Gene needed some guinea pigs to try the food coming out of his new brick oven at Cafe Ysabel so Johnny, Dicky and I happily obliged. I thought we were just having a tenderloin roast of water buffalo but Gene couldn't leave it at that and so we also had a soup of oven-roasted potatoes, oven-roasted prawns on a cedar plank, and oven roasted pineapple with caramel.
Champagne Piper-Heidsieck Cuvee Rare NV - I can't find any info on what makes this different from the regular Brut. The Piper-Heidsieck website has information on the vintage version but none on the NV, at least as far as I could see. Light lemon color with a tinge of green. Bready and yeasty with a lot of fruit. Medium-bodied with good depth. Flavors of grapefruit and milk chocolate. Complex and crisp with a long finish. Excellent Champagne and can probably improve with age.
St. Francis Wild Oak Merlot 2004 - Sonoma. Sweet nose. Fragrant wood. Just a little hot. Rich. Milk chocolate, but fairly dry. Good fruit. Soft and ready for drinking. I think some firmness might have improved this a bit.
Caymus Special Select 2005 - Nearly black. Dried herbs, pine wood, and Coca Cola. Concentrated, sweet fruit. Berry confit. Soft tannins make this surprisingly approachable. Good but it doesn't seem like an ager to me.
For dessert:
Hessische Staatsweinguter Kloster Eberbach Rudesheim Berg Rottland Riesling Beerenauslese 2006 - Marmalade, pineapple, caramel, honey and apricot. Not a particularly sweet BA and somewhat on the light side. Well-balanced with a good dose of bracing acidity to contrast with the sweetness. Very good and drinking nicely now.
We ended with an excellent Aberlour A' Bunadh Batch 19 Cask Strength Single Malt.