Wine :: Page 23 :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for Wine – Page 23

Forget the Duck Soup, More Meat!

Mar04

Restaurant: Tasty Duck [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd. Ste B102. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885

Date: February 28, 2015

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Great Duck!

Tasty Duck is a regular spot with my Hedonist food and wine club. Tonight is not only duck night, but “high” (or at least higher) end wine night.

The interior is jammed and the turnover is high. There isn’t even a space inch to stand while waiting for a table as the serves need what little space there is to reach the tables.

NV Charles Mignon Champagne Cuvée Comte de Marne Millésime Grand Cru. 90 points. Medium(-) lemon, fine sub-mm bubbles enamanating from numerous point sources. Medium(-) aromas of lemon, cooked green apple and biscuit. Dry, medium(+) tart acidity, medium(-) body and alcohol (@12.5% abv). Medium flavors of green apple, lemon, mineral, and touch honey/biscuit. Focused finish, medium length with cutting finish. Soft delicate mousse. Great as aperitif.

The main event: Peking Duck. Not only was this delectable, with fantastic crispy skin and delicate meat, but it’s artfully arranged. We had two plates of these per table and it was a feeding frenzy!

Here are the traditional accompaniments, starting with excellent pancakes. One mystery question I must ask: why do Chinese restaurants insist on putting far too few pancakes and too little hoisin sauce on the table?

Hoisin sauce and green onions.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Surprisingly open and expressive with wonderfully complex and nuanced aromas that reveal a dazzling array of floral and fruit elements followed by rich, ripe and somewhat more full-bodied flavors than usual but the additional weight is more than buffered by the racy finishing acidity and almost painfully intense back end. This is presently a good deal more forward than the ’00 Bâtard though there is clearly enough material to suggest that this will benefit from another 3 to perhaps 5 years in the cellar.

agavin: our bottle was round, open, with caramel notes. Mature and delicious.

Cumin lamb. Strong, but not spicy. A typical specimen, but with tender flavorful lamb. Some places border on mouton.

A 1971 Riesling Kabinett. I can’t even find this on Cellar Tracker. I think this was more than a bit past by my standards.

Their interesting take on “walnut shrimp.” The fried shrimp, sweet mayo sauce, and walnuts is supplemented with pineapple! Not my favorite rendition of this dish. We’ve gotten spoiled.

1976 Hugel et Fils Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive SGN Sélectionneé par Jean Hugel. 92 points. Metallic nose like wet pennies with some candied nuts. Earthy funk initially this really started gaining weight in the glass coming up with some ripe red apple notes later on. Still good and interesting to drink.

agavin: this one was pretty good, if fully mature.

Sauteed A Chop. We had no idea what “a chop” was but it’s apparently some kind of boc choy? Anywhichway it was a pretty good garlicky green.

From my cellar: 1990 Georges Noellat Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots. agavin 89. At first this was lean with a bit of a funky/cork vibe. After about 30 minutes this blew off and I found it rather nice and enjoyable, if fully mature.

Crispy whole red cod with sweet and sour sauce. A really nice fish, similar to a couple weeks ago at the Shanghai place.

2007 Forey Père et Fils Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 90. Here the aromas run more toward cassis flowers along with pretty and wild red berry fruits that are followed by rich, full and quite minerally middle weight flavors that are beautifully detailed, textured and solidly persistent, all wrapped in a subtle oak influenced finish. I like the intensity here and the balance is impeccable and if not a wine of great depth, there is enough here to be more than just interesting.

Some amazing Shanghai style soup dumplings (XLB). Tasty little morsels stuffed with pork and broth. We got about 4 orders of these.

2006 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Russian River Valley. Burghound 87. A high-toned raspberry and cranberry fruit nose that also displays subtle spice and menthol hints introduces round, supple and easy to like flavors up until the finish that is overtly warm if attractively sappy. Be sure to keep this cool because the warmth really comes up if the temperature rises even slightly.

2011 Tamarack Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. 89 points. Plum notes, pepper spell on opening, strong tannins. Decanted for 4 hours and opened up. Probably should not decant more than an hour.

French style Beef. Extremely tender and delicious, almost sweet, morsels of filet.

2011 Charles Krug Winery (Peter Mondavi Family) Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville. 86 points. The heavy tastes were present: some cocoa, some tobacco, some rose hip. But none of the lighter stuff needed to even it out. The nose was quite nice and lighter than the palate. Mouthfeel was a bit too sharp.

Sticky rice with BBQ eel. A new dish. The eel was great. The rice had a nice texture, but the flavor was a bit earthy?

2005 Canon la Gaffeliere. Parker 94. For opulence, decadence, and sexiness, this 2005 is hard to resist. One of the vintage’s most flamboyant efforts, it is a gorgeous blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. With a stunningly exotic nose of espresso roast, a juicy meat and herb concoction, spice box, chocolate, incense, and copious quantities of sweet, ripe black cherry and blackberry fruit, this full-throttle St.-Emilion exhibits good structure (because of the vintage’s sound acid levels) and high, but velvety tannin. It is a brilliant effort from proprietor Stephan von Neipperg. I would not discount its aging potential as the 1990, which I thought would have a short aging curve, is still going strong at age 18. The 2005 should easily last 20-25 years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2030.

Oyster mushrooms. These looks and felt a bit like Shanghai rice cakes. They were pretty delicious though.

2008 Alban Vineyards Grenache. Parker 93-95. The 2008 Grenache is just plain beautiful at this stage. A striking bouquet redolent of dark red fruit, flowers and spices melds into a core of textured fruit. This is all purity and finesse. I can hardly wait to taste the finished wine. This is very fresh for a wine that has been in barrel for nearly three years. The 2008 Grenache is 98% Grenache and 2% Syrah. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2018.

Beef rolls with BBQ beef and cilantro. Really nice, tasted like rolled up Pho. The shell was a bit chewy and tough, which detracted.

2004 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella Superiore. Parker 93. Sweet, open aromatics lead to hints of dark blueberries, blackberries, spices and minerals as the 2004 Valpolicella Superiore gradually opens in the glass. Today the wine comes across as shut down, but the imposing tannins are also rather fine, suggesting that with time the wine’s inner sweetness will gradually emerge. Readers who want to try their luck with this wine earlier should open the bottle a good eight hours or so prior to drinking it. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019.

agavin: even having been open and decanted for hours, it was still massive.

Pork hock. Some kind of crazy pig leg. Some serious fat here and the skin was a bit mushy, but the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly tender and delicious.

A very nice mixed fried rice.

This ancient 1959 Beerenaulese came out like motor oil. Ridiculously dark. It wasn’t perfectly balanced, but it was surprisingly likable if you have a taste for the sweet and thick like I do.

Pan fried noodles. A bit greasy, but okay.

1989 Raymond-Lafon. Parker 91-92. The 1989 exhibits aromas of honeyed pineapple/tropical fruit and toasty new oak, as well as an exotic, flashy perfume that is not as pronounced in either the 1990 or 1988. The 1989 exhibits less botrytis than the other two vintages. The wine possesses an opulent, full-bodied, exotic, lavishly rich personality, moderate sweetness, and huge quantity of extract, glycerin, and alcohol in its finish. The wine is also extremely young and unevolved. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2025.

agavin: Nice, although a little unbalanced.

Overall, another fantastic meal. The total damage, including tax and a whopping 30% tip was $42 a person! “Inflated” because of our multiple ducks. They were very friendly and willing to serve us the dishes one at a time over a long period, but the restaurant was a bit over busy and the duck came the microsecond we sat down. It was frustrating to be dealing with opening the wine, pictures, and the like and to be launched into the feeding frenzy. In previous trips we’ve had the cold appetizers. Then they got going a little too fast with the food. We had to tell them to slow down (which they did). Plus as we were jammed into the back corner and there was only one narrow entrance point the overworked servers had trouble handling the “basics” like water, plate changes and the like. As the place emptied out they caught up a bit. They certainly try hard and are extremely nice. It was just too crowded and too little space.

The duck was first rate, as good as Peking duck gets — more or less. Some other dishes, like the pork hock, and the XLB were amazing too. A few others just so so, like the shrimp. The eel was interesting, and a nice addition. Tasty Duck is all about the duck.

For more Hedonist adventures or

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Instead of the mild Chinese desserts we headed over to Salju for some shave ice:

Pineapple snow with passion fruit, almond jelly, blackberries, and boba.

Mango snow with strawberries, blueberries, passion fruit syrup and almond jelly.

Coffee snow with coffee jelly, syrup, and almond jelly.

Coconut snow with peanut butter cups, egg custard, and condensed milk.

Green tea snow with chocolate chips.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Alhambra, California, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, Hoisin sauce, Peking Duck, pork, Salju, Tasty Duck, Wine

CR8 – Liquid Forms

Mar02

Restaurant: CR8 by Roberto Cortez [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: Seattle

Date: February 25, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Art

Rating: Absolutely Amazing

Roberto Cortez’s CR8 is one of the most stunning dining experiences I’ve been too, and so when he invited me to a new one this year some friends and I flew up to Seattle just for this dinner!

“When it comes to taste, liquid acts differently on the palate than solid food. Chewing food becomes a process by which flavors are expelled and discovered in stages as they ar2e released by the teeth. Liquids immediately cover the entire tongue, which in turn activates all taste buds and it’s crevices giving instantaneous flavor delivery. This seems to be a more powerful way to taste as it requires less use of facial muscles, And with this, additional brain activity which stays in a state of “waiting” to see what the food tastes like. This also brings in a subconscious element of expectation and wonder, which deters from the purity of taste and experiencing flavor”.

Roberto Cortez

Roberto is certainly the most creative and artistic chef I’ve ever had cook for me, which alone would be stunning, but after attending four of his events his food continues to be stunning. Dishes impress for both artistry, complexity, and flavor.

For his latest CR8, Roberto Cortez (left) has teamed up with Matthew Biancaniello (right), a master mixologist, to add a set of elaborate cocktail pairings to Roberto’s stunning cooking.

Opening cocktail. Stinging nettle and Cuban oregano infused gin with satsuma and dill.

agavin: this starter had 2 ounces of gin, but you couldn’t taste it at all! The dominant flavor was satsuma (a form of citrus).

For his events, Roberto always creates a unique dining space. This one was located in a 100+ year old Seattle warehouse.

The table itself was “dangerously” elevated. It was on a platform!

And there was even this cool homemade cloud created by artist Yuri Kinoshita. You can see some of her other woven works of luminosity on her website.

At Roberto’s previous dinners I always brought the wine and that was more or less the only drinks, so I didn’t fully understand in advance that Matthew Biancaniello was going to be creating this incredible cocktail pairing. So I brought the wine anyway. Therefore, we only went through three bottles at the table. The wines paired well with the food, but the incredible herbal complexities of the cocktails knocked out the fruit part of my palette, rendering them more acidic.

From my cellar: 2000 Prager Riesling Smaragd Dürnsteiner Hollerin. 91 points. Massive reductive funk on first opening. Blew off in a matter of a few minutes. Mature riesling nose of apricot, salt, slight petrol. Rich, heavy mid palate. Loads of heavy extract on the finish.

Roberto has thematic ideas for each dish which flow from the liquid forms concept, so I’m going to include them here to introduce the dish, then follow with my comments.

Mellifluous. Having a smooth rich flow, filled with something that sweetens This word is incredible because it particularly describes the viscosity of a liquid that has been thickened with a sweeteners. I want to pay homage to the Tree and its natural sweeteners from sap and rare honey.

Sapling. Steelhead Caviar, PX sherry hen egg sabayon, black oak maple, pecan oil, tangerine lace crumbled hen yolk.

agavin: This dish had a goopy texture interwoven with the popper-like caviar. The flavor was predominantly sweet with bursts of savory/salty. None of that explains how incredibly successful it was. Like most Roberto dishes it just really worked.

Gin, cucumber, beet and horseradish.

agavin: It was also noticeable how this “oddball” cocktail with its Passover horseradish vibe cut the sweetness of the dish and really took both to the next level. Incredibly refreshing.

Pellucid. Translucently Clear. Elaborating on and expressing the concept of Clear and Transparent in liquid form. I want to use the elements of the corn for this dish in unorthodox ways. I chewed on popcorn recently for a while and discovered the flavors of charcoal, truffle, and lavender. I want to stress the clarity and transparency of the definition.

Maize. Black truffle tamal, charcoal, Incan corn mole, canela Red strawberry popcorn Red amaranth.

agavin: At its core a fabulous tamale. The other elements didn’t compete at all with the warm comforting quality of the tamale itself.

Wild juniper infused Mezcal, Krogstad Aquavit, fresh kiwi and wild mustard flowers.

This was a virgin version whipped up specially.

Vaporious. A substance in the gaseous state as distinguished from the liquid or solid state.

Vaporious. Ember beets, wild juniper, foie gras, sunchoke cream, akamiso, blood orange, scallions, pomegranate, Micro chive.

agavin: I love a good foie “mouse” and that was taken up a notch by the beets and the like.

Bergamot and Yuzu infused tequila, guava infused tequila , bergamot juice and dehydrated bergamot peel with home made caramel on top.

agavin: the caramel coated bergamot slice on top was incredible! Also impressive was listening to Matt and how he started infusing all these things months ago just for this dinner.

From my cellar: 1993 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 92. A fully mature and expressive nose of elegant secondary fruit and floral aromas introduces intensely mineral-driven, pure and beautifully well-detailed middle weight flavors that possess excellent depth and fine length. This is drinking perfectly now and should continue to do so without effort for at least another decade. Tasted only once recently.

Liquescent. Origins in 18th century Latin. Becoming liquid Monsoon. This dish is the ultimate expression of becoming liquid. I am starting to collect rain water in a special glass vessel so that the water never touches the ground. I will then filter it to become a pristine base of this dish. I was inspired by two things; the Monsoon’s of Asia to bring focus to the rain water and by one of my favorite artists, Shinichi Maruyama, a Liquid artist.

The broth was poured in.

Monsoon. Crab Tonkotsu (poured tableside). Poached crab roots, soft tofu, liquid nahm prik pao curry cucumber noodles hibiscus daikon, black sesame Hearts on Fire Radish flowers Cucumber flowers.

agavin: Hard to explain all the good stuff going on here. There was a bit of heat in the broth, slightly akin to one of those Thai coconut soups. But there was also this serious Tonkotsu pork broth vibe. Plus all the textures and the wonderfully soft crab. Even the smear of black sesame complimented fully.

This is the vegetarian version.

Sage and Surinam cherry infused gin, wild horehound infused maraschino liqueur, lemon and green chartreuse with dehydrated banana flowers on top.

Melting. To become liquefied by warmth or heat.

Terre Fondu. Yeast fermented rice Coffee pork jowl butter date consomee in poultry broth Kishibori shoyu, Nordi beer pickled shallot.

With this dish we got little pistol lighters and had the opportunity to melt the butter on that fig bit into the dish. Interactive cuisine! Essentially though this was like a risotto soup combo and was really quite spectacular and rich.

Gin, 25 year old balsamic, strawberries with a bergamot and Tahitian vanilla infused saint Germain foam.

From my cellar: 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.

Succulent. Full of juice, juicy, rich in desirable qualities. The word succulent is incredibly descriptive of what is to come.

Texas Brisket Float. Brisket syrup Smoked cream, chile salt preserved smoked tomato bbq vinegar caramelized brussel sprouts broth, grain mustard coriander seeds,dill seed oil arugula blossoms.

agavin: Brisket float? Who would have thought that would work. Well it does. The man that brought us soup masquerading as beer can also imbue a beverage with the qualities of a heavy BBQ dish. Yeah, it totally worked.

The vegetarian version. No brisket. Sorry.

Wild toyon berry infused Pisco, kaffir lime, egg whites with rosemary flowers on top.

Brisket part deux:

Forest Brisket. Elderberry glazed brisket, parsnip, douglas fir, yogurt, pumpkin greens.

agavin: There was some real chew to the meat, and it was fabulous. As usual, all the elements totally sung together in harmony too.

The vegetarian version was a kind of BBQ parsnip!

Wild white fir infused tequila, pine sap infused saint Germain, cinnamon infused wild flower honey, fresh turmeric and persimmon juice.

agavin: This was consumed in one quick jolt.

Crystalline. Having the structure and form of a crystal. I was inspired by two things for this concept. I recently cut some limes and smelled so many layers of other scents that I want to express it. Using kaffir is an amazing extension of that.

Frost Bite. Brazil nut panna cotta disk coconut mousse kaffir leaves frozen sour apple frozen cinnamon toast crepe frozen.

agavin: hard to describe how good this dessert was. I love coconut. And I love coconut and citrus even more. But the creamy panna cotta was totally to die for.

Benedictine, roasted almond oil, lemon and cacao nibs.

agavin: the pairing was amazing

Imbue. To saturate or impregnate with moisture, color, feelings, etc. To permeate, infuse, or soak.

Cacao Imbue. Amedei Blanco de Criollo 70% Chocolate, red plums & beets licorice and dandelion root, wild cherry bark Duchilly hazelnut oil raspberry powder, micro mint licorice.

agavin: One of the world’s most exclusive chocolates blended together with hazelnut and other goodness? What’s not to love? This was incredibly creamy.

Cynar, cassis, espresso with a blood orange air.

agavin: This cocktail rolled up together a complement, a third dessert, and the post dinner expresso. It really worked.

Again Roberto shows off his unique mastery of the culinary arts. His number one strength (and he has many) is his uncanny sense of food harmony. This isn’t laser focused ingredient expression style food like Saison, it’s symphony of flavors. I’d liken it to Mozart too, as it has that rococo lightness, where the complex elements blend together into a lovely whole. This is not easy. Other hyper-intellectual chefs often have discordant notes, like at Maude or Twist. Nothing stands out of place with Roberto’s cooking. The flavors and textures blend seamlessly.

Matthew Biancaniello’s beverage pairings really notched it up too. The man is like Roberto’s liquid twin stylistically. As my wife put it, “I never imagined drinks could be so creative.” They also showed uncanny synergy with the food, particularly impressive for having mostly been worked out over the phone and email! (Matt lives in LA, and Roberto is currently in Seattle).

Plus, for a four person event (Roberto, Matt, and two servers) they really manage to put on a great show with ambiance, music, food, drink, etc.

I should also note that because of the cocktails my wine pairing efforts were less successful than at Roberto’s previous meals (Dark Illuminated Forest, Purotekuta, and Savage Romanticism). The strong herbal, alcoholic, and citrus notes in Matt’s drinks, while lovely and evocative themselves, knocked out the fruit sensitivity on my palette. This had the effect of suppressing the sweetness or fruit from the wines and rendering them overly acidic. I don’t think you can easily mix these two beverage profiles at the same time.

Overall, I really adore this sophisticated cooking as its a synergy of the creative, intellectual, and hedonistic!

Check out more of my grand Foodie Club meals.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cocktails, CR8, Foodie Club, Matthew Biancaniello, Molecular Gastronomy, Roberto Cortez, Wine

Elite New Years

Feb27

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: February 22, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is. For Chinese New Year, my Hedonist group decided to put this to the test.

We took over one of the private rooms with two tables and a big set menu.

2004 Domaine Carneros Brut. 88 points. Outstanding! Crisp and refreshing, not sweet – right amount of ‘dry’. Very well balanced!

NV Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle. 93 points. Rich, deep complex nose; apples, caramel, lite dough/yeast nose; a real bouquet, no pure flavors; Intense mth!, foamy bubbles, grt. long fin.–balanced, elegant, and classic.

2005 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. AG 92-94. Bright yellow-gold. Heady floral-accented citrus and orchard fruits on the nose, with smoky mineral and floral overtones adding complexity. Velvety and chewy in texture, offering deep, juicy orange and poached pear flavors and suave honey and chamomile nuances. Blends precision with power, finishing with a distinct mineral quality and excellent persistence.

Peanuts on the table start off many a real Chinese meal.

2009 Château Le Puy Côtes de Francs Marie Cecile. 95 points. Acidity and sweetness comes together at once and balance, young but seductive, a little bit dense after 60 mins. It’s not delicious but very very good indeed, I love it…actually. Aftertaste is spicy finished but elegant, perfume, layers, dimensions, warm and beautifully dry and long….very long finished.

Suckling pig. We preordered this little fellow. He’s kinda sad, but he sure tasted great. Really just a fabulous bit of pork and cracklings. As good as any suckling pig I’ve had.

Salt and slightly sweet brown sauce for the pig.

From my cellar: 1999 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Tanzer 94+. Subtly complex, precise aromas of apple, pear, minerals, mace and nutmeg. Gripping, vibrant and dense, with compelling vinosity and strong acidity. Offers captivating inner-mouth perfume of white flowers. Almost tannic on the back end, but has the sheer buffering material to stand up to the powerful structure and acids. A brilliant wine, finishing with a wonderfully tactile quality and superb length and grip.

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

Walnut shrimp. A white guy dish, but very tasty nonetheless. This one was fairly heavily fried, with light mayo. Served very hot.

2001 Sine Qua Non Albino. Tanzer 89. Perfumed aromas of tropical fruits, honey, oatmeal and nutty oak. Sweet and silky in the mouth, with apricot, peach and nutty oak flavors along with more exotic hints of mango and pineapple. Quite oaky on the back end, with a slightly dry, cyanic edge and a flavor of toasted almond. More dominated by its wood than most recent vintages of the Sine Qua Non white blend.

agavin: unfortunately, our bottle was totally oxidized and gone 🙁

2011 DuMOL Chardonnay Chloe. Tanzer 93+. Bright yellow, a bit less lucid than the Estate, which had already been racked off its lees. Captivating, sharply delineated aromas of citrus peel, orange marmalade and iodine. Large-scaled, sweet and thick with extract; wonderfully full, plush and seamless. Ripe lemon-candy acidity frames and intensifies the wine’s citrus and stone fruit flavors. These Ritchie Vineyard vines were planted to an old Wente clone in 1972.

2010 Kongsgaard Chardonnay. Tanzer 95. Very bright yellow-gold, a bit less deep than the 2011. Expressive aromas of tangerine, hazelnutty lees and sexy oak. The palate boasts great richness and sweetness, with a wonderfully sappy character to its explosive soft citrus and stone fruit flavors. Comes across as sweeter than the 2011, but harmonious acidity gives it beautiful balance. The 2010s finished their alcohol fermentations up to 16 months after the vintage, later than the malos, noted Kongsgaard, adding that this has given them a lot of weight. But this wine finishes bright and very long, with a firm spine of acidity.

Fried fish. Like super fish and chips (minus the chips).

2011 Marcassin Pinot Noir Marcassin Vineyard. 92 points. A lot of people loved this. To me, while there was a strong ripe fruit undercurrent, the heavy heavy oaking dominated.

2004 Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Catherine. Josh Raynolds 93. Dark violet. Intensely aromatic nose offers powerful blackberry and plum compote aromas. Very fresh in the mouth (the pH is 3.4, Kistler says), with vibrant red and dark berry flavors and taut minerality. Dry, focused and pure on the finish, with outstanding persistence and lingering dark berry flavors. Serious pinot: a great marriage of sweet fruit and soil tones.

2009 Rex Hill Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. Josh Raynolds 88. Bright red. Spicy raspberry and red cherry aromas are complicated by lively floral and herbal qualities. Sappy and round, with sweet red fruit and candied rose flavors, supple tannins and subtle spiciness. This open-knit pinot finishes with a touch of heat.

Roast pigeon. Succulent little birds, heads and all.

From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. Tanzer 88. Impressive deep ruby-red. Perfumed, slightly candied aromas of red berries and smoky, charred oak. Supple and sweet, but a wine of only moderate intensity. Finishes with slightly dry tannins.

2005 Dupont-Tisserandot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers. Burghound 92. A very ripe extract of black pinot fruit nose liberally laced with cassis and warm earth nuances introduces rich, full and mouth coating flavors that are equally ripe, powerful, textured and explosive on the hugely long finish. This is impressive with a real sense of volume in the mouth and clearly built to age.

Lobster! Some awesome tender lobster in garlic pepper sauce. A milder sauce than at some places, which allowed the lobster meat flavor to come through.

2003 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel Reserve St. Peter’s Church Vineyard.

Peking duck. Well at least the skin of the peking duck, with little folding buns, crispy shrimp chips, and green onions.

The duck was okay. Not as good as some Beijing places.

2007 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Josh Raynolds 93-96. Glass-staining ruby. Highly expressive, exotically perfumed bouquet of black raspberry, potpourri, smoky minerals and anise. A smooth, silky midweight with flavors of sweet red and dark berries complicated by notes of candied flowers and zesty minerals. Really clings on the finish, with the red fruit flavors refusing to let up.

2005 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Josh Raynolds 94. Deep ruby. Seductively aromatic bouquet of red and dark berries, fresh flowers and minerals, with subtle garrigue and baking spice character. A round, creamy midweight with deep, sweet raspberry and blackcurrant flavors and a finish featuring gently gripping tannins and excellent smoky persistence. More civilized and fruity than the 2006 and 2004 releases from this top producer.

Eggplant. This is the typical sizzling (Szechuan) eggplant. Great stuff. Soft without being mushy with a nice garlicky flavor.

2004 Pax Syrah The Terraces Alder Springs Vineyard. Tanzer 90+. Saturated medium ruby. Extremely unevolved nose features some exotic suggestions of apricot, peach and spice. Powerful, firmly built and superripe, with penetrating acidity and a distinct peppery element from the fermentation with the stems. Strong in tannic acidity, notes Mahle. As ripe as this is, there’s nothing heavy about it. Still, this very juicy, tight wine is distinctly edgy today and is dominated by its spine. Needs patience.

Duck meat. After we only got the skin, we were wondering what happened to the meat. It came back with the “duck sauce.”

2005 Vinedos de Mancuso Vino de la Tierra Valdejalón.

Egg shrimp. These shrimp were breaded with a special coating of duck yolk. A lot of people liked them but they were too pasty and rich for my taste.

2005 Cos d’Estournel. Parker 98. While I am not convinced the 2005 Cos d’Estournel will eclipse the compelling 2003 Cos, it is unquestionably another superb classic from proprietor Michel Reybier and his brilliant winemaker, Jean-Guillaume Prats. Made from an unusually high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (78%) and the balance mostly Merlot with a tiny dollop of Cabernet Franc, this superb effort requires plenty of time in the bottle. It boasts an inky/purple color as well as a glorious perfume of licorice, Asian spices, creme de cassis, blackberries, and toasty oak. This full-bodied St.-Estephe is exceptionally powerful, pure, and dense with a layered mid-palate that builds like a skyscraper. While there are massive tannins, they are remarkably velvety and well-integrated in this big, backstrapping effort that should enjoy an unusually long life. Forget it for 8-10 years, and drink it between 2017-2040.

Pea shoots. Colon sweeper! But quite nice actually.

1987 Ritchie Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. RJ 94. Rich, ripe, fruity nose, opened great, tasty, touch of pepper on the palate, long finish.

agavin: our bottle was in great shape. very nice.

Fried rice. The meat was beef satay, which is a new one and very slightly Singaporean in style, but it was good.

2010 Miner Family The Oracle. 91 points. nose of black cherry fruit, earth and a touch of cassis, more of the same on the palate, best wine tasted today at Miner, mouth filling, delicious and sweet like cherry jam preserves, medium/big body and a long finish.

Spring chicken. As in ain’t no spring chicken. But this one was. Actually, it was one of the best chicken’s I’ve had. Really perfectly tender and moist.

Singapore style noodles. While I like the usual Elite crispy noodles better, these were enjoyable too.

2011 Mollydooker Shiraz The Velvet Glove. Parker 97. Very deep purple-black in color, the 2011 Velvet Glove is chock full of ripe and spicy blackberries, fresh blueberries and creme de cassis aromas that are accented by Chinese five spice notes and hints of chocolate, vanilla and some tar. Full-bodied, it is ripe and rich with a nice line of acid and medium-firm, fine-grained tannins. Concentrated and persistent on the finish, it shows beautiful elegance and freshness and is a nicely delineated and expressive example of the varietal and its regional home. However, it needs another year or more in bottle. Drink it from 2015 to 2025+.

Fried fish. This guy had a ton of meat on him. Relatively light too for fried.

1997 Chateau Montelena Viognier Late Harvest. 85 points. Sweet, but a bit akilter.

Mango pudding. Awesome. With that silky smooth texture and mango flavor, it almost had bubblegum undertones. I ate three.

Walnut soup. Never had this before. Hot walnut soup. Yep. Not my favorite.

Another awesome Chinese feast. A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and the chicken. The private room was great and we had even better than usual (for Chinese) wines. Certainly a massive and massively enjoyable blow out.

Afterward, just two blocks away, is one of my favorite foot massage places!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Elite Restaurant, hedonists, Lobster, Peking Duck, suckling pig, Wine

Shunji Super Omakase

Feb25

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

Location: 12244 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (310) 826-4737

Date: February 20, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: First rate traditional sushi

I’ve been meaning for some time to come back to Shunji for a mega dinner omakase and tonight finally provided the excuse. My wine friend Sam was in town with his friend Matt and so Erick and I dragged set up some serious Shunji.

Shunji, which took over for the “Mr. Cecil’s BBQ” in this oddball looking building on Pico has developed quite a reputation.

At night, Shunji offers an amazing and advanced mix of traditional and modern raw and cooked dishes.

Chef Shunji Nakao was an opening chef at Matsuhisa in the day, then opened Asanebo, then The Hump (one of my old favorites). It has quickly risen to the top of the LA Japanese scene.

From my cellar: 1985 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon. agavin 90. The wine started out old and oxidized, with a very sherry-like nose. But slowly over the next 4-5 hours it developed into this intriguing nutty ultra smooth beast that was really quite lovely. Given that this is a 30 year-old premier cru Chardonnay, pretty impressive.

Vegetable porridge. A mysterious vegetarian mix. There are clearly mushrooms here. It was mild and very Japanese.

Appetizer plate. A spread of various intriguing elements.

Colbrabi and pine-nuts.

Conch.

Fish jelly and stuffed shrimp. The jelly was really good. On the right, the purple ball was some kind of Japanese yam.

Seasonal baby squid with miso sauce and monkfish liver truffle with caviar. The truffle was amazing.

Erick brought: 1997 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. IWC 93. Green-tinged pale color. Classy aromas of tangy grapefruit, pear eau de vie and minerals. Dense, pure, ripe and delineated; vibrant, pristine citrus, spice and stony flavors. Firm and brisk but creamy at the core, in the style of the vintage. Palate-staining finish features almost painful grip.

agavin: mature and drinking great.

Baby sea eels with a sesame paste. Amazing flavor and texture.

Notice the eyeballs at the bottom of the eels! But they seem like pasta.

Cod sperm. Yep, the white part was a kind of mousse made from cod sperm. It was pretty amazing and creamy too. This led to an entire evening of immature jokes.

Sashimi plate.

Sea Robin (houbou). A rarity and in season. I’m not sure I’ve ever had it and so fresh he was still wiggling. The meat was firm and tasty.

Big eye tuna to the right.

Then wild yellowtail and to the far right, needlefish and fried needle fish spine.

Perfect o-toro.

Here is the needlefish head and spine again.

Sam brought: 2007 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Montrachet Le Montrachet. agavin 95. Like a coiled cobra. Reduction on the nose at first, then various elements of ripe fruit. Melon. Maybe even durian or jack fruit. Uncoiled slowly through the evening, but always maintained this tropical power.

Hairy crab from Hokkaido. Served with both crab guts and a sweet vinegar sauce. Yum! Oh, and the little momotaro tomato.

Two kinds of baby eel.

Baby eel tempura with shiso!

And baby eel sashimi with a bit of ginger and cucumber. Eyeballs!

A trio of salads.

Arugula salad with a bit of citrus and gorgonzola.

Lobster salad with flowers and citrus. An incredible Montrachet pairing.

Ball of fried something. Mushroom?

Miso black cod with pickled ginger.

Fried oyster wrapped in prosciutto!

Truffle duck “risotto.” Some whole grain risotto with black truffles and fatty yummy bits of duck. This had an incredible umami “stink.”

Sam brought: 2009 Raul Pérez Rías Baixas Sketch. Parker 96. 2009 Sketch, an Albarino sourced from a parcel harvested 1-2 weeks later than all the other vineyards. It was fermented and aged (without malolactic) in two 700-liter barrels for 12 months followed by 60 days of aging in the bottle at 30 meters under the sea. It offers up an enthralling bouquet of mineral, saline, floral, tropical, and marzipan elements. Intense, complex, impeccably balanced, and remarkably lengthy, this is as good as Albarino gets.

agavin 96: This wine was too sexy for me! 🙂 It had this incredible bouquet like a top flight dry Riesling filled with both mineral and citrus/tropical elements. And it just sang on the tongue. Really pretty crazy.

Red snapper (tai).

Goldeneye snapper.

Shima-aji.

Wild yellowtail. (Kanpachi).

Wild yellowtail. (Kanpachi).

Mysterious whitefish sushi of the yummy sort.

Japanese Baracuda. A bit of char flavor.

Another slightly charred fish, the exact name of which eludes me.

The poor prawns are about to be our dinner.

Sweet shrimp (Ama-ebi). This was the body of the above dancing prawns. Soft and sweet.

The heads return both fried.

And as miso soup.

Live octopus (taco). He squeezed it and it wiggled.

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin (uni).

Look at that toro!

Toro tartar, with a soft amazing flavor.

O-toro. Perfect!

Scottish salmon. A really rich and savory piece.

Beef sukiyaki. A bit of the classic. Lots of rich brothiness.

Soup. One of those delicate Japanese soups.

Foie gras with a nice sweet glaze. Nothing to complain about here. A very nice straight up prep of the fatty liver.

A dessert spread of pineapple sorbet, chocolate mousse, and mango ice cream.

This one is the same except on the right is lime ice cream. All three were superb.

Traditional tea.

All and all Shunji is rather fantastic, joining the large repertoire of top LA sushi restaurants. This was a really great take on sushi kaiseki style dishes, combining both innovations with a solid grounding in traditional Japanese flavors and seasonal ingredients. There was some really unusual stuff too (sperm!) and it all tasted fabulous. The nigiri was also top flight, with a lot of exotic fish and at the peak of freshness. Great great stuff. When you sit at the sushi bar like this talking to the chef, you always get the best stuff too — although the restaurant was mobbed and all the great plates making their way out into the room looked amazing.

Plus our dynamite lineup of whites didn’t hurt.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Shunji, Sushi, Wine

Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu

Feb23

Restaurant: Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu

Location: 18412 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265. (310) 454-4357

Date: February 19, 2015

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Exactly like the other Mastro’s, but closer and with a better view!

I’ve been meaning to try the new Mastro’s Ocean Club since it opened as it’s all of about 10 minutes from my house. My brother’s birthday provided an excellent opportunity!

As you can see, the view is awesome — and despite Charthouse deja vu, it’s a lovely location. As usual, it’s pretty sealed up, which seems to be oddly typical on the Pacific coast (probably because of the chilly afternoon/evening breezes).

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

The yummy breads.

Three of us ordered the seafood tower. The quality of the seafood here is impeccable. There were amazing shrimp, lobsters, claws, dungeness crab (in the top, shelled), and oysters.

One of the things that really makes the Mastro’s seafood tower are the sauces. We have cocktail, a spicy mustard, and the Atomic Horseradish. They use this particular magic brand (you can buy it here). The stuff is — pardon my French — fucking awesomely potent. I’ve taken to buying it myself for home. No other horseradish is this punishing. It has a nice flavor too. I particularly like it mixed in with the cocktail sauce. It can have you literally pounding the table in pain — ahem pleasure.

Caesar salad.

1978 Château Mont-Redon Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VC 95. Gorgeous brick red with tawny rim. Sweet rich fruit, plummy, earthy, rich blackberry compote, tar and licorice spice, but fruit dominant.
Fresh and smooth, superb balance and length, finishing with a deep long resonating kiss. Loving this. Hints of sherbet zest but mostly a rich earthy compote of plummy fruit with a lightly spicy edge. Amazingly fresh and crisp for its considerable age, better than many 15 years it’s junior. I have another and will happily lay to rest for another 5-10. Drinking beautifully.

Chilean sea bass, looking forlorn by itself on the plate.

Grilled salmon.

8 oz filet.

8 oz filet oscar style. Yeah, it’s obscene. I know.

Grilled brussels sprouts. Not as good as Gjelina (with the pancetta).

Creamed corn.

This is “Gorgonzola mac & cheese!” Oh so light, oh so yummy.

And even better, the evil “king crab truffle gnocchi.” Yes that’s right. Cream, cheese, truffles, crab, potato. What could be better?

See the evil damage.

For dessert, birthday profiteroles with ice cream and whipped cream.

Chocolate covered strawberries with whipped cream.

And the super evil butter cake. About 3 sticks of butter in this baby.

Amazingly, there was still room for dessert

Overall, a great experience. I’m not sure what is Ocean Club about the ocean part other than actually being BY the ocean. Which makes it all the odder that there is an Ocean Club in Scottsdale (no ocean there). This place is pretty much a clone of the other Mastro’s foodwise, which isn’t exactly a bad thing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: birthday, Dessert, Mastro's Ocean Club Malibu, Mastros, Steak House, steakhouse, Wine

Lofty Heights

Feb16

Restaurant: Daniel Benhaim

Location: Downtown LA

Date: February 12, 2015

Cuisine: Modern

Rating: Awesome

Adam, one of our Hedonist regulars, likes to organize high end dinners.

This particular one is game meat themed, and hosted in a DTLA loft.

The chef is Daniel Benhaim. He managed this amazing meal for 15 handling the kitchen all by himself with the help of two talented servers.

The loft is in a sketchy area, but has access to a giant roof with an amazing view of the city!

Tonight’s menu.

It should be noted that the wine service (haha) for this event was chaotic in the least. Things were opened and grabbed in a giant amiable free-for-all. I’ve tried to order them here, but they weren’t.

NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Brut Initiale. IWC 92. Bright gold. An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes dried pear, honey, lemon curd, truffle and candied ginger. On the palate, intense mineral-accented orchard and pit fruit flavors pick up smokiness and nuttiness with air. Finishes smooth and extremely long, with subtle smokiness, a brown butter quality and a whiplash of minerality.

2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest. IWC 93+. Pale green-tinged straw. Reticent but ripe and highly nuanced nose combines peach, nectarine, lime, lemon skin, nuts and an intriguing, soil-inflected vegetal/smoky quality. Very dry, taut and reserved yet already rich and mouthfilling, with the ripe fruit notes perfectly supported by a flavor of liquid stone. A wine of great energy, finishing with explosive length and powerful minerality. Grand cru size and cut.

agavin: Our bottle was unfortunately premoxed.

2008 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 94. A more elegant as well as more refined but also much more reserved nose of white flower and salt water aromas is very much in keeping with the equally refined, pure and silky middle weight flavors that possess excellent detail and precision on the textured and seductive finish that displays grand cru level persistence. This is not quite as rich as the Butteaux but it’s finer as the chiseled flavors are flat out gorgeous. In a word, stunning.

agavin: great, although young and tight at first.

Foie Gras Torchon. Pickled Mustard. Hibiscus Jam. Beet Cured Apple. Mangalitsa Sourdough.

A really nice with with a very interesting blend of the rich, sweet, and tangy/sharp. Not your usual sweet-only foie pairing.

1999 Olivier Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Canet. 91 points.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. Green apple, white pear and hint of crushed herb are framed by gentle notes of pain grillé that combine with huge and unbelievably intense flavors blessed with phenomenal power and length. This has that “wow” factor as the flavors are both palate staining and almost painfully intense and the finale is like a block of stone.

agavin: I thought this had a bit of that annoying green flavor that ruins the 04 reds.

2012 Albert Grivault Meursault 1er Cru Clos des Perrières. 97 agavin. A stunner, particularly given how young it is. Rich, but already in balance with a soaring quality. Very MP too.

2004 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Réserve. RR 93. Floral and herbal elements around a core of ripe white fruited flavours; rich and creamy-textured, brings a ripe Meursault to mind with great balance and a sense of purity to the flavours. Lovely stuff.

Bison Tartar. Wood Sorrel. Toasted Walnut. Kefir. Salted Blackberry. Anise Vinaigrette.

I love tartar in general, and this didn’t disappoint. The blend of flavors was both complex and harmonious. The vibe is a bit similar to the Korean/Japanese type tartars like at Totoraku or this K-BBQ.

1945 Remoissenet Père et Fils Vosne-Romanée. 93 agavin. Surprisingly young and fresh. Really great for a while. A lot of Remoissenet wines are off balance, not this one.

Amanda brought: 1971 Marey-Monge (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) Romanée St. Vivant. 94 points. It must first be noted that this bottle had a Marey-Monge cork instead of a DRC cork. None of us were totally sure what was standard in that year. Marey-Monge owned the vineyards and leased them to DRC. They made their own wine through 1966 I think, then 67-71 was DRC, and 72-87 was even more DRC control, but stilled leased, then in 1988 DRC bought the parcels and did a bunch of replanted and the like. The person who brought it offered full disclosure. We concluded that it tasted like RSV, and approximately the right age. It was very good, even though it had a light touch of corking. Quite powerful in some ways with a ton of complexity. Very enjoyable.

Thanks Amanda!

2001 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 94. As big as a Chambertin with the intensity and sheer flavor authority to match. Sumptuously, even lavishly oaked yet it carries its oak as though it were nothing and there is no doubt that this will absorb the wood completely as there is a mind boggling amount of mid-palate sap and punch and it completely coats the mouth and the persistence is exemplary. The structure is completely buried beneath all the sap and while this should be approachable after a decade, it will drink well for another two. Another great Roty Charmes in a very long line of them. If you can find a few bottles, don’t miss them. In short, this is very classy juice.

agavin: a great wine, drink great

1998 Marcassin Pinot Noir Blue-Slide Ridge Vineyard. IWC 91. Full red. Slightly high-toned aromas of plum, nuts and dried fruits; like the Three Sisters, this could use more freshness. Then sweet, lush and silky in the mouth, with more weight and ripeness than the Three Sisters. Showed a fresh raspberry flavor as it opened in the glass, but this pinot, too, could use a bit more verve. Best on the very long finish, which features fine, even tannins.

From my cellar: 1989 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. RR95+. The nose was fabulous, full of sweet, black fruits, garrigue, spice, pepper, game, chocolate, minerals and bread aromas. The palate was rich and hearty, more limited and square than its nose, although there was nice citrus and leather smack to its gamy finish.

agavin: a little closed at first it stirred and really opened up after a bit.

Mangalitsa Ragu. Dark Chocolate Tagliatelle. Fiore Sardo. Mollica.

Chef Benhaim likes to blend unusual flavors and he shows a real talent for keeping the flavors in balance. This was a great and very interesting pasta.

1998 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 92-96. This wine performed even better than my high accolades in issue #131 suggested. The 1998 Chateauneuf du Pape is the greatest effort produced since Beaucastel’s 1989 and 1990. It reveals more accessibility, no doubt because the final blend included more Grenache than normal. Its dense purple color is followed by sweet aromas of blackberries, licorice, new saddle leather, and earth. There is superb concentration, full body, low acidity, and high tannin, but it is surprisingly drinkable for such a young Beaucastel. Ideally, it needs another 3-4 years of cellaring, and should keep for 25-30 years.

agavin: our bottle was corked 🙁

Erick brought: 1999 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin. Parker 96-100. The 1999 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin appears to be a legend. Made from a classic blend of 60% Mourvedre, 20% Grenache, 10% Syrah, and 10% Counoise, this limited production (5,000 bottles) cuvee exhibits perfect equilibrium, but needs a decade of cellaring. It would be a shame to drink it before that. The opaque black/purple color is accompanied by aromas of roasted meats, smoke, truffles, cured olives, and intense blackberry and espresso-infused cherry fruit. Leather notes also emerge on the palate. The wine boasts immense body, massive richness, and formidable levels of extract and tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2040.

agavin: probably WOTN, big, brooding and awesome.

2007 Pierre Usseglio Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Mon Aieul. Parker 100. There are 1,800 cases of the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee du Mon Aieul (100% tank-aged Grenache). It represents an awesome naked/virginal expression of Grenache from three vineyard parcels planted in sand, clay, and limestone soils. After tasting this wine on five separate occasions, I can state with certainty, it has the most saturated color of any Mon Aieul produced to date. Moreover, its perfume of blueberry liqueur, black raspberries, licorice, roasted meat juices, and lavender is incredible. Full-bodied power, a multilayered mouthfeel, tremendous purity, and awesome concentration put this wine in a class by itself. This sensational Chateauneuf du Pape is still very young, and 3-4 years of cellaring is required. It should be a modern day legend and last for nearly two decades.

agavin: big, bold, full of great fruit without overpowering.

1998 Delas Freres Hermitage les Bessards. Parker 96. The 1998 Hermitage Les Bessards reveals licorice, coffee, cassis, minerals, smoke, and meat scents, full body, great depth, teeth-coating tannin, and a persistent, sweet, well-delineated, 45-second finish. It will be at its peak between 2007-2035.

2003 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 92-95. The powerful 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape comes closest in character to the 1990 (which is still drinking beautifully). Its dark ruby/plum/purple color is followed by sweet aromas of resiny pine forest interwoven with creme de cassis, black cherries, melted licorice, and smoky herbs. In the mouth, gamy, meaty flavors emerge along with black currants, cherries, and a hint of the sushi wrapper called nori. Full, rich, and moderately tannic, this 2003 requires another 1-3 years of bottle age, and should keep for 12-15 years.

Duck Wellington. Smoked Carrot. Vadouvan. Raison d’etre.

Another ambitious dish executed fabulously, particularly given the challenge of being a single chef with 15 plates. The meat was perfectly cooked. The pastry wasn’t soggy, and the very interesting curry sauce really livened up this sometimes heavy type of dish.

1998 Pavie. Parker 95-96. A 50-year wine, this opaque purple-colored offering exhibits a strong, precise nose of black fruits, liquid minerals, smoke, and graphite. Extremely full-bodied, yet brilliantly delineated, powerful, and awesomely concentrated, it boasts a fabulous mid-palate as well as a finish that lasts for nearly a minute. This vin de garde requires 5-6 years of cellaring. A tour de force in winemaking, it has the potential to be the most profound Pavie ever produced, except for its two successors. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2045.

agavin: Pavie two nights in a row!

1983 Mount Mary Cabernets. 90 points online, but our bottle was over the hill, thin and a bit cloudy. A shame.

1975 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. View from cellar 97+. The 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard is quite pretty and powerful, but also a bit forward, while the 1975 impresses for its pure depth and richness, both remarkable for a wine that is nearly 40 years old!

agavin: Really impressive and full of rich fruit.

2001 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 92-98. No idea which bottling this was. Too bad for them they stick the important information on the back instead of the front where it should be! Parker says of the regular bottling: may be the Le Pin of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a lascivious, powerful, smoky sex pot of great fruit intensity, purity, and voluptuousness. The texture is unctuous, the fruit level remarkable, and the wine gloriously pure, rich, and bursting with black currant and sweet cherry fruit as well as nicely integrated, toasty French oak. It will drink well for 15+ years. This exciting debut effort possesses an individualistic, distinctive style … all to the credit of this brash newcomer, a tightly-spaced vineyard situated on the Silverado Trail, north of St. Helena, near the Rombauer Vineyard. This is an impressive effort fashioned by Philippe Melka, who believes this site has “unlimited potential.”

Venison Loin. Celery Root. Maitake. Eucalyptus Bordelaise.

The meat was flavorful, tender, and perfectly cooked. It was a little cold though, probably owing to the logistics of the dinner.

From my cellar: 2011 Veyder-Malberg Riesling Bruck. 96 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.

agavin: I actually opened this at the beginning, but I put it here because it paired so well with the bright citrus in the key lime pie.

Key Lime Sorbet. Buckwheat Graham. Coconut Custard.

Awesome dessert. Full of bright bright citrus flavors. Basically a deconstructed Key Lime Pie. Awesome and paired best with the remains of the Bruck (above).

Thanks Dave for bringing this bruiser.

1988 Chateau d’Yquem. Parker 98-99. The 1988 d’Yquem has an incredibly profound nose of orange marmalade, dried apricots, honeycomb, musk and dried pineapple with hints of marzipan and crystallized ginger. The palate is seamless with a great line of crisp acid cutting through the densely packed dried tropical fruit and honeyed flavour layers. The finish just goes on and on.

agavin: oh, yeah! Hehe, still have 2 bottles of this baby in my cellar. At least one of them I’ve had since the mid 90s.

Milk Chocolate Cake. Olive Oil. Coffee Meringue. Dulce de Leche.

Another great dessert, mixing textures (soft, crunchy, gooey) and temperatures (warm, cool, room temp).

Overall, this was another awesome night. The food was fabulous. For being only two servers and one cook, the staff did an amazing job. Now we could have used a Somm, as the wine was a total free-for-all, but we had so many bottles that it wasn’t a stressful frenzy.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Adam Fleischman, Daniel Benhaim, Dessert, Downtown Los Angeles, DTLA, hedonists, popup, Wine

Spear your Meat

Feb13

Restaurant: Spear Steak & Seafood House

Location:800 W 6th St, Ste 100. Los Angeles, CA 90017. (213) 688-3000

Date: February 12, 2015

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Surprisingly good

After the success of last month’s “Foodie Club instigated by Will” dinner, we wanted to do another one in February. We even selected and booked Chi Spacca, the Mozza Italian steakhouse, but at the very last minute (hours before) we tripped up on their “no more than 1 bottle per 2 people” policy. So I’m going to “dis” them here because these policies are obnoxious. They can charge corkage if they like (absolutely no more than $50 a bottle and flat per bottle), but bottle limits are offensive. We open and serve own bottles plus order and tip big too.

So screw them, their loss.

So at the last minute we relocated to Speak Steak and Seafood House downtown. Will knows the owner and THEY welcomed us in, had no bottle limit, and didn’t even charge corkage!

This is one of those sleek modern semi-corporate restaurants.

The menu is large and modern which I was happy about. I’m not a steakhouse fan and really not a fan of old school steakhouse.

Or semiprivate room. We buttoned up the wall to cut down on the noise from the big room. The service was awesome. They weren’t really set up for our type of wine dinner but they really tried. They dug up 4-5 glasses each and dragged in a little wine table for us.

I went through the menu and ordered up a storm family style in 4-5 waves. We even ordered the main meats family style getting a variety (David handled that course). Walker and I (more Walker) divided the wines (we had at least 6-10 unopened ones too as backups/options) into loose flights too.

The staff did a great job bringing out the food in waves too.

Flight 1: Whites

From my cellar: 2007 Benanti Etna Bianco Superiore Pietramarina. IWC 90. Straw-gold. Spicy minerals and apricot on the nose, with herbal and almond nuances. Rich and ripe on entry, then fresher and lighter in the middle thanks to high but harmonious acids, with intense minty white fruit flavors. Finishes long, with a strong saline note and a fusel whiff.

Erick brought: 2007 Domaine Marc Morey & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts. 92 points. This lovely négoce wine from Marc Morey never fails. Very fine fruit with lime, peaces and a hand full of minerals.

Larry brought: 1999 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. AG 94. Raveneau’s 1999 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is in a marvelous spot right now. Petrol, smoke, slate, apricot pit and wild flowers are some of the many notes that grace the palate in an utterly vivid, vibrant Chablis endowed with magnificent purity and pedigree. At fifteen years of age, the 1999 Montée de Tonnerre still has a lot to say. What a beautiful wine!

agavin: sadly our bottle was a bit premoxed.

From my cellar: 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.

Kusshi and Kumamoto oysters.

Uni Toast. roasted seaweed, triple créme, truffle salt. This was pretty awesome with both the rich Santa Barbara uni flavor and a kind of creamy underpinning from the triple créme.

Hokkaido Scallops. yuzu pepper, smoked salt, ponzu sauce, olive oil. A nice bright dish that is cousin to the proper version that sushi chefs serve.

Yellowtail Ceviche. fresno chile, cucumber, coconut-lime sauce.

I’m not actually sure this was the above dish and not one of their other sashimi-style dishes. It was just okay, the weakest of the set.

Butter Lettuce Wedge. Creamy bleu, minced herbs, bacon brittle, tomato, pickled shallot. A pretty awesome wedge, mostly because of the great dressing.

Quinoa Kale Salad. red quinoa, grilled apricot, pistachio, aged goat cheese, honey-olive oil vinaigrette. Slightly sweet and mild.

Flight 2: Italian

Walker brought: 1944 Borgogne Barolo Reserva. 95 points. Amazing. 71 years old. Mussolini was still alive when this wine was made! We decanted for an hour. The nose was incredible, and it had a soft burgundian vibe with lots of fruit.

Emil/Will brought: 1978 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva Il Poggio. 92 points. Powerful and old-fashioned, rustic and polished at once. Complex nose of ancient fruit, tar and leather; real weight on the palate, very long and resonant finish. The nose got better and better. Tons of fruit.

Roasted Bone Marrow. smoked salt, veal jus. Bone marrow isn’t my thing, but this was a good version.

Snow Crab Beignets. bacon powder, old bay remoulade. The description is accurate, like a crab donut, awesome.

BBQ Pork Belly & Shrimp. crispy prosciutto, white bean puree, cilantro. The shrimp were tasty but the pork belly was amazing. Really tender and flavorful, not too fatty.

Flight 3: Old Bordeaux

Erick brought: 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild. IWC 94. Bright red with an amber rim. Captivating nose of dark plum, blackcurrant, oak, coffee, cocoa and flowers. Juicy, sweet and suave on entry, then brightly focused in its red fruit and black flavors complicated by cedar and citrus. Finishes with flinty, saline nuances and very suave tannins. This outstanding wine is perfectly balanced and light on its feet, still very young and capable of a very long life. It might disappoint those looking for a blockbuster, but I love its overall sense of refinement. An essence of claret.

agavin: our bottle was fabulous

Walker brought: 1982 Château Gruaud Larose. IWC 96. Bright red with a pale rim. The still-closed nose reluctantly releases aromas of red cherry, sweet spices, aromatic herbs and coffee. Dense, rich and fleshy, with ripe red cherry, tobacco and forest floor flavors given shape by harmonious acidity and smooth tannins. The very long, slightly chewy finish shows a peppery chocolatey persistence. This is developing at a snail’s space and might last another three or four decades in a cold cellar, but while its tannic structure is noble and impressive, I’d probably want to check in on it again in five years’ time to see how the fruit is holding up.

agavin: our bottle of this was fabulous too. Mature, but has decades left in it.

Char Siu Barbecue Duck Flatbread. smoked mozzarella, passion fruit emulsion, scallion sesame. Fabulous pizza with a richness and a sweet and savory vibe.

Roasted Pork Banh Mi Flatbread. pickled vegetables, jalapeño.

Whole Broiled Prawns. lobster butter, garlic. Pretty good big shrimp.

Seafood pasta. Shrimp, mussels, manilla clams, diver scallops, uni cream sauce. This was a bit controversial. The noodles were actually a ramen egg noodle. They were made very soggy by the rich dish. That being said, it tasted great and the seafood was very fresh. It also was deathly bad with the red wine, but that’s uni. Overall we enjoyed it.

Flight 4: 2000 Bordeaux

David brought: 2000 Pavie. Parker 97-100. I tasted this wine twice during the 2000 horizontals, then I actually popped the cork and drank a half-bottle of it. This wine remains, for me, one of the compelling success stories for proprietor Gerard Perse. An extraordinary effort made from a blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon from the limestone soils that dominate this very distinctive terroir, the 2000 Pavie has moved out of the closed, dormant, broodingly backward stage into an adolescent period where one can see its extraordinary vibrancy, and great complexity as well as potential. It boasts an unctuous display of rich, cedar box-infused cassis fruit and liquid minerality. The tannins have sweetened, yet the wine has thirty years of longevity and potential evolution. A beautiful wine of great mass as well as elegance, it is good to see the extraordinary efforts that Gerard Perse and his team have made confirmed in this prodigious wine. A legend now … a legend for the future.

Will brought: 2000 La Mondotte. Parker 98+. In two tastings this garagiste wine performed as if it were one of the wines of the vintage. Proprietor Stefan von Neipperg continues to lavish abundant attention on La Mondotte (as he does with all his estates), and the 2000 (80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc) boasts an inky/blue/purple color in addition to gorgeous aromas of graphite, caramel, toast, blackberries, and creme de cassis. A floral component also emerges as the wine sits in the glass. Extremely dense, full-bodied, and built for another twenty years of cellaring, I thought it would be close to full maturity, but it appears to need another 4-5 years of bottle age. It should age effortlessly for 2-3 decades.

Tomahawk Pork Chop 22oz. double cut, vietnamese bbq. Really nice pork chop.

Short Rib Osso Bucco. 72 hour, roasted garlic potatoes, horseradish gremolata. Great rich meat.

Colorado Lamb Shank. 48 hour, chermoulah, heirloom carrots. A fabulous bit of lamb.

Black Garlic Spare Ribs. tobacco onions, vinegar slaw. My favorite, it was very nicely spiced and I don’t like plain meat.

Tomahawk Rib Chop. prime, dry aged 30 days. 42 ounces.

For me this is just steak, others loved it.

Flight 5: Sledgehammers

Emil brought: 2008 Oasi Degli Angeli Kurni. Parker 85. The 2008 Marche Rosso Kurni is quite unusual in this vintage. The wine comes across as rather compact in its fruit, which accentuates the sweetness of the fruit and the French oak. In a blind tasting the 2008 could easily be mistaken for a sweet red dessert wine. Let’s hope 2008 turns out be an anomaly for one of the Marche’s most famous reds.

Pork Belly Farro.

Uni Risotto. A little mild, but with so many other flavors and dishes it was under heavy competition.

Duck Confit Mac & Cheese. Nice, but could have been even cheesier!

Double Cooked Fries. Good fries and I liked the green chimichuri like sauce.

Grilled Broccolini.

Herb Roasted Cauliflower.

David brought: 2010 Sine Qua Non Syrah Five Shooter. Parker 98+. The 2010 Syrah Five Shooter is straight up gorgeous. A massive wine that somehow holds everything together, it offers a wild array of cassis, blackberry, white chocolate, underbrush and pepper that flows to a full-bodied, layered Syrah that has masses of fine tannin and enough substance to evolve for decades. A blend of 85% Syrah, 5% Grenache, 3% Petite Sirah, 5% Roussanne and 2% Viognier that was fermented with 20% whole cluster and aged 22 months in 59% new French oak, it opens up beautifully in the glass and should be decanted if drinking anytime soon.

Key lime pie. Great key lime pie.

Chocolate hazelnut mouse. Rich and tasty.

Bread pudding. Our least favorite. Nothing wrong with it, but we were very full.

Above is the damage. Seven guys too, and think about the amount of food we had — particularly given we had two of many of the dishes! Spear was incredibly reasonable too. This feast came out to only $110 a person after tax and before tip! The service was awesome too. They weren’t really trained for our kind of dinner, but they really tried and handled it with great attitude and aplomb.

Food was surprisingly excellent. Only a couple of dishes weren’t great, like the fish sashimi. I loved the breath and variety of the menu. Execution was first rate. Personally I like this place way better than almost all of the steakhouses I’ve been too because it isn’t all about just a slab of beef on your plate.

Company and wines were fabulous, this is turning into a really first rate dinner series.

For more big Foodie Club dinners, click here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Corkage, Dessert, Foodie Club, Meat, Steak, Steak House, steakhouse, Will C, Wine

Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 1

Feb06

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

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

Date: February 3, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fabulous!

This dinner is the first part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. This dinner covers 2007 Chablis, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne. 2005 White Burgundy Dinner series Part 1 can be found here. You can also read about last year’s 2004 Red Burgundy dinner and 2006 White Burgundy tasting.

2007 was a vintage was cool and acidic, but with promise in reds.

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

Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 29 glasses a person!

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

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

1996 Henriot Champagne Cuvée des Enchanteleurs Brut. IWC 94. Vivid yellow-gold. Kaleidoscopic aromas of citrus fruits, poached pear, mango, lees and licorice, with slow-building florality. Supple, palate-coating orchard and exotic fruit flavors are complicated by notes of herbs and buttered toast, with a smoky quality in the background. Seems younger than it did last year, showing excellent finishing clarity and persistent smoke and spice character. This really won’t let go of the palate, which is fine by me.

agavin: We had two 750ml bottles of this and I only tasted the first. It was a bit oxidized and short, and leaned heavily on the acidity. Supposedly the second bottle was better.

Fresh oysters.

Diamonds of Mushroom Polenta. I’m not a polenta fan.

Arancinette of Seafood. These are very pleasant fried rice balls with a hint of seafood.

Taleggio Flatbread and Black Truffles. This was very nice and cheesy with a bit of an almost blue cheese flavor.

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

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

Flight 1: Chablis

2007 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. Burghound 94. It seems that each succeeding wine is more aromatically elegant than the prior wine and again, the nose here is incredibly pure, layered, airy, indeed almost lacy with perfumed notes of dried white roses, salt water, oyster shell and iodine that complement to perfection the classy, refined and textured flavors brimming with both minerality and dry extract that buffers the firm acid spine on the strikingly long finish. This is not as powerful as the Montée de Tonnerre but it’s finer, in fact to the point that the Raveneau Blanchots is a wine of finesse, indeed even delicacy in 2007. In a word, wonderful.

agavin: my favorite of the flight. a little reduced at first, blew off. Then nice nose. lots of minerals and tons of acid on the finish with some real zingy weight.

2007 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 95. An equally elegant but ever-so-slightly more complex nose that is also ripe, pure and airy complements perfectly the rich, supple and beautifully intense palate staining and mouth coating broad-shouldered flavors brimming with intensity and oyster shell nuances on the penetrating, delineated, austere and gorgeously precise finish. The underlying sense of tension here is palpable and this too has so much dry extract that it will require the better part of a decade to fully mature. A classic Les Clos.

agavin: nose a little less at first, but still nice. Long acid on the finish, a little hotter than the Blanchots.

2007 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 93. This offers a step up in aromatic elegance with acacia blossom, quinine, citrus peel and sea shore aromas that are framed by a gentle touch of wood, which is also reflected by the intense, powerful and quite serious big-bodied flavors that ooze dry extract that confers a silky and sappy mouth feel to the seductive and long finish. Still, this will require at least 6 to 8 years to really be at its best and it should live for years after that.

agavin: white flower on the nose? palette reserved at first. short finish of sour apple.

2007 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 94. An extremely deft dash of wood is barely noticeable and merges seamlessly with highly complex if discreet aromas of limestone, lemon, oyster shell, sea breeze and white flowers. This is a big, powerful and incredibly precise wine with magnificent flavor authority and seemingly endless reserves of sappy extract. Tightly wound and still very youthful but the extract buffers the intense acidity and completely coats and stains the palate on the hugely long and intense finish. A knockout Valmur.

agavin: our only corked bottle. disgusting unfortunately.

2007 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 94. Here the nose is every bit as elegant if not more so but it’s distinctly cooler and somehow more distant yet the strong Chablis character is immediately evident as the nose is a classic combination of green fruit, warm stone, iodine and distilled extract of sea water and this intense saline quality continues onto the equally cool, brilliantly defined and stunningly well balanced flavors that are crystalline in their purity on the driving finish. This does a slow but steady build in intensity from the mid-palate on back and the length is flat out amazing.

agavin: sulfur and porta potty on the nose at first. reduction on the palette, but not unpleasant with a soft acid finish. Opened up and some of that reduction blew off later.

From my cellar: 2007 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. RJ wine 93. Light medium lemon yellow color; nutty, ripe lemon, light lanolin, tart apple nose; tasty, complex, very tart apple, mineral, almond, light hazelnut palate with medium acidity; could use 3 years yet; medium-plus finish 93+ points.

agavin: darker in color than most of the flight. reserved minerality and apple juice on the nose. acidic apple on the palette.

2007 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. Burghound 94. Initially this is still restrained but after only 10 minutes or so it becomes quite expressive with a nose that is airy, ripe, elegant and strikingly pure as it combines plenty of Chablis character that includes sea breeze, citrus and green fruit aromas that precede the delineated and equally pure flavors of stunning depth and intensity, all wrapped in a hugely long finish. Like the nose, the minerality seems subdued at first yet arrives in a real rush on the finale. A genuinely great wine that is a study in harmony and grace as well as one that should age effortlessly for many years. I have advanced the suggested drinking window by one year as this can already be drunk with pleasure even though it is still on the way up. In a word, stunning.

agavin: darker color then most in the flight. white flowers or stone fruits on the nose. rich on the palette with a somewhat heavy long finish.

2007 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 96. I had a chance to retaste this side by side with its 2008 counterpart and the ’07 matches the brilliant quality albeit in a different style due to the vintage characteristics. As such, I am raising my rating slightly. An aggregator is how I would describe this nose as the range of aromas and subtle nuances is genuinely amazing with a purity of expression that is nothing short of riveting with the classic assertive mineral reduction character that suffuses the character of this wine from the incredibly detailed nose to the wonderfully long, palate staining finish. The big, rich, powerful, detail and superbly focused flavors are supported by a very firm acid backbone that confers a bone dry quality to the finish that I could still taste hours later. In brief, at the moment this is more extract of Kimmeridgian stone than wine but it’s breathtakingly good. Don’t miss it.

agavin: very bright color. reduction and rubber on the nose. palette was reduced but pleasant, with a soft acid finish.

From my cellar: 2007 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. Burghound 95. This is every bit as elegant as the Valmur with nuanced, highly layered, discreet and very pure aromas of understated green fruit and almost pungent tidal pool aromas that are followed by rounded, focused and incredibly complex flavors displaying notes of warm stone and oyster shell. The texture and mouth feel of this are positively seductive as the finish is a liaison of richness and delicacy with that silky yet explosive finish that all the great examples of Preuses seem to possess. A wine of crystalline purity that is pure silk and class. A don’t miss Fèvre ’07.

agavin: completely closed on the nose at first, opened after some time to white flowers and spearmint. Nice green apple taste. Long balanced soft acid apple finish.

Crudo di pesce with salmon, ahi tuna, yellow tail with citrus and colatura. This was a lovely salad with very nice fish and a great sweet and citrus quality to it.

Flight 2: Meursault

This flight included all the Meursaults that were not Perrieres.

2007 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. Burghound 93. By contrast with the expressiveness of the Goutte d’Or, this is much more reserved and with a different aromatic profile more given to seductive and slightly exotic spices, citrus blossom and orange peel that leads to classy, rich, full and naturally sweet palate coating flavors as the dry extract is every bit as impressive. Like all of the Lafon ’07s, it is the impeccable balance that really sets these wines apart and the Genevrières is a wine of perfect harmony, particularly on the linear and explosive finish.

agavin: detergent on the nose to start. sweet taste with a hint of banana. rice nice finish.

2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Poruzots. Burghound 90-92. A mildly rustic green fruit and roasted nut nose slides into big, rich, powerful and robust full-bodied flavors that possess impressive size and volume before culminating in a tautly muscled, mouth coating and palate staining finish. This is no model of elegance but there is no doubting the intensity and flavor authority.

agavin: nose closed at first. Rich palette with searing (good) finish.

2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. Burghound 92. This too is extremely fresh, bright and pure with superb elegance on the restrained nose of acacia blossom, hazelnut and brioche that merges seamlessly into detailed, textured and silky medium-bodied flavors that are not as dense as those of the Poruzots or as refined as those of the Bouchères yet there is more depth and length. In short, overall this is a more complete wine of lovely harmony.

agavin: weird nose at first. Reduction and green apple on the palette. Weird odd finish too.

2007 Coche-Dury Meursault. IWC 92. Bright, pale yellow. Tangy aromas of orange, peach and spices. Broad and lively, with intense fruit lifted by a near-perfect sugar/acid balance. Finishes with excellent cut. This is awfully good for a wine from seven-year-old vines.

agavin: tons of stone fruit on the nose. Rich, reduced taste with strong notes of sour peach. Long soft acid finish. My favorite of the flight.

2007 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots. Burghound 92. A beautifully fresh, perfumed and intensely floral nose also speaks of citrus and hazelnut nuances that give way to delicious, round and intense medium-bodied flavors that possess excellent detail on the impressively long and impeccably well-balanced finish. However the aspect that really sets this apart from most villages-level wine is the excellent complexity. Overall, this seductively textured effort is still on the way up and I would be inclined to give it another 3 to 4 years of cellar time first.

agavin: fruit and acid on the nose. A rich balanced palette and a long finish.

2007 Hospices de Beaune Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières Cuvée Baudot Jean-Marc Roulot. 91 points. Very pretty but reserved nose. Nice acidity framing a bit of sweet oak. Light and pretty. Quite good.

agavin: more reserved on the nose but with a rich middle.

Pan Seared Scallops with Sweet Pea Sauce and Couscous. The scallop itself was nice but I found the couscous and pea sauce to be fairly flavorless.

Flight 3: Meursault Perrieres

2007 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 93. A bit of unintegrated SO2 does not impede the expressiveness of the ultra elegant citrus-infused nose of mostly floral notes that merges into spicy, pure and strikingly detailed flavors that possess excellent size and weight plus plenty of dry extract on the punchy, long and serious finish that seems to be constructed of liquid rock. Like the Genevrières, this is an explosive yet fine wine that exhibits a discreet, but unmistakable, sense of class and grace.

agavin: one of my favorites of the flight. reserved on the nose at first. Lots of stone fruits on the palette and a great long finish. Really a zingy wine once opened.

2007 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. Burghound 94. This is more expressive and a bit riper with ultra pure aromas of peach, apricot, pear and spiced white peach leading to ripe, concentrated and superbly precise flavors that display plenty of mid-palate fat and ample minerality that this part of Charmes always seems to impart to the wines and overall, this is a stunningly harmonious wine of finesse.

agavin: nothing on the nose at first and perhaps a bit advanced on the palette

2007 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 95. Despite several years of bottle age, this remains backward, tight and not revealing much aromatically beyond wonderfully pure white flower, pear and spice aromas. The rich, full and strikingly powerful flavors possess superb depth of dry extract and huge length on the detailed, focused, beautifully balanced and penetrating finish that seems to be extracted directly from liquid rock. This very classy effort is a potentially great Perrières as everything necessary is here and this should age extremely well. The word Zen comes to mind.

agavin: reduction and peach on the nose. Peach flavor with a medium finish.

2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 94. A very subtle trace of wood frames a green fruit and high-toned spiced floral nose that is still tight and reserved but ultra pure with detailed, stony and gorgeously vibrant middle weight flavors that possess a pungent limestone character and this finishes with a palate staining finale of stunning length. Like the best examples of Roulot’s Perrières, the ’07 is a wine of impeccable balance and perfect harmony of expression.

agavin: voted the wine of the night by most people. Tons of stone fruits on a crazy good nose. A bit of reduction on the palette at first, but tons of weight too and a crazy good finish.

2007 Domaine Matrot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 94. As it almost always is, this is the class of the Matrot cellar with discreet wood framing a reserved but ultra elegant, airy and exceptionally pure white flower and pungent limestone nose that marries seamlessly into fine, precise and intensely stony flavors that finish bone dry and with a vaguely saline quality on the cuts-like-a-knife finale. This is built to age and should provide at least 6 to 8 years of upside development. Highly recommended.

agavin: apple cider, apple cider, apple cider. Smelled and tasted like alcoholic dry Martinellis. Probably a bit advanced. Some sherry notes too after a while.

2007 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 94. A less expressive but even more complex nose features acacia blossom, pear and citrus aromas nuanced by an almost pungent minerality that continues onto the pure, detailed and almost painfully intense flavors that possess serious delineation on the notably ripe and sappy finish. I was knocked out by this textbook Perrières. Highly recommended.

agavin: reduction and stone fruits.

2007 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 94. Mild reduction initially reduces the expressiveness of the otherwise fresh and impressively complex lemon, stone and acacia blossom-infused nose that leads to equally complex and beautifully delineated middle weight flavors that ooze a fine minerality before culminating in an overtly austere but explosive, linear and compact finish of superb length. While this could of course be drunk now, for my taste it is still much too young. However, if you’re going to try one out of curiosity, I would strongly advise decanting it for at least 30 minutes first as the flavors take their timing opening up. Tasted twice recently with one bottle being a bit more forward than the one described above.

agavin: we all guessed it was the coche MP because there was so much of that characteristic reduction. Potty on the nose at first, but blew off. Reduction on the palette too. Only beginning to shake off 2 hours later. But nice nonetheless.

Maine Lobster Risotto. Always a favorite. A very nice risotto, although not cheesy. Last year we had two portions, we could have used that this time!

Flight 4: Corton Charlemagne

2007 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 96. A cool, airy, complex and gorgeously elegant nose is more restrained than these Puligny-based grands crus while offering up notes of green apple, pain grillé, stone and very subtle spice notes that merge into rich, full and impressively powerful flavors that possess perhaps the best dry extract levels of any wine in the range as they really stain the palate on the intense, long and bone dry finish that seems to have no end. There isn’t quite as much overall depth here as in the Montrachet but otherwise, this succeeds in going to toe to toe, which is not small feat given how good the prior wine is.

agavin: kinda lot with a long searing finish

2007 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 94. A barely perceptible touch of SO2 does not overtly mar the airy, ultra fresh and impressively refined nose of white flower, citrus, green apple and wet stone and it is this pungent minerality that is really on display with the intense, detailed and tight big-bodied and well-muscled flavors that positively brim with a distinct salinity that is more in keeping with a classic Chablis than a classic Corton-Charlemagne. Still, this is a brilliant effort by any measure and the finish is like a vinous bomb. In sum, this is a dramatic but balanced wine that should age well for many years to come.

agavin: very reduced on the nose with some weight and a long finish

2007 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 91-94. Subtle wood sets off more elegant aromas of green apple, floral and wet stone notes that are also reflected by the rich, intense and impressively powerful big-bodied flavors that seem extracted from liquid rock, all wrapped in a palate staining and driving finish. Another aspect worth noting is that this is often a distinctly oaky Corton-Charlemagne but in 2007, thanks to the policy of reducing the wood influence, the oak influence is much more moderate if not invisible.

agavin: reduced at first, with some malo and real weight in the middle, then lingered

2007 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 94. A strikingly complex nose that possess excellent breadth to the ripe, pure and airy aromas of white flower, spice, green apple and subtle pear aromas that complement to perfection the big-bodied, rich and mouth coating flavors built on a base of fine minerality, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish that oozes dry extract. This is really a lovely effort with a chiseled and driving finale of superb persistence though note that while patience will be required, there is sufficient mid-palate sap that the finishing austerity is not forbidding. A “wow” wine.

agavin: perhaps a little advanced, but drinking nicely now. hot with strong apple qualities.

2007 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 96. Seemingly like all of Boillot’s wines in this vintage, a strikingly pure nose of green apple, white flower and spice aromas complements perfectly the delicious, intense and stony flavors that are among the ripest in the range yet remain wonderfully vibrant and gorgeously detailed on the taut, transparent and bone dry finish that bathes the palate in dry extract. This is beautifully balanced and among the best wines of the vintage from Corton. In a word, brilliant.

agavin: also probably advanced. sherry and apples. Apple brandy? hot on the finish.

2007 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. A wonderfully elegant, pure and high-toned nose that is quite floral with a pronounced citrus influence to the green apple and wet stone notes that border on a mineral-reduction character, which continues onto the detailed and equally pure flavors that possess a cuts-like-a-knife linearity on the bone dry and palate staining finish. This is like sucking on pebbles and while the flavors are distinctly austere at present, the balance is impeccable and this should make for a first-rate vintage for this wine in time. Note however that patience will be required.

agavin: very pale color. Long acidic finish.

2007 Simon Bize Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 91-94. A deft touch of wood sets off an even more restrained and more elegant nose that is ultra pure and though reserved, aromas of green fruit and white flower nuanced by hints of spice and orange peel can be found. And the purity and transparency of the nose continues onto the muscular and big-bodied flavors that offer up minerality to burn on the very firm and gorgeously long finish. This is a block of stone and it will require the better part of a decade’s worth of patience for the full potential of this beauty to fully express itself. In a word, brilliant.

agavin: Tropical nose, maybe some advanced notes? tropical fruits on the palette. An oddball in the flight as this was so tropical.

2007 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 92-95. A highly complex lemon and orange peel, white flower and green apple nose introduces substantially bigger and richer if less refined broad-shouldered flavors that are quite dense and I like the mouth feel before the flavors slide away into a notably dry, intense, extended and punchy finish. This is a big wine with plenty of extract that really stains the palate.

agavin: great wine. Rich, powerful, long. Extremely Corton Charlie. One you keep coming back to. my (and many others’) favorite of the flight.

Pan Roasted Napa Quail with Pancetta and Sage. The Quail itself was tasty, as was the jus. The asparagus didn’t go with white burgundy and the dish was a bit of work to eat because of the bones.

Flight 5: Dessert

1971 Chateau d’Yquem. Parker 97. Served from an ex-chateau bottle. I have always stood by the 1971 Chateau d’Yquem as being one of the most seriously underrated vintages of that decade. I feel completely vindicated in this view as I batted away the 1967 Yquem when tasted at the chateau and entranced its audience. This great Yquem was born during 10 days from October 6, when warm and humid conditions caused an outbreak of botrytis. It was a small crop of just 228 barrels. Slightly deeper in color than the 1982 Yquem tasted alongside, it is blessed with a truly spellbinding nose that has such energy and frisson that you don’t know where to look. You can detect Mirabelle, ripe Satsumas, citrus peel and beeswax. The palate is vibrant, animated and simply electrifies the mouth upon entry. The 1971 has immense concentration, while the almost Tokaji Aszu-like finish is beautifully poised. This is simply an outstanding Yquem that shows absolutely no sign of reaching the end of its drinking plateau.

agavin: awesome! Really all you could expect in a fully mature D’Yquem. Like apricot nectar.

Seasonal Fruit Tart with Gelato. This was a pleasant traditional dessert.

Above is the flight list.

And the full array of revealed bottles.

That’s more or less one person’s glasses!

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

2007 as a vintage was quite good. We had one corked bottle and 3-4 advanced bottles. No totally premoxed bottles like with 2005. The vintage character is very acidic, with a high frequency of green apple. Chablis remains tight. The richer wines, particularly Meursault Perrieres were very impressive. Some really nice wines there.

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

1. Roulot MP
2. Bouchard MP
3. Ringer No. 1 — Coche-Dury Meursault AOC [Chaumes de Perrieres]
4. Colin-Morey MP
5. Coche-Dury Meursault Rougeots
6 (tie). Coche-Dury MP
6 (tie) Faiveley Corton Ch

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

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2006 White Burgundy

2004 Red Burgundy

2005 White Burgundy part 1

2005 White Burgundy part 2

2005 White Burgundy part 3

Flight 6: Second Dinner

After the main event, a bunch of us were still hungry and so we bought a bottle of Red Burgundy from the Valentino wine list and ubered over to Ramen-ya down the street.

1993 Marc Rougeot-Dupin Richebourg. 90 points agavin. This wine was incredibly reasonable on the Valentino wine list and so we bought a bottle “to go.” Very strange Richebourg, all meaty and funky with a gamey bloody quality. I liked it though, and it was getting better over an hour in the glass. Well worth the price of admission.

Pork potstickers. Yum!

Fried chicken cartilage. That triangle-shaped bit in the chicken breast — fried!

Spicy beef tendon. Tasty!

Miso soup.

Shoyu-Ramen soy sauce soup ramen with roast pork, bean sprouts & bamboo shoots and wontons.

Fried rice.

A shoyu broth.

Fried chicken egg rice.

Kimchee fried rice.

Seafood fried rice.

This all certainly qualified for “late night fatty carbs”!!

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2007 White Burgundy, Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, Meursault, Valentino, Wine

Gwang Yang – Beeftastic

Feb04

Restaurant: Gwang Yang Korean BBQ

Location: 3435 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 123. Los Angeles, CA 90010. (213) 385-5600

Date: February 2, 2015

Cuisine: Korean BBQ

Rating: Very good high end KBBQ, if a little pricy

The K-town Korean BBQ places have been growing increasingly high end of late. I recently tried out Madang 621 and now my Hedonist gang has descended on the new Gwang Yang.

Located in one of these high-rise plazas across the street from the every popular Boiling Crab. The sign claims someone thinks it’s the best restaurant in Seoul.

The interior is sleek, with a whole lot of glass caged private rooms. We took two! Sort of. The Hedonists had one an loosely associated non-wine foodie group had another.

The menu.

NV Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut. IWC 90. Light gold. Musky orchard fruits and dried fig on the mineral-accented nose. Fleshy and broad on the palate, offering smoky pear and nectarine flavors and a hint of honey. Finishes on a gently spicy note, with very good cling and a touch of bitter lemon pith.

No Korean place could look at itself in the mirror without banchan, the little (often) pickled sides placed on the table and infinity refilled. Gwang Yang has only four, all classic.

Kimchi. The most classic of the classics.

Potato salad. Sweet. Actually pretty good.

2000 Weingut Max Ferd. Richter Mülheimer Sonnenlay Riesling Kabinett. 89 points. A nice mix of acidity and sweetness.

Korean glass noodles. Vaguely sweet, I like these.

Seasoned Korean Spinach.

From my cellar: 2003 Weingut Graben-Gritsch Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Schön. 89 points. Nose of lychee pineapple lemon, creamy lemon and peach on the palate. Bright acidity medium finish with a bit of an herby quality.

agavin: Korean food can be a hard wine match and I wanted some white to start. This mildly aged Gruner hit the spot. It’s complex and almost herby/spicy fruit allows it to handle the pervasive Korean red chili.

Korean salad.

2011 Kistler Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. 92 points. The wine has a beautiful garnet color, light in the glass with almost no legs. The nose was light with hints of fruit and minerals. A light fruity taste that is tart and not sweet and a smooth texture. The finish is long and the wine really improved with air and I probably opened this years to soon. A very nice Pinot.

agavin: there was a tiny touch of “funny” to our bottle, may have blown off later.

A spicy bean and seaweed salad. Quite nice.

2012 Seven of Hearts Pinot Noir Curmudgeon Cuvée Armstrong Vineyard. IWC 92. Dark red. Delicate, focused aromas of red berries, potpourri and Asian spices, with a bright mineral nuance adding lift. Fresh and lively on the palate, offering tangy raspberry and strawberry flavors that show very good energy, lift and cut. A fresh, elegant, weightless pinot that finishes with very good energy and drive and silky tannins. This racy, balanced wine puts on weight with air but maintains a sense of elegance and restraint.

Gwang Yang Bulgogi. Gangnam Style. Do your best horse trot dance. This is the famous marinated beef without bones.

It’s just grilled up straight in a big pile.

Some accompaniments. Garlic, pepper, and a fermented miso bean paste that I really loved — not too different than natto.

2008 Rhys Alesia Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. IWC 91. Vivid red. Strawberry, raspberry and spicecake on the nose, with a sexy sandalwood quality. In a distinctly vibrant style, with the sexy spice and red berry qualities following through in the mouth. Sappy and fine-grained wine, finishing on a suave note of candied flowers. This will be the last vintage for this wine.

American Kobe Yukhwoe. Korean style beef tartar. Green stuff. With both heat and a bit of sweetness and an intense texture invoking the slimy with a bit of crunch. Really wonderful.

2012 Morin Pere et fils Pinot Noir Vin de Pays d’Oc. 85 points. Light fruity pinot young and bright. Don’t expect a Burgundy. Perfect with light meals and cheese.

Yook Jeon. Beef pancake. With green onion salad.

1980 Château Trotanoy. 92 points. Starts off a bit strange and quite unpleasant with a big cheesy whiff and some strong volatility on the nose. A big shake in the decanter and it improves immeasurably. There are notes of black olive, leather and there’s a pleasant floral perfume. In the mouth it is lightly creamy and there is cassis fruit sweetness. Tannins are chewy on the finish and it is fresh and vibrant.

agavin: ours was a little stirred up and cloudy, but was surprisingly decent for such a shitty old vintage.

Gwang Yang Bulgogi. LA Style. More marinated and sweeter than the Gangnam style. We all liked this better. You eat it cooked on the grill.

2000 Monbousquet. Parker 93. Although still youthful, I do not think the 2000 Monbousquet will develop much more complexity. It is a seductive, rich, generously endowed effort revealing plenty of spice box, herb, black currant, kirsch, espresso, and toasty oak characteristics in a decidedly modern, but opulent, fleshy style. Enjoy this endearing, long, velvety-textured St.-Emilion over the next decade.

agavin: great wine, although more like a big Cal Cab than a Bord, and very young. Tons of round fruit though.

Prime YangNyeom-Galbi. Marinated Prime Beef Short Ribs.

Grilled up as usual. When cooked, these were tender, fatty, free of bone, and absolutely scrumptious. Clearly my favorite. Others were split between liking these and the LA Style Bulgogi best.

1989 Couly-Dutheil Chinon La Baronnie Madeleine. 91 points. Fresh, but dry and dusty in that Cab Franc way.

Dolsot Bibimbap. Hot stone Bibimbap. Vegetables and egg over rice in a hot stone pot.

You dump in some hot sauce and mix it all up. Great stuff.

From my cellar: 1996 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage la Chapelle. Parker 92. The 1996 Hermitage La Chapelle is immensely impressive. The acidity is high. The color is black/purple, and the wine is extremely concentrated, but unevolved and impossible to penetrate. It could turn out like the 1983 and never develop as well as its early promise suggests. Nevertheless, it is a massive effort with extraordinary concentration, but the high acidity requires a minimum of 10 years of cellaring.

agavin: Most of us thought this the WOTN. Just a really nice solid mature (but not old) Syrah. Tons of ripe fruit.

Pa Jeon. Assorted seafood and veggie pancake. Like Korean okonomiyaki.

2009 Chapoutier Hermitage la Sizeranne. Parker 90-94. For starters, there are 1,627 cases of the 2009 Ermitage Monier de la Sizeranne. Lots of peppery, meaty notes are found in this dense purple-colored 2009 along with sweet tannin, a full-bodied, layered mouthfeel and outstanding purity. Three to five years of cellaring will be beneficial, and the wine should keep for two decades.

agavin: a baby. Clearly a great Syrah, but a total baby.

An extra order of LA style (so you can seek it cooked).

Red rice. Red beans and rice.

2012 Charles Krug Winery (Peter Mondavi Family) Cabernet Sauvignon. 89 points. Nose: Medium expressiveness, kirsch, black berry, and cassis. Palate: Full bodied, sweet dark fruit attack, decent balance, starts strong up front and dissipates quickly from the mid-palate thru the back-end. Clean and smooth from front to back just lacks mid-palate density. Finish: Medium length dominated by subtle, but tasty, dark fruit and spice. For a Napa Cabernet you pretty much get what you pay for here.

Buljip Saeng Samgyepsal. Samgyepsal-sliced Kuro Pork Belly.

It’s grilled up with onions and kimchi.

Reducing.

And reducing.

Finally the fatty bits can be eaten inside these big lettuce pieces.

2006 Carlisle Zinfandel Pietro’s Ranch. IWC 92. Deep ruby. Explosive blackberry and candied raspberry aromas are complicated by rose, violet and lavender. Juicy and fresh, with vibrant dark berry flavors, silky texture and a big jolt of baking spices on the back end. Impressively fresh, pure and sappy zinfandel with outstanding finishing lift and thrust.

Eundaeku Jeongsik. Grilled black cod with spices and potatoes. Really good stuff. The cod was super flavorful and tender.

A kind of sweet roasted cold tea. Kinda yummy actually.

Here is about a third of our private room.

Overall, Gwang Yang did serve up some of the best K-BBQ I’ve had — and we had a LOT of food. It wasn’t cheap though, as the Korean places down the food chain are often very reasonable. Although it should be noted that while our table was $110 a head all in, the non-wine group in the next room over hit only $50-60. Of course they didn’t waddle out like we did.

And, lacking dessert, we waddled across the street to this interesting dessert stand.

The options basically involve a small set of ingredients, mostly the “True Milk Ice Cream.” As far as I can tell, it’s not cream at all, but ice milk, ice cream’s less creamy cousin.

And a lot of fresh honeycomb.

Honeymee. True milk ice cream and fresh honeycomb.

Dear. True milk ice cream, Ghiradelli chocolate sauce, and sprinkles of French sea salt.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Gwang Yang, hedonists, Honeymee, Korean BBQ, Korean cuisine, pork, Wine

Marcel Vigneron – Taking Epic Further

Jan30

January 24, 2015, my wife and I hosted a very special fund-raising dinner at our house. And given our penchant for details, things were bound to be off the charts epic.

I met Marcel Vigneron a year back at a 2009 Bordeaux dinner, and ever since have been looking for an excuse to have him cook at our house. For those of you who don’t know, Marcel was the original Executive Sous Chef at The Bazaar, and also cooked at Joel Robuchon. He’s been on numerous Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars shows and was the star of his own series, Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen.

I might like modernism in my food, but when it comes to the decorative arts my wife and I agree things have been on a downhill slope since the mob stormed Versailles. We’re both history buffs and have gone to some length to recreate the fantasy of a 1730s Italian villa. So, in that vein, guests are welcomed into the Chinoiserie Drawing Room for champagne and snacks.

And a classical setting deserves a classical ambiance: a harpist playing baroque pieces!

All wines are from my cellar and served by 2/3 Master Sommelier Chris Lavin. By 2/3, I mean he’s passed 2 out of the 3 of those torturous tests detailed in the Somm documentary. Which really means he’s an amazing Sommelier.

It should be noted that going back and forth Chris and I chose about 40 wines from my cellar and arranged them into a rough progression by “type.” i.e. bubblies, brighter whites, white burg, red burg, etc. Then he dynamically chose to organize these into flights by making up interesting duos or sets to play off both each other and the food.

I’m not a big believer in rigidly pairing at a dinner like this. With 18 people, there is no way to predict in advance the consumption rate, so the pre-planning needs to allow for a flexible rate of consumption if one doesn’t want to leave a lot of wine sitting on the table unfinished. We used a system with 3 specific stems (Riedel Sommelier Chardonnay/Chablis, Burgundy, and Bordeaux) and 2 general stems (Riedel Degustazione Red, which I think is a great general glass). Flights were all 2 or 3 wines and people could either finish old wines, move them “down glass” or pass on a flight. With this many wines many people (particularly the ladies) needed to take a breather.

NV Bochet-Lemoine Champagne Les Grimpres 1955. An amazing, rare, acid bomb of a champy.

Marcel’s culinary assault begins with a number of snacks.

Endive Boat. smoked trout, cucumber, dill. Bright and fresh.

NV Pierre Gerbais Champagne L’Originale. 89 points. clear and bright with a pale lemon colour and presence of many small bubbles. The nose is clean and fully developed, showing medium(+) intensity aromas of green fruits (green apple, pear), MLF (cream, butter) and yeast (bread dough, brioche). The wine is off-dry in the mouth with a high refreshing acidity. It has a medium alcohol and a medium body with a creamy mousse. It has medium(+) intensity flavours of green fruits (green apple, pear), MLF (cream, butter) and yeast (bread dough, brioche). The finish is medium(+).

Topped egg. salmon roe, chive. Salty and rich.

2005 Gramona Cava III Lustros Gran Reserva. 88 points. Clear and bright, pale lemon colour and presence of small bubbles. The nose is clean and developing, with medium- intensity aromas of neutral yeast and simple green fruit such as green apple and pear. It’s dry in the mouth, with medium+ acidity, medium alcohol, medium body, creamy mousse and medium intensity flavours of neutral yeast and simple green fruit like green apples and pear. Medium finish. It’s a good quality wine, fresh and easy to drink with good overall balance, bit it lacks complexity and the finish could be longer. Other vintages have been better. Drink now, but it has enough acidity and concentration to develop more complexity in 1-2 years.

Mushroom “tart”. goat cheese, thyme. Lots of lemon zing.

2011 i Clivi Collio Ribolla Gialla Spumante Brut. Another unusual bubbly.

Marcel and team slave away in the kitchen while we enjoy ourselves.

The table is set, and with Riedel Sommelier stems too, as it should be. The walls of the dining room were painted by my mother from photos we took in Italy.

2013 Veyder-Malberg Riesling Bruck. 95 points. These puppies are so rare the professionals have barely reviewed them, but this dry riesling is a total knockout. The purity of expression is off the charts, and that’s without even getting into the searing acid finish,

2007 Lur-Saluces “Y”. Parker 94. The rare dry wine from the world’s greatest sweet producer is an unusual find. These are made to age, and this one was no exception, still showing all it’s baby fat. The 2007 Ygrec has a light, fragrant nose with apple-blossom, pink grapefruit, citrus lemon and just a touch of cold granite. Good definition. The palate is bright and lively, a lot of energy packed into this Ygrec, with citrus lemon, green apple, a touch of lemongrass, very harmonious and smooth towards the finish that display superb persistency, a hint of fiery lemongrass lingering in the mouth.

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

Hamachi carpaccio. avocado, olive, citrus, watercress, wild rice, ponzu. A nice mix of flavors and textures. Marcel’s food is light and playful, with bright flavors. He doesn’t use a lot of butter or heavy ingredients.

A duo of Raveneau MDT!

2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 93. This too is very opulent with a richness and breadth of aromas that is dazzling in their sheer range. Big, powerful, very masculine and exceptionally intense flavors blessed with huge extract but despite the size and weight, this also has the best acid/fruit balance of any of these 1ers plus this absolutely coats and stains the palate. In fact, there is an interesting textural quality by virtue of all the sap yet the finish is quite dry. A great effort that explodes on the backend and lingers for minutes.

2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 93. Subtle wood sets off aromas of flowers, oyster shell and tidal pool that complement perfectly the racy, pure and strikingly well-detailed medium plus weight flavors that brim with minerality on the delicious, mouth coating and impressively long finish. This beautifully vibrant and concentrated effort should drink well young and age well too plus it’s more classic in style than many wines from this vintage.

Salmon crudo. brussels sprout leaves, apple, pomegranate, lime. A really fabulous dish. The sprouts had no bitterness, and there was a pronounced citrus and the strong pomegranate flavors to complement the rich fish.

1993 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 92. A fully mature and expressive nose of elegant secondary fruit and floral aromas introduces intensely mineral-driven, pure and beautifully well-detailed middle weight flavors that possess excellent depth and fine length. This is drinking perfectly now and should continue to do so without effort for at least another decade. Tasted only once recently.

2004 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. Perhaps the most backward and reserved wine to this point as the nose reveals only hints of white flower and green fruit aromas that are framed in a subtle touch of pain grillé but the flavors explode on the palate as there is a chewy texture to them yet there is ample minerality present, particularly for Bâtard. This too is blessed with abundant dry extract and a finish that won’t quit but for all of the size and weight, this is impeccably balanced. This has that “wow” factor and in terms of style, it’s almost like a muscular Chevalier.

Pumpkin soup. nutmeg creme fraiche. An amazing soup. Like a sort of savory pumpkin pie!

And in the spirit of pairing, double 97 RSV.

1997 Remoissenet Père et Fils Romanée St. Vivant. 86 points. Our bottle was slightly corked. Not horribly, but enough to mar my enjoyment.

1997 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Romanée St. Vivant. 93 points. The nose just jumps from the glass. Plenty of spice, red fruit and a lot of earth. The wine is cloudy with amber edges. More spice, ferrous notes and tart tart cherries on the finish. Kind of reminds me of a young Leroy. Not sure how much it will improve, but a very interesting drink right now.

Just one of four types of bread from the bakery at Maison Giraud. We had Baguette, Pain aux Olives, Pain de Campagne, and Brioche Fine.

Butter from Normandy. If Republique can do it, so can we! It’s funny how many people are blown away by how much better good French butter is than our usual American fare.

And a pair of Clos Vougeot Musigni.

1990 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 92 points. Rich, smoky nose with a supple, well balance flavor of slightly tart cherries mixed with currant and medium length finish. This is an extremely elegant wine and I would definitely buy more. This wine is at its peak, but shows no sign of age at all. Delicious.

1984 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 87 points. This good wine from a terrible vintage won’t win any awards, but it drinks so much like strawberry jam that I happen to love it.

Nesting egg. rocket, radish, cashew dressing. Check out this presentation. The coddled egg is set in the crispy nest and is complimented by the zesty salad below.

1989 Château Lynch-Bages. Parker 99+. The 1989 has taken forever to shed its formidable tannins, but what a great vintage of Lynch Bages! I would rank it at the top of the pyramid although the 1990, 2000, and down the road, some of the more recent vintages such as 2005, 2009 and 2010 should come close to matching the 1989’s extraordinary concentration and undeniable aging potential. Its dense purple color reveals a slight lightening at the edge and the stunning bouquet offers classic notes of creme de cassis, subtle smoke, oak and graphite. Powerful and rich with some tannins still to shed at age 22, it is still a young adolescent in terms of its evolution and will benefit from another 4-5 years of cellaring. It should prove to be a 50 year wine.

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.

Miso black cod. celeriac risotto, brown butter, charred broccoli. This is an unusual dish. The cod was buried in there between the risotto and the broccoli, which was baked with olive oil and spices. The whole bit was topped with grated nori which enhanced the “sea” factor.

1993 Roagna Barbaresco Riserva. 90 points. It has a soft and inviting nose. The palate is supple and round but with sneaky structure. Roses, some balsam, tar, and savory notes. This is on the muscular side of Barbaresco but with a suppleness and sweetness that draw you in. Fresh and balanced, with good depth, there is no part of this that stands out, but it all comes to a greater whole, and while its no barn burner, it is in a really nice place right now. My only nit to pick is that the tannins may outlive the fruit here. Mid peak and while I am sure this will hold for quite a while, it is in such a nice place right now that I see no reason to hold it for holding’s sake. Lovely.

1990 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Bussia. 92 points. Nose to die for. A wonderfully mature, sleek Barolo with no hard edges and classic flavors of tar, black fruits tree bark. Medium-bodied and pure elegance rather than concentration and power. Lit up like a candle when the pasta wiyh white truffles was served.

Linguini “carbonara.” parmesan, black pepper, egg, smoked mushroom. The quail egg is filled with cheese. Dump and stir and this resolves into a scrumptious combo of smokiness and richness.

Left to right, Sam, Marcel, and Shanti help use liquid nitrogen to whip up an intense, smooth, frozen form of sorbet.

Nitro sorbet. Pomegranate. Tastes just like pomegranate juice — not surprising as that’s its only ingredient!

1998 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume. 92 points. The nose is gorgeous, lots minerality, slightly oxidative notes of bruised apple, also lemon pith and orange blossom. On the palate it’s sweet and silky but with a tart, zingy acid component. Lovely balance of flavors, part citrus but also with more of the apple, a touch of limestone, and honeyed pear. Lengthy, tapering finish that lasts for a long time. An outstanding wine.

Cheese plate. Not only were all four cheeses great (We made a family outing of tasting — I mean selecting — them at Andrew’s Cheese Shop), but the chefs arranged and decorated to great effect. The plate is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen!

1960 Barbeito Madeira Bual Reserva Velha. Doing it’s intense madeira thing, this wine was an amazing pairing with:

Flourless chocolate cake. coconut lemongrass orb, hazelnut butter, gold. Wow! What a “cake.” The rich chocolate (more like a ganache) paired amazingly with the refreshing and almost Thai-flavored orb, plus the hazelnut just kicked it up.

Mignardises. pate de fruits, macarons, nougat, brigadeiros. I love these little desserts, so we sourced all this stuff ourselves.

Roy Rene Nougat de Provence, flavored with honey and lavender.

Hawaii Pates de Fruits, guava, ginger, and coconut.

Brigadeiros, Brazilian chocolate/dulce de leche deserts in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, vanilla coconut, pistachio, and lime. Sourced from Simply Brigadeiro.

Macarons from ‘Lette Macarons. Chocolate, vanilla, coconut, raspberry, and almond.

Bundt cakes to go from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Can’t have a truly epic dinner without “parting gifts.”

And we even printed up the menus.

The wine damage was significant. 21 bottles for 18 people.

But what was really epic was the length. Nearly 7 hours for dinner! I don’t think all the guests knew what they were in for, but everyone had a fabulous time. Marcel’s cooking was on point and inventive, and no one went home hungry. In fact, the “wafer thin mint” joke was bandied about more than once.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

Me and my lovely wife, Sharon

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, Cheese, Christopher Lavin, Marcel Vigneron, Molecular Gastronomy, Wine

Japanese in China – Izakaya Akatora

Jan28

Restaurant: Izakaya Akatora

Location:115 W Main St. Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 943-7872

Date: January 22, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese fusion

Rating: Tasty culinary mashup

Us Hedonists are pals with Michael Cardenas and so when he opened this new Izakaya (Japanese for “there is beer here”) in our home turf (the San Gabriel Valley) we zipped right on out for a big dinner.

The pubby interior.

NV Jérôme Prévost La Closerie “Fac Simile” Les Beguines. AG 94+. Layers of delicately scented, perfumed fruit caress the palate as the NV (2009) Extra Brut Rose Les Beguines Fac-Simile shows off its incredible textural finesse and pure pedigree. Mint, sweet spices and red berries are some of the many notes that are woven together in a fabric of nearly indescribable elegance. Prevost’s Rose is at times a powerful wine, but the 2009 is all about delicacy and understatement. If you haven’t guessed, I loved it. Prévost makes his Rose by adding one barrel of Pinot Meunier vinified on the skins to his blanc cuvée. Disgorged October 2011.

NV G. H. Mumm & Cie Champagne Mumm de Cramant. IWC 90. Limpid yellow. Vibrant minerally, floral lemon and orange scents, with deeper pear and melon nuances coming up with air. Tangy and precise on entry, then fleshier in the mid-palate, offering sappy orchard and candied citrus fruit flavors with notes of chamomile and anise adding complexity. Closes smooth and long, with lingering toastiness and a hint of sweet butter.

The specials are on the board.

2008 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Loibner Loibenberg. agavin 95. Amazing Gruner. Really nice with a ton of minerality.

Oyster with uni and caviar with ponzu.

From my cellar: 2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 93. This too is very opulent with a richness and breadth of aromas that is dazzling in their sheer range. Big, powerful, very masculine and exceptionally intense flavors blessed with huge extract but despite the size and weight, this also has the best acid/fruit balance of any of these 1ers plus this absolutely coats and stains the palate. In fact, there is an interesting textural quality by virtue of all the sap yet the finish is quite dry. A great effort that explodes on the backend and lingers for minutes.

Poke! Everyone’s favorite chopped and spiced tuna.

2003 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. IWC 94. Chartreuse-like herbal essences and citrus aromas. Lemon-lime sorbet on the pure, polished, elegant palate, which today is slightly dominated by sheer youthful sweetness. Inner-mouth aromas of honey and flowers. Offers superb length, with the refinement of fruit and subtle wet stone character typical of the best slate-grown riesling.

Kelp shot. Slimy and quite delicious (lots of vinegar).

2005 Domaine Jomain Puligny-Montrachet. 88 points. Reduced. But could still get the sweet fine spice and citrus fruits.

2013 Guy Saget Vouvray Marie de Beauregard. 89 points. Understated notes reminiscent of off-dry Rieslings. On the palate I get flavors of citrus, sponge cake, and lime with a hint of rind; long, sweet finish, somewhat akin to sweet lemonade perhaps. Medium acidity. Better served somewhat chilled than at room temperature; seems to get a bit flabby as it warms up.

Pork belly with seaweed. Fine, but not the best dish of the night by any means.

2008 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard. Burghound 93. Like all of the Rhys ’08s, the aromatic complexity of the Alpine is more than just admirable, it’s distinctive as it offers a lacy and pure mélange of cherry and blue berry fruit aromas cut with floral and mild wood notes that precede the backward and moderately austere flavors that are underpinned by firm but not aggressive tannins and excellent length on the balanced finish. While the Alpine is also built to age, it appears that it may come around a bit sooner.

Rice crisps with uni. Yum.

2012 Domaine Eden Pinot Noir. AG 88. The 2012 Pinot Noir is a pretty, silky wine with plenty of near term appeal. Sweet red berries, flowers and spices meld together nicely in the glass. Overall, the Domaine Eden Pinot is forward, bright and nicely done.

Sashimi. Lobster, salmon, toro, scallops, hamachi, and some white fishes. Really very nice fish.

2006 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Ancient Way. Fruit bomb!

Wagyu and foie gras potstickers. Both absolutely fabulous.

From my cellar: 1991 Camille Giroud Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. 93 points. Nice classic Vosne nose and spicy palette. Just reaching real maturity.

Pop corn shrimp with spicy ponzu. The usual guilty pleasure.

Sebastian wanted some sake!

Sushi. Besides some of the usual, there was some great uni, then foie gras! then toro. The foie was crazy. In fact, the city is foie crazy because of the ban lifting.

The lobster head returns as lobster miso.

Roll with uni and caviar. Notice a theme?

2002 Gary Farrell Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County Selection. 88 points. Still lots of acidity, which was a surprise. I would hold for a few years if it’s been temp controlled. Post- a decant, it’s apparent this is quality juice, but there wasn’t anything memorable. Lacks identity.

Blue crab handroll. Lump crab meat, little or no mayo.

2003 Château Rieussec. IWC 92-95. Medium yellow-gold. Reticent but pure aromas of fruit salad, spices and vanilla, lifted by floral and mineral nuances. Wonderfully honeyed, fat fruit flavors are complemented by cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. The sexy oak treatment gives lift to the wine. A bit youthfully aggressive but very long on the back end, showing vanillin oak and a bit of warmth. But this one offers superb potential.

Sweet potato cake with ice cream. Really sweet!

Overall, Akatora was a really fun night. Service was amazing (friends of the chef and manager and all — haha) and the food was quite good. It leans a little on uni, but I’m not complaining. Everyone loved it so much we already have a second dinner scheduled.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foie gras, hedonists, Izakaya Akatora, Japanese cuisine, Sushi, Wine

Eating San Francisco – Zuni Cafe

Jan23

Restaurant: Zuni Cafe

Location: 1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. (415) 552-2522

Date: January 16, 2015

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Rating: Tasty!

Zuni is a bit of a San Francisco institution (in a recent sort of way).

The busy downstairs.

The current menu.

From my cellar: 2007 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses. 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.

Deep-fried Monterey rock cod with cabbage slaw, pickled onions, red jalapeno, and lime vinaigrette. Tiny, tasty, but more mild then I would have thought.

Vegetable tagine, saffron couscous, flowering purple broccoli, cardoons, carrots, yougurt, and charmoula.

Moro and Sanguinelli blood oranges with marinated beets, wild arugula, and farmers cheese.

House-cured anchovies with celery, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Coquillo olives.

From my cellar: 2007 Alvaro Palacios Priorat Finca Dofí. IWC 92+. Opaque ruby. Expansive aromas of dark cherry, blackberry, iron, tobacco and cedar. Very rich but lively, offering sweet red and dark berry flavors and a hint of licorice. Packs serious punch and shows a chewy, youthfully tannic quality on the long, penetrating finish. Unevolved right now and in need of at least another few years in bottle, but this is very promising.

Cavatelli with hedgehog mushrooms and arugula pesto.

Grilled Paine Farm squab with sweet potato puree, braised red cabbage, roasted brussels sprouts, and Charteuse-mustard sauce.

Whole Passmore Ranch trout roasted in the brick oven with curly endive, fennel, Satsuma mandarins, toasted hazelnuts, and brown butter.

Llano Seco Ranch pork simmered with Marsala and sage; soft polenta, spinach, black trumpet mushrooms, and caramelized onions.

Zuni food was bright and tasty, good stuff, although the appetizer portions were a tad on the small size.

For more San Fran dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Parmigiano-Reggiano, San Francisco, Wine

Food as Art – Atelier Crenn

Jan21

Restaurant: Atelier Crenn

Location: 3127 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94123. (415) 440-0460

Date: January 15, 2015

Cuisine: Modernist

Rating: Awesome presentation and quite tasty

I’ve wanted to go to Atelier Crenn for years now, as it’s not only an award winning Michelin 2 star San Francisco fine dining restaurant, but quite avant garde and modernist, which I very much enjoy.

Really the atelier part of the name is quite accurate, as this is very much an artisan place, and with a talented female french chef, Dominique Crenn.

The room is modern and lovely, with a sort of handmade aesthetic.

The menu is a poem! There is a single large tasting menu, and no options (fine by me).

“Winter has come with its cool breeze.” Kir Breton. A sort of candy version of the classic cocktail. Cool apple cider encased in white chocolate with a blob of creme de cassis. Delicious!

“I touch the earth and play, in its cool milk light.” Salsify, cauliflower, white chocolate. You use that stick (the salsify) to pick up the dusty stuff and eat it, then eat the stick. Pretty darn good if a hair fibrous.

“Noir sur noir.” Squid Ink Rice Cracker. Nothing wrong with it, but not the most exciting.

“Where the broad ocean leans against the Spanish land.” Squid, iberico ham, lardo.

Then some broth with a smoky hammy flavor. This was delicious.

“I remember an oceanic feeling.” Shima Aji, beet, turnip.

It is then decorated with nitro beet.

Which smokes!

The net effect was fish, radish, nice tempura, and a cool dusty beet flavor over the top.

“Strolling on the beach, in its whimsically ebullient innocence.” Exotic tarragon sorbet.

“Here, the earth proffers its juicy and tangy, chlorophyll gifts.” King crab, fennel. Quite nice.

“The sea is in me, as strange and mysterious.” Scallop, pear, sea cucumber dashi.

Very soft and delicious.

“The setting of the orange sun.” Cashew, butternut squash, persimmon. This dairy-free cashew ice cream was amazing and had the texture of mochi (sort of).

“I revisted my childhood memories, a rebirth of the forest.” Duck egg, pate, porcini broth.

With the broth. Interesting and good.

“Nibbling on Brittany seeds with a twinkle in my eye.” Brioche.

“Tastying the white luxurious pillow.” Bone marrow, osetra caviar, nasturtium.

Here with the caviar added.

And buckwheat cracker and smoked creme fraiche.

You dip the cracker in creme, then add some bone marrow. Pretty amazing.

“I take a sip of winter.” Some kind of interesting juice?

“Watching the beast rests, beneath the leaves.” Squab raspberry, mustard seeds. Quite delicious main.

“Dotting the fragrant flora.” Carrot jerky. Looks like a vanilla bean. Interesting.

Salad. Not sure what in.

“A precious token.” Pineapple, basil seed, blue green algae. Like a goo, but surprisingly delicious and refreshing.

Nori and Matcha wafer. crunchy and vaguely seaweed-like.

“Winter has come and is full of sweet surprises.” The sea. This whacky and impressive dessert was incredible with hints of citrus. Lots of foam and stuff, but really fun.

It was served in a fossil-like shell.

“Sweetness, bounty, thanks.” Then came an impressive array of mignardises. Nougat. pate de fruits, marshmallows.

Different focus.

Macarons and chocolates.

Crispy wafers.

And cocoa wafers.

Atelier Crenn is an amazing culinary experience. It’s playful, poetic, and while a tad cerebral, quite delicious. A few courses were a bit flat, like the squid ink crisp or the “sip of winter” but many were flat out excellent, and all through the presentation was fantastic. In its artsy presentational way it reminded me of Roberto Cortez and his CR8 series — which is high praise.

Service was attentive without being annoying and spot on. My only complaint is that the lighting is dim and flash isn’t allowed!

For more San Francisco dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Atelier Crenn, Foodie Club, modern, Wine

Pistola with a Bang

Jan19

Restaurant: Pistola [1, 2]

Location: 8022 W 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 323.951.9800

Date: January 14, 2015

Cuisine: Italian Steakhouse

Rating: Tasty good

Tonight’s dinner is themed around 1990s grand cru Burgundy, both colors. Why exactly we took this to an Italian Steakhouse is anyone’s guess, but that didn’t matter — we had a blast.

1998 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Les Clos Saint-Hilaire. AG 95. Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is a 100% Pinot Noir Champagne made from a small, one hectare plot located on the property in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. The wine is fermented in oak and bottled with no dosage. In only its third release, Le Clos Saint-Hilaire has already established itself as one of the region’s most fascinating wines. Anticipated maturity The 1998 Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire emerges from the glass with an exotic array of intensely perfumed, candied fruit. The wine possesses gorgeous textural richness in a deep, layered expression of Pinot Noir. The mousse remains refined and very elegant all the way through to the deeply satisfying, resonating finish.

The menu. We actually had the chef bring up appetizers, pasta, and dessert, with everyone ordering their entrees.

From my cellar: 1992 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 90. As would be expected from a relatively soft vintage at 18 years of age, this is fully mature with sous bois and truffle notes to the dried apple and rose petal nose. There is good richness but also lovely detail and minerality to the moderately concentrated finish that offer excellent depth and length. I would be drinking this sooner than later because even though it is in no danger of falling apart, it’s clearly time to be drinking up over the next decade.

agavin: doing great for 22+ year old chardonnay

1999 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 92. As de la Morinière suggests, this is a good deal more powerful than the 2000 version but it is not quite as bright or quite as focused. That said, this is a very impressive effort with big, almost massive aromas of earth, ripe green fruits such as apples and pears leading to equally big, powerful flavors that offer great mouthfeel, all of which is underpinned by plenty of minerality and more than adequate buffering acidity. This is extremely long already but this should continue to improve for 7 to 10 years and hold for much longer than that.

agavin: rounder and actually “older” tasting than the 92, but drinking great.

1997 Domaine Marius Delarche Corton-Charlemagne Reserve. 90 points. Really singing and massive.

1969 Louis Jadot Corton-Pougets Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. 92 points. Mature Burgundy nose, forrest floor, mushrooms, damp earth. Fresh palate of dark fruits, great minerality, iron with nice acidity. Became sweeter after an hour and kept going. Great bottle.

Meatballs. On a bed of ricotta. Awesome. These were similar to the similarly awesome ones at Gusto.

Insalata Mista.

Steak tartar. Good meat, but didn’t have enough bite for me. Needed more pepper? It had some truffle oil in it.

Crab Crocchetti. Dungeness Crab Cake, scallion pesto.

1996 Louis Jadot Clos Vougeot. IWC 92+. Deep, bright red-ruby. Complex, wild aromas of raw crushed blueberry, violet, raw meat and iron. Intense, primal flavors of crunchy berries and powdered stone. Integrated acidity gives the fruit an urgent quality. Quite powerfully structured for aging. Very long and bright on the back end, with tannins nicely supported by extract.

As a note, we did two flights of 3 reds each more or less blind.

1998 Domaine Robert Jayer-Gilles Nuits St. Georges Les Hauts Poirets. IWC 89. Bright ruby-red. Fresh aromas of violet and nuts. Rich, sweet and silky, but also vibrant and shapely. Finishes with sweet tannins and very good length.

1990 Burguet Gilles Gevrey-Chambertin.

agavin: great for old village wine.

Squid Ink Agnolotti. Awesome stuff with a nice sweetness.

Buccatini alla Carbonara. Guanciale, onion, black pepper, egg yolk & pecorino.

Mixed up it’s great stuff.

Buccatini All’Amatriciana. Like a red suace pasta with more flavor.

1995 Domaine Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares. IWC 93. Black raspberry, violet and herbs on the nose. Thick, brooding and very intensely flavored; has a mellow flavor of woodsmoke. Large-scaled and multilayered. Finishes with ripe, chewy tannins. A terrific example of the ’95 vintage at its best.

1993 Daniel Bocquenet Echezeaux. Burghound 88. Very elegant, spicy rich fruit framed robust, intense but edgy flavors that are a bit lean on the moderately long finish. It’s not clear whether this will regain its balance or not with a few years of bottle age but there is no doubting the lovely complexity and solid flavor authority.

agavin: whatever meadows says, our bottle was filled with great wine. Lots of power and elegance.

1995 Louis Latour Corton-Clos de la Vigne au Saint.

agavin: a nice wine but not in the league of its immediate predecessors.

Dry-aged Delmonico steak.

Herb butter.

Rib-eye.

Colorado lamb chops.

Veal Chop Alla Parmigiana. Wow, I’m not a big straight steak fan so this really saved the course for me.

Crispy Tuscan Fries. Not sure what is Tuscan here.

Funghi Misti.

Caramelized Romanesco. With a bit of heat and a little vinegary tang, very nice.

Creamy Polenta. Mild.

Various ice creams.

And sorbets.

Vanilla ice cream, because you can never have too much of that.

Cannoli. My fave.

Tortino (aka Chocolate cake).

The chef brought us out something he was working on.

Grilled bread, prosciutto, foie gras, and uni. Wow, you wouldn’t think all that would work together, but it so does.

Overall, Pistola was really solid. We all thought some of the apps and the pastas were a bit better than the meats and sides (although I enjoyed my chop), but it was a very tasty meal. They treated us like kings too. Our waitress really put up with a lot of wine guy “hassle” and did a good job managing the flights.

Room is very pretty but a little loud with a bar feel (some love that, some don’t). If I were them, my biggest suggestion foodwise would just be to add some more decadent sides like a “gorgonzola gnocchi” and the like. Not really Italian, but then again, I’ve never actually seen a steakhouse in Italy. Not that Italians, particularly Tuscans don’t love steak, but the steakhouse format is an American thing — which is fine.

But this was overall a fabulous evening for a number of reasons. We had eight people all at a round table, which while cramped is great for conversation, and a great mix of guys. Plus we had a nice Burgundy focused theme.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, Champagne, Chardonnay, Foodie Club, Pinot noir, Pistola, Steak, Will C, Wine

Ultimate Pizza New Year 2014

Jan09

Every few months, and particularly at New Years, we do another round of our Ultimate Homemade Pizzas. If you’re curious about how these components are made look here, otherwise just enjoy the food porn.

Before diving in, I’ll note that this time I am making further progress in that most difficult of pizza problems: the transfer. The most challenging part of making pizza at home is getting it into and out of the oven without messing it up. Into the oven is toughest because the dough is soft and sticky and the pizza is laden.

My new technique is:

Roll on the marble countertop with flour
Coat a peel with tons of white flour
Transfer the pie to the peel
Add toppings. Make sure they don’t get too close to the edge.
Scoot it off the peel using the flour as lube onto the pizza stone. Do not use cornmeal, which is inferior to flour as a lube and leaves an annoying texture on the dough
Scoot back off the stone onto the peel with my huge pizza spatula
Use separate cutting blocks for cutting (not the peel)

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé (magnum). IWC 92. Light orange. Vibrant strawberry and orange zest aromas are complicated by notes of tea rose, smoky lees and chalky minerals. Bright, incisive red fruit flavors pick up a toasty nuance with air. Fresh, incisive and refreshingly tangy, with impressive finishing clarity and stony persistence.

Straight up pizza + corn.

My classic “Jewish Pizza”. First I bake the dough with rosemary and truffle oil, then top with my mix of creme fraiche, dill and chives. Then add red onion and capers and…

finally nova lox. Really a fabulous bit of pizza.

This pizza focuses on a few new toppings, namely spicy lebneh cheese as a “sauce”, sautéed broccoli rab, mushrooms, green pepper goat cheese.

A great mix with an intriguing blend of heat and the slightly bitter vegetable.

From my cellar: 1991 Etienne Sauzet Bâtard-Montrachet. 91 points. Dry and subdued, but very clean and nice. Drinking young for its age.

This pizza focuses on my new Ultra Ligurian pesto (pine nuts from Liguria, lots of garlic, very good parmesan freshly grated). It includes ricotta and parmesan, mushroom, tomatoes, almonds, and a bit of fig.

Here finished.

Today’s incarnation of my tikka masala pizza. Tikka masala sauce, smoked mozzarella, morels, almonds, basil, ricotta, mozz balls, red onion.

Topped with burrata and a bit of balsamic. Yum!

A new simple cheese pizza with mixed mushrooms.

Another spicy labneh, similar to the last but with slightly different cheeses, a bit of sun-dried tomatoe pesto, and even a little smoked mozz. This was actually drizzled with honey too before baking!

Baked.

From my cellar: 1985 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux. 94 points. Great wine in great shape.

More pesto, with a bit of pumpkin, almonds, figs, blobs of garlic mint yogurt, and red onions.

Baked and topped with burrata.

A fresher pizza with a light pesto, tomatoes, onions, broccoli rab.

And topped with arugula and meyer lemon juice.

Tomatoes, pesto, garlic olives, basil.

And my final iteration on the pesto / afghan theme. Ligurian pesto, garlic mint yogurt, pumpkin, a bit of sundied tomatoe pesto, gorgonzola, figs, and sweet chili.

Baked.

And with burrata!

From my cellar: 1988 Domaine de Courcel Pommard 1er Cru Grand Clos des Épenots. 92 points. Full color. What a completely different animal from that wine-brambly black fruit and licorice, medium to full bodied for a Pinot and very meaty feel. I must say that you rarely find this much flesh in an ’88 Burgundy. Relatively speaking, a brute, and much less resolved than the Clos St. Jacques. Wilder and riper. I always find Pommard a bit rough and jarring, but this one was beginning to soften with its 22 years of age. Maybe my problem is that I don’t hold these wines for as long as they need to soften. Very attractive in this chunkier style.

A bit of the dessert spread.

The fudge cake.

Chocolate cupcakes.

Vanilla.

Iced cookies. I love these actually.

Boring sprinkle cookies (always left over).

A kind of strawberry cream fruit tart monster.

The gory details on how to we made the dough, sauce and other components are available here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Buffalo mozzarella, Dessert, Pizza, ultimate pizza, Wine

SOS – Wine Rescue

Jan07

Restaurant: Smoke Oil Salt [1, 2, 3]

Location: 7274 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90046. (323) 930-7900

Date: January 4, 2015

Cuisine: Spanish

Rating: Good “New American” Spanish

Hedonist leader Yarom is an investor in the new Smoke Oil Salt, a tapas bar from Adam Fleischman (Unami Burger) and Perfecto Rocher (Lazy Ox), so it’s a natural gathering for our gang. We went last spring, and now we return with even more wine for Paella night!

Chef Perfecto Rocher is behind the bar here.

Sommelier Naureen Zaim cuts a far svelter figure than us Hedonist lunks when it comes to pouring out the good stuff. It must be said that the service tonight, wine, food, bussing, everything, was an 11!

Owner Stephen Gelber was on hand making sure!

And it should be noted that our crazy wine excess involved at least 29 bottles and I have tried to organize them with the meal as best I could. The actually reality was a tad more chaotic!

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. IWC 92. Light orange. Vibrant strawberry and orange zest aromas are complicated by notes of tea rose, smoky lees and chalky minerals. Bright, incisive red fruit flavors pick up a toasty nuance with air. Fresh, incisive and refreshingly tangy, with impressive finishing clarity and stony persistence.

2002 Ayala Champagne Perle d’Ayala. IWC 93. Pale gold. A heady, complex bouquet displays an array of citrus and pit fruit scents, along with hints of pungent flowers and smoky minerals. Dry, focused and impressively concentrated, offering intense Meyer lemon, nectarine and floral flavors that put on weight with air. Closes on an emphatic mineral note, with excellent clarity and length.

The menu, although we had a custom meal.

2011 Casca Wines Colares Monte Cascas. 93 points. Malvasia.Clear yellow and lite in the glass. Nose of steel minerals, citrus, dried apples, macadamia nuts, melon, pith, sage, white pepper, tea and lychee. Medium body and exquisitely composed. Dozens of thin layers (citrus, melon, pit fruit, herbs, spice, secondary lime minerals) wrapped around an effortless steel core. Exceptionally fine and clean textures. Complexity that was a joy to work thru. Superb quality. Long finish. So privileged to taste.

From my cellar: 2011 Alberto Nanclares Albariño Crisopa Branco Tradicional. 91 agavin. Total acid bomb. Searing crispness. A real food wine and ready to handle that Spanish vinegar.

Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner Steinertal (missed vintage). 92 points. Intense ripe aromas of pineapple, cantaloupe and white pepper. Quite concentrated, warmly rich and powerful, yet cool, austere and focused. Mineral spices and a nearly salty impression linger on the long finish.

Sardines, olives, marcona almonds. One is supposed to get all the elements together into a bite.

Max from Saison brought some real goodies like this ultimate “bourgogne”:

2007 Coche-Dury Bourgogne Blanc. 92 agavin. Crisp, mineral, with a ton of matchstick reduction.

And:

2011 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. IWC 96. Pale yellow. Bracing aromas of lemon, ginger, chalk and spices. At once dense and penetrating, with outstanding citric cut to the complex, slightly high-toned flavors of lemon zest, white pepper, minerals and subtle resiny spices. Here, too, the wine’s intense chalky character gives it an impression of stronger acidity than the numbers would suggest. Boasts terrific fruit intensity, and the wonderfully precise finish goes on and on. A great showing today, and one of the superstars of the vintage.

And:

2010 Domaine Leroy Bourgogne Blanc. 91 points. Tight and crisp.

Gaspatxo de remolatxa. beet gazpacho, chestnut honey yougurt, mint oil. Zesty with a lot of flavor. Sweet and tangy.

2013 Château d’Esclans Côtes de Provence Rosé Whispering Angel. 87 points. Pink color with fast forming legs. It’s somewhat balanced and has flavours of prune with a medium/full body. Flabby texture with a medium finish – Excellent choice.

2004 Domaine Bertheau (Pierre et François) Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes. Burghound 88. Elegant and bright red pinot fruit nuanced by background elements of earth, spice and a touch of anise with supple, forward, soft and sweet flavors that offer a bit more concentration and complexity but at the expense of the same fine precision and detail. I like the balance and finishing intensity and there is a touch of forest floor as well.

agavin: all that above if you can ignore the 2004 vintage character: sucking on a raw green pepper stem!

2005 Domaine des Perdrix Echezeaux. IWC 92-95. Good bright ruby. Musky aromas of blackberry, minerals, violet and dark chocolate. Densely packed, superripe and sweet, with brisk acidity giving energy to the black raspberry flavor. Fresh and impeccably balanced. This very suave, broad wine really coats the palate with violet and bitter chocolate flavor. Finishes with sweet tannins and real grand cru persistence. The crop level here was roughly 30 hl/ha, vs. about 40 for the village wines. “We had a good crop level in 2005,” said enologist Robert Vernizeau. A highly promising vintage for this estate, whose youngest vines, according to Vernizeau, were planted in 1972.

agavin: great young Burg.

Olives am Bitets. Olives,, peppers, cauliflower, toasted almonds, manchego. Pickled veggies and cheese.

1964 Martinez Lacuesta Rioja Reserva Especial. 94 points. Glorious red fruits, some leather, herbs and spice, silky but with a nice underlying acidity. Long finish. Extra point for ageworthiness.

1964 Bodegas Riojanas Rioja Viña Albina. 93 points. Very pale almost translucent. Ethereal, perfumed, still delicious but fading fruit; light bodied. Wonderful but on a genteel downwards slope into old age.

1968 Federico Paternina Rioja Conde de los Andes Gran Reserva (I think). 92 points. Fully mature but vital; lots of wood and vanilla but also lovely red fruit, a discreet richness; on the palate very harmonious, tannic but not dried out or too woody, considerable charm, flavours of red fruit and spices, good length. A distinguished wine, a nobleman.

Bunyols de Bacalla. Cod croquetas, citrus aioli.

From my cellar: 1973 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Añares Crianza. 92 agavin. Still vital, with fig jam notes.

1985 R. López de Heredia Rioja Viña Tondonia. 90 points. Here, the oak is apparent, still, but doesn’t stand out as excessive because there is so much else to draw one’s attention: the silkiness of the mouthfeel, the length of the palate, the creaminess of the texture against the earthiness and other secondaries and tertiaries on the palate. Wow.

1989 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial. 91 points. This Rioja is now 25 years old – color is dark red with long legs; nose with leather and graphite; taste very complex and spicy with dried fruits and ripe berries; Rioja at its best – all the tannins are round now – the wine is smooth with a medium finish – will last 3-5 more years in this shape

Flori-col amb allets. Caramelized cauliflower and broccoli, spicy chili oil, garlic, and hazelnuts.

2004 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904. IWC 94. Bright red. Heady aromas of dried red berries, cherry, smoked meat, vanilla and potpourri, with a spicy element gaining strength with air. Fleshy and seamless in texture, offering sappy red fruit and floral pastille flavors and an undertone of sweet vanilla. The spiciness comes back on the finish, which features suave floral and cherry-vanilla qualities and sneaky tannins. This classic, old-school Rioja is delicious now but is destined for a long, graceful evolution.

agavin: glad I have a bunch of these in my cellar!

1989 Talbot. Parker 87-90. Dark ruby with moderately endowed notes of sweet black currants intermixed with licorice, compost, and some weedy tobacco, this medium-bodied wine has low acidity, attractively ripe fruit, but a somewhat short finish.

Amanida remolatxa. Watercress, beets, goat cheese, beet emulsion.

2004 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Parker 92. The 2004 Pichon Lalande is a strong effort for the vintage (much better than their underwhelming and much more expensive 2005). A blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it exhibits a deep ruby/purple color as well as scents of cocoa, espresso roast, black cherries, and cassis. Medium to full-bodied, opulent, and fleshy, this classic wine cuts a stylistic persona somewhere between the 1995 and 1996. It can be drunk now or cellared for two decades.

agavin: Interesting, has a similar annoying pepper finish as do all the 2004 red Burgs.

Braves Trencades. Fried Potatoes with Chorizo and ham, and a fried egg. Like ultimate breakfast.

2001 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan Vineyard. Parker 98. Having performed spectacularly well last year in the retrospective of ten-year old Napa Cabernets, this 2001 remains incredibly young, with all of its potential waiting to burst forth. Its dense purple color is followed by notes of mulberries, creme de cassis, blackberries, licorice, graphite and subtle smoke. The wine reveals fabulous fruit along with full-bodied power and a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood. Forget it for another 4-5 years and drink it over the following 25-30 years.

2001 Jacob’s Creek/Orlando Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. 90 points. Dark ruby colour, good clarity. Dark berries, strawberry, some spice & herbal nose. Softens with time out of the bottle. Smooth and medium length palate; dark berries with adequate tannins. A little tart, improving with time in the glass. Good drinking now but with some cellar time still left.

Paella de arros negre. Squid ink paella, carabineros (giant mediteranean prawns). You eat the prawns separately (delicious!). Then you mix the black rice with the aioli and squirt lemon on. Delicious, briny, savory, and quite salty. Perhaps a little too salty, but awesome nonetheless.

2011 Hope & Grace Pinot Noir Doctor’s Vineyard. 92 points.

2004 Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Parker 99. This vintage shocked me when I did my retrospective earlier this year, and the 2004 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select acquitted itself brilliantly in the vertical of Hillside Selects. It was a hot year, a relatively early harvest and there were worries that the heat had stressed the grapes, and there would be a lack of physiological ripeness and nuance. Those worries have not manifested themselves in this great Cabernet Sauvignon. Inky/purple-colored with notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, spring flowers, and a touch of toast, the wine is opulent, voluptuous and full-bodied with sweet tannin, just enough acidity to provide freshness, vibrancy and delineation, and a spectacular finish that goes on 40+ seconds. This is a killer, a showy and flamboyant style of Hillside Select that’s already drinking beautifully and should continue to do so for another 15-20 years.

Paeella Verda. Rabbit, pork, bomba rice, artichokes, garrofo beans. Good, but not as good as the squid ink.

2004 Torbreck Descendant. Parker 98. The 2004 Descendant, an old oak-aged blend of 92% Shiraz and 8% Viognier from a 12-year old vineyard, offers up notes of blackberries, ink, sweet truffles, and acacia flowers. There are 1,000 cases of this full-bodied, intense, rich blockbuster. It will drink well for 10-15 years.

2005 Colgin IX Syrah Estate. Parker 95. Colgin is one of the reference points for just what heights mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux varietals, and more recently, Syrah, can achieve in Napa Valley. This beautiful estate and winery overlooking Lake Hennessey is owned by Joe Wender and his wife, Ann Colgin (equally renowned for her auctioneering skills), who are assisted by David Abreu, the well-known Bordeaux wine consultant, Dr. Alain Raynaud, and Allison Tauziet, who has skillfully replaced the brilliant Mark Aubert. As the scores and tasting notes suggest, this was an exceptional tasting. Colgin’s 2006s are among the finest wines produced in the vintage.

Wagyu and two kinds of sausage, blood sausage and chorizo. The sausage was very salty, but tasty and the wagyu was amazing.

1995 Chateau d’Yquem. Parker 95. Served from an ex-chateau bottle. The 1995 Chateau d’Yquem is moving into its secondary aroma phase. A deep golden color, it has a dense and almost Barsac-like bouquet with tangerine, apricot, acacia and melted candle wax. It displays good intensity, unfolding beautifully in the glass. The palate has a strident opening, with a slight bitter edge that lends this Yquem great tension. One can discern layers of marmalade infused with honey fruit, with a powerful, spicy finish that lingers long in the mouth. This is drinking perfectly now, but will surely age with style over many years.

Crema Catalana amb Compota Citrica. Catalan custard, mandarin compote, smokey ice cream. Delicious and creamy.

NV Valdespino Jerez-Xérès-Sherry El Cardenal Palo Cortado Vors. This is excellent…nutty, acidic, dried fruit..this has it all, and was wonderful with some quince, bread and cheese..very interesting and intriguing.

Arros amb llet. Rice pudding, caramel, vanilla ice cream. Good with a nice creaminess and the cinnamon.

NV Alvear Montilla-Moriles PX 1927. 92 points. Ink, dark spices, toffee, burnt caramel, juicy tar, dark soy, oyster sauce, fino flores, smoked prunes, hint menthol. Taste is similarly liquid toffee, chocolate, thick and unctious, savoury yet sweet and lightfooted. Residual grandma herbal joint oil, creamy rich butterscotch, burnt biscuit, honey treacle. Beautiful and powerful balance to the incredibly dark and bitter chocolate cake, with all the right elements just to lift and soften – a strong and fantastic finish to an incredible gastronomic journey.

Xocolata. Xocolate pate, blanqueta olive oil, smoked salt, passion fruit ice cream.

One of the many wineos joining us for this excess, Saison sommelier Max Coane. I’m very fortunate to be booked into 3 Star Michelin Saison next week for what should be another epic All Things Andy Gavin dining experience. Stay tuned!

All in all another great evening of pure hedonism. SOS is rocking on. It is right in there in the current “wood table, paper menu, small plates, loud room” thing that dominates new restaurants in LA right now. The food is quite Catalan/Valencian and very good. It’s quite salty, sometimes a little too much. Not crazy salty (like I’d sometimes get in Japan), but noticeable. Flavors are very strong (a good thing IMHO). The service was 11 out 10. Everyone pulled out all the stops.

Oh, and our nearly 30 bottles of great wine didn’t hurt either!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Grüner Veltliner, hedonists, Naureen Zaim, Perfecto Rocher, Smoke Oil Salt, Spanish Food, Stephen Gelber, Wine

Palace of Pepper

Dec29

Restaurant: Chuan Ren Bai Wei

Location: 6420 Rosemead Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91775. (626) 286-5508

Date: December 28, 2014 & June 16, 2015

Cuisine: Beijing / Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Great!

Just six months ago I ate in this same space, but it was a different Chinese restaurant at the time, Beijing Duck House. Now, due to the rising popularity of Szechuan cuisine it has been rebooted. It still looks the same. It still serves Peking Duck. But there’s a lot more pepper on the menu.

2012 Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Comtesse Monts Damnés. IWC 93. Bright yellow. Spicy aromas of tangerine, lemongrass and cardamom, with a subtle floral twist. Tightly wound, offering citrus and spice flavors, with excellent clarity and finesse. The tenacious finish is long, saline and pure. This is one of the finest Sancerres of the vintage.

Boiled peanuts. On the table at most real Chinese restaurants.

Cold appetizers. Shredded potato. Cured spicy meats and cabbage. Beef tendon.

Water. The mason jar is one little tidbit of trend that has crept into this otherwise fairly old school SGV place.

2005 Gérard Raphet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques. Burghound 91-93. A gorgeous and seductive mix of red pinot, raspberry, cool minerality and a touch of earth complements to perfection the full, rich, deep, serious and intense flavors that manage to pull off being powerful and concentrated yet supple and delicious without compromising in the slightest the balance, which is not easy to do. A really lovely 1er that offers grand cru quality.

They have a real duck carver.

Peking duck. This was one of the better peking duck’s we’ve had. Maybe not quite so good as Tasty Duck, but the meat was fabulous. The skin could have been a tad crispier, but the hoison sauce was top notch.

On our second visit the duck came in this cute duck plate.

Awesome hoisin sauce.

Pancakes and condiments.

Leftover skin is for some reason placed on a separate plate.

2011 Louis Jadot Meursault Les Narvaux. 90 points. Nice strong vanilla notes.

The second of the “3 ways” for Peking duck is the duck soup.

Duck soup. A mild but pleasant broth with bits of meat and tofu.

Duck lettuce cups. The third of the ways. Not really that exciting.

House pancake. A nice fluffy bit of fresh bread with a little sweetness.

2004 Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered. 90 points. Well integrated with pear and apple notes and overtones of oak and vanilla, but not cloyingly so… Great body, mouthfeel and smooth finish.

Bean noodles. This is mixed up and the mung bean noodles are coated in a peanuty/spicy/tangy sauce. The sauce was awesome, with a bit of a mustard component. The tofu had a spongy texture, but the dish was overall quite nice.

Pork fried rice.

It’s evil cousin, chicken fried rice.

Spicy and sour glass noodles. I love this dish, with it’s heat, both hot and numbing, and strange vinegar tang. Not for the mild mannered or uninitiated.

You can see the noodles here. And the pepper!

2013 Errazuriz Chardonnay Wild Ferment Aconcagua Costa. 90 points. On the nose, a bit of young Burgundy-like tar on the nose in addition to some lively tropical fruit. Rich fruit on the palate, along with the aforementioned tar in the background. Nice acidic foil that is approachable now but should contribute to aging this a bit. Very approachable and enjoyable now, but I suspect better and more integrated in 2+ years.

Sweet corn. Pretty much what it looks like.

Cumin lamb. A really nice version of this dish. A lot of good lamb flavor.

Sizzling beef. Isn’t the animal-shaped dish cute?

2007 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. 91 points. Ripe apples, nectarine and slight tinned peach aromas dominating. A slight struck flint quality and also some creamy notes. In the mouth the flavours of ripe, but slightly tart, red apple is to the fore – on this tasting the acidity is a little spiky for the residual sugar but it really is very good. Fresh and lovely, I think this wine has a long life ahead of it.

Whole fish in peppers. The last part of the name is true. There wasn’t so much fish, even if the pan was huge.

But there sure were a lot of peppers, peanuts, lotus root, garlic and the like. The sauce was actually pretty darn good (and hot).

Fish with two chilies. Under that mound of tangy chili sauce (in green and red) is another fish. It was pretty darn good.

1998 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Steinriesler. 93 points. Light on its feet, pure, focused with bright citrus and pear fruit, a stony mineral undercurrent, and gentle floral and high toned herbal accents. Seamless and very polished on the palate.

Kung Pao Chicken. This slightly unusual take on the classic was hot AND sweet. Very interesting, and delicious!

Spicy chicken. This classic triple fried dry woked chicken was amazing. It was hot in both ways, and full of intense fried flavor. Very salty.

Have a few peppers!

Sweet and sour spareribs. Bony, very fried, and quite tasty.

2005 Faiveley Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots. Burghound 88-91. Strong wood influence currently dominates the dark berry and black raspberry-infused nose that precedes the somewhat woody medium weight flavors that are round and sweet with fine depth and complexity but the wood is not subtle and it causes me to question whether it will cause the finish to eventually dry out?

Spicy noodles. Kind of a pepper noodle soup with bacon.

Dan dan mein. Tasty, but way way too soup to really be proper dan dan. The sauce on the mung bean noodles was closer.

2011 Faiveley Monthélie Les Champs-Fulliot. IWC 89-91. Good bright red. Vibrant aromas of cherry and pungent minerals convey a strong limestone character. Then sappy and serious on the palate, richer and deeper but less open than the Duresses. Finishes with big, rich tannins and noteworthy persistence. Very suave and structured Monthelie with good mid-term aging potential.

Shredded potato. The more or less typical Hunan / Szechuan version of this dish.

Vegetable dry hot pot. Mostly cauliflower. Nice spicy flavor. Similar to the dish (and only dish) served at Tasty Dining.

More peppers! Perhaps you sense a theme.

2007 Domaine de la Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de la Reine des Bois. Parker 97. Evolving beautifully, the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de La Reine des Bois has shed some of its crazy tannin and is showing a more layered, voluptuous profile. Possessing beautiful kirsch, blackberry, candied licorice, flowers and lavender, it offers knockout richness and decadence to go with brilliant purity of fruit, superb concentration, and a full-bodied, layered mouthfeel. While I don’t think it matches the ’01 or ’10, it’s an incredible bottle of wine that can be consumed anytime over the coming 10-15 years.

Lamb skewers. Nice cumin flavor.

MaPo tofu. One of my favorites in general. This was a fine rendition. Not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly still had that nice soft texture and gradual heat.

2010 DeRose Zinfandel Dryfarmed Old Vines Cedolini Vineyard.

Dumplings. Very nice straight up steamed potstickers. No sauce was in evidence, so we made due with Hoisin.

Kung Pao shrimp. Same sauce as the chicken above. Fabulous dish actually, even if not totally typical (with that spicy sweet vibe).

Fish filet boiled with green peppers. I couldn’t resist photoing this at a neighboring table. This is a Szechuan classic, with more of an emphasis on the numbing peppercorns (see them floating in the broth?).

Mixed Szechwan skewers. Little random bits in hot sauce.

Morning glory / Ong choy. Or some similar colon sweeper.

Overall, another highly enjoyable Chinese meal. The duck was on par with Tasty Duck and the other dishes were arguably better. This place was good before, and it’s even better now. Really, this was some very enjoyable food. A number of dishes were off the charts like the “spicy chicken.”

It should be noted that service was very good. On our second visit, our server Lulu did a fabulous job handling our “chaos.” She helped out with the ordering, managed the pacing well (not always the case at Chinese) and along with the other staff really were on point replacing plates, providing napkins, and the like. At one point when I was hunting for toothpicks she even went and brought some on a plate!

After all that heat we felt the need to cool off with a pair of massive shave ices:

Mango shaved ice with almond jelly, mango jelly, strawberries, and vanilla ice cream.

Strawberry shaved ice with almond jelly, vanilla ice cream, and honey boba.

Rose tea.

Then finished off with a nice foot massage next door. Ah, the SGV.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chuan Ren Bai Wei, hedonists, Hoisin sauce, mapo tofu, Peking Duck, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Wine

How many Saddles to Peak?

Dec26

Restaurant: Saddle Peak Lodge [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Location: 419 Cold Canyon Rd, Calabasas, CA 91302 (818) 222-3888

Date: December 18, 2014

Cuisine: Modern American

Rating: Great ambiance and terrific game oriented food.

Ever year, both in the summer and winter, we Hedonists return to Saddle Peak Lodge. It’s pretty much the perfect venue for both a winter or summer food and wine blast, with gorgeous lodge patio, game driven food, and awesome wine service. For those of you who don’t know, Hedonist events have amazing wines (each diner brings at least one bottle).

Saddle Peak Ranch used to be a game lodge back in the early part of the 20th century. The rich and famous used to come up and hunt Malibu’s finest, such as this poor fellow. Now the deer are just served up on the menu.

Our private room.

2004 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. AG 96. I am thrilled with the way the 2004 Comtes de Champagne continues to evolve in bottle. A few years ago, the 2004 was quite focused and linear, in the style of the vintage, but more recently, the wine has begun to fill out beautifully. The 2004 remains bright, with a full range of citrus, white flower and mineral nuances that dance on the palate. A brisk, saline-infused finish rounds things out beautifully in a Comtes that impresses for its crystalline purity. I expect the 2004 will always remain a bit cool next to the more opulent 2002, but it is still drop-dead gorgeous.

1979 Château Rieussec. Parker 84. A lightweight Rieussec that does not have the intensity and richness of vintages such as 1981 or 1983, it does offer an elegant, well-made, less powerful wine that is light enough to be served as an aperitif.

Special liver. Somehow, this free food arrived on ours plates. It was kinda disappointing though, small, and not the best bit of “whatever it is.” The prep was good though.

And the sauternes looks good in the glass.

An amuse of tomato soup.

Pretzel bread.

Chef’s daily selection of market oysters.

We tried to organize the Burgundies into a flight.

From my cellar: 1978 Remoissenet Père et Fils Richebourg. 84 points. Shrill on the palate. Not a great wine. Fill looked excellent, and there was some fruit, but way too much tannin.

1988 Remoissenet Père et Fils Richebourg. 84 points. I liked this one even less, or maybe about the same.

1996 Louis Jadot Richebourg. Burghound 92. The nose offers a blast of powerful black fruit and flavors that are dense, intense and amazingly long. This is a big-bodied wine with dusty, muscular tannins and penetrating, potent flavors culminating in a slightly warm though nicely complex finish. Impressively constructed and while this does not offer the refinement and finesse of the best of this range, the unusually concentrated, robust Richebourg character is admirable.

agavin: best of the 3 by a longshot.

Venison Carpaccio, horseradish, avocado, parmesan, capers, ciabbata.

1986 Lafite-Rothschild. Parker 100. The 1986 possesses outstanding richness, a deep color, medium body, a graceful, harmonious texture, and superb length. The penetrating fragrance of cedar, chestnuts, minerals, and rich fruit is a hallmark of this wine. Powerful, dense, rich, and tannic, as well as medium to full-bodied, with awesome extraction of fruit, this Lafite has immense potential. Patience is required. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2030.

Spanish octopus, fingerling potato, tequila vinaigrette, chermoula.

1999 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia. Parker 88. Dense ruby-colored, with a tight personality, the 1999 Sassicaia offers up aromas of smoke, vanilla, and red as well as black currants. Medium-bodied, with high tannin and excellent purity, this elegant, restrained, moderately concentrated effort needs another 2-3 years of cellaring. It should keep for 12-15 years. The abundant tannin in addition to a certain austerity may prove troublesome in the future.

Caesar salad, garlic croutons, Parmigiano-Reggiano.

2005 Giuseppe Mascarello Barolo Monprivato. Parker 94+. The 2005 Barolo Monprivato is a very pretty, harmonious wine endowed with tons of purity in its fruit. All of the telltale aromas and flavors of Monprivato are there – geraniums, roses, spices and flowers – but backed up by quite a bit of heft and body as well. Today, the 2005 Monprivato is quite tannic, but it should come around with a few more years in bottle. In some ways, the 2005 reminds me of the 1999, another vintage in which the Ca d’Morissio was not produced. Monprivato is typically one of the hardest wines to accurately assess when young, and only time will tell what heights it ultimately reaches. For now, the future certainly seems bright. This is a mysterious, seductive Monprivato that will be fascinating to follow. Mascarello was especially selective with his Monprivato and only bottled about 50% of his production. He also blended in the juice kept separately for the Ca d’Morissio, which in this vintage is about 20% of the final blend as opposed to the more typical 10% in vintages when the Ca d’Morissio is produced. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2035.

Roasted Pink Lady apple salad, endives, St. Agur blue cheese, pecans.

Butternut squash agnolotti, cranberry port reduction, purple kale, pine nuts.

1995 Penfolds Grange. Parker 92. An impressive Grange that may ultimately prove to be underrated, like many wines from this vintage, the 1995, a blend of 94% Shiraz and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, exhibits a saturated plum/purple color and a sweet blackberry liqueur nose intermixed with cassis, licorice, and new oak. The wine is textured, jammy, full-bodied, with impressive levels of extract, glycerin, and black fruit flavors. It is long, ripe, with unobtrusive acidity and tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2018.

1996 Penfolds Grange. Parker 96. Deep garnet colored, 1996 Grange is scented with stewed plums, warm cherries and mince meat with hints of Ceylon tea, black olives and Chinese five spice. Medium-full bodied and with a generous amount of flesh on the palate, it gives very crisp acid and a medium-firm level of grainy tannins, finishing long. The layered complexity of this wine is just beginning to emerge, promising better things to come.

1990 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage la Chapelle. Parker 100. The 1990 La Chapelle is the sexy and opulent. I had the 1990 at the Jaboulet tasting, and again out of a double magnum three months ago. On both occasions it was spectacular, clearly meriting a three-digit score. The modern day equivalent of the 1961, it deserves all the attention it has garnered. The color remains an opaque purple, with only a slight pink at the edge. Spectacular aromatics offer up aromas of incense, smoke, blackberry fruit, cassis, barbecue spice, coffee, and a touch of chocolate. As it sits in the glass, additional nuances of pepper and grilled steak emerge. There is extraordinary freshness for such a mammoth wine in addition to abundant tannin, an amazing 60-second finish, and a level of glycerin and thick, fleshy texture that have to be tasted to be believed.

1995 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin. Parker 96. The 1995 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Jacques Perrin reveals a black/purple color, and a huge nose of Provencal herbs, smoked olives, grilled meats, and sweet, jammy black-cherry and black-raspberry fruit. Full-bodied, and oozing with extract and glycerin (nearly concealing the wine’s formidable tannin levels), this blockbuster Chateauneuf du Pape will need a minimum of 10-12 years of cellaring; it should keep through the first half of the next century.

Dover sole.

New Zealand Lamb Rack.

Saddle Peak Wild Game Trio, served with chef’s accompaniments.

Elk with bacon.

Buffalo short ribs.

Venison.

Durham Ranch Bison T-Bone 20 oz.

2005 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 97. Not unexpectedly, the 2005 Harlan Estate performed slightly better than it did last year. As these wines often do, it continues to put on weight as it is bottled very late by Napa standards, and there is no fining or filtration. The 2005 exhibits a gorgeous thick-looking, ruby/purple color in addition to a beautiful nose of burning embers interwoven with creme de cassis, roasted meats, sweet black truffles, and spring flowers. A hint of lead pencil shavings also emerges from this cuvee, which seems to want to be both a Pauillac and a ripe vintage of La Mission Haut Brion. Full-bodied, dense, pure, and revealing sweeter tannin than I remember, it can be drunk now, but it will no doubt display even greater complexity in 10, 20, and 30 years.

1974 Ridge Zinfandel Monte Bello. Surprisingly intact. It had some kind of nostalgic meaning to Yarom and Ron, and Yarom points out how rare it must be — if there are even any left. The Zin wasn’t a big production wine anyway, and so now 40 years later, not so many.

2005 Verite Le Desir. Parker 99. This blend of 87% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec (the highest percentage of Merlot ever used for Le Desir) reveals notes of truffles, mocha, wild mountain berry fruit, crushed rock and coffee. Fabulous fruit, tremendous viscosity and opulence and a full-bodied, voluptuous texture result in a wine that is hard to resist even though it remains an adolescent in terms of development. It should provide pleasure over the next 15+ years.

In magnum, a mega monster!

Sautéed Vegetable Selections.

Lobster Mac & Cheese. Good but needed more lobster.

Truffled French Fries, Parmesan, Parsley. Awesome. Black Garlic Ketchup on the side.

Onion Rings, Black Garlic Ketchup. Amazing.

Sautéed Wild Shimeji Mushrooms. Really yummy.

2003 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva. AG 93. Kirsch, cloves, leather and licorice are some of the many notes that emerge from Quintarelli’s 2003 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva. Dark, powerful and brooding, the Riserva is a bit less marked by the year than the straight bottling. Here it is the wine’s explosive, full-bodied finish that stands out most. This is a fascinating wine from Quintarelli. I am a bit surprised to see a Riserva in 2003, but it works, and beautifully. When they are on, these wines are utterly hypnotizing, as is the case here.

agavin: had a grapefruit note that was totally odd for an Amarone!

Cheese plate.

Bread for the cheese.

2001 Sine Qua Non Mr K The Noble Man (Chardonnay). Parker 97. While richer, sweeter, and more unctuous than the Iceman, 2001 Mr. K The Noble Man (Chardonnay), a Trockenbeerenauslese look-alike, possesses nervy, vibrant acidity that is hard to imagine in a wine of this mass and richness. The residual sugar is 255 grams per liter, with an amazing 11.1 grams per liter of acidity, and 11.7% finished alcohol.

Chocolate coffee pot de crème with espresso crème, chocolate-covered coffee beans, and almond coffee dust.

Chocolate raspberry brownie.

Banana huckleberry croissant bread pudding with white chocolate ice cream.

This was a total blow out event. The food was impeccable and the service warm. We had so much wine we left them a little overwhelmed, but that’s par for the course. Plus we had a really great mix of people and some of the most awesome wines. Tonight was particularly killer in the wine department as you have seen.

Click here for more LA restaurant reviews,

Or for Hedonist extravaganzas.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dessert, hedonists, Malibu, Saddle Peak Lodge, Wine

The Power of Providence

Dec23

Restaurant: Providence [1, 2]

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

Date: December 15, 2014

Cuisine: Cal French

Rating: Awesome food

It’s been a month since the Foodie Club convened for the awesome white truffles at Saam dinner and so Erick was itching for some more epic wine dinner awesomeness. Enter the chef’s table at Providence. There is no doubt that Providence is one of LA’s top fine dining establishments.

Enter the private chefs table: pretty much inside the kitchen!

And tonight’s menu.

From my cellar: 2006 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 94-96. This is notably more elegant, refined and complex with only a trace of exoticism to the mostly white flower and peach aromas that are followed by textured, pure, detailed and delineated flavors that are quite reserved and cool at present while culminating in a focused, crystalline, dry and driving finish. This does a slow build from the mid-palate before exploding onto the knockout finish. A Zen wine. Note that while I am giving a suggested initial drinking window of 2013, this will be capable of aging for years.

agavin: personally I think there was a trace of premox in this bottle, perhaps, but that it was drinking fabulously for us. It just didn’t taste that young, more like a 2000 or something. So if you have these, perhaps drink up.

Sphereified Greyhound. Like a greyhound popper.

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

Razor clam. With a bunch of sauces and bits.

Bacon and squid. A popsicle of… you guessed it… bacon and squid.

Beef cigars. Basically super yummy beef taquitos.

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

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

The bread. The greenish one was seaweed. The brioche was the best though.

Fancy Normandy butter and salt.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 92. This is presently quite reticent and it requires considerable aeration to coax aromas of airy white flowers, spice and limestone that precede textured, pure and defined energy-filled flavors that possess a linear mouth feel, all wrapped in a focused and mouth coating finish of impressive length. Perhaps this is just going through a phase but it seems a bit awkward at present, and while all the component pieces appear to be in place, I wasn’t knocked out despite the length of the finish. One thing that is clear though is that this definitely needs more bottle age before it’s ready for prime time. Tasted only once in bottle.

agavin: This was our weakest wine, but it was still very nice.

Sashimi. Calabrian chiles, lemon, mint.

Uni in yuzu. Caviar, soy milk.

Check it out inside. It’s literally in a yuzu too!

New Zealand abalone. buckwheat, dashi butter. A very savory little dish.

From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. JK 94. The Clair-Dau, whose vineyards are now all owned by Louis Jadot, was another excellent 1983. I have had good luck with this once-heralded vintage, which I often find delicious to drink. Menthol was the most prevalent characteristic, to go with its open and autumnal fruit.

agavin: I adored this wine. There was some funk on the nose that blew off in 5 minutes. Then it opened and opened and opened. The acidity was perhaps stronger than the fruit, but I still loved it.

Squid carbonara. pancetta. Truffles. This was actually a bit spicy. The spice nuked out all the cheese and the truffle though. It would have been better as a pasta (and without the spice).

Live scallop. white truffle, salted butter. It came out in the shell.

Then they cracked it, so it was steamed in the shell.

And truffle was shaved on top. A really delicious dish.

1971 Pierre Ponnelle Bonnes Mares. 94 points. After a few minutes the nose came around and also became vibrant and full of dried red fruits. There was a ton of fruit left in here and a lovely long finish.

agavin: really really nice.

Monkfish. Matsutake.

John dory. lardo, cabbage, apple. A really delicious dish with a nice fruity tone to the sauce that paired well with the old red Burgundy.

We added this duck dish. It wasn’t on the regular chef’s menu.

1983 Château Margaux. Parker 96. The 1983 Margaux is a breathtaking wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes achieved perfect maturity in 1983, and the result is an astonishingly rich, concentrated, atypically powerful and tannic Margaux. The color is dark ruby, the aromas exude ripe cassis fruit, violets, and vanillin oakiness, and the flavors are extremely deep and long on the palate with a clean, incredibly long finish. This full-bodied, powerful wine remains stubbornly backward and at least 5-6 years away from maturity.

agavin: we decanted ours at the beginning of the meal and it was very lovely.

a5 wagyu. Pickled bitter greens, caramelized onion puree, carrot. Really fabulous bit of meat.

Cheese cart!

A real cheese cart is so much better than those “they just give you two cheeses” kind of cheese plates. Those are lame. We even got seconds (and a whole other plate of different cheeses I forgot to photo).

1990 Chateau d’Yquem. Parker 99. An extraordinary effort, Yquem’s 1990 is a rich and fabulously superb, sweet wine. This wine also possesses lots of elegance and finesse. The wine’s medium gold color is accompanied by an exceptionally sweet nose of honeyed tropical fruits, peaches, coconut, and apricots. High quality, subtle toasty oak is well-integrated. The wine is massive on the palate, with layers of intensely ripe botrytis-tinged, exceptionally sweet fruit. Surprisingly well-integrated acidity, and a seamless, full-bodied power and richness have created a wine of remarkable harmony and purity. Certainly it is one of the richest Yquems I have ever tasted, with 50-100 years of potential longevity. An awesome Yquem!

Frozen yogurt. tangerine, carrot, ginger, hazelnut. A very autumn tone to this and the other desserts.

Hachiya persimmon. Whiskey, mint, cocoa.

Pear. Sunchoke cake, manjari. Really autumnal.

Petite fours. The usual, but all very lovely.

And a bag of slightly spicy chocolates to go.

The wines varied very good to spectacular. Four people, six bottles. We could have really used an extra white, as Providence is very seafood heavy, but it still worked out well.

The food was pretty awesome. Having just eaten at Maude a couple days before it’s pretty obvious that this slightly more 2000s style of French American (with Asian influences) is ultimately a little more successful on the plate than the more textural play at Maude. There were a lot of very good dishes here, although a couple of goofs like the carbonara.

Overall, a seriously epic night! We started at 7:30pm and walked out after 1am!

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Foodie Club dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, Dessert, Foodie Club, Providence, Wine

Pheasant & Deer are Never Boaring

Dec12

Restaurant: Phong Dinh [1, 2, 3]

Location: 107 E Valley blvd, San Gabriel, Ca, 91776. (626) 307-8868

Date: December 9, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Excellent!

My Hedonist club has hit up Phong Dinh several times before, once in their old location and once in this newer one — albeit in a nearby San Gabriel Valley spot. This authentic Vietnamese continues to serve up interesting stuff — plus they’re happy to take some of Yarom’s “do it yourself” meats, like both boar, deer, and pheasant he shot recently.

René-Henri Coutier Champagne Brut Millésimé Clos d’Ambonnay. Champagne to start.

Chicken salad. Kinda mild.

NV Riestra Sidra.

Shrimp and pork papaya salad.

2012 Gilbert Picq & ses Fils Chablis Dessus La Carriere. Burghound 89-92. This is slightly riper, in fact sufficiently so to display hints of the exotic though they are background nuances to the mineral reduction, floral and oyster shell aromas. There is excellent richness and volume though perhaps a bit less minerality than usual, all wrapped in a punchy and appealingly complex finish. This should be excellent as it offers plenty of Chablis character and lovely balance.

Snails in coconut curry. This spicy coconut curry cream sauce was amazing. You had to suck the meat out of the snails, which was cool, and there was plenty of sauce to drip over rice or noodles.

This time, the sauce was a little thiner than the first time (and although it tasted about the same, the thicker was a little better). The snails themselves were pretty awesome.

2004 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. IWC 92. Mesmerizing aromas of papaya, sweet herbs and spearmint. Intense but discreet cherry fruit rises from the mid-palate, accompanied by brilliant acidity. The riveting finish is animated and spicy. One of the finest spatleses of the vintage in Germany.

1990 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Vendange Tardive. 95 points. Wow. Intense, intense, intense. Sugar, sweet, lychee, a little cayenne. Very hard to describe. The finish goes into the next day. Great pairing with Northern Thai food. A very special, unique wine.

Roast quail. Quite tasty.

1999 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand. IWC 93. Knockout nose of fresh and dried fruits, honey and white flowers. Delicious fruit salad and citrus skin flavors complicated by spices and honey. Lovely ripe acidity leavens the 22 g/l residual sugar. Very rich and dense, and much easier to taste today than the Rangen. I like the balance here.

Crab in tamarind sauce. Delicious. Sweet and sour.

2011 Weingut Jäger Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Ried Klaus.

Roast boar. This scrumptious dish had a ton of flavor. The meat had this char broiled and spiced thing that was spectacular.

2012 MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir Estate Vineyards Russian River Valley. 89 points. Nice balance and structure, ready to drink as an infant. Some wood and spice on the nose, strawberry/raspberry palate.

Ground deer. Delicious too with a nice crunch to it.

From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. 90 points. Impressive deep ruby-red. Perfumed, slightly candied aromas of red berries and smoky, charred oak. Supple and sweet, but a wine of only moderate intensity. Finishes with slightly dry tannins.

agavin: I bought a bunch of these because they were “cheap.” I.e. even though it’s a grand cru (although a spotty one) I bought it for my “premier crus that are drinking well now” slot. It turned out quiet decent, although there was a touch of barnyard on the nose. Several thought it was the wine of the night. I actually agree as reds go — but the competition was flaccid.

Dover Sole.

2000 Château Chauvin. Parker 92. A superb wine, this opaque purple-colored effort boasts a vividly pure nose of graphite, melted licorice, creme de cassis, espresso, and wet stones backed up by subtle, high quality, spicy, new oak. Multi-layered, full-bodied, dense, concentrated, and pure, with sweet tannin and superb length, this future classic will be at its best between 2008-2019.

Baked catfish.

A bit more filleted.

1997 Greenock Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 92. One of my weekly Cabernet Sauvignons for a number of years was Greenock Creek’s 1997. It was released at a very reasonable price, and, again, I did not know what to expect as this estate is not associated with Cabernet Sauvignon as much as Grenache and Shiraz. This 1997 is still a killer wine. Its dark plum/purple color is accompanied by aromas of spice box, cedarwood, sweet licorice, and black currants. Full-bodied, velvety-textured, and gorgeously proportioned, it is a sexy Cabernet Sauvignon that should continue to evolve for 5-10 years.

Veggies.

Fish sauce. Tasty and salty. Two kinds.

There are various condiments. Mint and basil.

Rice noodles.

And these rice paper “pancakes” that are softened in hot water. Not pictured are two kinds of fish sauce and thin rice noodles (you can see them below).

You put all this together with the fish as you like and do your best to roll into a pancake. It’s scrumptious, absolutely delicious, but messy.

2001 Oriel Priorat Alma de Llicorella. 88 points. Burnished dark garnet red. Red lifesavers candy, roses, and earth nose. Medium bodied, cranberries, sweet ‘n’ sour cherries, good acid, fully integrated tannins.

Spicy boar. Another boar dish made from Yarom’s animal. This one was flavorful with a real slow powerful heat.

2007 Nazar Spray. Not listed on CT.

Pheasant curry. Absolutely delicious, particularly with some of the noodles.

1987 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill. IWC 84. Full red. Weedy, green, vaguely chemical nose. Thick and dense but rustic. Has more density of material to stand up to its strong green component than this winery other two ’87s. The best of the trio in terms of texture and ripeness.

Snow peas.

2000 Giscours. Parker 92. Probably the finest Giscours made since the 1975, this black/purple-colored 2000 offers up terrific notes of camphor, creosote, blackberry, and cassis jam intermixed with notions of smoke and earth. Spicy, with low acidity, a big, rich, fleshy, full-bodied palate, outstanding texture, and a long, pure finish, it is, to reiterate, one of the best Giscours produced over the last 25 years. A sleeper of the vintage, it is still available for a realistic price.

agavin: my second favorite red.

Goat stew. You add in the noodles and greens below. The broth was actually very flavorful, if terribly ugly. The goat itself was kinda stewed.

2012 MontGras Carménère Reserva. 85 points. Deep purple, vegetal and slight cedar smell. Taste of leather and green pepper, dry but soft short finish.

Egg noodles for the goat.

Mysterious greens.

2000 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial. 90 points. Medium red. Moderately ripe cherry and red berry aromas are complicated by tobacco, mint and musky underbrush. Medium-bodied and a bit loose-knit, with low-key, gentle red fruit and cured meat flavors that are nicely firmed by a dusty mineral tone. Gains sweetness on the finish, picking up vanilla and floral oil notes. Understated and rather elegant Rioja but lacking real oomph; was this really deserving of the fancy Gran Reserva Especial treatment?

Crispy noodles with miscellaneous stuff. A lot like the Cantonese dish.

2008 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee. Parker 89-91. The 2008 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee was about to be bottled at the time of my visit, and it will certainly be one of the better wines of the vintage. By the standards of Pegau, it is not a massive wine nor will it be terribly long-lived. However, this estate has an incredible track record in off years, so I would not be surprised to see this wine exceeding readers’ expectations in 10-12 years. Tasting through the three remaining lots that will be blended together, I rated them between 89 and 92. That makes it one of the better wines of the vintage. Medium to full-bodied, chewy and very evolved, the wine exhibits lots of earth, lavender and foresty/mossy notes intermixed with kirsch, peppery black currants and Christmas fruitcake spices. It should drink nicely for 10-12+ years. Laurence calls it a very “traditional” style that she believes will be as good as their 2006.

2003 Williams Selyem Gewürztraminer Late Harvest Vista Verde Vineyard. IWC 91. Deep gold. Classic gewurz bouquet of rose, peach and smoke, with an exotic overlay of baking spices. Sweet and round, with concentrated pit fruit and melon flavors showing impressive energy and focus. Finishes on a spicy note, with excellent depth but no undue weight. I like the absence of cloying notes here and would love to serve this with funky or blue cheeses.