TNs--Nicklicious Part 2--Dinner at Actinolite, plus daytime wines

Again, sorry for the tardiness of this report. Nick loves the bread at Actinolite restaurant. For his visit here 2.5 weeks ago, we gathered there for dinner once again. Joining us were Jay Shampur and Tim and Alissa Burnett.

Board games were played during the day, and I opened these wines:

2014 Kutch Bohan PN

It’s funny how you can get so definitively used to a style of winemaking when you have enough of a sample size. This presented with hits of sweet raspberry and also strawberry and plum fruit in nose and mouth. And it was just a trifle hot-seeming. Well, this checks in at 13.5%. For those who know Jamie’s wines, his sweet spot is often 12.5-12.8% or so. This showed some different facets in terms of texture as it took on air and I’ll admit I have had a hard time pinning down a particular style with Bohan. I did like it.

2011 Zind-Humbrecht Goldert Gewurtz

No mistaking this–lush and rich on the tongue with pineapple and kumquat speaking to me, not so much lychee. Admirable in its style, I have started to move away from this style for the Alsatians I enjoy. However, definitely enjoyed by all, none left in the bottle by the end of the day

AT DINNER

2006 Hubert Paulet Brut Rose

I brought a sparkler for a change. Pink grapefruit and a tickle of raspberry but also watermelon. This has a sneakily persistent mousse but it is rather sweeter than I think any of us expected. Did enjoy it, had a certain flexibility in the mouth, but if you like your sparklers dry, this won’t be for you.

2010 Vincent Girardin Pommard Les Epenots

Jay brought this, haven’t tried one in some time. This was probably the best of (I think) 3 bottles we’ve tried together. Still lighter-bodied than I’d want in Pommard, it did take on character and some weight with time in the glass, showing solidly-built tart red fruit, some earth notes and resolved tannins. I would only ask for a bit more presence and length. I continue to believe his whites are the wines to buy.

2003 Reserve de la Comtesse

Tim and Alissa brought this and the next one. This was suave, man. Plum and just-sweet blackcurrant core but the wine fans out wonderfully on the palate and has no baked or discordant aspect at all. We had a lively discussion about the 03 vintage and where it’s come to. This one? Drink with confidence. WOTN for me.

2009 Prado Enea Rioja

Didn’t take formal notes so my memory is dimmed some. I seem to remember that this started out well for me, with dark plum, some chocolate and a certain attractive palate graininess, but seemed to grow too much out of itself as the night wore on. It did change and seemed to get riper with air, just not sure how I felt about the wine at the end of the day. Hopefully some of the others will chime in.

These were some of my last get-togethers with people before locking down. I am glad we made the time and effort to do it. Special thanks to Nick—you are always welcome here, my great good friend.

Mike

A few thoughts:

1. Proving the truism that You can Never Go Home Again, the ‘magic’ in the Actinolite Bread seems to have gone. They make a normal high-end Sourdough now, not the unusual ramekin individual loaves with notes of honey, wildflowers, and the like. So, that hurts.

2. I still (and likely will always) have time for the rich Z-H style. It needs a certain amount of age/air to fully develop complexity, but when the balance is there to galvanize the richness, I have all the time in the world for that mouthful. Easy to love, and still makes one think.

3. Like many, I’m very pro-Jamie Kutch, but this particular Pinot got too Hot, i.e. alcohol and ripeness levels. Would not have thought it was one of his had I not seen the label. Don’t know if this is a controversial take or not, or if the vintage simply evolved differently than Jamie expected for this vineyard.

Non wine-thoughts:

Sometimes my romantic partners are surprised I just want to go to the same places over and over again, but when you have the friends that I do (many on this board) it’s hard to have Fomo about some strange, exotic locale when what you really want to do is hit the usual spots over and over and over again. I wish I lived within 6 hours of Toronto (by car) instead of 12, as I could get to Mike more often. This weekend had me doing all kinds of preparation for a Saigon dash out, but the trip was very much worth the effort, as all my Toronto trips have been, frankly, these last 10 years.

Restaurant thought:

Like many on this forum, I continue to be irked by nonsensical corkage. And yes, having managed a high-end wine restaurant before law school, I know the math. But we’ve gone to Actinolite a lot (and this particular visit was on the eve of this Restaurant Apopoclypse) and they charged obscene corkage for regulars trying to keep a reservation in trying times. This debate has been had a lot on here obviously, but this really hurt Actinolite in my eyes (more than an off course, for instance). That may be the last time I go to Actinolite, as it was very unfair on our friends to pay such high prices. They can do as they wish, as all restaurants can, but I felt gouged and this will guide my thoughts in the future as well.

I want to give $200 to the dance companies and medical research charities I donate toward. I do not want to give it for the privilege of drinking our own wines at an already $100+ per person establishment.

Strong words, my friend, but mostly true words. I find myself cleft betwixt and between on the corkage–perhaps I give/gave too much leeway for the restaurant’s desperation and knowledge of its impending closing for the pandemic, but I will agree that I was surprised at how the corkage came out.

I/we have been honoured to have you. Even when you kick our cans at every board game we pull out Nick and I, in particular, have gotten to a comfortable space where he’ll spend a lot of time doing his own thing with the friends he’s made here, but we can still circle back and have meaningful discussions about the world when the timing works during the visit to do that. It is the kind of deeper friendship I seek with many people and have found here. So keep coming up! I remain especially happy that I ended up putting you and Berto together—to forge a new friendship between two of my friends gives me a huge glow of satisfaction and happiness.