I just got back from three nights in Vegas with my wife and another couple. We went through a six-pack of wine which we brought plus assorted bottles purchased at restaurants, so I thought I’d give a quick rundown.
THURSDAY
Pre-dinner: We opened a 2007 Sanford La Rinconada Chardonnay and a 1999 Ridge Lytton Springs. We have had the Sanford many times, and it is a delicious and dependable chardonnay in more of a crowd-pleasing and tropical California style, but still with good acids, balance and complexity, particularly nice notes of white pepper and mineral. 91 points. The Ridge was not one of the better aged Lytton Springs or Geyserville bottles I’ve had, with heavy plum fruit being a little out of balance. But it was solid, and it was generally aging in the claret-like manner of Ridge zin blends, and it had enough acid and structure to make it decent. 89 points.
We had dinner at Bouchon, which was utterly disappointing. Mediocre food and just awful service, neither helpful, friendly nor attentive. My friend brought a Jean Laurant Brut Champagne NV, which was pretty big, dark and toasty for a Champagne. I found it enjoyable in a decadent style, but it lacked lift and precision to a degree. 91 points. While nothing redeemed the food or service, we at least found some interesting and reasonably priced wines on the list – 2007 Baumard Savennieres was in a great place, nice briny shellfish notes balancing out honeyed fruits and white flowers (91 points), and 2004 Montus Madiran remains a powerful young steak-accompanying red, with substantial tannins and acids framing its deep purple berry flavors, yet a very light hand on oak (90 points). I have four bottles of this at home, and would probably still wait a couple of years before opening the next one, though you can enjoy this now with red meat.
FRIDAY
Pre-dinner: I opened a 2006 Louis Jadot Puligny Montrachet Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts. I think this wine was starting to show some early premox, and whether that was the source of the problem or not, it was a pretty joyless and fruitless experience. NR. Next, I had brought the Ridge plus a 2007 Carlisle Zinfandel Carlisle Vineyard, hoping to turn my friend’s head on the upside of California zinfandel which he has long disdained. Maddeningly, I had perhaps my first disappointing experience with a Carlisle zin. This had reasonably concentrated dark berry, raisin and plum flavors, but it was lacking in complexity, acids and lift, and it was a surprisingly dull and anonymous tasting wine overall. I guess it’s not reasonable to expect a winery to bat 1.000. 85 points. I sampled both wines the next night, and both had only gone further downhill, so no magic this time.
Dinner: We had our first visit to Lotus of Siam, and it lived up to all the hype, even though as a Lenten Friday, my wife and I could only enjoy the crispy duck vicariously through our friends. Bank was on vacation, and it took a little more effort for our server to figure out some wines for us, but eventually he sourced some early 1990s German rieslings for us which were superb and still reasonably priced at around $80-90. I didn’t write them down, though one was a 1993 Zilliken of some sort. We didn’t get to any reds, though the list was full of great reds from all over the world at excellent prices.
SATURDAY
Dinner: We dined at Michael Mina, and it really lived up to the hype and price tag, from the tasteful and understated ambience, to terrific and low-key service, and one great dish after another. We also did better with the wines this time around. I ordered a 2004 Stony Hill Chardonnay off the list, and it was mildly disappointing, a bit too much bitterness and salty butter flavors and not enough balancing fruit, but I think it was still within bounds and might have had some more appeal to an AFWE type. I’ve had Stony Hill a couple of other times before and had much better experiences. 87 points. Next, we opened a 2008 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard that I brought, and this delivered in a huge way. Substantial red fruit, surrounded by intriguing but not obtrustive notes of pine forest, autumnal baking spices, damp earth, lavender and violet, all in perfect balance with no heaviness or clumsiness. The sommelier had heard of Rhys but not tried it before, and he was greatly impressed. 96 points. We finished with the last wine of the six I had brought, a 2003 Domaine Tollot-Beaut Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi, which was also excellent and held its own in the lofty company of the Rhys. The cherry and raspberry fruit was dialed up to 2003 levels, but there was no roasted flavor or heaviness or heat, and the wine finished with pleasing minerality, herbal notes, and acids. A wine which would probably please most lovers of Burgundy and of California and Oregon pinot. 94 points.
Anyways, a much lower batting average than I had expected for the selection of wines we had, but a few big hits and QPR successes mixed in there anyways.
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