Last Thursday I attended a five-course dinner with several Bordeaux wines and then stayed overnight at the Mayton Inn. This was a benefit for Frankie Lemmon School. The wines were presented by Frenchmen and women associated with the chateaux in partnership with Apex Fine Wines. There was also a tasting of additional Bordeaux wines just prior to the dinner. With a small portion of smoked duck and ham, we had a sparkling wine, Les Cordeliers Prestige Brut, Cremant du Bordeaux. It showed lots of bready/yeasty/toasty notes along with citrus notes and a strong acidic streak.
With seared tuna and Israeli cous cous we had 2006 Domaine de Chevalier Pessac Leognan. This semi-opaque wine had ripe dark plummy fruit notes and some herbal hints. There was some puckering from tannin on the finish,.
The next course was pork belly with grit spoon bread (I'm not fond of grits but liked this version,) This was meant to have with 2012 Chateau Giscours, Margaux (it took a long time for the courses to come out, so some at my table had finished the pour before the corresponding course appeared.) The Chateau Giscours had some tannins on the back end and improved with food. I'm not sure if the 2006 Chateau Calon Segur, St. Estephe, was served before or after the Giscours (I should have held onto the menu with the wine listings.) It was suggested that you might want to cellar a Calon Segur for ten years or more but that it is approachable sooner than in the distant past.
The fourth course was beef with charred ramps and smashed fingerling potatoes. The wine was a 2010 Chateau Pavie Macquin, St. Emilion, Grand Cru Classe' B. The wine was red-fruited with red cherries and red-skinned plums. It was probably the most mellow of the red wines at dinner,
Dessert was a nice cheese course with a bleu cheese, a soft cheese (Brie?) and another cheese paired with 2003 Chateau Guiraud, 1er Grand Cru Classe Sauternes. It looked pinkish-gold in the lighting in the Waverly Room. I found some honeysuckle, apricot and marmalade in a very pleasant dessert wine. We could order any of the wines for later delivery and I ordered the Pavie Macquin and the Guiraud. I still have two half bottles of the 2003 Chateau Suduiraut so may someday do a comparison of the Guiraud and the Suduiraut side-by-side.
Dinner companions at my table included two Duke law professors and a female physician from Duke Medical Center.
My room on the third floor of the Mayton Inn was very nice. Rooms are individually decorated. I also enjoyed breakfast the next morning in The Verandah restaurant. https://maytoninn.com/our-philosophy/