Had another amazing wine dinner at BlackSalt hosted by Bassin’s, this time with Chateau Angelus. The food was amazing as always at this restaurant. The wines were excellent. Compared to the cost of the Haut Bailly dinner a while back, this was quite pricey. But I have to admit, I don’t think I’d pay the current prices for Angelus. While they were excellent wines, I didn’t find them 3-4x better than the Haut Bailly wines. The last Angelus I purchased was the ’98 when the price was reasonable for me. Too bad since it is a wonderful wine.
1st Course was a baby octopus dish with a fried stuffed squash blossom. I forgot to take a picture! Very tasty and tender. The squash blossoms were almost as good as mine! This was served with the 2014 and 2019 Carillon wines. We aren’t allowed to call them second wines apparently. Very nice wines. The 19 showed better, less acidic than the 14. Both had plenty of fruit and tannins were quite soft. But similar wines can be had for less than 1/2 the price IMO.
2nd Course was a Black Bass served with Celery Root Souffle in a black currant reduction. My favorite dish and surprised it went so well with the red wine. They served this with the 2012 and 2014 Angelus. Definitely a step up and both showing intense blackberry fruit concentration with hints of tobacco. I preferred the 2014 for its more powerful structure compared to the 2012. I got whiffs of barnyard on the 2012.
3rd Course was a Lamb Wellington perfectly cooked. This was served with the 2016 Angelus which was by far the most impressive wine. It was drinking very well for such a young wine. Again that intense blackberry flavor with tobacco and just a slight hint of olives (like a Syrah).
Unfortunately no surprise dessert like we had for the Haut Bailly dinner, but they were very liberal with secondary pours of each of the wines which made up for it.
We did get the rep to explain why they left the AOC classification. He was quite informative. He said basically it was due to very strict rules that had nothing to do with the wine.
