UC Davis Curator's Cellar Dinner: 38 LMHB, 57 Petrus, 78 Diamond Creek VH, 38 Lambrays, 93 Rousseau

We bought a few wines from the UC davis Curator’s Cellar during Berserker day. Five of us split the bottles of 38 La Mission haut Brion, 38 CLos des Lambrays, 64 Drouhin Richebourg, 57 Petrus and 78 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill. We added in a 93 Rousseau Chambertin, 89 Clos des Lambrays and 96 Cristal as well.

The dinner was organized at Patina in Downtown Los Angeles. A new chef has taken the helm and we were absolutely blown away by the complexity and touch of the chef, the Spot Prawn prep was one of the all time great spot prawn preparations I’ve had. The GM Martin as always with spectacular service. A definite visit should be made if you haven’t in awhile. Patina is roaring on all cylinders right now.

WOTN for me was the 93 Rousseau Chambertin closely followed by the 64 Drouhin Richebourg and 78 Diamond Creek.

The fills on most of these wines were fantastic. The 57 Petrus was a middle shoulder fill and was oxidized as to be expected. The rest were great fills and showed excellent. The only odd one was the 38 LMHB which was probably reconditioned at some point in its life as the fill was low neck and showed signs of softening on the palate.

FIRST SOME FOOD PRON (photos taken by Erick P)

refreshing amuse of chilled mint and smoke

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Asparagus

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Spot Prawn, lightly blanched, served with lightly pickled root vegetables and fruit. Easily one of the best Spot Prawn preps I’ve had. The vegetables were perfect, the Prawn was just the right temp and the meat in the head was so delicious.
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Poached lobster with a tarrigon creme and lobster bouillabaisse (photo of bouullabaisse not shown after it was poured) Perfect texture on the lobster, the grains were fantastic.

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Roast Chicken with seared Foie Gras. Perfect crispy skin, sweet sauce and just the right amount of foie

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A moroccan inspired dish. A wonderful fragrant spice on the side that paired great with the perfectly cooked lamb loin. Egg plant and lamb shoulder in the dough cup. Perfect pairing with the Volcanic Hill.
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Wild squab. Another fantastic dish, bloody and sweet, went awesome with the burg

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On to the wine


  • 1996 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne (3/23/2017)
    sweet rich ripe apple fruit on the palate, with copious amounts of acid and bubbles. The pinot is really shining right now on it as the wine has a great soft powerful mouthfeel
  • 1938 Château La Mission Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (3/23/2017)
    beautiful nose of graphite, leather and spice. The palate had this odd creamy softness to it, a little hollow on the mid palate but still had fruit with a nice mix of earth and cedar with a hint of sour fruit. The creamy texture really threw me off. The nose was wonderful but the palate was not my fave

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The wine needed every minute of air we gave it, it started out a little shy and funky, the nose never really opened up, but the palate was ROARING after a hour in the glass. It had this animalistic funky wildness to it on the palate, dark fruit, minerals, blood with this ripe tannin undertow. Never really developed any of the sweet brown sugar that comes with age as it had this earthy frame that gave it some sweetness but more of that sous bois. It had a touch of rot, but with all those wild flavors it really just built complexity.

Really fun and delicious wine.

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  • 1964 Joseph Drouhin Richebourg - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru (3/23/2017)
    Classic Richebourg, so much power and texture on the palate, filled to the brim with rich mouth coating fruit. The flavors are complex and expansive. Still a little abrasive with tannin in the first hour but started to resolve and integrate. Really beautiful wine as the 2ndary notes are starting to take over the fruit, but there’s still great concentration. It is picking up a little of the brown sugar on the back end, but it’s not a distraction.

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  • 1989 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru (3/23/2017)
    pulled off the fedex truck, fully mature, with a wonderful earthy nose filled with leather and coffee grinds. Palate is high in acid and has some sweet tannin from the stem still. Solid but not opulent fruit (vintage) with nice acidity. Drinking well now and should hold.

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  • 1978 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill - USA, California, Napa Valley, Diamond Mountain (3/23/2017)
    Purchased on release and stored from a single owner cellar. slow ox’d 5 hours, sat in my glass for 3 hours.

The wine was a gorgeous perfume of mint, forest floor and dark fruit just blossoming out of the glass. It just filled the table up when it was poured.

What an incredibly youthful wine for a 78. Stuffed to the gills with complex dark notes of light tobacco, lively dark berries filled with a clean cut minerality that sparkles through the mid palate. As it sat in the glass it gained more and more weight and density, the structure started to fully show and the wine just gained power on the finish.

Top 3 napa cab ever.

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  • 1993 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru (3/23/2017)
    incredible wine. Slow oxed for 5 hours and consumed in glass over 3. The depth on this wine is unparalleled. The nose is filled with this wonderful perfume of flowers and sweet red fruit. There is a purity in this wine that makes the wine flow so effortlessly. Copious amounts of elegant fresh fruit with a clean bright intensity on the finish. Still incredibly youthful and needs some time, but wow it is AMAZEBALLS right now.

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Thanks for the notes, it sounds like a fantastic evening. The food looks terrific as well, other than the “skidmark” sauce swipe on the lamb dish.

Nice write up as always Fu.

My personal preference goes:

  1. 93 Rousseau Chambertin. Just gorgeous. Far superior to the 93 Beze we opened last month. Maybe one of the best burgs I have ever tried.

  2. 38 LMHB. Reconditioned for sure as this was just straddling that secondary/tertiary sweet spot in development. Loved this wine. It had a certain salted plum salinity to it on the finish that made it more complex and interesting.

The first two being much better than the other wines IMO.

The next 2 were really good. Hard to compare burgundy vs cali cab but I would say I loved them both equally.

  1. 64 Drouhin Richebourg (tied). Still shy after 5 hours of slow ox. This really needed time to open up more in the glass. Rich, powerful, and still with plenty of structure. Very clean unlike the 38 Lambrays.
  2. 78 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill (tied). Hands down the best Cali cab I have ever had and as good as any first growth bordeaux I have had. Seamless and youthful even.

4 good old wines out of 6 isn’t bad. I liked the 38 Lambrays less than most at the table. It was a treat to try something so old but the wine was a touch dirty on the nose.

  1. 1938 Lambrays. A wonderful wine but I couldn’t get past the rot/stink that was lurking underneath all the goodness. Would have been profound without that flaw.

  2. 57 Petrus. Sadly, notes of oxidation could be detected and this was just flat. Shame.

Wow. Awesome night with some sick wines! I am now incredibly excited to start popping the 78 DC VHs that I received a couple months ago!

looks like a great dinner. the food looks exceptional. it would have been a treat to try the diamond creek and the 64 drouhin. one of the most compelling burg i’ve ever had was a 64 drouhin amoureuses.

i’m not surprised by the showing of 93 rousseau chambertin - the couple of times i’ve had it (last one was about a year ago) it has always performed well.

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What a fun tasting! Reminds me of when we did something similar up here all going in on a bunch of old cali wines, and having a dinner. I’m itching to drink some 78 cabs now! Hey Edson…when’s your bday??? [drinkers.gif]

december. you bringing diamond creek lake? neener

Buzz bring the 78 lake and I’ll be there.

Wow, sounds like an amazing experience! So glad you had these all showing so well!

Very nice. Had that volcanic hill once and it was everything you described.

I was excited to try a perfectly stored bottle. It met all expectations.

Nice done, Fu. That was a great read.

Incredible line up. Isn’t Patina Splichal’s resto? Presume he no longer cooks though?

Nice bracket Fu. Food looks great too.

where was that 93 last dinner? Sounds like Patina has stepped it up. And it looked like amount of food was good–unlike my last time there. I will yet to find the picture.

"AMAZEBALLS " is a pretty appropriate descriptor for the 93 Rousseau Chambertin. Had that a couple of months ago, and it was absolutely epic. Rest of the wines sound pretty awesome too.

entire main course at Patina. We just laughed. Oct 2015
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longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg gone. I forget the new chef’s name, they haven’t updated the website yet. But he’s a German chef classically trained in Europe. I’ve honestly not had that good fine dining in Los Angeles in a long time.

Ha, he was one of the guys who bailed due to his shoulder injury.

We had the chef’s table, one of the guys in the group is a regular so everything was top notch. It’ll probably go on the regular rotation. 8-9 courses for $150 with a lot of protein.

yep. like someone said up above, it’s consistently an AMAZING wine.