It was Sir Rod’s turn to host Monday Table and what better theme for a Knight than a white horse or several white horses for that matter. We gathered around the round table at Rockpool Bar and Grill (actually it was a rectangle) and settled in for a most excellent night.
A couple of Dom’s went well with cured ocean trout on brioche. The 2000 Dom Perignon is ready and drinking right in the zone. It is bready, truffley, toasty and yummy. The fruit is plump, soft and creamy and length is good. The 2004 Dom Perignon is not ready and a fair way away from the zone but a very good Champers none the less. You can feel the dosage but it’s countered by a line of minerally acidity. It is compact, dense and linear, full of green apple and citrus fruit and possessing an engaging blossom scent.
Glacier 51 Toothfish was grilled to perfection and the subtle yet intense flavour of the fish married well with the bracket of whites. The 2009 Bouchard Pere et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru was drinking really well. It had some candied fruit notes and was slightly exotic. It was rich and full, slowly building through the palate to a powerful and long finish. The 2010 Bouchard Pere et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru started off with some paw paw and rockmelon aromas and had a lusciousness in the mouth but shut down pretty quickly in the glass. It is a wine of good density and structure. Bernard Moreau’s 2012 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru was my wine of the bracket. It did throw off a little whiff of vanilla from its oak but was rich and powerful with intense white peach fruit and a huge amount of chalky dry extract to the finish. It should be something special in time. The 2010 Bernard Moreau Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru had a slight nutty/aldehydic smell to it. This was quickly shunted away by a riot of freshly cut pineapple aromas and flavours. There are some truffle and citrus things and the wine is dense and compact in the mouth. A 2010 Lucien Le Moine Corton Blanc Grand Cru was darkish in colour and a little too advanced with liniment, toast and mushroom aromas. There was some vanilla and white peach in the mouth but the palate was just a bit blunt.
The first bracket of Cheval Blanc was accompanied by free range Aylesbury duck with roast quince, braised cavolo nero, silver beet and chicory with chilli, garlic and Parmesan. The 1950 Cheval Blanc was outstanding. It poured out with a deep purple tinge and had complex aromatics of sweet cedar, compost, berry fruit and earth. It was dense, sweet and full in the mouth with a lacy texture and ripe tannins. A 1954 Cheval Blanc was not outstanding but the colour was good and it still had freshness to it. There was some volatility and a light cheesiness to the wine. It was a little sweaty, had some menthol and leather and was lean in the mouth. The 1966 Cheval Blanc was terrific. There was a suggestion of capsicum on the nose along with cassis, earth, sweet cedar and violets. It was beautifully proportioned and balanced, only mid-weight but so elegant and ethereal. The 1971 Cheval Blanc had good depth. It showed aromas and flavours of menthol, earth, tobacco leaf, cassis and chocolate. It had a core of briary fruit and the tannins had just a slight green edge.
At around this time Big G blew in terribly late and started to fire off a few digs at most of us. When Greg explained that he wasn’t attending my Monday Table in July Big G quipped ‘are you just trying to cheer me up’. Sir Rod suggested that Big G ‘couldn’t look at a belt without hitting below it’. Big G took a whiff of the first red and proclaimed that it smelt like Cabernet Franc. He was on fire!
Wood fire grilled Hay Valley grass fed lamb was sensational. It came with mushy peas with a slow cooked egg, Dutch cream potatoes sautéed with Wagyu fat, garlic and rosemary. A 1979 Cheval Blanc had some cooler notes of menthol and pine needles. There was some sweet cedar and gentle cassis fruit. It was sweet, plump and very tasty. The 1982 Cheval Blanc was horribly corked. The 1988 Cheval Blanc was highly perfumed, dense and compact. It had engaging aromatics of violets, cassis and sweet tobacco. It was fleshy with good underlying structure. An utterly delicious wine with so much left in the tank. The 1998 Cheval Blanc is just so youthful. It has some vitamin B oak smells and super concentrated berry/cherry fruit. There’s floral complexity and the wine is so glossy and polished in the mouth without a hair out of place.
Talk at the table landed upon the trend of Gen Y’ers taking a ‘gap year’ after school. Big G let on that his father let him have a ‘gap day’, having finished school on a Thursday, playing 36 holes of golf on the Friday, then starting work on the Monday.
A piece of Comté was very good and Crème Caramel was perfect, especially with one of the greatest Sauternes on the planet. The 2001 Chateau d’Yquem is exquisite. So much power, so much intensity but not heavy in the slightest. You get complex aromas of apricot jam, coconut ice, vanilla, honey and lavender. It is explosive, invading every crevice of the mouth with sublime nectar. Slowly but surely the palate cleans up and dries off and an exotic, lingering perfume stays on the palate. A magnum of 2009 Chateau Tirecul La Gravière Monbazillac Cuvée Madame was corked.
We finished with a fiery shot of Grappa that Big G said ‘could tear the tits off Tarzan’.
Cheers
Jeremy