Got together with Thor & Theresa Iverson to share a celebration for Laura's 40th birthday. I can only hope my 40th celebration (in 7 weeks) is so good. Thor & Theresa are gracious, generous and enjoyable hosts, and our revelry went on well into the morning hours (ok...Thor and I talked-and I dozed-until the morning hours, the wives were more sensible).
We opened with a Pierre Moncuit Champagne Blanc de Blancs that was racy and precise, really waking up the tastebuds with richer flavors than would be expected from silly old Chardonnay with bubbles.
Theresa made a bacon and onion flammenkuchen that was utterly delicious (and consumed way too quickly) which was paired with a 1997 Rolly Gassmann Auxerrois and 1995 Egon Muller Riesling Scharzhofberger Kabinett AP#7. We had expected the two wines to be a nice pairing, but the Auxerrois showed lots of sweet pear, apple and citrus fruit while the Egon Muller was a totally dry creamed rockfest. Each wine was delicious on its own merits, but comparing them alternately made the Auxerrois flabby and the Riesling severe. I preferred the Riesling, but also had a second glass of the Auxerroiss.
I put together a dish of crab imperial for our second course, and we paired it with the last of the prior two wines, as well as Moet & Chandon Champagne Les Sarments d'Ay NV and 1995 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese. The Champagne was all Pinot Noir, and fantastic. Red fruit, flowers and a meaty richness made this one of the best Champagnes I have ever tasted, and also much more of a wine than a Champagne. Laura and I had a conversation yesterday, the gist of which was that Champagnes like the Moet were her red wine substitute. The Donnhoff was nearly as dry as the Egon Muller, but carried more fruit and just the barest hint of residual sugar. Lovely, complex wine that worked well with the crab.
Continuing on, we needed some cheese, so Theresa whipped up some fondue (lots and lots of fondue), which we paired with some more of the prior wines (again) and a couple of contrasting reds. There was a 1993 Faively Gevrey Chambertin that smelled of leather, earth, herb and black fruit, but was mute on the palate. Thor decided to blind me on another red, and I worked through the reasoning to a Pinot from the southern part of California. Well it was a 2004 Loring Wine Company Brosseau Vineyard Pinot Noir that unfortunately went down like scotch whiskey. It did have some dark red fruit, but smelled and tasted very hot. I am a fan of Loring wines (exactly why Thor blinded me with this one), but did not like this example at all.
We then had a salad of simple greens (I needed that after the cheese fondue) and on to the dessert of Chocolate Almond Truffle Bars. Laura and I both love these "cookies" that consist of a flourless chocolate cake topped by almond butter cream icing. Yum!
Finally (for the sensible ladies) we moved to the last two wines, a 1963 Fonseca Vintage Port and the 1990 Trimbach Riesling Cuvee Frederich Emile Selection des Grains Nobles. It could not have been better. While I will not call the '63 the greatest Port I have tried (the '45 Taylor and '70 Dow were both better when I drank them), the '63 was the most seamless, supple and long-flavored Port I have tasted. Where it fell down just a tiny tick was on complexity. It was full of bright raspberry fruit (and not very sweet raspberry fruit at that), but did not have the layers of other flavors I would have expected. Still delicious just not life-changing. The Trimbach was fruity, stony, spicy, nearly dry and had a finish that was nearly as long as the Fonseca. Thank you Thor and Theresa for the opportunity to taste the SGN, as I came too late to the Trimbach game to get the '90 late-harvest wines. The '90 CFE VT and CFE SGN are two of the best Rieslings I have ever tasted.
So about that time the ladies went to bed. Thor and I stayed up to the wee hours of the AM, and had a few pours of 1992 Chateau Gloria which was deliciously herbal, earthy, red-fruity and much more satisfying than any 1992 had any right to be.
So off to bed I went, hitting the pillow at 4:15 AM. Later that day Laura and I went to a Champagne tasting, but that's another set of notes.
