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90 Nicholas Feuillatte Palme d’Or—Light straw color.
Moderately fruity bouquet with light yeast and some dried grass. Very well
balanced, fruity (pear, peach, apple) but correctly brut, some honey. Decent
complexity. The bubbles are not the tiniest I’ve seen, but are not especially
aggressive. Crisp, refreshing finish with good length. Not in the same
league as the 90 Dom and 85 Krug we had last millennium, but delicious
in its own right. 92 points.
Our first dinner course was a perfect (true to Italian sense of proportion)
bowl of feathery-light potato gnocchi with Rao’s (yes, the Harlem legend)
tomato-vodka sauce topped (correctly) with Grana Padano. I have to say,
the Rao’s sauce, while expensive at $10 a jar, is the best commercial sauce
I’ve ever had. It tastes not only like homemade, but even better, it tastes
of Italy. Rao’s uses San Marzano tomatoes. The dish was truly impeccable!
With it we had…
95 Biondi-Santi Sassoalloro—A basic VdT Toscana sangiovese from
this Montalcino legend. Good color, typical scents of cherry and oak nuances.
By itself, shows typical Tuscan character: high acid, restrained concentration
in the fruit, soft tannins, some moderate complex mineral and animal elements.
Shows more like a Chianti than a (baby) Brunello (aka RdM). The finish
has a bit of tartness without the glycerol and fruit wrapping that elevates
the top wines. However, with the food, the wine comes into its own, as
Tuscan wines are supposed to. The harmony with the gnocchi was superb!
85 points for the wine, 98 points for the gnocchi, 90 for the combination.
Bellissimo!
Moving along, I served seared Sonoma Foie Gras over lightly dressed
frisée topped with extra vecchio balsamico, hand-harvested sel de
mer, and preserved lingonberries on the side. For this I opened a somewhat
inappropriate, but still food-compatible…
76 Trittenheimer Apoteke Auslese Bischofliches Priesterseminar—Dark
golden color. Lightly honeyed, golden fruit nectar, somewhat waxy nose.
Soft, low acid, pear, apple and peach nectar, slight minerality. A tired
wine. Finishes clean but with brevity. OTH. 86 points.
Next up was Wild Scottish Wood Pigeon, sautéed in foie gras fat,
then roasted, and finished with a red wine reduction sauce (using duck
stock), with pearl onions and parsley root; sautéed carrots and
celery root; and a medley of baby squashes and yellow bell pepper with
garlic and marjoram. Here I report on two wines.
In the reduction sauce, I used 98 Domaine Clavel Les Garrigues—Very
dark color imparted a dirty black purplish color to the sauce that pretty
well matched the dark, bloody internal color of the pigeon inner cavity.
The wine has good aromatics with dark berry tones and moderate oak. The
flavors are blueberry and some plum and other mixed berries, with rather
serious coarse, drying tannins. Needs 2-4 years age. Excellent concentration
and excellent value for $8-9. 87 points.
With the dish, 93 Dominique Laurent Morey St.-Denis Clos Sorbes 1er
Cru—Medium ruby color with slight bricking. Modest aromatics showing
cherry, floral elements and some integrated oak. On the palate, light red
cherry fruit, some earthy mineral terroir, cedar, well-integrated oak.
Soft tannins, good acidity, but fruit is a little too faded. A year or
two past prime. Very good with the bird, but a more powerful wine would
have been better. 89 points.
Our cheese course included a perfectly ripe Brillat-Savarin triple crème,
a chunk of Reggiano, a St. Loup washed rind goat cheese, red Bartlett
pear and white truffle honey. We continued with the Burgundy for this course.
Finally, dessert was homemade grasshopper cake (chocolate sponge, chocolate
mousse, mint cream, and mint gelatin) and imported chocolate chip pannetone.
This was served with NV Chambers Rare Tokay Liquer. Very dark brown.
Exquisite bouquet of immense complexity with basically everything you could
expect in a tawny dessert wine and then some. Lots of chocolate, brown
sugar, treacle, smoky tea, dried fruits, dates, etc. Thick, tremendous
concentration, very great length. Good penetrating acidity keeps it from
being cloying. Verging on profound (only top vintage Madeira can truly
compete with this level of tawny dessert wine). 99 points.
At mid-night, we finished the last few sips of Champagne, then went
outside on our deck to light sparklers and view the Santa Barbara fireworks
off in the distance. And that, my friends, was a helluva way to enjoy the
New Year.
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