Chilli Crab, White Burg, and a 1982 Bordeaux

In the name of camaraderie, wine-geeking, non-science, and Thursday, we had dinner tonight at Starry Kitchen in Chinatown LA. Food was excellent, company unparalleled, and the wines all showed well except for one.

1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses - France, Champagne (1/29/2015)
Such a treat. Wonderful aged notes. Rich brioche, mousse, caramel. Nice acidity but balanced. In a perfect spot right now. Best champagne of the night easily.

1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/29/2015)
Even better than the last bottle. Rich with aged white Burgundy notes. Plenty of rich fruit and buttered richness. Actually became more powerful after an hour.

2005 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/29/2015)
Sulfur, vanilla, and rich pineapple on the nose. The palate was not overly ripe. Plenty of precision and acidity. Nice fruit but not too sweet. Wonderful and potential to last quite some time.

2011 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/29/2015)
Agree with all of the below. Lean, mineral, tight, unyielding. Lacking fruit compared to the 2005 PYCM Criots. After 3 hours, picked up some lemon peel. Not sure if it’s flawed or just unapproachably tight. Try again in a decade or so.

1982 Château Léoville Poyferré - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (1/29/2015)
A very nice Bordeaux in a perfect drinking plateau. Dark fruits, some tobacco character. Fine weight and nicely resolved. Quite nice.

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Nice line-up, Fred. Thanks for the notes. I was just thinking about the '82 L-P–I like the wine and haven’t had it for a few years. Maybe time to dig one out. And a '92 Jadot Batard last Saturday was similar to your '90. Rich, mature fruit with an unctuous mouthfeel. It gained more and more body with air, too.

The 82 LP is a star.

Man I love chili crab.

Me too, and the wine sounds great, but the combination of the two seems surprising. Did it work? I’m skeptical looking at it but am willing to be told I’m wrong.

Did they pair well? Not really. Was it a fun and delicious night? Absolutely!

The rest of the food (lots of fish, noodles, rice) paired well with the wine. With Asian cuisine, especially as eccentric as starry kitchen that takes from different cultures, it’s really hard to pair exactly. But to be perfectly honest, the crab was so messy that no one even really drank any wine while eating the crab, so pairing/combos wasn’t really an issue. I wish we took a photo of the crab carnage.

But on the moments I did wipe my hands, the Clos deS goisses went excellent with the sweetness of the crab.

Ah, I didn’t realize there was other food. It makes more sense to me now.

What a great dinner. The food may not have been as authentic as at Mr. Chow - a fact with which I am certain Fred and Charlie will agree - but it was darn tasty. The pairings were not always perfect, but they worked well enough. As always, the company is what really makes these dinners great.

1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses - A really great Champagne. On the nose were all sorts of aged, bready, toasty notes, but there was a streak of acid running through the wine like electricity that kept it so vibrant. Delicious.

1982 Château Léoville Poyferré - Aromas of dark fruit, tobacco, and earth, which also melded together on the palate. Gentle tannins and good balance here. Lovely.

1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet - Fred’s notes nailed it.

2005 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet - Awesome nose on this wine, showing ripe exotic fruit, sulfur, wet stone, and a light buttery note that brought it all together. Good power but well-balanced, with acidity and fruit in proper proportion. White wine of the night for sure.

2011 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet - I keep trying Henri Boillot Batard and I keep being underwhelmed. It was definitely tightly wound last night, and not particularly approachable, but you could sense the power that one typically notes in this wine. By the end of the meal it was opening up some, but it lacked complexity and certainly grace.

As always a good time getting together with the guys. Short notice dinner as Starry Kitchen is closing at the end of the month. THey do really imaginative asian based dishes and have one of the best crab dishes in LA (the chilli crab). They are now hoping for Kickstarter funds to start at a new location. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1047227143/starry-kitchens-saveourballs-and-our-restaurant

Fun wines. The clos des goisses was champagne of the night and the Poyferre was bordeaux of the night, hands down. [snort.gif]

  • 1982 Château Léoville Poyferré - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (1/30/2015)
    I actually feel like this bottle still has time to go. It had purity and softness and the acids were well integrated but the fruit was hiding in the background. It started to peak out past the tannins but it was still subdued. A well put together bordeaux.
  • 1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/30/2015)
    A little more advanced than my last bottle. The nose had a bit too much mushroom and earth and the palate wasn’t particularly dense/long. It had nice fruit on it but just didn’t scream aged batard monty like the last one (check my prior note)
  • 1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses - France, Champagne (1/30/2015)
    Another fantastic bottle of this wine. Everytime I have it you get that same beautiful dense mousse on the palate but tons of bright acidity. The 96 is so burly and powerful, I think it’ll be drinking well for awhile. The 02 is also super tasty but more acidic and less broad
  • 2005 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/30/2015)
    I know the other guys loved it and I can see why, the palate had a richness to it with a load of sweet fruit but on top of that linger flavor was really heavy reduction from all the sulfur. The nose was almost too sulfuric to me. I hope it integrates over time, this is definitely the most reduced bottle of 05 PYCM I’ve had as the others have been really pure experiences.
  • 2011 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru (1/30/2015)
    I think the 2011 GCs from Boillot are shutting down hard. The CC from 6 months ago was super lean and so was this bottle. It didn’t really show much fruit until about 2 hours in. I’d keep my hands off them completely.

was this to celebrate your mod duties bro?

the philipponnat cdg remains one of the top balla juice that year.

gotta celebrate something, so I guess so. [snort.gif]

Leoville Poyferre is one of my favorite Bordeaux estates. . . always performs well - not surprised the 82 was very pleasant. Surprised though, that Charlie actually drank any to recall tasting notes.

I had 2 sips. enough for me. [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

Thanks for the note on the CDG 96 guys. I have a final bottle of this left and was thinking about drinking this year. I definately will now, and Chilli Crab seems a nice foil to it champagne.gif

Am I right in thinking that there were two disgorgements of the '96 CdG? My recollection was that there was an April one and one other (I want to say July, but could be/likely am off on that), with most folks declaring the April one better than the other. That said, just curious if you guys caught which disgorgement your bottle was?

Sounds like a great night and gives credence to the old adage that the best pairing for food is to open what you like with it, rather than fussing about trying to determine what will work “best” with the food. Thanks for sharing the notes, gents.

Yes you’re right. Alot of the lesser disgorgement was got rid of through one of the big supermarkets in the UK for just under $70 a bottle.

unfortunately no. I’ve had bottles from this same case purchase over the last 2 years and they’ve all been pretty damn tasty.

And yeah, I don’t want to sound like an uncultured public university educated Neanderthal but I care less about pairings (unless it’s just something outrageously out of whack) and more about who I’m drinking with. These guys are top notch and we always have a ton of fun.

Except for Goldman, he hoards all his wine and tries to bring us crappy stuff. [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

Lies, Charlie, damn lies! You love me AND my awesome wine. We once shared a hotel room and I heard you mumble my name several times in your sleep, and quite longingly at that. You’re just trying to cultivate me even further. I’m on to you…

is that fried dough on the chili crab? interesting…