My sweetie and I retuned to our favorite dinner venue, The Storehouse, in the lux San Ysidro Ranch resort. This time our dinner was coordinated around the presence of a former long time waiter here who is from the Netherlands {as is Roelanda}, who along with his wife, had been gifted an over the NYE weekend stay by the resort owner, Ty Warner.
As it turned out, our table was adjacent to theirs and we were able to share wines and conversation throughout the evening.
And a grand evening it was. As per our MO, we took a fine champagne and a Burt Williams made Pinot Noir. When it came time to select a champagne for her birthday dinner last November, I remembered I’d asked Roelanda what champagne she’d like to drink and she gave an immediate answer, Cristal. So, taking the lead, I pulled another bottle for this occasion.
Here’s some notes.
2006 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- 55% Pinot Noir, 45% Chardonnay; 20% of the wine was aged in oak, but as usual, no ML; the color was medium yellow and the nose had a unexpected note of fennel and licorice along with the expected lemon zest, all of which continued on throughout with that distinct fennel always in the background; the lemon oil texture was sublime and the whole package was one of class and sophistication.
1993 WILLIAMS SELYEM OLIVET LANE VINEYARD RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY PINOT NOIR- the fill was an unusually low mid neck as Burt tended to top off all bottles to the cork, but it was not enough air space to effect the wine adversely; the color was a still somewhat youthful red purple with no signs of aging; the nose offered an amazing bouquet of rose petals and red cherry/ berry fruit that once tasted also included some black raspberry and a more significant dollop of blueberry; it was medium to full bodied, improved over the course of the evening, begging to be drunk and we obliged; I was particularly pleased that this bottle was not in the typical vein of previous ones from the early 1990s Olivet Lane vintages as they had a briary {what I use to describe young wines with an earthy or stemmy wild berry character} that was pleasing but not like this wondrous wine before us; decanted for 45 minutes.
Cheers,
Blake
@Chris_Seiber @Steve_Nordhoff @Jon_Lawrence @Mikael_OB @Alan_Rath
