With a seafood medley that included a pair of oysters, a couple of pieces of seared ahi, and a crab roll, we had:
2004 William Fevre Chablis Les Clos – this grand cru showed a delicate citrus nose, good flavour concentration and clean finish. Perhaps heading for the end of it’s arc – it won’t get any better and may just do a gentle fade with more time.
With a crustless “Shepherd’s pie” made of duck confit, corn and a mashed potato topping with an excellent gravy, we tasted some Piemonte wines.
1990 Parusso Barolo Mariondino – classic nose with lots of tar and high toned dark (cherry) fruit, good flavour intensity and a very slightly astringent dry finish. Very good.
1995 Paitin Barbaresco Sorì Paitin – very nice spicy dark cherry nose bit none of the tar we saw in the previous wine, smooth mature fruit on palate and soft and long finish, fully mature. First bottle I’ve opened and it seems I hit it at peak.
2001 Ascheri Barolo Sorano – darker colour, as expected, with a dark plummy nose more akin to the Paitin than the Parusso, with some earthiness. Well flavoured and with obvious but not prominent soft tannins at the end.
2014 Laughing Stock Amphora - a white wine made by a BC winery of Viognier and Roussanne and fermented in clay amphorae. Pale straw colour, nice orange peel nose, dry finish and with a rather odd slightly bitter finish. Interesting experiment….