After a very long break during vacation, what could be a better come back to Paris than having a dinner by Taillevent? The trepidation of life in Paris needs accommodation. This dinner was perfectly on time to begin the second part of my life, after a sportive life on the sea.
I arrive by 4:30 pm to open the bottles. Everything had been prepared by Alexandre, a young sommelier assistant, who makes a fascinated face in front of the bottles. The corks are generally very nicely kept, except the one of the DRC Grands Echézeaux 1963. Before pulling it, I smell the top of the bottle, and it smells the earth of the cellar of Romanée Conti, as I have many times checked it. The upper part of the cork seems to be covered by earth, and the lower part is black and greasy. Such a look would normally be more natural for a wine having a minimum of 30 years more. The smells of the wines are generally acceptable even if some look tired. Some wines will need the help of Doctor Miracle, the oxygen “miracle maker”.
Jean Claude Vrinat has a smile as he is going to receive the same day the official nomination as first French restaurant by the Zagat’s Guide. The table has been organised by a friend of mine, one of the most frequent participant to my dinners. He has invited members of his family to celebrate a young man, his future son in law. Curiously, I see that we are nine males only. I ask no question but I will learn later that the women met by ‘L’Angle’, the other restaurant belonging to Taillevent. The family will be reconstituted later after the dinner when the women came for a drink by Taillevent. I have already proposed to my friend that for the next dinner, I will offer my services to the ladies.
The menu composed by the team of Jean-Claude Vrinat is : Amuse bouche / Rémoulade de tourteaux aux fines herbes / Raviolis aux champignons du moment / Poulette de Bresse à la broche, beurre d’herbes (premier service) / Poulette de Bresse à la broche, beurre d’herbes (second service, la cuisse) / Fourme d’Ambert à la cuillère / Gelée d’agrumes, œuf-neige à la mangue.
I consider it as a very intelligent menu, in the direct line of the philosophy of Taillevent.
The Champagne Bollinger Grande Année 1985 has a magnificent colour of a discrete gold, and an active bubble. On “gougères”, the taste evokes discretely candied fruits. The champagne wears its age with elegance. A first course not on the menu, made of tastes of autumn gives some citrus to the Bollinger, and makes it younger, lively. Curiously three guests will say that it softens the champagne, which is not my opinion. I consider this “GA” as less sexy as the “RD” (recently disgorged) of the same year, but it is very comfortable, charming, pleasant.
On the crab we will have two 1959 wines. The Niersteiner Königskerze Rheinessen 1959 and a Puligny-Montrachet Henri Boillot 1959. These wines are for long out of what is considered as their plateau of maturity. So, I explain how to approach wines for which actual references are no longer accurate. The Puligny is extremely delicious, timidly sweet, and an exercised palate could recognise between the lines characteristics of a Puligny. This testimonial wine has to be taken for what it is, a delicious wine with the meat of the crab. The cream treated “à la Robuchon” is not a natural friend of white wines, but cooperates very well with the Niersteiner. This wine has a little aspect which annoys me, some kind of bitterness or better said, dryness. It is very complex, made of mangoes, rhubarbs, and most of all of morel mushrooms. It is very exciting, and as a miracle, when we reach the second half of the bottle, the disturbing aspect has disappeared and the wine is great, kaleidoscopic as great German wines can be.
The course with mushrooms has a very heavy taste. The Château Mouton-Rothschild 1950 has a dark colour and an acidic nose. I made a grimace when smelling it. But in mouth, if one accepts the acidic taste, it is a very sensible velvety wine that I consider as very good as I can make abstraction of the acidity. My friend frowns so I decide to let open an extra bottle that I had, Ausone 1975. But I continue to defend Mouton. And I am right ! As for the Niersteiner, when we arrive in the second part of the bottle, the final in mouth gets longer and longer. The wine becomes really nice, velvety delicious. I “eat” the sediment with an extreme pleasure. As the wine was obviously wounded, the mushrooms had a too concentrated taste to help really the Mouton.
The Ausone 1975 will be served with the Chassagne Montrachet red Boudriottes 1972 Marcel Toinet on the first course of the « poulet de Bresse ». To put them together was not planned but it worked. Ausone is elegant and has a deep structure. And the red Chassagne is highly seductive. Its charm works completely, catching my attention. The two wines are interesting together, not competing but showing how two opposite wines can be emotional, each in its way.
Now, two reds will make us climb in level. The Grands-Echézeaux, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 1963 shows what the complexity of Burgundy is. The bad smells by opening have completely disappeared; it has some taste of salt that I adore with the wines of DRC.
The real surprise is the Aloxe Corton 1947. This bottle belongs to buys that I used to make now and then of unidentified bottles. This bottle had a label which had nearly completely disappeared, and its previous owner had written by hand on a small label : Aloxe Corton 1947. The naïve writing makes it sure that it is a real Aloxe Corton 1947 but from where, from whom, I do not know. And the wine is simply gorgeous. The colour of the wine is largely younger than the one of the DRC wine, older than it should (due to the bad shape of the cork). Drinking a first sip of the Aloxe, I say “wow”, and I say to the man sitting next to me : “this wine is the reward to my way of collecting : I take risks, and it works”. No one around the table could imagine that a wine of 1947 could be so young and so perfect. I was a Burgundy of the highest charm.
The Château Loubens Sainte Croix du Mont 1928 is helped by a blue cheese (fourme) to shine at a high level. The wine is of a magnificent golden colour and smiles like the sun. Of course, the structure is a little simplified, but it gives a great pleasure. The whole table adores.
The simplified structure of the Loubens becomes obvious to all when appears the Yquem 1983.
This wine is, at this moment, at one of its optimums that it will have throughout its very long life. This Yquem was perfect, played with every part of the dessert with pleasure. A really great Yquem.
The votes are fascinating. The 9 people around the table had to vote for their 4 best wines, in one order of 1 to 4. Nine wines out of ten were included in the votes. It means that all the wines except the Mouton could get a vote in the top 4.
Five wines out of ten got one vote of first at least. It means that one wine out of two was the preferred by a diner. Such figures make me happy.
The most voted has been the Aloxe Corton 1947 with four votes as first (this is my pride), and the Yquem 1983 got two votes as first and the GE DRC, the CM and the PM got one vote as first.
The general average vote was : Aloxe Corton 1947, Yquem 1983, Puligny-Montrachet Henri Boillot 1959, Grands-Echézeaux, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 1963.
My vote has been :
1 - Aloxe Corton 1947,
2 - Chassagne Montrachet Red Boudriottes 1972, Marcel Toinet,
3 - Yquem 1983,
4 - Champagne Bollinger Grande Année 1985
The service by Taillevent is legendary. It was exceptional tonight. If I want to imagine what could be improved, I see two directions. One is that some wines should be poured in glasses some 7 to 8 minutes before being put on our table. As I have seen that the Niersteiner and the Mouton were highly better when we drank the second part of the bottle, it should have been oxygenated in the glass, even after the 4 hours of slow oxygenation (this looks like an additional decanting, without decanting).
And the second thing that we could do is that the chef smells the wines one hour before they will be served, in order to adapt the sauces or the condiments to the smell of the wines.
I see that as a possible improvement. I already talked about that to Jean Claude Vrinat who approves this evolution.
I was happy to make this dinner by Taillevent.
One thing is sure, it is that this table was not composed of “label drinkers”, as the wine which got our plebiscite was a wine with no label!