Last night, Jean and I celebrated our 16th Anniversary with a dinner out (thanks to mom for the babysitting!) at the restaurant Jardiniere in SF. With our very tasty dinner, we started with glasses of:
1995 Laurent-Perrier Brut
n: bright green apples and lemon, very little toastiness p: crisp and refreshing, loads of applish fruit and a delicate mousse
A really splendid glass of Champagne, it went very well with my salad of radish, fava beans and fennel on greens with a green peppercorn vinaigrette but less well with Jean's diver scallops in truffle butter
With main courses we had a half bottle of:
2000 Jamet Cote-Rotie
n: minerals, cedar, smoke, quince and berries p: medium body, soft tannins, deep fruit, a hint of bacon fat, good acidity
We had this half-bottle decanted a half-hour before consuming it and it opened up nicely by the time our main courses arrived. It was splendid with my duck breast, but a bit overwhelmed by Jean's red-wine braised short ribs. Both of us remarked on the resemblance (in the nose, mostly) to a Burgundy, despite its very distinct Syrah character. Although it clearly has years yet ahead of it, this wine was thoroughly enjoyable now.
Both wines were tremendous, and even though a reader might think that Jean got the short end of the stick pairing-wise, she didn't seem to mind at all (and, as is our custom, we shared every dish). All in all, great wines, very good food and a lovely evening out to celebrate our marriage.
Mark Lipton