinese cabbage, Bibb lettuce, herbs.

Laksa. Rice noodles, spicy coconut-seafood soup. Basically udon noodles in a red curry broth. I liked the dish, as I love red curry. Others complained that the curry flavor was a touch mild and “short” and it was (although there is some considerable heat). This doesn’t have the depth of a great red curry like at Jitlada. Still, I enjoyed it. It’s just been “toned down” for the Santa Monica crowd.
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Wok-tossed Yard beans & avocado. Preserved turnips, ginger, chili oil. Interesting contrast between the crunchy yard beans and the soft avocado. Not bad at all for a string bean dish.

The dessert menu.

Chocolate Banana Tart. Banana chips, candied walnuts, vanilla whipped cream. The weakest of the five desserts. A little sweet and not enough chocolate flavor.

Blackberry, Cherry Napoleon. Green tea Bavarian cream. This was great and refreshing with bright berry flavors.

Deep fried Paris-Brest. Housemade lemongrass ice cream, candied lemon. That lemongrass ice cream was awesome. The whole vibe was key lime pie like. Really refreshing.

Summer Fruit Floating Islands. Passion fruit creme anglaise, poached peaches, Santa Rosa plums, Pudwill raspberries & fresh mint. And this was amazing with a rich creamy passionfruit flavor.

Vietnamese Coffee Pudding. Coconut shortbread. Plus I loved this “pudding,” which is more like a pot-a-creme. The coffee cream thing worked just as well as a dessert.
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Coconut ice cream balls.

Overall, commenting after my first visit, I’m really psyched to see this new addition to the long subdued Santa Monica restaurant scene. I love Vietnamese food and while this isn’t strictly Vietnamese, but more like Vietnamese, Chinese, Singaporean fusion with a very modern brasserie sensibility. Fairly unique and really quiet fun and excellent. I hope they evolve and refine and aren’t forced to backpedal to pander to the local tastes. There is some tendency in Santa Monica toward just that. For example, all of the more interesting (and not really that bold) new mall places of a couple years ago have shuttered and been replaced by a Cheesecake Factory. Cry.

And readdressing my opinion a few months later in November, Cassia has continued to come on strong. It was mobbed on a cold Tuesday November night, the food was perhaps a touch more consistent, and service was good. It was extremely friendly, although pacing was a little uneven (but not enough to be a problem). Since it’s busy, the menu hasn’t backpedalled — because people seem to be responding well. Sure it’s a little “white-a-fied”, but it’s it’s still great to have it here on the Westside.

And reassessing again July of 2016, the food has tightened up even further. The menu may have changed a dish or two, but it’s still aggressive (a good thing), but the execution has tuned up even further. These dishes were on fire, offering some really serious and interesting flavor that hits its own unique spot between traditional and California Vietnamese.

Returning in January 2020, the food continued to be excellent. My favorite dishes were still great. I’m reminded that Cassia is still quite spicy — which I like — but surprisingly so for a mainstream restaurant. Service itself was pretty good but their wine service is a little wonky, or at least my unusual perception of wine service. They seem to have the dreaded (and totally inane) “two bottle limit” now. Sucks. Stupid. Counterproductive to making money and good customer service. I’ve ranted about it many times before like here. And they didn’t want me to open the wines myself, saying their ABC license didn’t allow it. That’s a new one, and I’m pretty sure totally false. Even if vaguely true, probably has never been enforced. I’ve certainly opened 1000s of bottles in restaurants.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or compare to some Vietnamese Vietnamese (in Vietnam).

Some wines from the 1/28/20 dinner:

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Related posts:

  1. Phong Dinh – Hedonists go Vietnamese
  2. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  3. Coconut Curried Snails?
  4. Hedonists at Dahab
  5. Hedonists at Jitlada
By: agavin
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The Doctor is In

May20

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

Location: 624 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (310) 362-6115

Date: May 12, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

Rating: Nice (loud) space, tasty hip food, great service

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OMG, Republique again! This time for another special wine dinner, hosted by Sage Society and featuring Ernst Loosen of Weingut Dr Loosen, one of the world’s premier riesling producers.

The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud! We just had our appetizers here, before moving to the quieter private room upstairs.


On the left is Ernst Loosen, owner of the winery and on the right our hostess, Liz Lee of Sage society.

Flight 0: Champagne


NV Guillaume Sergent Champagne Les Prés Dieu. 90 points. Very nice, young bright acid bomb of a champagne.

Potato chips, mashed potato, caviar. The chip was super rich. Really the mashed potatoe tasted like butter! The caviar was a bit overwhelmed, but certainly delightful.

Smoked hamachi croquettes. With pickled radish. Like a fancy modern version of the classic Spanish cod croquettes.

NV Doyard Champagne Cuvée Vendémiaire Brut. VM 89. The NV Brut Cuvée Vendémiaire is a beautiful wine that shows lovely complexity in its aromas and flavors, suggesting a period of extended aging on the lees and/or a relatively high percentage of reserve wines in the blend. The Cuvée Vendémiaire shows plenty of Chardonnay character and a refined, subtle mousse that is a result of the lower-atmosphere vinification. The Vendémiaire is made from parcels in Vertus, Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil.

Tuna tartar crostini. Avocado mousse.

Upstairs is much quieter and more intimate.


Tonight’s special menu. As usual it was designed/produced by chef Walter and Liz Lee.

Before we get into the Riesling itself, it’s worth looking at the chunks of Mosel that Ernst brought. From the bottom to the top, gray slate, red slate, and red volcanic stone. Different vineyards we tasted tonight have different compositions of these stony soils.

Flight 1:

This flight, and its 3 wines, all come from the same vineyard, same year, same juice. The only difference is the juice was placed into three separate barrels and aged on its lees for 12, 24, and 36 months respectively. They are all dry.

2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. 90 points. Gorgeous nose. Probably the best nose of the three as it was fruitier and more open. Mineral, fresh nose; great acid, more mineral.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Reserve. 92 points. A little more closed at first but with poise and balance. Drinking very nicely.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs “Hommage”. 90-94 points. This smells and tastes like a wine that needs more time, but hints of additional complexity. Maybe even some grapefruit. Really nice and unique.

Vichyssoise. Oyster, uni. A delicious slurry of green with briny orange lumps.

Flight 2:

A trio of 2013 dry rieslings from different terriors, all made in the same basic style.

2013 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 90 points. This had the best nose, but was the softest, perhaps most elegant, and subtle of the flight.

2013 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. To my taste this had more zing.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Extremely similar to the Ürziger Würzgarten.

Dutch White asparagus. Morel mushroom, meyer lemon sabayon. A pretty classic version of the in-season delicacy. The sauce was so buttery good, we had to order bread to sop it up. An amazing pairing.

Flight 3:

A pair of 2011 dry rieslings from the same vineyard, Erdener Prälat, which many regard as the greatest of Mosel Valley Grand Crus. The only difference is the reserve was aged in barrel for 24 instead of 12 months.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Very nice.

2011 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. 94 points. The extra time in the barrel clearly works because the reserve is just better on all fronts. There is more balance, more power, and a clear feel of longer aging potential. Again, this is from a wine that is essentially identical except for the time in barrel.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Bonito, yuzu, shitatke mushroom, brown butter. Scrumptiously soft and sweat with more of that crazy good butter sauce. Head sucking good.

Flight 4:

Now we move up to sweet and back in time, with a trio of Spatlese.

1989 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Light yellow in color, this wine smells and tastes very fresh with a great mixture of youngish fruit ( singed peaches and citrus ) along with some aged characteristics of smoke and a little petrol. Medium bodied with a long finish, this wine seems to be at it’s peak now.

1973 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 89 points. Maybe I’m not totally used to old Riesling, but this was certainly mature. Sous bois. Fresh though. Weird complex notes. Certainly in great shape for its age.

2002 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Auction. 93 points. I loved the fresh sweetness of this bottling.

Cook ranch pork chop. polenta, stone fruits, brown butter sauce. Walter dropped the curry and lentils (on the menu) at the last minute. This undoubtedly paired better. Perhaps an unusual wine/food melding, but a phenomenal one. Very tender meat, nicely sweetened up by the fruit.

Flight 5:

Now getting into the old sweet stuff, but not yet the mega sweet.

1971 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 93 points. Here I thought the increased sweetness offset the oxidation of aging in a more harmonious way. Really quite nice and rounded.

1966 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 89 points. This wine might be a little flawed, or just 49 years old!

Sweet potato agnolotti. Foie gras, applewood-smocked bacon. Wow! As if the agnolotti wasn’t amazing, through in bacon, and if that wasn’t enough, a huge chunk of foie!

Flight 6:

And our final flight is the mysterious and massive long Goldkapsel, with 100% shriveled raisiny fruit!

2004 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese long Goldkapsel Auction. 96 points. Like liquid candy. Fabulous power and depth.

1999 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel Auction. 95 points. Most people liked the 2004 better, but I kind of loved the 1999 because it had a real long zingy finish.

Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese. Fruit bread. Local honeycomb. A nice might blue cheesy that offset the intense sweetness of the wines nicely.

Again Liz organizes a great dinner. The wines were first class. I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but these were some of the best rieslings I’ve had — and I love riesling. Lots of variety and complexity and there is a consistent harmony to the Loosen wines. Lovely stuff. Plus, Ernst was highly informative and engaging, and I felt I learned quite a bit about the different processes and decisions employed at the winery — where they make a fairly bewildering array of wines from each vineyard (all with long German names, of course).

Walter really does his best work at these custom dinners. First of all, you get new dishes. Second, he really tunes them up to the wines at a superlative level. It isn’t easy to make an entire multi course meal that pairs with Riesling, but the Walter/Liz team rose to the occasion again!

As usual, Taylor did an amazing job with the wine service.

An overall fabulous afternoon.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Trimbach Republique
  2. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
By: agavin
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Homestyle Korean Double Dinner

May15

Restaurant: Seong Buk Dong

Location: 3303 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 738-8977

Date: May 7, 2015

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Super flavors

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My friend Liz Lee of Sage Society wanted to take a bunch of us out to her favorite homestyle Korean restaurant, but they don’t allow alcohol, so we decided to do a “double dinner” with a part 1 at Republique (including wine) and a part 2 at Seong Buk Dong.

We sat near the Republique bar, early in the evening.

I just had to show off their Normandy butter.

Tonight’s menu.

Liz, being Liz, whipped out a bottle of P2! (Dom Perignon’s high end cuvee). Check out the fancy box.

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. VM 95. Pale gold. Intense, mineral-tinged citrus and orchard fruit aromas, with a suave jasmine nuance adding complexity. Smoky and penetrating on the palate, offering vibrant orange, anise and toasted brioche flavors and a touch of poached pear. Shows outstanding clarity and power on the mineral-driven finish, which clings with remarkable tenacity and resonating florality. This late-release bottling was formerly called Oenotheque; P2 stands for Plenitude Two.

agavin: Fresh, bright, and delicious. Got better and better in the glass.

Oysters, 3 types.


Bread and normandy butter.


2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 97. Very pale color. Extraordinary nose reminded me of a great riesling from schist soil: pineapple, wet stone, iodine, spring flowers, even a hint of petrol. Compellingly rich and ripe but extremely dry, with great breadth and depth of flavor. Coats the palate with liquid stone. Builds slowly and goes on and on; all minerals and white flowers today, not yet fruity at all. A wine of great precision and suavity, but with its richness and sweetness it comes across as less sharp than the Forest. I couldn’t get this wine out of my head on my drive to Paris the next day and on the flight home: is that long, or what?

agavin: fine, but not as good as the 2002


Tempura. Green beans, zucchini flowers, sweet onions, fresno chilies, basil aioli. Some great tempura, amplified by the pesto-like aioli. The zucchini and chilies were particularly good.


2002 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 96+. Very ripe but unforthcoming aromas of wet stone, honey and oatmeal. Extremely primary on the palate, with bracing grapefruit and mineral flavors and superb vibrancy. This offers great sweetness and breadth without any impression of weight. Finishes with explosive citrus and mineral flavors and great finesse. Wonderfully refreshing wine that’s the perfect antidote to dry mouth. Like the young 2003, the finish of this wine seems to come in waves.

agavin: awesome depth and complexity.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab. Just pure fried crab — awesome!


From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 92 points agavin. Fresh, young, still some reduction. Meursault richness, very nice.

Charcoal grilled Atlantic Calamari and razor clams. Very fresh.

Chips and Dip. Crispy pork rinds…

Ora king salmon crudo, cucumber, yogurt. Really good stuff. I particularly liked the dill.


1991 Domaine Groffier Bonnes Mares. agavin 90. No nose, but a nice palette.

Grass-fed beef tartare. tarragon aioli, pickled red onion, potato chips.


1996 Domaine Leroy Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots. VM 92-94. Excellent deep ruby-red color. Subdued but vibrant aromas of cassis, blackberry and violet. Superb sweetness and flavor intensity; penetrating flavor of spicy blackberry. Lovely acidity gives the wine juiciness and great cut. Very persistent and fine on the finish. Has fruit of steel. Great Nuits-Saint-Georges premier cru.

agavin: Really nice with a sexy nose and that classic Leroy style. Lots of depth.

Charcuterie. All sorts of amazing pates. Pickled vegetables. Spiced persimmons which were to die for, cured duck, and salami.

Duck Liver mousse — amazing and some other kind of potted meat.

Duck filled agnolotti in brown butter sauce. Amazing pasta. Rich too, no surprise.


The wine lineup.

We ubered over to K-Town to visit this slice of Korea.

Looks the part inside.


The menu.

Barley tea.

Banchan.

Delicious Kimchi.

Pickled spiced green.

Pickled spiced green.

Egg custard with greens.

Chewy sweet beans.

Marinated bean sprouts.

Seaweed.

White rice, necessary to sop up the spicy sauce.

Godeungeo Jorim. Braised Mackerel in a spicy soy sauce mixture with white radish and kimchi. Amazing sauce and very tender fish. I particularly loved the daikon radish.

Galbi Jjim. Braised Beef Short Ribs. trimmed of (some) fat, seasoned in a sweet soy sauce & braised until tender. So tender, this was some of the best “beef stew” I’ve ever had.

Jaeyuk Bokum / Kimchi Bokum. A stir fry of sour kimchi, fatty pork, & green onion. Amazing dish. The pork was full of flavor and the kimchi sauce was awesome and balanced. This is actually relatively similar to the twice cooked pork we had the previous night at Lucky Noodle King, but about 10x better.

Samgyre Tang. Ginseng Chicken Soup. Tender whole young chicken stuffed w/ ginseng, jujubes, sweet rice and whole garlic cloves & simmered until tender. Homestyle Korean chicken soup, which is much like any chicken soup. A bit mild for my taste, but certainly very tender.

Jogi Gui. Grilled yellow croaker. Classic grilled fish.

Haemul Pajeon. Seafood and green onion pancake. Tender young green onion steams folded into a flour batter with squid, clam meat, and oysters. Pan fried.

The all important pancake sauce.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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  5. Eating Tuscany – Villa Dinner
By: agavin
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Sage at Oliverio

Dec08

Restaurant: Oliverio [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9400 W Olympic Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 407-7791

Date: December 4, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome Food & Wine

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Sage Society is a fabulous wine sales business operated by my friend Liz, who has one of the best palettes for food and wine of anyone I know. We also have very similar taste in both and she is a huge lover of Burgundy and interesting and geeky Italians. She periodically organizes dinners for her clients which always combine fabulous wines, great food, and an extremely high level of polish and integration. She really produces (in the film sense of the term) a menu and experience.

Tonight is the annual Sage Society Holiday Dinner.

The atmosphere at Oliverio is tres LA. They have sexy poolside dining, but this being a “wintery” December evening, we at inside.


These first two champagnes are great drinking reasonable ones Liz brought to get started “before” the serious drinking.


agavin: apparently this one has old Meursault in it, which lent it some added complexity.


Our hostess Liz on the left and master chef Mirko Paderno. Paderno is a born and bred Italian chef. Raised in Milan, his love of cooking was originally inspired by his parents and grandmother, who taught him how to prepare traditional dishes from both the Northern and Southern parts of Italy.

After graduating from the Cesare Ritz School in Merano, Chef Paderno worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan under Chef Sergio Mei. Utilizing fresh ingredients and simple accents in his dishes, he developed a style that focused on the flavor of the food above all else.  In 1999, Chef Paderno took his osteria-style cuisine to Los Angeles, working at top Italian restaurants such as Primi, Dolce and All’Angelo. After opening the acclaimed Cecconi’s in West Hollywood in 2009, Paderno was appointed Executive Chef at Oliverio inside the Avalon Hotel and tasked with relaunching the concept and menu as an upscale, alfresco Italian restaurant.

In the fall of 2013, Chef Paderno was named Area Executive Chef for Viceroy Hotel Group, adding LIVELLO at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills to his kitchen roster. At both Oliverio and LIVELLO, he showcases what he calls “modern Italian food with regional touches” and fuses Italian flavors with local ingredients.

Liz brought this Oenothèque (renamed P2) which comes in a crazy elaborate display box.

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. AG 95. The 1998 Dom Pérignon P-2 (formerly Oenothèque) is quite reticent today. What else is new? These second -plenitude wines are often very tight when they are first released, which is very much the case here. Still, it is quite evident the 1998 is a bit more tender and pliant than the 1996. Today, the 1998 still hasn’t turned the corner, but it is quite pretty and expressive. This is a terrific offering.


Grilled Mediterranean seppia, roasted squash pate.


Butternut squash soup with cheese an sage.


Bread.


1983 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. JK 93. Nose was so honeyed and full of crème brulee that it gave a sinful impression. There was a touch of seltzer and minerals, but the 1983 was definitely living in plateau city. To me, this vintage signified crossing that bridge that Bernard alluded to earlier. Bernard was impressed with the freshness of the 1983. The palate had a woodsy edge but was still very smooth and caressing, with good seltzer vim to the finish. I concluded, .In a great spot right now.


Sunchokes soufflé, parmigiano sauce, fresh black truffle. A fabulous cheesy, truffle dish.


The next three courses involved an unusual blind “contest.” We each brought several wines designed to go with specific courses. They were served blind in flights and we attempted to choose not the best wine, but the best “pairing.”


The winner of the best pairing was to receive this awesome 1990 Tattinger Collection Champagne.

Flight 1


From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc. IWC 91-95. Honey, hay and herbs on the nose. Dense but bright, and quite spicy in the mouth. Not especially sweet, but chewy and vibrant, finishing with good grip. From Rocoules: Spice, apricot and orange zest on the nose. Silky and spicy, with lovely fat texture, but still with racy grip. This could make a complete Hermitage blanc on its own. Rocoules again: Complex aromas of lemon, spice and blond tobacco. Less sweet than the first Rocoules sample, but also tighter and more obviously structured. Finishes with considerable power. The Chaves had already moved these first components from barrel to tank in order to avoid fatiguing the wine. Rocoules from a barrel (14.8% alcohol): Extraordinarily spicy nose, with malic notes of apple and spearmint. Still showing traces of the fermentation. Lush and deep on the palate, with almost exotic ripeness and a flavor of honeysuckle. As fat as this is, it still has sound acidity and terrific verve, with enlivening notes of orange zest and spice. Very long and fresh on the aftertaste. The ultimate blend should make a terrific bottle.


1996 Domaine Touchais Coteaux du Layon Réserve de nos Vignobles. I middling sweet Chenin.


2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux. Burghound 92. Extremely subtle oak frames expressive and layered aromas of oyster shell, iodine and a lovely mineral component that leads to even more complex flavors that display superb intensity and stunning length. The finish is racy yet completely buffered by the copious sap. A knockout that has reached its peak though it should be capable of holding at this level for up to another decade.

agavin: best wine of the flight (although it still didn’t pair).


Spaghetti bottarga with clams and a TON of caviar. A very salty briny dish. Really quite lovely, but a difficult pairing. The caviar and clams were a last minute addition and we had tried to pair with just the bottarga. Really, the 1983 Dom worked best (not an official pairing) and even it fought with the brine.


This wine was a bonus “palette cleanser.”

2000 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Mont. A nearly dry Vouvray.


White truffle and porcini gnocchi.


1990 Georges Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. 93 points. Brick color, with a nose of game and leather. Decent fruit, with a tannic backbone still showing, similar to other ’90s. This is a very good wine, and will hold for a while.


2002 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Romanée St. Vivant. IWC 93. Dark red. Youthful raspberry and blackberry aromas accented by gingerbread, along with deeper mocha, smoked meat and candied rose accents. Lush, suave and deep, with a bright, zesty mineral quality adding impressive lift and precision to the deep, sweet red and dark berry flavors. Finishes with a liqueur-like raspberry quality and excellent depth and persistence. More alluring today than the 2001 and I suspect that this will drink well earlier, if for no other reason than for its sweetness and supple texture.

agavin: best wine of the flight, although slightly weak in the fruit department — nose was all RSV.


From my cellar: 1970 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Cerro Anon Gran Reserva. 92 points. Surprisingly young. Gorgeous and interesting nose with a slightly weak mid palette and a long pretty sour cherry finish. Most people thought it was some odd pinot noir and had no idea it was so old.


Liz through this beautiful white in because we all tried red pairings.

1990 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. This is one of those whites from the ’90 vintage that is trapped in a time capsule as it remains unusually youthful for a 20 year old wine even if no longer young as the nose displays the first hints of sous bois along with dried flower and citrus aromas. The delicious and highly mineral-infused middle weight flavors are racy, intense and beautifully delineated before culminating in a lingering and pure finish. This is in extraordinary condition if well-stored and should continue to drink well for years to come. In a word, impressive.

agavin: really nice Charlie, incredibly fresh, younger than some 2005s I’ve tasted!


Egg yolk ravioli, white truffle sauce, fresh white truffle. A magnificent dish with an intense yolky factor that emphasized the earthy quality of the truffles.

But it was also a difficult pairing. None of us (except maybe Liz) properly anticipated the yolk effect, and all the reds, good as they might have been with straight truffles, were just consumed by the yolk. Not unpleasantly mind you, but not exactly harmoniously either. The Corton was the best of the lot (pairing wise), but even it was fairly overwhelmed by the egg.


1994 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Masseto Toscana IGT. AG 95. The 1994 Masseto is another super-impressive wine in this tasting. The warmth of the year comes through in the super-ripe, dense fruit. There is plenty of underlying structure to ensure another decade of very fine drinking here. This is a stunning Masseto from a long forgotten year.


From my cellar: 1985 Joseph Drouhin Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers. 88 points. This bottle had a serious barnyard funk on the nose (horse butt as we nicknamed it), but after about an hour it mostly faded. The palette and finish were quite nice though (if you ignored the nose). Quite a bit of fruit still going.


2002 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux. Burghound 90-93. Intense, extremely expressive spicy red fruit aromas lead to wonderfully sappy, mouth coatingly rich flavors blessed with outstanding density and unusually silky tannins plus a certain seductive quality to the subtly complex and persistent finish. This is more refined than it normally is at this early stage of its development and is extremely promising.

agavin: my favorite wine of the flight.


2002 Domaine du Château de Chorey (Germain) Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Tante Berthe. Burghound 93. This is a massive wine with an incredibly concentrated yet remarkably elegant nose of cassis and plum followed by powerful, robust and firmly structured flavors oozing with sap that completely buffers the big but very ripe tannins. Despite the size, this is astonishingly well balanced and the length just doesn’t quit; I could taste this wine hours later and if you can find any, don’t pass it up as Beaune 1ers of this caliber rarely come along and it will last at least 30 years, perhaps longer.

agavin: this wine caused much consternation blind as it was so purple and powerful that we wondered if it might be a New World Pinot Noir. It had a killer long finish.


Roasted quail, porcini mushroom, black garlic reduction. A gorgeous qual that required some bone chomping, which was totally worth it.

These were the most closely paired wines. The Massetto, although lovely, was a total pair fail, but all the Burgundies worked decently. Still, not of them worked so well that we were willing to declare them a “winning pairing.” So we didn’t actually award the Champagne.


Pumpkin ravioli with a cheese sauce.


1993 Camille Giroud Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge. Not something you see every day — but it was gorgeous. One of my favorite wines of the night.


Selection of Italian cheese: soft gorgonzola (cow), carboncino (3 milk), rocchetta (sheep).


Panna cotta with blueberries.


Overall, this was another knock out meal. The food was fantastic. Each dish was really fabulous and very generous with the truffles, caviar and the like. Mirko Paderno is a top top Italian chef, one of the best in town (and LA has very good Italian). The wines were also wonderful, some mixed, but the format was a lot of fun and resulted in an enormous amount of wine talk and debate — woe be those few who weren’t serious wine geeks.

Happy holidays from Sage Society!

LA dining reviews click here.

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  5. Factory Kitchen – Fabulous
By: agavin
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Shiki Times Three

Nov07

Restaurant: Shiki Beverly Hills [1, 2]

Location: 410 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 310-888-0036

Date: August 26, October 30, 2014, and January 10, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Some of the best sushi I’ve had in a while!

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Shiki Beverly Hills recently replaced Enoteco Drago in the primo Canon Dr space right in the heart of Beverly Hills. It features extremely Japanese seasonal ingredient focused kaiseki and sushi. The space is elegant and modern, really not that different than it was as Drago.


Chef Shigenori Fujimoto was at Matsuhisa from 94-04 and brings with him both a traditionalist and “new style” sushi vibe. My friend Liz, who has impeccable taste, first brought me when she arranged a Sage Society dinner here. This post represents three similar Omakase blended together (two lunches and one dinner), so there are slightly more non-sushi courses represented than you might eat in one meal. Slight, given how large our meals were!



2012 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. 92 points. A very nice, very dry friulano. A clean crispy cool weather Italian white that paired perfectly with sushi.


Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with ikura (salmon egg) and uni (sea urchin). Dashi. A wonderful blend of some textures and briny flavors.


Parfait of seaweed and various soft sea stuff. A very delicate flavor with unusual textures.

Kamamoto oysters prepared three ways, with a sort of mignonette, caviar, and uni!


Pepper and halibut salad. Fresh farmer’s market peppers.

Eggplant and Tai salad. Seared snapper with egg plant, dashi, and mushrooms. Really Japanese and delicious.


Halibut sashimi with truffles. Pickled tomato. Really a fabulous savory combination. The tomato is great too, and because it’s heavily marinated, it doesn’t bother me like a raw tomato.


2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Burghound 95. While discreet, there is a trace of wood that sits atop the ever-so-mildly exotic fruit and wonderfully layered aromas that are still admirably fresh even though they now display some mature notes. The exceptionally rich and overtly muscular flavors are quite forward though powerful as a still firm and prominent acid spine keeps everything in perfect balance on the magnificently persistent finish. This is classy juice that is knocking on the door of its prime drinkability.

agavin: This one started off so deep yellow, and with so much creme brulee on the nose that I thought it was premoxed, although drinking pleasant enough right now, but over the next 30 minutes or so it came into balance and opened up into an absolutely lovely Chevy. I don’t think it will last, so I wouldn’t hold them for too many years. I’ve open 4 bottles of it this year. 3 have been like this one, and 1 was so premoxed we could barely drink it. None have been pale and fresh/crisp. Now this is 14-15 year old white Burg, but I opened a 1991 Sauzet Chevy for New Years that tasted years younger! So the whole thing has me wondering where the large number of wines made in the new style that come off like this are going. I’m guessing we need to drink them!


Wild yellowtail sashimi with jalopeno. A variant on the now classic Matsuhisa dish.


Salmon with truffle sashimi. Another great.

Slow cooked fish, uni paste, and Japanese pickles.


Giant clam. Wasabi, dashi, seaweed. This was all about the texture. The big chunks of clam had a wonderful crunch.


Oysters. With a slightly sour pink suspension.


The next dish came in one of those cute tea pot/bowls.


Shrimp, mushroom, ginko soup. Inside is a broth with various seafood and vegetables.


This one had a slightly spicy suspension (you can see the chili flakes) and a strong acidity (you squeeze in the Japanese lime) and drink. Then pick out the seafood.


1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 93 points. 1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. Like old cherries and truffles.

agavin: I love this vineyard, in part because it’s mild and elegant and quite a lot like Musigny (which it is adjacent to, being one of the best locations in Clos Vougeot). It paired perfectly with the beef below.


Wagyu sirloin and filet mignon, with vegetables. The meat melted in your mouth.


And daikon as accompaniment.


Fresh pickled ginger. Shiki pickles his own whole ginger roots! Super flavorful and stomach settling. I gnawed through two.


2000 Etienne Sauzet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Intense honeysuckle, fresh sliced peach and pear notes with flavors that are not quite as robust and powerful as the Combettes yet finer and more complex. This delivers exciting intensity and a degree of persistence that borders on the astonishing. The Combettes is perhaps grander but this is finer – it’s simply a question of preference, not quality.

agavin: Our bottle started off extremely closed. Paler and clearly younger (less premoxed) than the 2000 Chevalier above. After about 30-40 minutes it opened up into a lovely mature Grand Cru, gaining both the mineral and the floral weight.


Goldeneye snapper. Salt,  yuzu, and a bit of kick.


Japanese Barracuda. The best piece of this fish I’ve had.


A different seared Japanese fish that is only eaten in winter (for its high fat content). Really rich and delicious.


Jumbo clam with shiso. More texture, but fabulous.


O toro. As wonder a piece of sushi as one could hope for.


Wild Baby yellowtail. Wow!


Wild Spanish Mackerel (Aji). No fishiness at all.


Japanese gizzard shad (kohada). Also fabulous.


Orange clam. Soft (for clam).


2007 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses Blanc. Burghound 90. As would reasonably be expected, there is just more here in every dimension with a more complex and more elegant nose that is layered and very fresh and this refinement continues onto the nicely concentrated middle weight flavors that display evident minerality on the sappy, intense and mouth coating finish that lingers and lingers. This is a terrific Savigny blanc and recommended.

agavin: This is a nice young Chardonnay that is drinking terrifically.


Sweet shrimp (Ama-ebi). Yum.


On one of the days the shrimp came with row! Even better.


And the heads of course can come back fried, or as Liz likes it above, grilled. Grilled really tastes incredible with a good shrimp like  this. You suck out the guts and brain basically (worth it!).


Or miso soup is an option with the head.


King mackerel. Not at all like Aji, but delicious.


Japanese squid (ika). With just the right firmness.


Hokkaido sea urchin (uni). Yum!


Santa Barbara Uni. Delicious.


New Zealand Sea Trout (salmon relative). Fabulous.


Halibut fin with salt and yuzu and pepper. This has a wonderful texture and chew, with some richness. Fin is a rare bit because there isn’t much usable meat in there.


Halibut fin with slightly sweet soy. Another take on the same meat. Both were good but I slightly prefer the first one.


Salmon eggs (ikura). No fishiness.

Anago (sea eel). With salt and wasabi.


Tuna (maguro). Also like toro.


A second wand of ginger.


Hokkaido scallop (Hotate). Just fabulous.


Red snapper (tai) with shiso. Yum!


Clam miso.


A toro and citrus peel handroll. Divine.


Yellowtail handroll.


Orange clam cut roll. Nice crunch.


Classic tuna roll. Not spicy!

Plum and shiso handroll. Incredibly traditional and with a sour “minty” taste.


Check out the inside with the plum paste.


Yuzu ice cream.

t

Panna cotta with fruit. Small and lovely.


Traditional mochi, saba sauce, and ice cream.


Wow. LA has lots of great Japanese, and I have good sushi all the time, but this was particularly awesome. Really the sushi itself was as good as it gets. Very traditional style too, which is my favorite. I love the acid washed Nozawa style too, but hand sauced traditional like this is my favorite.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Taco yaki?

 

Related posts:

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  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
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Trimbach Republique

Oct31

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

Location: 624 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (310) 362-6115

Date: October 28, 2014

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

Rating: Nice (loud) space, tasty hip food, great service

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Back to Republique again? Well, it seems in 2014 half the serious wine events are here. Possibly it’s because Sommelier Taylor Parsons is so good. In any case, tonight’s tasting is a serious vertical exploration of Trimbach Close St Hune, one of the world’s most rarefied dry Rieslings. This dinner was organized by Sage Society (and Sage’s founder, Liz Lee) for Sage Society clients. Not only did we enjoy 16 vintages of CSH, but Anne Trimbach, ambassador from the winemaker joined us.


The building is an interesting fusion of pre-war factory…


The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud!

Tonight our dinner was in the private room upstairs, but our appetizers began on a little table in the upstairs hall.


NV Jacquart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru “Mesnil Expérience. 92 points. Light pale color, micro beading. Nose is acute and clean, showing very pleasant saline, schist and lemony/citrus tones. Touch of browned toast as well. Mouth feel is excellent and integrated. On the palate very defined citrus, lemon, grey stone, green apple and hard wood, some secondary weight on the back palate indicating good structure. Mouthwatering in nature, with great acid elements. An excellent value, worth seeking out.


Tart. Nueske’s Bacon. Carmelized onion, gruyere. Addictively sweet and salty.


NV Jacquart Champagne Brut Rosé Experience. 89 points. Pleasant rose champagne with strawberry aromas. It has a vibrant acidity which gives it a good refreshing quality.


Gioia Burrata Crostini. Green kadota & black mission figs, speck, some purple leaf. Burrata and cured meat is always a winner.


Tonight’s special menu (mostly listing the wines). We also had an 1992 CSH.


Anne Trimbach, ambassador for the Trimbach family presided over our dinner, offering comments on each of the wines.


We begin with Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile, which is a blend of two Grand Cru vineyards.

2007 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. IWC 91+. Good pale color. Rather austere on the nose, hinting at underripe pineapple, crushed stone and menthol. Dense, ripe and dry, with terrific sappiness giving a tactile quality to the dusty flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, lime, spices and stone. There’s something subtly full about this broad, very long riesling. Here, too, the acidity is nearly eight grams, and the residual sugar less than one gram. Still an infant.

agavin: acid bomb!


1997 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. IWC 93+. Subdued but deep aromas of white flowers and lime. Dry (just three grams per liter r.s.), deep and impressively structured. Slow to evolve but already long on personality. Very densely packed and deep. This should develop in bottle for many years. Very long, adamantly dry finish. Jean Trimbach considers this a great vintage for the Frédéric Emile, perhaps in the class of the ’83.

agavin: the best pairing with the food (of the flight). First bottle was corked, we opened a second and it was great.


1990 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. 94+ points. Elegant, almost rubbery nose with very delicate and nice fruit aromas. This is actually complex with tender yellow fruit, dried, elegant herbs, and pure citrus fruit. Perfect development. A palate loaded with mineral and grinded stones. Elegant and pure. Absolute balance and a tremendous grip. The acidity and finish goes on and on. Medium-fullish body.

agavin: more Boytritus and my favorite by itself.


Hamachi crudo. Oysters. Oyster gelle. Singapore curry oil. This actually paired very well. You wouldn’t think so, but it did. All three main elements (hamachi, oysters, and curry) were present and in balance.


With this flight we start up the endless progression of Clos St Hune.

2007 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Very pale, clear color. Extremely unevolved aromas of quinine, mint, lime, white flowers and white truffle. Dense and exhilarating, with an oily texture and piquant lime and mineral flavors that saturate the palate. Wonderfully pure and stony riesling, but still a baby. Today this is all about grip. The r.s. here is just 1.7 grams per liter, according to Pierre Trimbach, who compares this wine to the superb 2001 Clos Ste. Hune.


2005 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93+. Subtle aromas of lime skin, peche de vigne and wet stone, with complicating notes of vanilla and mint. Denser and richer than the Frederic Emile, and a step up in concentration; shows a more glyceral texture to its peach and spice flavors. Round, mouthfilling and horizontal. Finishes dry, broad and very long, with a bracing edge of acidity. This and the Fred were picked in mid-October, and “not too late,” notes Pierre Trimbach, who is certain that these wines will shut down soon.

agavin: good, but in a slightly awkward stage.


2004 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95. Pale, bright yellow. Ripe pineapple, liquid stone and exotic honey on the nose, with a spicy lift that suggests an oak influence this wine does not possess. On entry, this is sweeter and creamier than the Frederic Emile, but it livens up quickly in the middle, showing powerful minerality and sharply delineated flavors of liquid stone, pineapple and citrus peel. Still, this conveys a distinctly glyceral impression that suggests more sweetness than its 5 grams of residual sugar, no doubt a function of the 20% or so botrytized berries (in contrast to the Frederic Emile, which included no botrytis). Communicates an impression of power with elegance, finishing minerally and long but not austere. Pierre Trimbach compared this wine to the estate’s great 1990. This is already showing more Rosacker terroir than riesling character. About 9,000 bottles were made from 1.5 hectares of vines.

agavin: best of the flight right now


John Dory. Leeks. Potato moussaline. Leek and CSH butter sauce. Caviar. The fish was a little dry but the potatoes and sauce were scrumptious. All that butter balanced beautifully with the acid in the wine.


2001 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 92+. Pale color. Musky aromas of lime and powdered stone, complicated by spring flowers and a hint of marzipan. Densely packed and slightly sweet but with lively acidity framing and lifting the citrus, floral and mineral flavors. A note of baked bread gives this wine plenty of appeal today, but this still-young ’01 has the framework and grip to reward another decade of bottle aging.


2000 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95+. Wonderfully pure, high-pitched nose melds quinine, pineapple, crushed stone, orange zest, violet and lavender; smells like a current release. Densely packed and very rich, with seamless flavors of crushed wet stone, lichee and grapefruit complicated by notes of baked bread and honey. This is very much like licking a rock, and yet there are complicating hints of tropical fruits here too. Wonderfully classy, pure wine with a tactile, classy, very subtle and long finish. Still a baby, and compellingly vibrant for a wine from the 2000 vintage. The driest wine in this vertical tasting, at just 1.3 grams per liter of residual sugar.

agavin: my favorite of the flight


1999 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 91+. Very pure, subtle aromas of grapefruit, minerals, lemon. Then rather unyielding on the palate, with an almost Chablis-like pepper and grapefruit pith austerity dominating today. Finishes with strong mounting acidity and lingering notes of lime and licorice. Lighter than the 2000 but perhaps more expressive today. Extremely dry at just 1.9 grams per liter r.s. Will this gain in richness with more time in bottle?

agavin: I found this too powerful/acidic.


Chicken. Chicken consume and chicken meat laced with foie gras. Diced vegetables. The broth was amazing, but by itself and in pairing. Who knew simple chicken broth could be so good. The meat itself was nice too.


Sommelier Taylor Parsons carries not a decanter of old dessert wine — but chicken broth!

Taylor does an amazing job. There were backups to every bottle (thanks Liz!). They were opened at the same time, checked. We had (identical) glasses for every pour! Each labeled with the wine and vintage. He poured himself, flawlessly and elegantly working an event pour around the table. Really, this is as good a wine service as I’ve ever seen.


1998 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 92+. Very complex nose melds lime, mint, powdered stone, licorice and a light petrol note. Dense, rich, chewy and firm; supple and ripe but solidly structured for aging. Finishes very long and minerally. Loads of potential. (But the ’97 Clos Ste. Hune, a wine of compelling minerality, is even richer and more layered; I’ll stick with my original score of 94(+?) for the earlier wine, which I retasted in May alongside the ’98.)

agavin: our bottle might have had a little premox


1996 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95+. Full yellow-gold, deep for its age. Nose began with very ripe suggestions of honeycomb, toffee, maple syrup–even a suggestion of nut skin. Would inexperienced tasters have written this off as prematurely oxidized without giving it a chance to blossom with air? Ten minutes in the glass brought much more vibrant aromas of peach, Christmas spices and orange oil, and an impression of powerful acidity (ten grams per liter, if I recall correctly from my first tasting of this wine from bottle at Trimbach). Densely packed and brisk in the mouth, with lovely sweetness of stone fruit flavors complicated by minerals and a chewy saline quality. This dry, bracing wine began with a slight sour edge but the strong acidity harmonized with air. In the recorked bottle 72 hours later, the wine hummed with citrus and stone fruit flavors and showed no oxidative notes.


1995 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Bright yellow-gold. Powerful aromas of pineapple, peach, ginger, crushed stone, botanical herbs and lemongrass, with a hint of earthiness quickly blowing off. Moderately sweet on entry, then primary and imploded in the mid-palate, thanks to bracing acidity and a mineral-driven saline quality. Tactile, palate-staining finish displays outstanding grip and length. A brilliant bottle of 1995, but others have shown clear signs of premature oxidation.


1992 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93. Highly complex, musky nose offers smoky, stony minerality, honey, mocha, mushroom and saline and grassy nuances. Rich and seamless, with an impression of sweetness to its grapefruit and pineapple flavors, but the wine’s fruity acidity gives it shape and life. This very supple Clos Ste. Hune is perfect right now.


Pumpkin Angolotti. Shaved Gouda. Butter sauce. Delicious sweet soft pasta pillows. Again the butter totally worked with the wine. I could have eaten three plates of theses.


Chef Walter Manzke introduced each dish.


1988 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93+. Good pale, bright yellow. Subdued but very pure aromas of grapefruit and orange peel and crushed stone. Then bracing and remarkably youthful in the mouth, offering highly complex flavors of peach, tarragon, licorice, herbal tea and dried flowers. Wonderfully nuanced and true to its site, and yet this uncompromisingly dry riesling comes across as extremely young today. Blind, I would have guessed this to be no more than ten years old.

agavin: my  favorites of the flight and one of my favorites of the night


1986 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. JK 93. had a great nose. There was this dollop of what I would call pungent, mature Riesling . the dried grapefruit along with yellow citrus fruits, a healthy and appealing streak of wood, minerals and tang. The pinch in the nose was super sexy, and the palate was big with youthful acidity, although the flavor profile was on the sour side. Elaine said, ‘it tastes like grapefruit that was picked from the tree too soon,’ and she was also bothered by its ‘stemminess’ as its wood flavors were more pronounced. The wine was still quite layered with the longest acidity of the three by far. It needed a lot more time and started to come around more and more; we ran out of time before it did in the end, and Frans wisely noted that ‘in twenty years, the 1986 will still be here.’


1985 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Pale bright yellow. Aromas of peach, grapefruit and pineapple, along with a sake-like saline quality. Compellingly youthful and juicy on the palate, with petrol and crushed stone notes lifted by mint and grapefruit zest. I’ve seen reports of advanced bottles of this vintage, but my bottle was pale in color and had plenty of positive evolution ahead of it. Impressively long and brisk on the aftertaste.


Chanterelle mushroom “outmeal.” Hazelnuts. Chef Manzke basically cooked oats in risotto style, slowly cooking them so the starch is drawn out to make them rich and gooey. Oh, there was also probably a ton of butter in there.


1979 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. 94 points. Nice yellow that doesn’t reveal too much age. Delicious nose of motor oil, smoked fruit and intense minerality. In the mouth this is fat yet well-defined with good underlying acidity and the same delicious notes as the nose (the motor oil gradually blows off).


1976 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. 94 points. Pretty awesome.


1973 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95. Full bright gold. Subdued but not at all tired on the nose, opening slowly to reveal notes of peach syrup, musky pineapple, botanical herbs, coffee, mocha and truffle. Fat, sweet and seamless on first sip, then hugely rich but quite dry in the middle, showing more crushed stone and saline extract than fruit at this point. The chewy finish displays terrific lift and verve, thanks to strong acidity. Nearly 40 years old and still full of life.


Crispy Pork Belly. Cabbage and truffles. One rich cut of fatty pork with a nice crispy skin.

2004 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre. IWC 89+. Subtle but precise nose hints at cured meats, ginger and cinnamon. Sweet, spicy and concentrated, with penetrating cinnamon flavor and noteworthy inner-palate energy. Finishes with a youthful austerity. Not at all overly perfumed. This firmly built gewurztraminer would be perfect with many Asian cuisines.

agavin: too dry for my taste (in a dessert wine) but a good pairing.


1990 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre. 93-96 points. Honeyed nose with baked apple, cucumber peel, fresh herbs, floral notes and warm spices. Nicely dried and balanced palate with rich and pure fruit expression of pear to greenish banana. Honey, spices and liquorice. Good length finish with a bitter bite. Finely aged wine with still many years left.


Pineapple Pana Cotta. Berry sorbet. A stunning and fresh dessert. The pana cotta alone was worth the price of admission.

I’ve now been to Republique 6-7 times and the restaurant is at its best in the private room with a special tasting dinner. Walter really cooked his butt off for this one, carefully pairing each course to the wines. Downstairs, the room is very loud and there are some timing and pacing problems. We had none of these. Each course was brought by an army of 6-7 waiters and dropped elegantly in front of us. All the wine glasses had individual labels for each wine, etc.

Plus, there was the Clos St Hune itself. I have only had a few of these before, but in tasting so many in sequence the unique character of the vineyard (and winemaking) was very evident. Every single bottle was underlined by a strong — no intense — acidic backbone. But incredibly, as this white wine gain in years, past 10, then 20, then 30, toward 40, the fruit, minerality, and acid came together into better balance. Really good stuff, and very food friendly (particularly with butter!).

Sage Society knows how to put on one heck of a dinner!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Factory Kitchen – Fabulous

Aug18

Restaurant: Factory Kitchen [1, 2]

Location: 1300 Factory Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90013. (213) 996-6000

Date: August 12, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Wow! Best Italian in LA?

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My friend Liz organized this amazing dinner. Chef Angelo Auriana was the lead chef at Valentino from the mid 80s until 2003, and particularly in the 90s there really was no better Italian in LA. After a stint up in Northern California he is back with a new more casual place Downtown. Liz, as usual, really worked to fine tune the food and wine together for this amazing meal.


1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. IWC 95. Light yellow. Rich and powerful, with leesy pear and white truffle aromas accented by gentle notes of white pepper and cinnamon. Extremely powerful Krug, with rich orchard fruit flavors, a velvety texture and warm, rich, inviting notes of brioche and creme brulee Finishes with intense pear and peach flavors and lingering notes of smoke, iodine and toffee. One of the most concentrated Champagnes I tried this year.

agavin: very fresh


focaccina calda di recco al formaggio. funghi, crescenza, foraged mushrooms, ligurian olive oil, parsley and, added specially for us, tons of black truffle!

agavin: some serious “pizza” goodness!


1983 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. JK 93. (Cristal) which was very fresh and delicate, light on its feet with a lot of seltzer, citrus peel, minerals and a pungent kick. Fresh, very smooth, elegant, but not what I remember when I had it recently out of magnum, the 1983 Cristal was lighter out of bottle but still had some extra acidity.

agavin: pretty oxidized


Seared albacore, with a bit of pepper and olive oil.


1989 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut Collection. 96 points. One of those wines you taste and think, “Man, I am so lucky.” Intriguing apricot-honey color. Smells waxy and honeyed, with orange marmalade, clover honey, dried flowers, bruised apples. The palate loaded with gobs of apricot, brandied pear and blood orange. Crisp acid keeps it lean and balanced, and the aged notes of mixed nuts, rose tea, truffle oil and dried mushrooms. Throughout, this wine maintains an oceanic aura, with seashells and mineral water. So complex, this wine’s finish is obscenely long. One of the most intellectually stimulating Champagnes I’ve ever had.

agavin: one of the best champagnes I’ve had. Tastes like a great white burg.


Chickpea fries with fried vegetables.

agavin: soft, light, delicious fry.


pancotto. duck egg, red potato vellutata, sautéed greens, semolina bread crostone, speck.

agavin: when you get all the elements together really a fabulous breakfasty bite.


2010 Domaine Patrick Baudouin Anjou Les Saulaies. 90 points. Gazoline, honey, woodboard. Mouth very straight, linear, mineral, with big bitterness. Light new oak at the end. Discret aromas of limetree, and verveina.

agavin: by itself, this is an odd wine. Good, but strong and unusual for a white. But Liz carefully paired it with the pesto below and together they were amazing!


mandilli di seta. handkerchief pasta, ligurian almond basil pesto.

agavin: I can not say enough good things about this pasta. The texture was amazing. It’s soft and all folded over. The pesto is hyperblended to a very fine texture as well, and it tastes so Ligurian. Here you can see some “genuine” examples, and this one tonight was as good as any I’ve ever had in Liguria (I’ve spent about a week there). The chef can’t get the right pine-nuts so he uses blanched almonds instead. It works.


2010 Chêne Bleu Aliot. 90 points. 65% roussanne 30% Grenache blanc and 5% marsanne. Fresh white peach, honey, spicy and limestone. Distinctive cool climate impression. Very nice wine that will well complement seafood dishes.

agavin: served blind, I guessed it was a young roussanne. Also punchy by themselves, but Liz has a method to her madness.


She really wanted some Botarga. It’s not usually on the menu, but the chef dug up some genuine Sardinian tuna roe and made:


Botarga pasta. First of all, the texture on these big pasta rolls was incredible, with a nice bite. Then it had that pure fishy botarga flavor, but without anything off putting. Then, somehow the wine worked it all out into a special kind of magic.


1995 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 91. An almost syrah-like nose that stops just short of being overripe with dense and intense black fruit plus an odd herbaceous burnt orange peel aroma. The flavors are remarkably supple yet offer good density and richness with finishing tannins that are both firm and prominent. This is quite long and overall, the wine is bold and impressive but not my particular style as it lacks a bit of nuance and grace and the tannins are almost rustic.

agavin: young. This got better and better in the glass, but could have used hours!


1993 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée St. Vivant. Burghound 93. Sweet, elegant, pure and extremely sexy, spicy black fruit aromas that are now displaying relatively strong secondary development as well as a background hint of oak introduce round, delicious, textured, intense and deep flavors underpinned by silky tannins and outstanding length. This is a somewhat atypical ’93 as it’s really quite forward and not at all backward. For my taste, this could be drunk now with pleasure and there is little if any additional upside to be had. Simply beautiful juice. Consistent notes save for one bottle that seemed to lack the same purity of the prior bottles, particularly on the nose.

agavin: drinking amazing right now. Huge Vosne-Romanee nose, lots of RSV spice.


casonzei – veal, pork, sausage filled pasta, cured pork, butter, pancetta.

agavin: This also is a stunningly authentic pasta. It normally comes with a butter and sage sauce, but Liz (correctly) thought the sage wouldn’t work with the Burgundy and switched it out for sweat pancetta. There is a wonderful rice quality to the handmade pasta and the butter / parm sauce. You get pasta like this in the North, near Mantua and Verona. Sweet and buttery at the same time. Wonderful.


1990 Domaine Bartet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. Burhound 91. Somewhat surprisingly, even in the smaller format bottle this remains relatively fresh and while there are obvious secondary aromas present, there is no sous bois to the complex and earthy nose. The delineated, ripe and still solidly intense flavors deliver plenty of richness and a lovely mineral quality on the long and sappy backend. In sum, this is beautiful juice that is drinking perfectly now.

agavin: This is really Bruno Clair’s wine. Delicious.


1993 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 92. In stark contrast to the Chambertin, this is wonderfully expressive and complex with abundant earth and spice notes followed by big, structured, still sappy if slightly austere flavors that offer excellent density and plenty of character. Impressively scaled and finishes with striking length. A clear step up from the Chambertin.

agavin: I love Jadot Beze, and 1993 is a great year, but this was drinking a little oddly tonight. Still enjoyable though.


1964 Thorin Chambolle-Musigny. 93 points. It’s just straight up amazing that a 50 year old village wine is drinking at all, but this beauty also offered a lot of fruit and just a lovely old burg experience.


quaglia – pan roasted California semi boneless quail, polenta, guanciale, witch finger grape.

agavin: Probably the best quail I can remember. Cooked a little medium rare with a lovely reduction.


1961 Franco Fiorina Barolo. 92 points. Tea color with rose petal aromas. Subtle overall flavors with faint red fruit and lots of earth. Very classic with moderate intensity.

agavin: nothing over the hill about this!


costata di bovino – prime beef rib chop, roasted bone marrow, onion~nebbiolo sauce.

agavin: certainly works with barolo!


Our chef, Angelo Auriana, who spent half the diner chatting with us.


From my cellar: 1989 Aldo Conterno Barolo Riserva Granbussia. Parker 97. Conterno’s 1989 Barolo Riserva Granbussia is darker in color and fresher than the 1990. Sweet mentholated, balsamic aromatics meld gracefully into an expressive, layered core of dark fruit. The 1989 is a big, expansive Granbussia that takes time to reveal its qualities in full, but it is a remarkable wine for the integrity of its fruit, the finesse of its tannins and its sumptuous overall balance. It remains a benchmark wine for Conterno and the appellation. Curiously, two bottles I tasted at the estate were more forward than several I have had in the US recently. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2024.

agavin: a staggeringly rich Barolo, if sill young. Deep grapey qualities and all that Barolo tar and roses.


Beef. I don’t remember which cut exactly, but just straight up and delicious.


1990 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume. 93 points. While the palate of the baumard was fantstic with its nectarine/orange driven notes, there was that telltale Loire desert quality to the nose, that stemmy/wooly nature you get in Huet as well. I think this lends it unique character and an ability to pair with a wider array of foods/cheeses, but some find it offputting. The wine though, drinks phenomenal and will only continue to get better.


cannoli – ricotta filling, pistachios, orange marmalade.

agavin: Liz claims this is the best cannoli she’s had. I’ll go so far to say it’s the best I’ve had in LA. And it was REALLY good with perfect crunch, soft ricotta, citrus. But it didn’t have that cinnamon / nutmeg bit I love, or the candied citrus quality you’ll often find in Sicily. Still, very very good. These ones from the Philadelphia Italian market are also fabulous if you can’t make it to Sicily.


2001 Müller-Catoir Gimmeldinger Schlössel Rieslaner Beerenauslese. IWC 92. Apricot and persimmon, sage and mint in the nose. On the palate this has a very smoky cast, with forceful pungency and some of the same icy heat as the corresponding Auslese. Plum paste, citrus marmalade and almond paste. Scheurebe-like mintiness and smoky, salty residues cling to the fruit in the finish.

agavin: I really loved this sticky


crostata – black mission figs, almond cream, mascarpone mousse, honey amaretto.

agavin: This was amazing, and it’s not even my kind of dessert. The sugary / flakey quality of the tart was perfect — and the cream!

All in all, an absolutely amazing meal. Every dish was amazing, and this is hands down the best, most authentically Italian, pasta I’ve had in LA — and I’m a pasta fiend. Many of the pasta dishes were better than the standard in Italy and as good as some of the best I’ve had there. And I’ve had a lot. Our wines were phenomenal too, and the pairings perfect as Liz is a nut about this. Really, it shows how both can elevate each other if properly orchestrated.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Chili Crab Craze – Starry Kitchen
  2. Third Republique
  3. Nothing like N/Naka
  4. Republique of Jadot
  5. BOS – Nose to Tail
By: agavin
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Food as Art – Shiki Sushi

Aug13

Restaurant: Shiki Beverly Hills [1, 2]

Location: 410 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 310-888-0036

Date: August 6, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Some of the best sushi I’ve had in a while!

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Shiki Beverly Hills recently replaced Enoteco Drago in the primo Canon Dr space right in the heart of Beverly Hills. It features extremely Japanese seasonal ingredient focused kaiseki and sushi. The space is elegant and modern, really not that different than it was as Drago.


Chef Shigenori Fujimoto was at Matsuhisa from 94-04 and brings with him both a traditionalist and “new style” sushi vibe. My friend Liz, who has impeccable taste, arranged a very traditional menu for us and organized.


1988 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. 92 points. Like many older Cristal bottles, there was a bit of oxidation going on. But a very nice underlying champagne. Its always great to drink 88, and Cristal, even better when its 88 and Cristal!


Seasonal Pike Eel on a “mousse” of tofu, avocado, dashi and the like. This is one of those fabulous dishes that is intensely Japanese, with subtle dashi flavor.


Seared red snapper with various peppers. A little bit of heat to this, but deliciously bright.


Seared scallop and fresh white peach salad. Extremely fresh and tasty.


Check out the peach underneath, the fruit had been scooped out and made into the above balls.


1985 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année. 95 points. Golden colour, yeasty nose. Bead almost gone, but still some fizz. Beautiful fully developed fruit, long finish. A great vintage champagne still drinking at its peak. Outstanding wine. Fresher than the 88.


Octopus and Uni — really two dishes plated together.


Grilled octopus with chili. As tender and good as octopus gets.


Uni pasta with wasabi and nori. The paste wasn’t just straight uni but had been brined. The nori was a special Japanese variety. Really, spread on the seaweed with a little wasabi this was stunningly delightful. I could have eaten 10x as much.


From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. Incredibly beautiful and elegant aromas of white flower and citrus softly introduce steely, gorgeously pure and delineated medium full flavors that seem as though they’re chiseled directly from solid rock. This is much more mineral driven than the typical Bâtard, and blind I would have mistaken it for a classically styled Chevalier. There is plenty of punch and racy supporting acidity plus simply knockout length. Of all these impressive attributes though, it’s the stunning purity and overall harmony of expression that make this one of the wines of the vintage. Interestingly, this is not a dramatic wine in terms of sheer size and weight but the focus and sneaky length make this a wine that is impossible not to be struck by its intensity. In short, this is one of the best examples of young Bâtard that I have ever had and one that will age for at least a decade. Don’t miss it!


Halibut sashimi with black truffle and motomara tomato. I usually don’t like truffle on my sushi, but this was fabulous. Even the tomato was good (it was marinated, which makes them palatable to my taste).


1996 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 98. As with the 750 ml, the purity, elegance and sheer beauty of this wine is frankly difficult to adequately describe as words just don’t seem up to the task. There is nuance after nuance among the brilliantly delineated aromas of white flowers, citrus, wet stone and rose blossoms that perfectly complement the focused and laser-precise medium full flavors that are like rolling liquid rocks around in the mouth. There is a barely contained intensity and one can sense the slow build from the mid-palate to the explosive finish that goes on and on. While no where near ready, this is so good that it’s still a wonderful experience to drink and it’s comforting to know for those that own it that it’s still on its way up. In short, this is a brilliant wine, indeed a text book example and quite simply the finest Jadot Demoiselles I have ever had the pleasure to drink and one that will last for decades in this format.


Conch steamed in its own shell. I’ve had this dish in Japan, and here, but this was probably one of the best versions. The conch was very tender. You drink the juices/soup afterward.


Pike eel soup. One of those lovely mild Japanese soups.


2004 Morey-Blanc Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. A reserved, indeed backward spicy green apple and white pear nose complements delineated but very rich flavors that display moderate wood on the big and weighty if not necessarily super dense finish that packs a serious punch and intensity. The length here is really impressive and the balance is such that this should age for 15 to possibly 20 years.


Maguro. Lovely big eye tuna.


o’o-toro. Absolutely perfect piece of premium tuna belly.


Shinko. Young gizzard shad.


Golden eye snapper.


Anago. Conger eel. Served without the eel sauce, instead with yuzu and salt. Fabulous.


Ebi. Shrimp.


Engawa. Seared Flounder fin, with yuzu and salt. Awesome.


Santa Barbara Uni. Yum!


Aji. Japanese jack mackerel.


Hotate. Japanese scallop.


Ama-ebi. Sweet shrimp.


The heads return, this time grilled. Sucking out the guts was a treat.


Seared halibut?


Ikura. Salmon eggs. Sweet.


Yellowtail belly. With a bit of stronger sauce.


Saba. Chub mackerel.


Awabi. Abalone. Very tender.


A chef with an albacore!


1995 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. IWC 94. Red-ruby color. Knockout nose combines rose petal, raspberry, mulberry, iodine, cardamom, tobacco and iris. Great sweetness on the palate; offers as much volume as the mouth can hold. Builds and builds. Really exhilarating delineation and depth of flavor. Tannins are substantial but ripe. A superb example of this great grand cru.


Wagyu beef with mushrooms and asparagus. Melts in the mouth.


Plum and shiso handroll. Incredibly traditional and with a sour “minty” taste. Very refreshing.


Ice cream with starch “mochi” on the side and fresh figs and other fruit.

Wow. LA has lots of great Japanese, and I have good sushi all the time, but this was particularly awesome. Really the sushi itself was as good as it gets. Very traditional style too, which is my favorite. I love the acid washed Nozawa style too, but hand sauced traditional like this is my favorite. We had fabulous — and correctly paired — wines too, not to mention just three of us at the sushi bar and great company. All and all worth the hangover.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  2. Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase
  3. Food as Art: Sushi House Unico
  4. Kiriko Sushi
  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
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Third Republique

Jul01

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3]

Location: 624 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (310) 362-6115

Date: May 13, 2014

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

Rating: Nice (loud) space, tasty hip food, great service

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Republique is certainly one of LA’s most anticipated recent openings. Taking over the gorgeous old Campanile space, this replacement is helmed by Walter Manzke and Margarita Manzke (of Church & State and Milo & Olive). As you’ll see, while the core cuisine marries Brasserie with neo-tapas, this is a place that draws intensely on the current (2013-14) trends. LA Zeitgeist for sure.

On this particular night, I  was invited again by Liz Lee of The Sage Society. She’s a friend of mine, wine dealer, and overall awesome foodie. She sure organizes an amazing evening. This one was mostly top flight Burgundy, and 13-14 bottles for 7 people! (Good thing I never drive to wine dinners)


The building is an interesting fusion of pre-war factory…


The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud!


The bar is packed and setup with all those fancy little fixings that are the hallmark of the fancy mixologist style of expensive yummy weak drink making. Being a wine guy, I don’t much care.


Along with the hard (read loud) surfaces, open kitchen, mixologist and the like, our obligatory aged wood communal tables are graced with this paper menu.


As we sit we are offered some yummy bread sticks (a.k.a. grissini). The bakery here is clearly first rate, although there was nowhere to really put them and half of mine ended up tumbling to the floor.


Our Sommelier for evening, Taylor Parsons. Unlike my mostly more chaotic Hedonist Dinners, he opened and poured the wine properly in flights, and even ordered up food to match.


NV Pierre Gerbais Champagne L’Originale. 90 points. Pinot Blanc, single vineyard planted 1904. Lovely purity, floral note of camomile, some mineral notes, freshly cut fennel and dill Strong mineral notes and back bone, floral, fennel, clay, pear, yellow plums with long finish.


Mixed oysters on the half-shell.


Asparagus and pepper tempura.

Warm Baguette with Normandy Butter. A completely first rate piece of bread. Utterly classic and unadorned. The taste reminds one of France.


w

Chips & Dip. Scottish king salmon tartare, cucumber, mint, yogurt, crispy pork rinds.


For vegetarians there were potato crisps.


And the tastier chicarones.



2009 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve. 88 points. No formal note. This had a reasonably complex, smoky peach nose, with a hint of orange rind, was full bodied and plump on the palate, reasonably attractive stone fruit with creamy notes and low acidity. Paired fabulously with the pasta below.


English pea Agnolotti. Fresh blanched peas. Really a great pasta.


1996 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 91. Moderate but still very fresh secondary notes that reflect nuances of bee’s wax and the first hints of sous bois lead to intense, vibrant and mineral-driven flavors infused with ample citrus, all wrapped by a firm, edgy and pure finish. While this has plenty of legs left, it has arrived at its peak though as noted, it should be capable of holding for another two decades. From another bottle affected by a touch of premature oxidation – The color is a more advanced gold than I expected and certainly more so than the bottle of ’96 Blanchots tasted a few days earlier. The nose reveals a trace of oxidation and while it’s by no means enough to kill the enjoyment of the wine, it does detract as well as give one pause as to how this will evolve over the next few years. The flavors are classic Valmur with its incredibly precise and mineral-laden, moderately austere flavors and laser-like focus. As is the case with so many ’96s, the nose is out in front of the structure and while I certainly liked this wine, it’s not clear that this is going to reward further cellaring.


Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns. Romanesco cauliflower, brown butter, lemon capers, almonds.


1990 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. This is one of those whites from the ’90 vintage that is trapped in a time capsule as it remains unusually youthful for a 20 year old wine even if no longer young as the nose displays the first hints of sous bois along with dried flower and citrus aromas. The delicious and highly mineral-infused middle weight flavors are racy, intense and beautifully delineated before culminating in a lingering and pure finish. This is in extraordinary condition if well-stored and should continue to drink well for years to come. In a word, impressive.


Hamachi Crudo. Pineapple, fresno chili, cilantro.


From my cellar: 1996 Maison Leroy Meursault 1er Cru. Burghound 92. This is still very fresh with only the initial hints of development to the airy white flower and hazelnut aromas that give way to rich, pure and gorgeously precise flavors that culminate in a mineral-infused and impressively linear finish that lasts in the mouth for several minutes. A stunner of wine that is still improving.

agavin: I was disappointed, nothing too obvious wrong with it, just too closed and reserved.


From my cellar: 1996 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. Burghound 96. Classic white burg aromas of immense breadwith and depth with white flower notes, minerals and knockout complexity. This is a big, rich yet delineated wine that has near perfect balance. In short, this is flat out superb with an intensity, complexity, depth and stony minerality that is something special to behold. The length lasts for minutes and for my taste, this has finally arrived at its full maturity though there is certainly no rush to drink up as it should maintain this level for years. Consistent notes.

agavin: sadly, and I cry as I write this, the wine was heavily premoxed (oxidized) and not really drinkable. The finish had promise. 🙁


Fresh white Asparagus and black truffle butter sauce. Just in season and fabulous.


From my cellar: 1990 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 93. A truly wonderful nose of simply knockout complexity features notes of yeast and baked bread along with now fully mature aromas of a variety of floral notes and spice hints that gives way to mineral-suffused round intense and detailed medium full flavors that also offer outstanding depth on the sappy and mouth coating finish. This is drinking perfectly now. A beautiful effort of real style and grace.

agavin: a third fail for me tonight. This bottle was pretty oxidized. I’ve opened around 20 of this wine (all from the same source) and about 2/3 of them are fabulous, but a few are kinda oxidized.


Black Stripped bass with a butter sauce and vegetable puree. Perfectly crispy.


1993 Domaine Leroy Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Narbantons. 93 points. Mme Bize-Leroy makes the best wines in the world. At least this was my hypotheses when we drank this wine. Domaine Leroy is superior to DRC and her wines are as a consequent also more expensive. When she dies, the prises will soar and eventually exede Henri Jayer’s. This Sauvigny is perfectly mature now, with smooth concentrated red fruits. My guess was an Echezeaux from the 90ies. More or less everything she does is of Grand Cru quality.


1996 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Ruchottes-Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes. Burghound 90. The nose on the ’96 Clos des Ruchottes is stunningly elegant with really dazzling purity of fruit and leads to relatively supple though barely medium weight flavors underpinned by moderate structure and healthy acidity. As it usually is, this is quite earthy and I suspect it will come around over the mid-term as the tannins are completely ripe and integrated. I would give this 3 or 4 more years of cellar time and then probably drink up whether or not the tannins are fully resolved as the lack of full phenolic maturity suggests that the acidity may come to dominate the finish.

agavin: great, but retained a surprising amount of oak/spice.


Mary’s Organic Rotisserie Chicken. Red russian kale, roasted fingerling potatoes. The rotating spit was right in front of me and all night I watched a procession of these tasting fowl orbiting. Just classic roast chicken en jus but absolutely perfectly cooked. All good.


1988 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. Burghound 92. Still quite reserved on the nose but the flavor profile is dense, rich and wonderfully complex with terrific length. As with the Boudots, the buffering extract is more than sufficient to envelope the substantial tannins though there is a touch of finishing astringency.

agavin: a lovely mature burg.


Liberty Duck Breast. Cherries and Brussels sprouts.


1970 Louis Latour Romanée St. Vivant Les Quatre Journaux. agavin 94. Stellar wine. All that I love in old Burgs. Lots of fruit, acidity and long berry finish.


A selection of cheeses. Always good with so much wine.


Pistachio and Strawberry ice cream. Refreshing.

Overall, Republique is a first rate place. It updates the classic French fare in a way that is contemporary without being ultra modern. And the whole everything here is so painfully (and I don’t mean in a bad way) contemporary. It just couldn’t be more “in” with the current dining trends. Not that I actually have a problem with that — in fact, my only problems with the restaurant was the volume (almost too loud for conversation) and a seeming total lack of large square or circular tables (I eat out in large groups and hate long skinny tables for more than 6). Most importantly, not only are these fresh takes on the classics, but the cooking is really on point. Even only being three months old this kitchen is executing very well.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

 

Related posts:

  1. Republique of Jadot
  2. Vive la République
  3. Burgundy at Providence
  4. Valentino – 2004 Red Burgundy
  5. Melisse Madness
By: agavin
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