One of my best ever friends who moved out of state this year, returned to Santa Barbara for a short visit and we enjoyed a fine evening out at one of our favorite restaurants, Ca Dario Montecito.
Ca Dario is a very popular locals place and my friend was a very popular guy { often referred to by me and others as "The Mayor”} and we spent a lot of the evening greeting and hugging others who stopped by the table to say hello.
Meanwhile, we settled all of the world’s problems and updated on our ever transforming lives while feasting on some of our favs on the menu and pairing them blind with wines we took. Here’s some notes on the wines:
2012 DELAMOTTE les MESNIL sur OGER BLANC de BLANC BRUT- blind; 60% of the fruit sources for this comes from les Mesnil-sur-Oger, Ovize and Oger with 20% equal parts from each and the remainder of the fruit comes from Cramant, Chouilly and Oiry; following its youthful yellow color came aromas of citrus and tropical fruit which on the palate translated into lemon, grapefruit, guava, mango and passion fruit; it had an oily feel good texture which lengthened the finish and left a delightful coat on the back end of the palate to perpetuate the experience; lovely champagne.
My first guess was this was Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Nicholas-Francois and possibly 2012, but I struggled to really hone in on it and knew there was something very distinguishing in the taste profile that should be helpful in identifying it with the tropical fruit notes being so prevalent.
Initially, the house did not make Salon out of the 2012 harvest and I bought a lot of this release as a result and have had many bottles, all of which have been typically full of honeyed lemon, yellow apple, yellow peach and apricot; so, I did not recognize this bottle at all.
Although I’ve previously included some info about the house and its marque tete de cuvee, Salon, I’m re-inserting it here once again as an FYI:
“Francois Delamotte founded his house in 1760 and the trade name Delamotte Père & Fils was adopted in 1786. For the next 100+ years, the house went though multiple changes. Eventually, both neighboring houses were co-owned by Laurent-Perrier in 1988 when Bernard de Nonancourt was to merge the family interests by taking over Champagne Delamotte, integrating it into the Laurent-Perrier group. Just a few months later, he was able to realize a long-held dream – an emotional milestone that merits a chapter of its own! – in acquiring at long last the tiny Champagne Salon, Delamotte’s neighbour in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.
This is how the destinies of Champagne Delamotte and Champagne Salon came to be entwined. Today, these two exceptional producers operate as sister houses, sharing offices and facilities in the very same historic town house in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, bought by the de Nonancourt family so many years before…”
“Salon is the most elusive of Champagne’s grand marques. Only made in what the house deems the very best years, Salon has been bottled just 38 times since 1905, its first vintage. Yet. Even when it is released, production is tiny. Consider that there are just 60,000 bottles (5,000 cases) of the 2002 for the entire world, a virtually insignificant amount by Champagne standards, while production numbers for other tête de cuvées range from a few times greater, as in the case with Taittinger’s Comtes to Champagne (also considered a small production Champagne), to about 100 times greater for Dom Perignon.”
“Salon is located in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, in the heart of the Côtes des Blancs. The core of Salon emerges from a small vineyard that sits right behind the house. Salon is done entirely in steel, with no malolactic fermentation, one of the reasons the wines need extended time in bottle prior to release, and in most cases, several years on the cork before they start drinking well. In vintages in which Salon is not made, the fruit goes into Delamotte, Salon’s sister estate and neighbor. The Delamotte style is less severe, as malolactic fermentation is employed to give the wines softer contours and more immediate breadth.”
1983 CHATEAU BEYCHEVELLE SAINT JULIEN- my bring served blind; this is comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot with the percentages in the 60/30/5/5 range; decanted 1/2 hour and then poured a few hours later upon being seated at dinner, swirled repeatedly but not not tasted until 15-20 minutes later; the color definitely demonstrated some age with a bit of a browning edge; the nose offered leather and earth accents to the dried black currant that was joined by some nice, fresh black cherry that served to provide some youthfulness; it was full bodied with layered depth and complexity and finished classily with its hallmark of being in perfect balance. We got this one in its peak stage.
How wonderful it was for me to share an evening with a dear friend inclusive of wine exploration and food pairing and sincere conversation about meaningful things in life. Fortunately, we have a few more occasions set up and it all gets better.
Cheers,
Blake