An invitation to have dinner with Mark and Kay is always well received. So we took our bottle of starter wine up to their home in the clouds and settled in for what would be, one of those nights.
With crackers and assorted cheeses:
2004 Luneau-Papin, Muscadet L d’Or:
Richer and deeper than the vast majority of Muscadet, this wine was showing open and very engaging; I found a viscous texture illuminated by bright acidity, excellent concentration and a long, clean finish. I think that others were similarly impressed. Good with cheeses.
Interim:
2006 A & M Quenard, Vin de Savoie Abymes:
Dry, crystalline wine with lovely floral, fresh herb and mineral accents to light-bodied, fresh white fruit. Chraming and much more complex than expected. Showed well.
With a salad of beets, fennel and watermelon:
2007 Lucien Crochet, Sancerre Pinot Rosé:
Only Cotat is on the same level as this producer of fine rosé in France; crisp, fresh, mineral-filled wild strawberry fruit with a clean finish. Superb with the dish.
With corn purée, fingerling potatoes and butter infused lobster:
1985 Long-Depaquit, Chablis Blanchots:
Have you ever made homemade crackers? – that’s what this smells like – with hints of fruit, stone, fresh fish and earthy-unexplainable-stuff; deep, very bright flavors that are not in the same place as the nose – here’s viscous fruit, honeyed flavors, nutty and intense; extremely long and complex. There’s a brioche quality in this wine that seems to extend from first sip to final waft; a wine that never saw wood and yet is so multifaceted that describing it becomes an exercise in futility. Sensational with the dish.
And,
1980 Bouchard Père et Fils, Corton-Charlemagne:
Smells of day old fish, dry earth, old linen and under-ripe pears – not particularly attractive on the nose; the palate, OTOH, stretches the envelope on chardonnay – incredibly complex, flavors and nuances growing, morphing and fading, lots of density amid vivid elements of stone, citrus, butter, hazelnuts, white fruit and mushroom; alive and concentrated in the mouth – many changing profiles – at once fruit oriented and then, in an instant, something of the earth and the dirt and the fertilizer – odd but intriguing; very long but fading at the end. Stupid good with the food.
After dinner:
1985 Ridge, Lytton Springs:
80% zinfandel, 11% carignane and 9% grenache; I guessed an old Tuscan sangio. based wine – nothing here indicates zin. or grenache and only the most lenient would find carignane; a little vinyl on the nose detracts but from then on, its all integrated, red wine with an Italian slant that leads to a mellow, clean finish that lasts.
Drink with someone you love.
Best, Jim
