I am curating wines for a group dinner and wanted to solicit some suggestions. I have received very helpful feedback on other similar threads and thank all in advance for your input.
Our dinner club is choosing to focus on classic French cuisine and wines for an early November date. Logistics are: 8 people (4 couples) and I have $800 with which to purchase the wine for that evening. These friends are fairly novice drinkers who are interested in learning but would favor tasting something recognizable with broad appeal over geeking out on a polarizing or obscure wine.
Think Beaucastel rather than Pegau.
Obviously, pairings will come into play, but I was leaning toward champagne (x2?), white burgundy, red burgundy, old BDX, a Rhône, young BDX, and a Sauternes.
I can go big on a few bottles but need to average $100/per. Would love to show up with a 1st growth (maybe a .375 of Yquem?) or two if the budget permits. I have over a month and hopefully time for the weather to cool and allow for shipping.
Examples of what I’m looking for might include Huet - broadly available, regional standard bearer, sneaky delicious and leaves some wiggle room price wise. I’m most stuck on Burgundy - what producers are benchmarks, perform well in a group and have offerings below $100?? Can you help a brother out?
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Scroll to post #77 for results. Thanks again to all who shared knowledge and suggestions. It was a great success
I’m going to throw out suggestions but it’s an unbounded request with effectively infinite combinations. I think you are in the Bay area so you can get access to these wines.
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2004, 2006, or 2007
2014 or 2015 Pierre Yves Colin Morey St Aubin (any)
2014 or 2015 Camus-Bruchon Savigny-lès-Beaune Lavieres Premier Cru
Splurge red Burg: mugneret Vosne or lignier morey St Denis vv
Old Bordeaux - if I were at K&L in SF, I would just pick one for you from the floor. But 1996 Leoville Barton or Grand Puy Lacoste should do you well and are available from various sources. They are easy to like wines.
Rhône: used to be easy but prices have escalated. 2008 Clape Cornas at SommPicks right now. The vintage is underrated and drinking. The price is decent. And nothing like getting one of these with some bottle age.
New Bordeaux: 2014 version of whatever older Bordeaux you get for comparison. Again Barton or GPL are good choices.
Forget Sauternes. Do a Huet moelleux premier trie, and everyone will be happy. And you will probably have leftover to enjoy for however long it takes you to finish on days 2 to whenever. And it will be much less than $100. Ideal would be a 2008 (available), but 2015 and 2016 are excellent and also available. I would open it at the beginning of dinner, maybe even decant or open earlier in the day.
Jayson’s suggestions are great. I’d only add that for Bordeaux, my go to tends to be the 2004 vintage, which is very classic and drinking very well. It fell between two very hyped years, so is usually easy to pick up. I love the 04 Pontet Canet as a dinner wine, but the 04 Pichon, Gruaud Larose and other left bank wines are also great, and are not especially expensive.
For Burgundy, I tend to suggest Fourrier (because I really like Fourrier) and because his village wines tend to be relatively fruit forward and crowd pleasing.
Finally, I completely agree with Jayson on not serving Sauternes. I love the stuff, but I’ve always found opening a bottle with dinner tough. Too many people find it too sweet/cloying.
I would consider adding a Loire white or Alsace Riesling if for no other reason to allow you to free up budget for other things. Where I woudl use this would depend on where you want to over spend your $100 target. If you want to keep both champagnes, then use for desert. Otherwise, remove one of the champagnes to free up funds for reds. For white burgundy, i’d consider Chablis. I love 2014s from montée de tonne and most can still be had for <$50. Billaud-Simon is a favorite but also Louis Michael is good and likely more available.
With the young and older Bordeaux and Burgundy, I recommend getting the same wine from two different vintages for both, as Jayson suggests with the Bordeaux. It is interesting to in essence watch how a wine matures over time.
I love Jayson’s idea of 2006 or 2007 Comte de Champagne.
For white Burgundy, PYCM is a good choice for a producer, but you can save some money (or maybe get a Chassagne Montrachet premier cru appellation) by buying wines from Bernard Moreau, also a fabulous producer, but one whose wines sell at a better price.
For red Burgundy, you can do well price-wise, if you can find them, by getting a 2010 and 2015 Dublere Volnay Taillepieds or MSD Blanchards. Or, a great value in premier cru Burgundies today is the Vougeot Petit Vougeot from Hudelot Noellat. Great, great producer.
For Bordeaux, see how much 2014 and 2001 Ducru Beaucaillou are selling for - I could get them for not much over $100 a few years ago.
For Sauternes, try Climens (actually a Barsac). To me, it is the best Sauternes after d’Yquem and sells for a fraction of the price. Find a 2014, which should be well priced.
I love love the 2014 Bordeaux vintage, but I’m also thinking long term with them. Not sure I’m cracking them at dinner parties. If you have a $100 per bottle budget, or more if you spend less on the whites, get something more mature to showcase the true beauty of Bordeaux. The 2000s are starting to drink beautifully. Same for many 2001s. Heck, for $50 you can get 1986 Meyney!
Jayson mentioned some good choices, and without knowing where you live or what you have access to, I’m not going to add to anything. But I don’t think you always need to have pairs of something. I know what you are trying to do, compare and contrast, but there are so many variations on how to do that even within a region that I like the idea of broadening that out to give an overview of what France can do well and like the Northern Rhone inclusion with perhaps ending with a sweet wine from an obscurer place like a Banyuls or an Alsatian SGN to sop up.
These suggestions are totally on point, evidenced by the fact that this group has shared Tattinger CdC 05, Bollinger LGA 04, Trimbach Frederick Emile 07, Huet le Mont 14, Leoville Barton 10, and Climens 12 all at previous dinners.
I appreciate the popcorn style as I’m just looking for ideas. I’m in central Texas which makes it a little tougher than SF but I have a shipment pending before this dinner with some of the suggestions above including Billaud Simon MDT and PYCM St Aubin le Banc. There isn’t any hudelot-noellat nearby, but I have a little time and have wanted to try the producer for a while now. We have a reasonable selection of Mongeard Mungeret and will look into the specific bottlings available. I also currently hold a handful of wines that might fit the bill (06 Chave Hermitage, 14 Voge Cornas, several good CnDP) but don’t know how I feel about buying wines out of my own cellar with their cash. I’ll probably bring an extra bottle or two of my own but not count it toward the budget…
To Robert’s point, I am also personally going long on 2014 (a birth year for my son) but with the current availability and pricing, it’s hard to beat now. Total wine has La Mission HB for $220 I think. Was looking at Montrose, Cos, Pontet (04 and 14?), PLL, etc. all around or a little over 100. It kind of depends on what older bottle I’m able to source. I have a wild-card in some friends from my tasting group that might be willing to sell me a single not otherwise available at market. (discussed in this thread → Educational Fridays - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers ). If I find a great old bottle, that will surely inform the choice of a younger. I like the flights of two idea quite a lot and may well employ that.
So far, I was thinking a 2008 Pol Roger BdB (around 100) or Krug (no one else has tried it and I’ll have an opportunity to buy at a discount)
Thought about a rose as a curveball and have a Domaine Tempier on the way as well. ~40
For white burg - will definitely look into Moreau’s whites - I was wowed by a 2012 volnay santenots of his this summer. PCYM or Ramonet are in the mix. Maybe even a grand cru chablis? Winebid has some William Fevre Les Clos 2009 for $75…
For red burg - I’ll try to source some noellat, MM or dublere. The Austin Wine merchant has a formidable burgundy selection, so I’ll likely pay them a visit. I do have some good beaujolais (Fleurie, Metras) coming as well, but would probably only do that if I have a traditional red burg to contrast?
Will look into some sticky Huet (I’ve enjoyed it personally a number of times in the past) but I think the yquem label may win out as I’m wanting to impress.
I realize this is a totally limitless and open ended question but you guys seem to get the spirit of it well. Thanks again for that. Maybe a better way to phrase it would be: “You have $800 to blow on wine for an 8 person dinner and the only stipulation is that it must come from France, what do you do?”
Love the Ducru idea although it’s tough to find on this budget these days. Prices have gone up.
I also think a side by side of 2014 Billaud-Simon and Louis Michel Montee de Tonnere would be very instructive and also excellent and possible within this budget. (I paid around $35-36 for each on release.) You will get a traditional barrel-aged wine versus pure stainless elevage to compare wines from what is often regarded as one of the two best Premier Cru vineyards in Chablis.
I would suggest purchasing a Taittinger NV and a Comtes de Champagne to show the difference between a house NV and a Tete. It should average out to just under $100 per. I like the idea of a white and red from Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Rhone so folks can get some idea of the characteristics of each region.
A half of Yquem to impress may be possible depending on vintage.
Would not get the Fevre 2009 for fear of premox. If you want a Fevre GC, look for the Bouguerots in 10, 12, or 14.
I didn’t care for 08 Pol Roger BdB-somewhat disappointing for vintage. I thought the 08 Rose was awesome. As are Roederer Rose and BdB in 2008. If you don’t want to do Taittinger CDC, you could also look for Vilmart Couer de Cuvee for a Tete de Cuvee. It’s almost impossible not to love.
Has anyone here been to a liquor store in the last ten years ?
Comtes is like $175
2014 VCC over $200
2014 LMHB over $200
Domaine Hubert Lignier Morey-St-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes $170 +
D’yquem, maybe $150 for a 375 of a poor vintage
The wine suggestions are all fine but to think your going to be drinking the above at an average under $100 is just not realistic. Yes you might be able to find cheaper crappy bottles at auction or Winebid that will taste like crap but not well cared for bottles
I am surprised that nobody has suggested Dujac Morey St. Denis. This can be had for $75. I find it to be user-friendly and Burgundian at the same time. While it does age well, it is delicious. I’ve had the '14 in the last year or so and it was enjoyable.
The event format you are setting up sounds like a winner. Have fun.