John Susman is a respected seafood consultant here in Australia and has a happy knack of being able to procure some of the very best crustaceans and fish our country has to offer. He also is the brother in law of a good Burgundy loving friend of ours and was charged with the most important duty of feeding 20 of us last night.
We kicked off with a magnum of 1990 Henriot ‘Cuvee des Enchanteleurs’ which had been disgorged only last year. It was incredibly youthful and precise with notes of lemon, cracked wheat, freshly pounded juniper berries and yeast. It was direct, focussed and had fabulous cut. The Angasi oyster is a flat oyster native to Australia, similar to the Belon and has a beautiful flinty, mineral taste. Freshly shucked and without any adornment at all this was a heavenly match with the Champagne. We also had some Kumomoto oysters which were smallish with a deep cup. They were sweet and nutty in flavour with a creamy texture and also worked brilliantly with the Champagne. Three other starters were served at this time including some delicious marinated Fremantle octopus and Mooloolaba yellowfin tuna with truffle ponzu sauce. The truffles were from Western Australia and worked really well with the sashimi grade tuna. Caviar is hand milked from Atlantic salmon that are farmed in the cool fresh waters of the Yarra Valley and were served on toast with scrambled eggs.
A fine bracket of white Burgundy was lined up to accompany Seafood nage with ginger and herb broth. The 2009 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was rich, ripe, round and generous. There were notes of peach, honeysuckle and lemon curd and it had good volume and length. The 2005 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was corked. Bonneau du Martray’s 2007 Corton-Charlemagne is a sharp steel blade that cuts with citrus and mineral goodness. It has an engaging whiff of white flowers and is compact, direct and intense. The 2003 Lucien Le Moine Corton-Charlemagne was deep of colour but certainly not oxidised. It emitted a strange scent of liniment that took me back to the footy change rooms of my youth. It had some ripe peach and honey notes, was quite powerful and broad shouldered but lacked acidity. The 2005 Drouhin Montrachet ‘Marquis de Laguiche’ was the star of the bracket. I thought it looked a little advanced on the nose at first with a big hit of honeysuckle but it tightened in the glass. There was plenty of wood but also plenty of wine. It showed notes of lime brulee, pure white peach and had great underlying minerality. There were layers of flavour and the palate was rich and sappy. It possessed fabulous length of flavour and left one with a breath scented with dried flowers and minerals.
More description of the seafood nage is required at this point as John did a fabulous job sourcing some rare produce indeed. The star was some incredibly sweet Scampi from Shark Bay of the North West coast of Western Australia. These scampi have a very short season and are taken from deep waters around 500 meters below. Kangaroo Island, hand dived scallops were succulent and sweet and Kinkawooka mussels from the west coast of South Australia were fresh and delicious.
The 2002 Rene Engel Clos de Vougeot was our red Burgundy bracket opener and it looked very smart. It had quite a smoky lift and fruits were ripe and sweet and threaded with liquorice. It had good muscle under all of the lushness and whilst should continue to develop is right in the zone now. The 2005 Louis Latour Corton-Grancey is a wine that is super primary and totally unevolved. It smells like ripe red fruits straight from the press and has a hint of prune character. There’s an engaging floral perfume coming from the glass as it draws in more air. It is nicely balanced with good grip and authority. The 1993 Domaine des Chezeaux Griottes-Chambertin was bright, lively and energetic from magnum. It was very savoury with aromas of freshly tilled earth and decaying leaves. The cherry fruits had good crunch and it was a wine that was compact yet with good intensity. It was quite fine and lacy in the mouth and finished with good cut.
Our host loves wine options and had chosen to set up a fun and thought provoking game. We each got up from the table and made our way over to another table where 7 empty bottles were lined up with 5 decanters in front of them. 2 of the wines were not represented, it was now our turn to taste each wine and write down which wine we thought it was. Wine number one had the ‘mean greenie’ marker, I looked along the row of 7 bottles, spied the only 04 in the line up, a 2004 Francois Lamarche Echezeaux and decided correctly that this was in fact the Lamarche. It had some bright red fruits and plenty of earth and was just ok. The second wine had a sweet confected nose and had good fruit density but its tannins were a little gritty. I pegged it wrongly as the 2003 Bouchard Le Corton (which ended up being one of the wines not represented) only to find out it was the 2006 Follin-Arbelet Corton. The next wine was the 2008 La Belle Voisine Charmes-Chambertin. It showed plenty of oak and had nice red fruits and plenty of earth. It was a little chewy on the finish and I wrongly guessed it was the Follin-Arbelet. A gorgeous perfume of earth and flowers enveloped the nostrils as you smelled wine number four and it had a firm but direct palate with great authority. It could only be the 1999 Faiveley Latricieres-Chambertin (I say ‘could only be’ now after I got it right). The final wine was very smart, polished and ethereal. It had really dense and creamy fruits with complex red berry and blood plum fruits. The sweetness overlayed and big structure and I thought it had the class and power of a 2005 and guessed the 2005 Lucie et August Lignier Clos de la Roche that was indeed not represented. It turned out to be the 2007 Domaine Eugenie Clos de Vougeot.
Food with the red Burgs was spit roasted Suckling Berkshire Pig with fennel, apple and pomegranate chutney and cider glaze. Creamed Jersey potatoes had to have a ratio of cream and butter to potato that would not please the surgeon general and new season beans and asparagus cleansed the palate and gave us all a healthy glow.
At this juncture the Bordeaux drinkers at the table were getting fractious. As it was not my gig and I couldn’t just tell them to fuck off home, a bracket of high quality Bordeaux was brought out to wash down some Brie de Nangis, Beaufort d’Alpage and Chabrin. 2000 Chateau Leoville-Poyferre showed some leather and tar on the nose along with sweet cassis. It was dense, rich and chewy in the mouth with excellent balance and a long finish carried by its sugar coated tannins. The 1995 Ducru-Beaucaillou has somewhat loosened over the past couple of years and is just entering what I suspect will be a long drinking window. There’s some sweet tobacco, earth and mint to the aroma. It had good vitality in the mouth and fruits are trimmed with a pleasant savoury character. There’s good grip to the finish and I like the wine’s overall freshness. A magnum of 1982 Pichon-Lalande was absolutely humming. It had a gorgeous perfume of smoke, cedar, violets, cassis, liquorice and leather. In the mouth there were no hard edges and waves of creamy, perfumed fruits lapped around the gums. Tannins and acidity feel like they’ve been folded into all of the plush fruits but it has great vibrancy and precision.
To finish the evening off a chocolate tartlet with mango and strawberry salsa and vanilla crème fraiche and a cheeky little glass of 1998 Chateau d’Yquem. The Yquem was good but not great Yquem and quite sweet and forward. It had loads of mango and rockmelon fruits with a suggestion of lavender and honey. It felt a little plump and fat.
Well just like the Sauternes I feel a little plump and fat today and will be fasting for a good 3-4 hours before I get on it again.
Cheers
Jeremy
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