It is my wife's birthday so I planned a 3 course meal.
1997 Maligny Fourchaume, Chablis Premier Cru ****But first for lunch we had flatfish and fish meatballs with a 1997 Chablis
1er cru I bought in 2002. My wife is always very suspicious about whites, b ut she was very happy for it, saying it was like a red wine. Actually more like a redwine that those horrible french reds I've been experimenting with lately (her words).I liked it too. It lacked my favourite chardonnay butteriness but the age a nd oxidation gave it some interesting dimensions and a decent body. A kinda rough texture, mild acidity, almond, marcipan notes.
I reused it for the first dish of the dinner - large shirmp on a bed of bab y spinach, leeks, cucumbers and a sauce of mango and aged balsamico reducti on. I felt that this was one dish where a floral sauvignon blanc with 6 mon ths oak would have been better.
2001 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 4 *****As it's my wife's birthday so I wanted to open something special. BV wines are not available in Denmark, and I only had this and then the 2009. The bo ttle is beautiful. I first opened it to check if it needed decanting. The c ork smelled like 80% dark chocolate and cedar. My wife concurred.
I gave my wife the glass to sip and she exclaimed "wow what IS this?? this is amazing, why are we not drinking this every day!" Well, I have 120 reaso ns why not, and those are not in Danish Kroner, plus one for the fact its n ot available to buy here.
When I've had the horizontals with different clones of cabernet, Clone 4 al ways won. It has that darkness I love, the dust and earth I love in a good cab, and that perfect tannin texture that make me so happy on the finish, t hat not even the La Tour Carnet has.
This 2001 bottle still had a firm tannin grip , so I decided to decant it, and it helped a lot to prolong the finish and bring out some blackberry. Be fore that it has slight sherry notes and eucalyptus, but the dark fruits ca me out in the decanter. It also had a very thick chocolate body that makes the trend of cab and choc tastings make sense.
It is so sad that this kind of wine doesnt exist in Denmark. I think the cl osest is Beringer Private Reserve. There could be more, that I just dont kn ow about.
We had it with ribeyes and tartlets with sauteed leeks and a cheesy bechame l with mushrooms and a slice of goat cheese chevre on top.
Very amazing.
For dessert I made Sacher torte and had:
Graham's the Tawny ***
Its a 7-8y tawny and served its purpose with dessert. I normally prefer 20y tawny or LBV for sipping, but with the dense chocolate overkill, it was ni ce with heavy notes of marcipan.