If any of you are ever in Orlando, please do yourself a favor and try Kabooki, a new sushi restaurant near downtown. The chef, all of 25, is a creative genius. The complexity and creativeness of his dishes, hot or cold, are impressive. Amazing clarity, texture and crispness to his plates.
The wine list is basic, though, so BYOB.
For food of this quality, one needs some quality wines, right?
2002 Dom Perignon (Warhol Label)
My first crack of the bottles I bought on release. I denote the Warhol label as I recall a thread a few months back where I think some were suggesting a difference from the regular bottling. I always assumed they were the same just one has a fancy label. Well, I still think I cracked this bottle too soon. This is an impressive, very powerful champagne, showing extremly crisp lemon zeal, flint, salinity and florals, but it’s super tight and linear. Does not have the expansiveness of the 2000 at a similar age. Consumed from normal white wine stems, saved 1/3 of the bottle for end of evening, still tight. Again, impressive, just very young. (91 pts.)
2013 Kenzo Estate Asatsuyu Savignon Blanc
Cool! Another $80+ California Savignon Blanc with oak. We needed that. Heidi Barrett is the winemaker and David Abreu is the vineyard manager. Add to that, really high CT scores for 2012 and one high score for 2013. Perhaps I missed something, but for now, will not be adding to the platitudes. I found this SB fairly pedestrian (just good), showing more touch of winemaking than from terroir. Muted nose, watery in the mid-palate. My wife is an SB fanatic, this wine did nothing for her as well. (85 pts.)
And then we ventured into a basic New Zealand SV off the list, a brand I’ve never heard of before. But a fun showing of tart citrus, lemon grass and a hint of cat pee. I won’t go bonkers over this, but for $40 at a restaurant, it showed nice poise, was refreshing, and really carried the night. I wonder sometimes, does NZ (Malborough) ever make a less than decent SB? IMHO, could be the most consistent winemaking region on the planet.
BTW, I have been bringing 2012 Donhoff and JJ Prums Kabinetts to the 10+ times I’ve been to Kabooki over the last 3 months, and these are marriages made in heaven!