恭禧發財 Happy New Year!

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Ancient Chinese wisdom says a snake is a good omen because it means that one's family will not starve. Not wishing to starve a group of us welcomed the Year of the Snake with a banquet of propitious dishes accompanied by an equally charmed range of wines. By the time I finished the final tenth course and drank enough wine to make the poet Li Bai (Li Po) proud, I staggered fulfilled out of the restaurant, walking beneath an almost moonless sky.

A trio of Champagnes accompanied our starters. The magnum of Pierre Moncuit Blanc de Blancs NV was sharp and crisp, quite light, perfect to get the palate going for this feast. The next two Champs were more suitable with food. The 1996 Duval-Leroy, a Champagne house in the Cote des Blancs, had a beautiful crystalline purity with rich, nutty flavors; an elegant, classy wine. In contrast, the 1996 Lenoble Blanc de Blancs offered the broadest flavors. It struck me how fresh and youthful it still is.

Amusing Myself

Facing my wine, I did not see the dusk,

Falling blossoms have filled the folds of my clothes.

Drunk, I rise and approach the moon in the stream,

Birds are far off, people too are few

-Li Bai

 

The large surf clam, which occupied the entire plate, was probably my favorite dish of the night. It was a treat, steamed and flavored with ginger and scallion sauce. I enjoyed it even more with our bevy of Champagnes.

No respectable Chinese banquet should be without China's most famous dish: Peking Duck. Fat is good. As can be expected, this was delicious with the two red Burgundies.

Acquired by Maison Jadot in 1996, the venerable Chateau des Jacques is one of the great Beaujolais estates, with cellars dating back to the 16th century. Jadot revamped the cellars and, today, vinify the wines as they do in Beaune with their Cote d'Or wines. Long maceration in tanks at high temperature, punching down the caps, and pumping over as if it's a grand cru. The 2005 Chateau des Jacques Moulin-a-Vent had terrific concentration and was surprisingly youthful.

Domaine Francois Lamarche is an old Burgundy estate with some of the most glittering parcels in the heart of Vosne-Romanee. The 2003 Clos de Vougeot as one might suspect in this heatwave vintage was so dark and ripe, its flavors laced with violets and blueberries, hinting more of Syrah. There is good structure to keep aging it. I'm intrigued by how this Burgundy would evolve in 15 years.

Drinking in the Mountains

Mountain flowers open in our faces.

You and I are triply lost in wine.

I'm drunk, my friend, sleepy. Rise and go.

With your dawn lute, return, if you wish, and stay.

-Li Bai

Soup is one of the hallmarks of Cantonese cuisine. Delicacy, texture, and subtlety of flavors are prized, like in this crab and shark's fin soup.

Wrapped foods are so natural--using your hands instead of utensils--I'm sure they're one of the earliest forms of dishes. Minced squab in a lettuce cup: classic, simple Chinese; very delicious and always fun to eat.

Riesling and Gewurztraminer are always the two kinds of wine that people bring when going out for Chinese. To be honest, though I think they do go well with many Chinese dishes, I had refrained bringing them because the pairing got overdone. There are a lot of other wines out there that are beautiful to drink with Chinese food. But these days I return to these favorites. I see so many Chinese drinking almost exclusively big red wines, even with steamed fish!

A Vindication

If heaven loved not the wine,

A Wine Star would not be in heaven;

If earth loved not the wine,

The Wine Spring would not be on the earth.

Since heaven and earth love the wine,

Need a tippling mortal be ashamed?

The transparent wine, I hear,

Has the soothing virtue of a sage,

While the turgid is rich, they say,

As the fertile mind of the wise.

Both the sage and the wise were drinkers,

Why seek for peers among gods and goblins?

Three cups open the grand door to bliss;

Take a jugful, the universe is yours.

Such is the rapture of the wine,

That the sober shall never inherit.

- Li Bai

Braised abalone with black mushroom and bok choy, a holy trinity, sometimes sea cucumber is added to the medley. A dish rich in flavor and texture. It calls for the Alsatian. The rich, unctuous 2004 Domaine Ehrhart Hengst Gewurztraminer was utterly perfect with this dish.

What I also appreciated about our Chinese banquet was that the dishes were sliced and filleted ready to eat with utensils, then individually plated. I very much like this refinement, this bow to fine dining, which one rarely experiences when eating Chinese, or even at many restaurants these days. I call it the tyranny of the family style. Who wants to get just the remaining half-wing or the odd fish tail, or ruin the harmony and integrity of the dish?

The fillets of steamed black cod, sandwiched between slices of black mushroom was the most ethereal dish of the evening. It also arrived towards the end, after the seventh or eight course, when I felt like I can't possibly have any more room for another dish. And then this delicate thing comes along. And to help wash it down, the refreshing, equally ethereal 2009 Selbach-Oster Riesling Spatlese Graacher Domprobst.

 To finish the dinner, with the cold mango pudding, we drank a true California classic the fizzy, sweet Moscato Louis Martini Amabile. What a palate freshner! After ten courses I'm ready to start all over again.

Wine

Drinking, I sit,

Lost to Night

Keep falling petals

From the ground:

Get up to follow

The stream's white moon,

No sign of birds,

The humans gone

-Li Bai

Happy and fully sated, our fun little group welcoming the Year of the Snake. Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Remembering Li Po

Po in poetry is without equal;

Soaring, his thought is uncommon:

In pure freshness a Yu Kai-fu;

In surpassing excellence a Pao Ts'an-chun.

North of the Wei are spring trees;

East of the Kiang evening clouds.

 When with a jar of wine may we

Again closely argue about writing.

-Tu Fu

Wine of the Week: 2010 White Burgundy of Benjamin Leroux

Benjamin Leroux, the brilliant, young régisseur and winemaker at Comte Armand Domaine du Clos des Epeneaux in Pommard, is quietly making small batches of wines under his own name. The fruit is purchased from small parcels owned by growers whom he closely works with. He's converting their vineyards to organic viticulture, but meanwhile everything is farmed sustainably, or lutte raisonnée.

For someone who made his name making Pommard, I’m blown away by how brilliant Benjamin Leroux is in crafting white Burgundies. Since starting to make his own wines under his label with the 2007, his flagship wine has been the Auxey-Duresses Blanc!

Anyone who wants to check out how good Benjamin Leroux is should simply taste his Auxey-Duresses Blanc. This is a marvelous wine with a richness that hints of its Meursault proximity, but with a sharpness and finesse that recall more a Puligny, especially in the 2010 vintage. The wine comes from a vineyard that borders Meursault, lying on a slope at an elevation of 350 meters facing east/southeast. The sunny morning exposure and stony soils of white marl over a limestone base is an excellent terroir for the Chardonnay vines to produce wines with finesse. This expression is clear in the 2010 Auxey-Duresses, a wine with fragrance and depth and tingling tension on the fruit.

Leroux makes just a few barrels of this wine, yet it's very modestly priced for the quality. Always terrific buy, but particularly so in this great 2010 vintage!


Auxey-Duresses Blanc, Benjamin Leroux 2010 $39.00 (Click to buy!)
From a parcel consisting of three vineyard sites (lieux-dits) on the border with Meursault. Lying on a slope with a sunny exposure and stony soils of white marl over a limestone base, the terroir is excellent. This discernment is, of course, something to be expected from Benjamin Leroux, one of Burgundy's brilliant winemakers. Citrus, mineral notes with a hint of oak. Clean, precise flavors with a lovely tension and a piercing finish. Made by Benjamin Leroux, the brilliant winemaker at Domaine des Epeneaux in Pommard. This outstanding wine combines some of the richness of Meursault with the tension and raciness of Puligny. is terrific buy at such a modest price!

“An attractive baked apple opulence engulfs the nose of this wine, though this favourite cuvée of Benjamin’s is much tighter on the palate before a lovely finish.” Jasper Morris MW

2009 Sauternes Successor to the Great 2001 Vintage

If you love great Sauternes then you must scoop up 2009 Sauternes. The virtues of this magnificent vintage have been clearly outed at the recent Southwold tasting

The Southwold Tasting holds a tasting each January of the Bordeaux vintage bottled 18 months before. For this year held just two weeks ago, it was the 2009 vintage's turn.  I believe it is the most definitive tasting of young Bordeaux, far more reliable than wine critics' scores, and here's why. One, the participants consist of some of the sharpest tasters, professionals from the leading British wine merchants that are the top traders of Bordeaux, plus they are joined by three of the most influential British wine writers (Jancis Robinson MW, Neal Martin of the Wine Advocate, and Steven Spurrier of Decanter). Two, all the wines are tasted blind during the three days of tasting.

The hugely popular 2009 Bordeaux vintage is lauded for the reds, with Pauillac and Pomerol standing out at the tasting. However, the biggest surprise of the tasting weren't the reds but the sweet wines of Sauternes! Bill Blatch, the tasting's organizer, described the Sauternes tasting on the last day of the event:
"Stars of the show for the reds were on the Pauillac and the Pomerols, and the Sauternes ruled the whole roost, they were dramatic, there was silence in the room, people were genuinely moved to be tasting such great wines. Probably the successor to the great 2001s. 2009s have everything: they have the power, they have fatness, they have the richness, they have the sweetness. Potentially enormous longevity."

Prices of 2009 Sauternes will doubtless climb, especially after this eye-opening tasting. Here are two of the best buys in 2009 Sauternes that we offer. I don't think you'll find better buys.

Sauternes, Chateau Filhot 2009 $38.00


Sauternes, Domaine L'Alliance 2009 $39.00 500ml

Glera From Bisson

Glera is the grape variety for Prosecco. Bisson makes two kinds of Prosecco, one labeled Prosecco with the common cork closure, and this one simply labeled Glera but in a crown cap. Strange, but if you want to be sure you're popping great Prosecco get this Glera in the crown cap.

Vino Frizzante Trevigiana IGT Glera, Bisson 2011 $19.00

Best Cabernet Franc from Napa

While in Manila recently, I felt underdressed in shorts and t-shirt as I walked in the most plush wine store I've ever set foot in. It was straight out of the Tatler magazine or FT's How To Spend It. More like a Cartier store than a wine shop, its ultra-modern glass shelves housed mostly first-growth Bordeaux in various large formats with vintages dating back to early 1960s. The rest of the stock not Bordeaux were mainly Krug d'Ambonnay and Burgundies from Coche-Cury, Ponsot, Leflaive, and, yes, DRC. As I was buzzed in by the security guard I was greeted by a smiling trio of young female staff in dark suit uniform.

I thought, times have really changed in Asia, I don't think I could afford anything here. But my gaze stopped at a wall covered by several gleaming enomatic machines. I came closer to see what was being poured. Okay, so here's the affordable stuff, mostly second labels and petits chateaux. But wait, what's that at the far end? A Napa? A Cabernet Franc?! I didn't recognize the label. "World's End." "Against the Wind." The Bob Seeger hit!

I reached for a Riedel glass, punched a button, and let the enomatic dripped me a small pour. Wow! Glorious stuff! Perfumed, a touch floral, gorgeous dark concentration, biting tannins, and a spectacular long finish. I call myself a wine merchant based in the San Francisco Bay Area, an hour from Napa, but I've never even heard, let alone tasted, World's End before?! Okay, I'm impressed. I had to travel halfway around the world to discover this wonderful wine from my own 'hood.

When I got back to the States I fired an email to the World's End contact. The next day a response was waiting in my inbox from the sales director whose name was Jean-Pierre (JP), and he was contacting me not from Napa but from St.-Emilion in Bordeaux.

World's End is the latest wine project of the celebrated British wine tycoon Jonathan Malthus. In 1994 after making a pile in the energy industry and taking up winemaking Malthus and his wife moved to St.-Emilion and started purchasing several vineyard properties. One of these estates he established into Le Dome, one of the pioneering cult vin de garage or garagiste wines. Soon this was followed by others, all producing less than 400 cases a year (Le Dome has now ballooned to a 1,000 case production): Vieux Chateau Mazerat, Les Asteries, and Le Carre--all in St.-Emilion. These are some of the most sought-after, hardest to find, super-expensive Bordeaux these days. In the 2009 vintage Parker scored Le Carre 97 points, Les Asteries 98 points, Vieux Chateau Mazerat 97+ points, and Le Dome a whopping 99 points. All these Bordeaux are produced by Jonathan Malthus and his team.

Le Dome is the obvious inspiration for the World's End Napa Cabernet Franc Against the Wind. The cepage is very similar. Le Dome is 80% Cabernet Franc, apparently the wine with the highest percentage of Cabernet Franc in St.-Emilion and, perhaps in all of Bordeaux. On the other hand, the 2009 World's End Napa Cabernet Franc, the debut vintage, also consists of 80% Cabernet Franc and the remaining 20% Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit comes from vineyards in Sugarloaf Mountain in southeastern Napa and in Coombsville. Neil Whyte, the Scottish head winemaker at Le Dome and all of Jonathan Malthus' estates, flew with Malthus into Napa to take charge of making the World's End wines. He and Malthus made sure the Napa wines are made in the same quality standards as their prized St.-Emilion wines.

Being wowed by the 2009 World's End Napa Cabernet Franc "Against the Wind", I must say Malthus has the golden touch. He has produced a seriously fine wine that parallels his success in Bordeaux. And he's done it on the first release! But here's the clincher, whereas his 2009 Le Dome St.-Emilion sells for several hundreds dollars a bottle if you can even find one, his 2009 Napa Cabernet Franc we are introducing at just $39! Do not miss this opportunity to purchase this extraordinary debut vintage and start building a vertical collection.

Napa Cabernet Franc "Reserve--Against the Wind", World's End 2009 $39.00 (Click to buy!)

Tasting with Valdicava's Vincenzo Abbruzzese

Vincenzo Abbruzzese of Valdicava in Montalcino contemplates his estate's magnificent crop of recent releases. He stopped by the store Saturday to present his wines.

Valdicava's flagship 2007 Madonna del Piano Brunello Riserva is a thing of power and beauty. The bouquet is sweet and the flavors convey the awesome depth of this exceptional Brunello. It will arrive at the store by March 2013.

The Smoking Jacket

As an attorney I know Kevin is keen on smoking guns, but last night at his and Marguerite's New Year's Eve extravaganza he was more dangerous in a smoking jacket. Some extraordinary wines flowed, mainly out of Kevin's infamous old bitch cellar,  and I'm glad I was there for the preliminaries.

I helped pop a cold magnum of Perrier-Jouet Blason de France NV. I'm guessing theses Champs, especially in mags, are no longer easy to find. Perrier-Jouet came up with the Blason cuvee in the 1980s and must have stopped producing them after the 1990s or so. A distinctive cuvee, about equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier. According to Kevin, this was a release from 10 to 15 years ago. It exhaled almost imperceptibly as I removed the cork, which worried me a bit, but the mag turned out to be fresher and crispier than I imagined. Its bubbles were a bit coarse, but the flavors were delicious and thirst-quenching. A very good Champagne.

Next Champ was a Krug Grand Cuvee that Kevin said was purchased back in 1998. There's Champagne and, of course, there's Krug, as the saying goes. I find Krug GC drinks best when given sufficient age as it really fills in. A newly released GC often tastes a bit hollow. But not this one, as its flavors were broad and powerful and delivered with that Krug elegance.

Part of the run-up to the party involved discussions of pulling out older vintages of Creme de Tete Sauternes from the obscure and venerable 18th century estate of Chateau Gilette. These Sauternes are aged at least 20 years in cement vats before they're bottled and deemed for release. We recently received the 1983 and 1989 Creme de Tete vintages at the store and did a tasting--both were marvelous, opulent and graceful. Not to be one-upped Kevin unleashed his bottle of 1953 Creme de Tete which was absolutely pristine. Having now tasted my third bottle of Creme de Tete within a week the unique--some might say idiosyncratic--style of this Sauternes is clear. Soft and pillowy textured, but not creamy. The flavors are as delicate and juicy as an Auslese's, with honeyed papaya fruit and apricot notes. Living in a hermetic cement vat for 20 years, instead of a porous wood barrel, the Sauternes showed no vanilla or heavy caramel flavors. Above all, for a wine pushing 60, it is astonishingly youthful and fresh. Its flavor purity, highlighted by botrytis is truly unusual. Brilliant and alarmingly easy to drink amidst the richness.

In contrast, the phenomenal 1975 Chateau d'Yquem has a mindblowing powerful concentration that I had to adjust down my intake to small sips from full gulps as it fills the mouth with massive flavors. A profound Yquem that, aside from being insanely rich, is vivid and radiant as a star.

And so off to the two pairs of reds for the night. The first was a mano-a-mano between 1975 Pauillac first growths--the Lafite-Rothschild and Latour. Matching them up clearly reveals their difference. The 1975 Lafite-Rothschild had a pronounced camphor-metallic smell that could be off-putting. But the palate showed just a touch of drying out, it's beauty unfaded and still fresh. Austere, intense, and elegant that altogether convey the aristocratic Lafite finesse.

In contrast, the 1975 Latour is muscular, full, and powerful--very Latour indeed. What makes me like this even more are its long, rich tannins that give texture to the fruit. It is drinking prime and Latour fans would love this.

The next pair of reds go back a few years to 1971. The 1971 Lafite-Rothschild is purer, fuller, and at peak condition, unlike the 1975. A complete Lafite in all its glorious power and finesse. My favorite Bordeaux of all.

The 1971 Trotanoy Pomerol might seem like the oddball in the trio of Pauillacs, but it fits in the group seamlessly, offering a progression towards increasing power, richness, and fleshiness. This is an amazing Trotanoy, I think the best that I've ever had.

On my exit after these preliminaries, Kevin saw me out at the gate. I took one last look at the smoking jacket and thought, what a tremendous evening. A triumph.


P.S. Many thanks to Kevin and Marguerite for hosting this memorable New Year's Eve get together.