Nov 21, 2005. Dom Perignon Dinner



Monday night. We had a nice dinner at Petrus - the restaurant at the top of the Hong Kong Island Shangri-La hotel. The food was decent. The canapes were quite nice. The Jabugo ham was a bit of a disappointment. Anyone having had the real thing (i.e. 36month aged Jambon Iberico Pata Negra ) will feel the Jabugo came up a bit short as far as flavor depth goes. Next was the Lobster in the shell with spaghettini and oscietra caviar. Lobster was decent but I really enjoyed the spaghettini with caviar in tomato confit. The challand duck breast was quite good here - well executed. Good depth of flavor in the duck as well as a nice "fatty" layer right under the caramelized skin. hmm hmm.

Anyway on to the wines.

1998 Dom Perignon : Really forward wine, acidity perceivably lower than the '96. Nutty hazelnut/almond nose. Drink up fast - don't think this is one for the long haul. 92pts.

1990 Dom Perignon Enotheque : Much better. Nutty hazelnut, almond and toasty nose. Still very lively with numerous bubble trails. A champagne in adolescence starting to pick up maturity and 2ndary notes but not losing its youth. Probably needs another 5 years before it hits its maturity plateau. Good depth of flavor and smooth. 94pts.

1995 Dom Perignon Rose: Very different, nice pink hues. Nose throws off surprise surprise ... Pinot Noir aromas. Think the tannins a bit too dominating over the other elements. Not quite the complexity and depth to take this to the next level. I kept going back to the 1990 Enotheque. The '98 was by now almost flat at this point (~2hours). 91+pts.

Of the three the 1990 Enotheque was the winner. The '98 while less complex is drinking well now - hard to say if it will remain pleasurable later in life. Rose was not bad but maybe given my expectations and its price - got rated slightly lower than the rest ( the Rose costs more than even the Enotheque - figure that one out).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adventures in Italy

Image
We only spent one night in Rome and that was the gastronomic low point of the trip. Thinking we couldn't go wrong by picking the most crowded joint in the vicinity.... oops bad luck. We just could not understand why there were so many people. Maybe they served the leftovers to the tourists? The fish was stale and the lamb was pretty sad as well. Sub-standard food, expensive and mediocre service ( restaurant pictured below). One of the best places in terms of food was in the town of Lucca. Over lunch we went to this lovely little place called "Canuleia". The fresh vegetable salad with burrata cheese was lovely. Being quite creamy on the inside, the cheese liquids gets mixed up with the olive oil and vegetables outside resulting in a lovely dressing - I'm sure it was deliberate. Last but not least, a lovely wine from Tenuta Campo di Sasso called Insiglio . You may not have heard of this outfit but this is where Lodovico Antinori went when his beloved Ornelia was sold.
Read more

Dinner with Lodovico Antinori & Tenuta di Biserno

A few years back, I mentioned about a wine that stood out on a trip to Tuscany. That wine was called Isoglio del Cinghiale. After some fact checking, the people behind this winery were none other than Lodovico & Piero Antinori - the previous owner(s) of Tenuta Ornellia. Fast forward almost 2.5 years later and we had a very special treat - dinner with Lodovico in person. Insoglio is basically their everyday drinking product. Up until 2005, it was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot and Cab. Franc. Starting in 2006, Syrah was added to the blend and by 2007 I believe Cabernet Sauvignon was completely eliminated. Going forward from the 2007 the blend of varietals have pretty much "settled" in. Given the price point of this wine which is ~ EUR15, no complaints. More than acceptable as an everyday quaffer. Next up is the Il Pino di Biserno which is a more Bordeaux-like blend and does not contain any Syrah unlike the Insoglio. This is a much more complex wine a
Read more

Leflaive Revisited (Olivier)

Image
Domaine Leflaive has occupied a special place in Burgundy for the longest time. Regarded as one of if not THE finest white Burgundy estates. There may be healthy debate about who is on top nowadays. Whether that is Coche-Dury or Domaine D'Auvenay, Ramonet, Lafon, PYCM, Henri Boillot, Roulot but you exclude Leflaive at your own peril. What is undeniable however, is that Leflaive owns some of the best vineyards in puligny montrachet for ages and have been fully bio-dynamic for 25 years (since 1997) by this point. So why bring up a very well known domaine whose prices are already sky high?  Well here is where it gets interesting.  Olivier Leflaive is the cousin of the now deceased Anne-Claude Leflaive running Olivier Leflaive Freres. After leaving the domaine to develop his negociant business 5 plots in the below vineyards were placed on an 18 year lease to Domaine Leflaive. This lease ended in 2010 and those very same biodynamic parcels reverted back to Olivier Leflaive (see below).
Read more