so , i am trying, for the first time, a new thing with my wine tasting group - we are doing a white dinner - that is right, no red wine. we have set our theme as salon + white burg.
how would you organise the following into flights and in what order. particularly for the salon, i am assuming older to younger given how acidic the younger ones can be, but would love to hear your perspective
salon
82
90
95
96
97 (this one’s a mag if that impacts how you would place it)
99
white burgs
99 leroy chassagne montr. morgeot or 00 ramonet batard montr.
04 bouchard la cabotte chevalier montr.
btw, just to mess with everyone, we are going to serve a young coche dury bourgogne blanc double blind and we have sticky to finish with the cheese.
appreciate your opinions, this one has been confusing me. i am not even convinced we have to start with the champagne first.
In the USA, a big shipment of Salon from that era [i.e. involving those vintages] somehow got damaged somewhere in the distribution channel [doubtlessly involving heat exposure in some container or warehouse which wasn’t reeferized or air-conditioned properly].
Hopefully none of that bad stock made its way across the ocean to you [in Hong Kong], but if I were serving those wines in the USA, from USA cellars, then I would be prepared for a little heartbreak with some of the vintages.
[I have encountered some of the bad bottles of Salon from that era, and they are very very VERY awful - just completely undrinkable.]
my understanding is the 82 and 90 are both ex-domaine. i know the 90 is.
the rest, knowing my gang and where we buy wines, would almost, to the bottle, have been bought in the UK, where you rarely see US strips, although i have always wondered what stops someone from removing the strips and selling that wine in other countries…
ryan, you dont think the palate will be fatigued by the younger salon’s to appreciate the nuances of the 82 / 90 if they are served in the end? i ask the question not in a tone of argument, but genuine curiosity about the thinking behind the sequencing and i appreciate you taking the time to outline a plan
I hate to keep dissing my own country, but here in the USA, the “gray market” juice from the UK invariably seems like it’s fresher and livelier and zestier than the stuff which has to pass through our “three-tier system”.
PS: Is there gonna be any food at this thing?
If so, then what’s the cuisine? [Not that I would know szechuan from cantonese from whatever…]
Not for me, but it is certainly subjective. I drank a ton the the 97 salon at la paulee as an aperitif and it worked well. I was thinking of the young ones as more of a palate cleanser. I don’t have an issue serving the oldest wines last, but it is obviously up to you.
Danny
I am waiting for the next turn of the menu, but current thinking is scampi, Dover sole, mushroom risotto, and maybe suckling pig. We had foie gras but I took that off the menu.