2 Dinner Wines from Doc: 2007 Joh.Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese & 2002 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui.

Over a recent dinner with the spouses Doc and Catha at Sala Bistro; both bottles from Doc:

2007 Joh.Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - Typically bright, crisp, exuberant, zippy, carefree and playful peach, pear apple, bit of wild honey, white flowers and a good dose of light minerals/slate. Light, pure, very well focused. Materially more depth and marginally more in heft and body than the 2007 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese.

2002 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui - Doc served this blind to me and called it a "pinot noir" - implying it was new world*. The aromas had a general smokiness and topnotes of mint/eucalyptus over dark, very ripe black cherry, raspberry, touches of kirsch/soy/dark spice, macerated black fruit, old book leather, moderate vanilla, slight clove, cinnamon and dark minerality. Moderate chocolate notes and very slight hints of cola emerged after some time in the glass.

Before Doc showed me what it was, I noted to him that it was not old - maybe 7-8 years from vintage (he confirmed this as correct) and that, while it seemed quite ripe and modern-styled, it was (to me) not heavy, extracted or dense enough to be from California (more balanced as well) and, at the same time, I was not prepared to say it was from Oregon. Before I could go any further, Doc revealed the bottle.

*Anne's wines are generally in a quite rich and full, ripe style that garners her high scores from Parker and others. Maybe this is why Doc tried to see if I could tell if it was a Burgundy and not from the US.

NB: When I asked Anne before what age would she suggest drinking her wines, she said she likes her wines fresh in fruit so would personally oen her grand crus by 7-9 years from vintage.

Pre School Year Lunch @ Caruso.

For the last day before school starts for my kids (well, at least for one of them), 14th June 2010, we had lunch at old favorite Caffé Caruso.

My youngest always likes to watch them make pizza.

I didn't bring my own bottle as I intended to order another of the 2008 Luca Abrate Roero Arneis Vigna Tabaria on the wine list Catha and I enjoyed there the last time. Unfortunately, they no longer had any.

I had my usual apéritif of Campari Soda to start and ordered the usual appetizers.

Pizza Napoletana

Antipasti Caldi

Opting for just some wine by the glass, Catha chose a bright, fruity pinot grigio and I a drier trebbiano. Both were ok, not bad at all with the appetizers. We also split the usual Insalata di Rucola (Arugula Salad) which I forgot to photograph.

I and my 2 older sons had pasta dishes next, while Catha and the youngest went straight to the mains.

My Spaghetti allo Scoglio

The eldest's Spaghetti al Nero di Sepia

I didn't get the name of the second one's pasta but it had a cream sauce with mushrooms. For main courses, we just shared 2 veal dishes (one with a lemon sauce and the other just pan-fried like Wienerschnitzel) and a dish of saffron risotto.

Desserts were...

2 orders of Panna Cotta,

Chocolate Mousse, and,

Mascarpone Gelato.

Caffé Caruso is a very popular Italian restaurant, we most always manage to bump into friends there. That day was no different as Robert Burroughes and James du Vivier happened to be lunching there as well.

Good lunch that we all enjoyed a lot. The kids love eating here, as do Catha and I. It was a nice way to usher in the kids' schoolyear.

Saturday Night Tapas & Dinner @ Rene & Aimee's.

Last night, 12th June 2010, was tapas and dinner at Rene & Aimee's place. Catha and the kids attended dinner at my dad's place, so we were just 7 in all: Rene & Aimee, Miguel & Ria, Aaron & Jo and myself. Miguel provided the tapas (brought home from Spain from his last trip), Rene & Aimee hosted the dinner, and we all contributed the wines. Needless to state, considering the food to be served, the venue and the persons involved, all the wines were from Spain.

Rene & Aaron discussing and preparing the wines.

I arrived a little past 7pm, was welcomed by the hosts, greeted Aaron and Jo, and was quickly handed a glass of...

2005 Gramona III Lustros Brut Nature Gran Reserva Cava - Miguel's bottle, also brought home from his last trip, vintage cava aged 5 years before release. Seems quite young and a bit tight yet, its dry, bright citrus and slightly toasty, mildly yeasty, nut bread notes dominating pretty much everything else except the underlying slight caramel, coffee and oxidative nuances. Reminds me a bit of the style of the Jacquesson No. 732, actually, as regards its sharply focused, clean, almost steely in character. Should flesh out and put on weight in around 3-5 years more. Very bracing, appetite-enhancing acidity. Strikes me as a cava for more serious bubbly aficionados. I wonder what J-Lab would think of this.

Miguel busy in the kitchen.

The various embutidos being sliced.

The Spread, I'll leave most all of the names of the various tapas to Miguel.

One of my favorites, though, was his Botifarra con Morcilla de Cebollas.

Rene, Ria, Jo and Aaron.

2005 Freixenet Meritum Gran Reserva Cava - Aaron's bottle of course. Open, heftier, more easily approachable, less dry, with ripe, rounded, creamy white fruit, brioche and white flowers. Not razor-focused or complex as the previous cava, this has more of a friendlier and wider-spread appeal to it. Very easy to drink a lot of the entire night. Unfortunately, I was driving myself and we had many bottles to go, so had barely a full glass of this.

Miguel, Aaron, Aimee & Rene.

Habitas Salteadas con Jamón - The little green beans ("habitas", per Miguel) were absolutely delicious and I couldn't stop eating them. They are very tender with a vague, young corn-like note to them. Excellent stuff. This was also one of my favorites amongst the many tapas.

1987 Bodegas R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva - My bottle, decanted and kept chilled in Rene's large, moderately iced wine bucket. As it warmed a bit, it released vaguely honeyed notes of honeysuckle, baked pear, orange rind, slight ripe lemon, hints of white minerals, clove and vanilla. Nicely reserved, self possessed, elegant, barely medium-bodied blanco. Gets more complex as it sits in the glass. Acidity is decent enough. Happy with this bottle - my last one of 3 I picked up at the Barcelona airport on the way home last April.

Some had the above-mentioned blanco with this refreshing, summery dish of Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon, Olive Oil and Caviar Dressing. I had seconds and would have had thirds except for being a bit full already from the tapas and knowing the meat course was coming.

I didn't have anymore of the blanco by the time this was served, but recall Rene (or was it Aaron or Miguel?) saying it was a nice match for the pasta. What I did have with the pasta was Aaron's 2008 Vionta Albariño - a nice, bright, clean and fresh albariño with ripe flavors of green apple, pear, white peach, bit of ripe citrus and an underlying hint of fennel. I thought this went hand-in-glove with the freshly citrusy-salty pasta.

The main course was an over-night, slow-cooked-in low-heat dish of Stewed Beef Short Ribs. Absolutely rich and delicious with good depth and great texture. Melts in the mouth, but kept its structural integrity enough not to be mushy. Excellent stuff. I had 3 helpings. With this, we the immediately-below depicted reds.

2004 Rene Barbier Clos Mogador Priorat - Aaron's bottle, which I had as my main pairing with the main course. This was decanted for 2½ hours, more or less, before serving. Very ripe, soft, curvy, concentrated and extracted full-bodied, mouth-filling, chewy, dense, jammy dark cherry, raspberry, cranberry, raisins, loam, with a feral nature due to pronounced sanguine, meaty, gamey notes. Acid on the low side; its underlying oak, dark chocolate and related spices surprisingly well integrated enough at this early point.

This surprised me with how well it drank at this very young stage. With the main course, it was, to me, an excellent match: the wine's richness and body made it stand up to and run with the indulgently beefy, mildly-spiced dish. A rich-on-rich, running-with-the-ball pairing, the wine's fruit adding a nice counterpoint to all the rich, beefy goodness. Loved them both together.

1978 Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial - Rene's bottle. Drinking very youthfully for a 32-year-old wine, the fruit was remarkably fresh and bright. Cherry, raspberry, bit of blackcurrant underneath, slight balsamico, moderate leather, licorice, violets and cedar. Mild toasty oak, vanilla and toffee/cinnamon notes are discreet and emerge mid-palate and through to the finish. Firm, sturdy structure, healthy acidity, a few notches below full-bodied, remarkable focus and freshness. Very youthful for a wine this age.

1995 Bodegas La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 - My bottle. No decanting, just popped, poured and aired in the glass. Incredible nose of sweetish balsamico, cedar, rose petal, cherry, raspberry, licorice, vanilla bean and violets. In the mouth, it mirrors its aromas in a slightly over medium body; pure, clean, precisely structured, elegantly focused and balanced with underlying notes of clean leather and a whisper of ceps. Has a notable slightly feminine Bordeaux slant to it. Excellent wine. Absolutely enthralling wine. Incredible elegance, complexity and balance. My red of the night, if I do say so myself.

1991 Bodegas Beronia Gran Reserva - Miguel's bottle. Another Bordeaux-esque tinto Riojano, this was medium-bodied, rigidly structured, showing clean, moderately cedar, cep and violet-laced cherry, raspberry and strawberry, edgy acidity, liquorice and a bit of worn leather. Decidedly masculine. Very correct and proper Rioja (I had this when we moved outdoors, relishing the night over more stories and a few cigarettes).

Dessert was a home-made Strawberry Ice Cream Cake with Oreo Cookie Crust. It's rich visage and name are belied by its refreshingly cool lightness. Definitely nice for summer, and I am a sucker for cool berry and chocolate desserts.

Yet another memorable evening with excellent food, wines and company. ¡Salud!

The Grand Crew's Blind Bordeaux Challenge XVI: Doc 2peats with a Sonoma.

Last night, the 9th June 2010, was our little group's Blind Bordeaux Challenge XVI. For those not familiar, this is a friendly competition among the Vigneron, Stockbroker, Doc and I, held 3-4 times a year (as schedules permit), wherein each of us brings a bottle of red to be served blind and voted on as the best. No restrictions on vintage, price or origin; the idea being that any wine can be brought to challenge this group's Bordeaux-centric palates.

These blind challenges are held over dinners with our wives, the one bringing the winning wine and his spouse get to be treated to the dinner by the non-winners (i.e., the LOSERS), and reigns as "King" over the others until dethroned by subsequent vinous battle. The only non-Bdx wine to have won so far was the Stockbroker's 1994 Dominus in Blind Bdx Challenge XIII.

The usual pre-competition group shot - everyone is still friends.

The traditional venue is the Old Manila restaurant of the Manila Peninsula Hotel (where all but 3 or 4 of the 16 challenges have been held). Doc won the last Challenge with a 1982 Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, and the rest of us were hot after his crown.

The Stockbroker, Mrs. Doc and the Vigneron.

My wife, unfortunately, wasn't feeling too well after the OMGD 3rd Kaiseki Dinner the night before, so we were only 7 in all for the subject Challenge. By the time I arrived, everyone else was there making headway into the Doc's...

1996 Champagne Henriot - We went through a couple of these from Doc at his place on the 20th May 2010. My notes, still applicable, were as follows:

1996 Champagne Henriot Brut Millésimé - Excellent, full, hefty, robust, yet lively, vibrant and light-footed fruit vintage Champagne from an excellent year. Founded in 1808, Champagne Henriot, to this day, is family-owned and run. Notable ripeness, complexity, indulgent layering and lovely, bracing acidity make for an impeccably balanced and impressive champagne. This bubbly calls to mind wild honey (in the nose), lightly spiced, fat pears, apple, moderately dried apricot and citrus, fresh brioche and hints of underlying milkiness and white chocolate (the latter two from the pinot noir most likely). Excellent verve in this. Love the weight and roundness. Undoubtedly one of the best champagnes I've had the past year together with Bernie's 1988 Dom Pérignon.

NB: Subsequent pours from the decanter showed more pronounced citrus/lemon and fine, white mineral notes. The bubbly seemed to have sharpened its focus as well and become more streamlined.

Doc and Mrs. Stockbroker.

Rabbit Amuse Bouche

Before I even made a material dent in my glass of welcome bubbly, the Doc poured me another of...

2007 Domaine Gilbert Picq & ses Fils Chablis Vaucoupin - Doc's bottle. I've come across the name of this producer a few times, but know nothing about them or their wines - much less have I had any (to the best of my recollection). Doc mentioned as he poured that "this should be your style of Chablis". Indeed, it was. Dry, clean and neat, tense, nervy, subtly minerally, the ripe, steely, flinty, cold limestone-touched, bright, fresh, ripe fruit comes off with remarkable purity and definition, unsullied by much oak (new or otherwise). Acidity is mouth-watering. Lovely Chablis. Definitely my type, and it lent needed cut and lift to my bowl of Lobster Bisque.

At the tail-end of my soup, the Stockbroker poured me some of Premium Wine Exchange's recently available signature Napa chardonnay:

2006 Kistler Kistler Vineyard Chardonnay - The Stockbroker's bottle. What a huge contrast in styles of the same grape. Mouth-filling, big, hefty, notes of creamy vanilla/oak, honeysuckle, some orange blossom, butterscotch and moderate minerality permeate the buttery baked/ripe apple, pear, hint of citrus, with mild underlying orange rind. Heady stuff. The Stockbroker commented that this would be my wife's kind of chardonnay, and he's right.

The table laden with the competing reds, already poured, awaited as we finished our starters.

Mrs. Vigneron jokingly raised the issue of the wives getting smaller pours than the husbands. Doc assured her that everything looked "equitous" to him.

The reds were finally served. The Stockbroker and I lost no time in analyzing before the main courses were served so as to avoid the aromas of the latter from interfering with the wines' respective bouquets. I was well into my second pass at the reds before my 400gm Grilled Rib-Eye Steak arrived.

Leaning away from the table and food aromas, most all of us finished our notes, filled in our ballots and submitted them to Mrs. Vigneron for tallying (4 points for 1st place, 3 points for 2nd place, 2 points for 3rd place and 1 point for 4th place).

My own hastily scribbled notes on and rankings of the competing wines (made throughout 5 passes):

Wine # 1: Toast, fullish body, smooth, soft cherry, raspberry, smooth, long finish. I ranked this 3rd place. It turned out to be a 2001 Château Figeac (the Vigneron's wine).

Wine # 2: Initial scents of rust, plum, smoky cedar, lightest in body amongst the 4 reds, light on its feet. Aggressively herbaceous notes and bell pepper emerge later. Medium finish. I ranked this 4th place. It was later revealed to be a 1992 Dominus (the Stockbroker's wine).

Wine # 3: Dark chocolate, crème de cassis, violets, black cherry. Notes of wet tea leaves develop later, emerging past mid-mouth and into the finish. Full-bodied, lush and moderately generous. Good harmony and balance. I eventually ranked this 1st place. It turned out to be a 1995 Château Mouton Rothschild (my wine, decanted for aeration for 2½ hours at home then returned to bottle for transport to the evening's venue).

Wine # 4: Minty, smoky cedar, dark plum, cassis. Good acidity. Full-bodied. Fresh blackcurrant, vanilla/oak. Licorice notes, subdued at first, came on just a tiny bit too strong as the wine was "worked" in the mouth - making me rank this 2nd place. It was a 1994 Peter Michael Les Pavots (Doc's wine).

Post-analysis time.

Mrs. Vigneron tallies the votes as always.

The Results:

1st Place - Doc's 1994 Peter Michael Les Pavots with 22 points (3 votes for 1st place, 3 votes for 2nd place 0 votes for 3rd place and 1 vote for 4th place).

2nd Place - My 1995 Château Mouton Rothschild with 21 points (2 votes for 1st place, 3 votes for 2nd place, 2 votes for 3rd place and 0 votes for 4th place).

3rd Place - the Vigneron's 2001 Château Figeac with 14 points (1 vote for 1st place, 1 vote for 2nd place, 2 votes for 3rd place and 3 votes for 4th place).

4th Place - the Stockbroker's 1992 Dominus with 13 points (1 vote for 1st place, 0 votes for 2nd place, 3 votes for 3rd place and 3 votes for 4th place).

NB: both the Stockbroker and Vigneron identified the Figeac as St-Emilion; the Stockbroker identified his wine and ranked it 3rd place; both the Vigneron and I mistook the '92 Dominus for an aged St-Estèphe; the Stockbroker noted that the '95 Mouton Rothschild could possibly be a Napa and the Vigneron guessed it to be a '90 left bank.

The Competing Reds

The Post-Competition Shot

Well, it was another victory for California that night (this time from Sonoma), the second time in all 16 Blind Bordeaux Challenges. It doesn't sound like much - a 12.5% batting average - but, significantly or not, only 3 bottles of Cali were ever entered and 2 have come out as winners - both times beating a 1st growth*. Not a shabby track record, come to think of it. The Vigneron seemed slightly bemused. For sure, he will have something else up his sleeve next time.

*In Blind Bdx Challenge XIII, the Stockbroker's '94 Dominus tied in points with my '99 Latour, so, per our rules, in such cases, the less expensive wine prevails.