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TN: Meeting Joseph Coulter- Bdx, Rhone, Chablis, GV, etc

Wednesday night I made two decisions- never, ever, again to spill a package of mung beans, and to take Loire gamay off my buy list. After spending a loooonnngg time trying to find all the escaped mung beans, we sat down to a delicious simple roast chicken (Thomas Keller's method), a combo of roasted yellow beets, potatoes, and onions, and spinach. Wine was the 2006 Clos Roche Blanche "Cuvee Gamay" Touraine. On the plus side there's nice sweet berry fruit, nice mouthfeel, bright acidity, good length. A bit of mineral note. But the minus for me is there weird "potted plant" aroma (I don't know if it's pansy, geraniums, or actually potting soil) that I've gotten from Loire Gamay before. It's not particularly strong, but I find it a bit offputting. I have had similar experiences with this wine in other vintage. CRB Gamay is supposed to be a winegeek's dream, but I'm just a wannabe winegeek. Pleasant enough, but never exciting for me. I want my Gamay to be Beaujolais (or California pink). B/B-

Thursday Joseph Coulter and his wife Beverly were in NYC for one night. We've both been posting on alt.food.wine for many years, so decided to take opportunity to meet. Arv and Jen Rao joined us at Triomphe, and we had a very nice evening. Fun to realize people are as nice in person as online!

We started with a wine from Triomphe's list, the 2006 Nigl "Kremser Freiheit" Gruner Veltliner. Nigl's base/negociant bottling, but punches considerably above its weight. Good ripeness, but balanced by laser clear acidity.Sweet apple/pear fruit, some white pepper, very GV and very good. B+

Chris Wilford had waived corkage, we brought an assortment of wines. I brought the 2002 Domaine Billaud-Simon "Les Vaillons" Chablis 1er Cru because of an earlier dream matching of a Droin GC Chablis and an appetizer of chicken livers with sherry-braised onions. This wasn't quite as good a match as I remembered , but still find,and also did well with Betsy's scallops with foie gras butter and porcini. The wine was weightier and less bright than on release, but I still found it a clean rich Chablis. This might be a bit of an awkward time to drink, but with the white Burgundy pre-ox issues I'm less likely to try and age them. This did show significantly better at end of night, with more chalky minerals and more expressive frut. B early on,. B+ later.

The reds went around with the main courses (I had the filet, Betsy the signature coriander-crusted chops with foie gras stuffed prunes, both tasty):

1988 Ch. Le Bon Pasteur (Pomerol) (Decanted for an hour in afternoon, then back in bottle for a few hours) Blackcurrant and plum, surprising acidity for Bon Pasteur, still some tannins. There's a little wood still present, but enough fruit to keep it in background. Good, not great, Pomerol. B/B+

1999 Gaillard Cote-Rotie My favorite of night. There is a bit of a vanilla-y oak thing that I wish was toned down a bit, but underneath that there is a gorgeous Northern Rhone syrah character. Fresh blackberry fruit, loads of smoke and bacon- hey. double-smoked bacon! Gets some earth, leather notes with time. Good acidity. Young, but very promising,thanks Arv. A-

1976 Domaine d'Ambinos Coteaux du Layon This looked good in bottle, but darkened a bit in glass. Arv sent my way for an opinion, I thought it showed some oxidative notes, but was mostly sound. That opinion changed 14 times during the time folks had dessert, this wine had more ups and downs than a roller coaster. I'd decide it was completely past it, then a sip would seem to be far livelier, with apple and quince fruit with an edge of honey. Ultimately, this was more of academic interest than fun to drink, but while the wine gets a C+, a couple of sips were damn good. Funky chenin.

Nice to meet Joe and Bev, and to see Arv and Jen. Wine was nice, but secondary..

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

Reply to
DaleW
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Thanks for the great set of notes, Dale. Someday I may get to dine with Joseph, too, but it's more likely to be in his haunts than ours as Indiana ain't quite the transit point that NYC is... go figger! ;-)

I think that I just picked up a bottle of the CRB Gamay, too, so I'll post my notes when we open it. I suspect that our reaction may not be too different, but who knows? And a new producer (to me) from Chablis! Thanks for the heads up.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

First time I've ever seen "simple" and Thomas Keller in the same sentence... :^)

I think it would be interesting if Mr. Coulter could be prevailed upon to offer his reactions as a comparison...

Reply to
Ronin

I dunno: his signature dish (butter-poached lobster) is quite simple: take a fresh lobster and poach it in butter. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

They were in NYC because they were starting a cruise here, I think he'll chime in on his return. IIRC from his email his favorites were the Nigl and the Bon Pasteur, but I'll let him chime in. Hopefully he'll disagree with me, I always hate when people all agree- where's the fun in that?

Reply to
DaleW

Umm, have you ever done the whole recipe- with the beet essence, leeks, and pommes maxim? I think Betsy spent about 4 hours on that, and the kitchen looked like an A-Bomb had hit. Damn tasty though. But you're right, the lobster itself is simple, just parboil, remove flesh, poach.

The chicken actually is simple, from the Bouchon cookbook. Carefully and fully dry, truss, season with lots of salt, bake at 450�F (no basting), add thyme to juices.

Reply to
DaleW

Hear, hear...

Reply to
Ronin

Isn't that like saying "Take a chicken and cook it." is a recipe? :^)

JB

Reply to
Ronin

DaleW wrote in news:05e49d5d-cff3-40e8-825b- snipped-for-privacy@e1g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

OK Back fomr the caribbean.

My favs, aside from meeting some very nice people and having perhaps the best meal of my trip, the Gruner nad the as Dale Said the Bon Pasteur- though the Chablis Les Vaillons, is always a hit and I know my wife liked it the best.I had duck so neither red was really well suited. Dale brought a Burg bt I could not see opening it for just my sake.

On the ship (Queen mary 2 good wine list) we discovered a couple of fairly nice wines includeing a 2004 (5?) Mont Redon CdP that was really quite nice with a little bottle time and a 2000 Chateau Bel Air that was good after an hour but did not save well (two glasses the next night showd a bit of worse for the wear)

I will likely chime in later, but for now it is time to unpack.

thanks to Dale for the Arrangements and as oft reported here to Betsy for her charming presence- Dale is one extremely lucky man.

Reply to
Joseph Coulter

My friends on Friday night were thankful for your restraint, the 1993 Mongeard-Mugneret "Les Narbantons" Savigny-les-Beaune 1er was challenger for WOTN at our Pinot Noir blind tasting

.>

Compared to what most folks report from cruises, sounds like a great list!

I was teasing my friend Oswaldo he had joined the Club of Men Who Are With Women Much Better Than They Deserve, I think both of us are charter members. :)

So nice to meet you, greetings from Bets!

Reply to
DaleW

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