A year ago I took Bob to Vancouver Island where our dinner plan went big awry and we ended up drinking the bottle of Lafite I'd brought along with a bag of corn chips in our hotel room. This year we stayed home and invited three of our favorite local couples to dinner. All of them love wine, but none have any real appreciation for aged French wine which, I'll admit, tempered my choices a bit. But we still drank a Lafite!
With black truffle sausage and little tartines of crusty bread topped with ricotta and artichokes:
NV Alfred Gratien Champagne Brut Champagne Blend
The CT scores here are ridiculously low for what is an elegant, complex champagne with notes of green apple and freshly baked croissant. I don't usually do points but someone needs to speak up for this wine--I will!
2018 St. Innocent Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Willamette Valley
Don't know WTF happened, but I had intended to chill a 2005 Bolly and somehow this was what I put in the outside refrigerator instead, so it's what we opened. And though this definitely showed more than the first bottle we opened two-three months ago, I really hate the finish which drinks like a heavy-handed cava--residual sugar and bitter almond. Refreshing it's not.
Guests then sat down to this pairing with large gulf shrimp fried in a parmesan cheese crust followed by a green salad with pecans and blue cheese:
2020 Domaine Clos des Rocs Pouilly-Loché Clos des Rocs Chardonnay
More about minerality than fruit. Paired with a GC Chablis, it was the lesser of the two wines and atypically lean for chardonnay from anywhere, but easily the better match for some parmesan-and-garlic crusted fried shrimp.
2021 Lamblin & Fils Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir Chardonnay
Light straw gold, it offers apple, pear and mild ashy notes with a supple ripeness in the finish. Not as firm as I like my Chablis to be but a good companion for the sweet pecans and salty blue cheese in the salad.
With braised veal shoulder, herb spaetzle, seared maitake mushrooms and a champagne-cream gravy:
2002 Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend
Decanted four hours in advance. Pretty floral Lafite nose with red berry fruits--could smell it from a foot away. On the palate, delicate red fruits and more acidity than tannins. Obviously not a great vintage for this wine, but unlike the bottle we opened a year ago (thank god) there was something classic Lafite about it. My favorite of the trio, but I will admit to bias. That nose!
2003 Château du Tertre Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend
A great bottle; decanted four hours in advance. Not as Californicated as I expected from this vintage but nonetheless bright and appealing--by far the most popular with my guests (not unexpected).
2000 Château Bel-Air Pomerol Red Bordeaux Blend
Decanted four hours in advance, during which time this moderately hefty wine never quite recovered from a slightly bitter green note in the finish in an otherwise suitable-for-the-vintage wine. Drinkable but disappointing. C-, as Dale would say.