My wife left me stranded at home for the week while she hangs out at Wimbledon with her tennis team, so heck yeah I’m having the boys over for some booze!
Started off with some champagne paired with a wonderful salmon ceviche plate.
The 2012 Nicolas Maillart Champagne Premier Cru Franc de Pied Les Coupés is a unique wine. Disgorged in June 2020, 100% Pinot Noir from ungrafted old vines planted in 1973 in Écueil, dosage 0 gr/l, 3 651 bottles made. If only it was as great as it sounds. An enjoyable champagne, but not quite the electric feel that I expected out of this Franc de Pied. Had more of an oxidative style about it, or maybe a very, very early showing of premox.
It was totally eclipsed by the N.V. Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 164eme. This is a gorgeous edition of Krug. Powerful mousse. Buttery croissant. Kisses of yellow fruits. The perfume of white flowers. Big palate presence. A most excellent champagne. (94 pts.)
We started the red wave with a 2007 Domaine August Clape Cornas magnum that I had opened hours before. It’s gorgeous. Everything that I want in Cornas. Although I will say the style is the exact opposite of the Allemand that I was raving about last week. This is more of a rustic style of Cornas, big brooding and powerful, a dark soul within. Loads of dark fruits and bramble, black olive paste, leather, iron notes, wet earth and a feral element. Followed this wine most of the night, paired gorgeously with grilled lamb chops. (94 pts.)
We also popped a 2015 Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape for the lamb, but it was just bad. Not sure if that is a vintage thing or just a bad bottle. Everybody ended up passing on it. It was not spoiled. It was just not good.
@Marc_Frontario saved the dinner with a quick swoop in of a 1996 Pichon Baron. Now this is a classic, gorgeous wine. Started off a little tight, definitely could have used a decant, but we were able to coax a lot of pleasure out of this wine over the next hour as we finished our dinner and enjoyed the robust company and conversation. This is such an archetype Pauillac. Cassis, dark fruits, lead pencil, and dry earthy notes. Has a cool minty top note that was quite beguiling. This wine will run for decades, but I do feel like it’s in a good drinking window. (95 pts.)
I must have been a little tipsy because all of my red wine pictures were blurry, lol.
We finished the dinner with a wonderful cake and some Labaude XO. Ok, we drank a lot of that XO. And then we segued back to more red wine!
When the alarm clock went off at 5:45 in the morning to go cycling with the same guys, I was not a happy camper. The ride start was a bit rough, lol. Nevertheless, I toughed out 53 miles and sweat out a lot of poison.
