Paul Hanna is a sneaky Bastard. He kicked off the annual Walter Bourke Memorial Options Night with the same Champagne served blind to us. Now admittedly one was the Oeno but I don’t think anyone at the table guessed that these two Champagne were from the same vintage let alone the same house. The 1990 Dom Perignon was fully developed with some mushroom and nutty development. It tasted of baked apple and was rich and creamy with good length. The 1990 Dom Perignon Oeno looked like a 96. It was razor sharp and piercing yet generous. It has power with elegance and really builds through the palate. The acid profile feels quite different to the standard offering and you suspect well stored bottles will last decades.
I have never experienced an options game where there were so many pre-prepared, thought provoking questions. We had to cut Paul back on some questions as some of us had time constraints, ie we wanted to be in bed before 3am. Big G quipped that the late Len Evans (founder of the options game in this country) would have smacked Paul and sent him off to bed after his 6th question on the first wine. Anthony thought that we could source the same wines for next year and use the rest of Paul’s questions then.
The food was prepared by Scot Pickett of St Crispin and Estelle fame and it was as good as we’ve had at Monday Table over the past couple of years. A crab amuse was brilliant with the fizz for starters. Western Australian Marron came with a Foie Gras paste and some chopped green Rhubarb and radish to add texture. It was a dish of great flavour and harmony and worked so well with the white bracket.
We were asked how many Grand Crus were in the bracket of 6 whites and we knew there would be a few tricky wines here. A 1995 Chateau Haut Brion Blanc was the first such tricky beast but it did stick out of the bracket like a tropical beacon. It smelled of tinned pineapple with some vanilla and custard. It was rich, full, layered and exotic in the mouth and quite long. This was a good wine but I long not for expensive, dry white Bordeaux this morning. Since tasting the 1993 Giaconda Chardonnay on release I have proclaimed it to be the finest Chardonnay ever made in our country. The way it showed last night vindicates this as it was many people’s wine of the bracket in a strong field. It had plenty of gun flint and spice to the aroma. It was rich and detailed with terrific precision and line. It finished with a big puff of chalk and possesses fabulous length of flavour. The 1996 Giaconda Chardonnay is perhaps regarded as a better wine by the cognoscenti but it was a notch below the 93. It still had a fair whack of sulphur along with sweet orchard fruit aromas and flavours. There was a touch of fig and spice to the flavour profile and it had some toasty development. One member went on winesearcher immediately to see if he could find either of these Chardonnays. Only the 96 was available in Hong Kong. Big G quipped ‘the ink is drying on the labels as we speak’. The 2005 Coche-Dury Meursault ‘Perrieres’ 1er Cru was initially tight but opened up beautifully in the glass. It was dense, full and rich with sappy orchard fruits trimmed with a light spice. There was a hint of vanilla and it finished with awesome minerally precision and was oh so long. The 2005 Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet smelled like a Ramonet wine with a sprig of spearmint enveloping one’s nostrils. It was cool and stony with piercing white peach fruit and rigid posture thanks to a high tensile mineral and citrus spine. The 2000 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne was behaving in a strange way. It was advanced but not in an undrinkable caramel way. It didn’t have the precision and verve that you would expect. It had some bacon fat aromas along with citrus blossom and orange rind and some toast and mushroom development. It was rich, creamy and layered in the mouth with plenty of power and good length.
A dish of Waygu Bresaola with confit yolk and hay ash arrived and we had to quickly pour out a bracket of reds that were straight Shiraz or had some Shiraz in the blend. The 2004 Penfolds Bin60A is about 5 decades away from its apogee. It is a polished and powerful wine with a perfume of sweet cedar and blueberries. It is creamy and luscious in the mouth with fantastic depth and sweet spherical tannins. The 2004 Chateau Palmer 19th Century blend is a wine that hasn’t been, nor is it likely to be ever served at Monday Table again. It had a fairly high toned, floral perfume coupled with bright cassis fruit. It was rich and dense in the mouth with good grip to the finish. The 1991 Guigal Cote-Rotie ‘La Landonne’ had some VA that punched warm berry fruit and chocolate smells up into the nostrils. It was sweet and rich in the mouth with some tar and earth development. The 1991 Guigal Cote-Rotie ‘La Turque’ was a little disappointing. There was a touch of spent firework to the aroma along with some funky brett. It was chocolately sweet in the mouth and lacked a touch of precision. None of us had ever seen a 1963 Penfolds Bin 63 Kalimna Cabernet/Eden Valley Shiraz before, but we will certainly remember it. It had some crushed ant, formic acid notes on the nose and most of us thought it was an old Grange. It had plenty of Christmas cake spice and a suggestion of leather. Tannins were resolved and the palate was full and gentle. There’s still a kiss of acidity on the finish keeping things fresh.
The bracket of red Burgs was accompanied by a beautiful dish of Venison with burnt carrots and broccoli. DRC made fantastic 1990’s and the 1990 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Echezeaux was the star of the first three wines. It had some sweet meat and soy on the nose. In the mouth the cherry fruits were sweet and luscious and there were all sorts of engaging floral and spicy nuances. It finished with good authority and freshness. The 1990 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux was tighter with some sappy, floral spice. It was dense with a strand of liquorice weaving through the flavour profile. It finished with sweet tannins and length of flavour was super. It needs more time. When I first smelled the 1990 Clos de Tart I almost thought it was a 2004. There were some sweet and sour things going on and it had some root vegetable action. It had a bit of beef stock development and some ripe fig flavours. It was quite silky in the mouth and is a good wine but certainly outclassed by the two DRC’s. I don’t know why we have to act surprised as to how well 2000 red Burgundies drink, they have been really good for a decade and even better than really good at the top end as the next three wines confirm. The 2000 E.Rouget Vosne-Romanee ‘Cros Parantoux’ 1er Cru has some of the red jube like fruit of the vintage. It is spicy with a cool, rocky heart. It really builds in the mouth and the palate is fine and lacy. There’s good concentration and it finishes with terrific cut. I have been fortunate enough to have the 2000 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache several times since release and Paul’s bottle here was the best showing yet. It had a perfume of sandalwood, sap, red berries and aniseed. It was cool and direct in the mouth with a silky mouthfeel and good depth and detail. It really fans out on the finish and is a wine of great harmony and poise. The 2000 Faiveley Musigny is still just a pup. It is very much red fruited with plenty of floral nuance. It is a strong wine with real depth and structure. It is certainly one 2000 that could do with another decade or more in the cellar.
On paper ‘Raspberries with pistachio and basil’ may not sound like the ideal dessert to go with a couple of old ‘sweeties’, from bowl it was. The 1967 Penfolds Special Sauternes Bin 868 had a strong scent of beeswax. It had a big drizzle of honey and some preserved fruit flavours. There was custard apple creaminess in the mouth and it was round, rich and heady, perhaps just drying out a tad on the backend. The 1959 Caillou ‘Creme de Tete’ was outrageously good. It had restrained exoticism and was crammed with candied peel, spice, vanilla and honey aromas and flavours. It was full, rich and concentrated with ripping acidity countering all of the sweet luscious things.
The obligatory Quinta do Noval Nacional came in the form of the 1967. It was full of raisins and chocolate. It was dense and creamy in the mouth and cut with fabulously clean spirit. Next to it a 1939 Massandra Red Port looked decidedly old with its pale yellowish colour and tinges of khaki green. It was a little cheesy and smelt of raisins and antique furniture. It has plenty of savoury nuance and a heady spirit wafted around the gums once swallowed. Cheeses were Pyenganna and Isle of Mull Cheddar.
There had been a ding dong battle down the home straight between Greg and Big G so far as the options winner was concerned. Big G just pipped him at the post on the last wine.
We really needed another drink by this stage so Paul opened a 2009 Domaine et Selection Echezeaux made by Laurent Ponsot. It had good flesh and an amalgam of red and black fruits. It was quite detailed and structured for the vintage. I got up to leave and Big G asked what time my flight was. I replied ‘around midday’, his response was ‘can’t you go any earlier?’.
Thanks very much Paul for your extraordinary generosity. Thank you very little for the ridiculous amount of options questions, I have a headache today and it wasn’t from having that one last glass of red.
Cheers
Jeremy
