Yes, the gentleman from Skåne is going to be here in a few mins, with Xina of course... I'll be preparing something fishy and serving either Daumas Gassac or Domaine de Bongran, more later... I hear a Volvo motor in the distance, must be him, gotta go.
:-)
cheers
Mike
Nils and Xina in great form on their quarterly visit to our area.
To start, Champagne Raymond Boulard Petraea - did not cool it enough, so in fact it was perfect, very discrete bubbles and a very deep wine, made in a solera system of 5 vintages using barrels of quercus petraea, very nice indeed.
With red mullet fillets quickly tossed around in a pan with olive oil on a bed of arugula and an artichoke heart purée, a "simple" wine (under
8€), the Domaine Gillet 2005 Touraine AOC Platine Sauvignon, very ripe rich sauvignon with not a trace of cat pee, more like honeysuckle (Nils went for elder flowers), lots of character in this real baaaargain wine, the Loire with lots of mediterranean sun.On a risotto of prawns we had Domaine de la Bongran 2001 Macon Villages AOC by my friend Jean Thevenet, as usual rich southern chard with a hint of botrytis in this very special vintage, plenty of honey and resin and an impression of sweetness in this dry wine. Gets better every year, just a pleasure.
With cheese (a Tome de Savoie wrapped and matured in grape pomace, a Langres, a 36 month old Comté AOC and an old Salers) we tried a few wines, mostly leftovers of previous evenings.
With the Langres, the rest of the Bongran went very well.
With the Compté a beautiful match with a 1992 Domaine de Baruel, one of the early discoveries of Parker, a Vin de Pays des Cévennes by Pfefferkorn, a German that learned winemaking with Eloi Durrbach of Domaine de Trevallon (i.e.: how to put Cabernet Sauvignon where previously nobody thought of it), apparently the guy cheated on his taxes and he had to sell the domaine, but this 1992 tasted really great, lots of leather (Xine said: an old Swedish shoe shop).
And a bit of Clos Rougeard 2002 Saumur Champigny AOC Les Poyeux to finish, great Cab Franc from the best grower in the area, not quite a gret match to the remaining cheeses though...
Dessert: the traditional Galette des Rois (frangipane in flaky pastry) was accompanied by:
- an experimental local Rolle (Vermentino) "Vin de Glacière" 2001 (icebox wine) by Dupéré Barrera. Pleasant slight oxydation, not much sugar surprisingly, hints of citrus peel, very good, unique. This is also a bottle that had been open a few days, so we switched to
- another set of dregs, a small glass of Gewurztraminer Alsace GC Fronholz 2000 Vendange Tardive by Domaine Ostertag, absolutely at its prime, André does not always get it right but when he does it is sublime, deep rose flavours with excellent balance, lots of sugar and lots of acidity, perfect gewurz.
Next meeting at Easter. See you soon Nils...
cheers
Mike
Well, report? :)
Mike Tommasi wrote:
...
... to which we are already looking forward. Just my EU 0.02: The Touraine Sauvignon very round, so obviously not NZ - not that I dislike NZ SB's miludd, not at all, only that I like this one too, and it is different, and it is great value. That ice-box wine -them DB's, they sure are enjoying themselves ... too delicate for the galet, while the gewürz was fabulous.
We have just enjoyed a light meal and a bottle of Barbera d'Alba (2001) after this day's 1190 km of driving the German Autobahn. The Barebra possiby peaking now, don't think it will get enay better, but we only have one bottle left so nullus anxietas.
Cheers
Nils Gustaf
Posted day before yesterday... ;-)
Tried the (very small quantity of) leftover Bongran last night, the extra aeration has made it even more interesting, everything multiplied by 2, amazing.
cheers Dale
Mike
DaleW wrote:
Mike, my apologies. I viewed the thread originally from a newsreader and your second post wasn't showing. Nice notes!
Mike Tommasi wrote:
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