TN: A Great French Dinner

WINE TALK
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A GREAT FRENCH DINNER - Indianapolis, IN (9/14/2014)

An excess of riches. An evening where the whites outnumbered the reds. And where many whites were more open for current pleasure. My notes start to sound repetitive with words including balance and harmony. The food pairings were thoughtful and delicious, and highlighted every wine. Guests provided the wines from their cellars. Fortunately out of roughly 26 bottles opened, none were flawed save for one of the Weinbachs, that was certainly serviceable, but was notably different from the first bottle opened.

Dungeness crab chaud/froid, sea urchin, soy pickely cherries, toasted hemp hearts
Mushroom farinette
Smoked beef carpacio
Smoked salmon and caviar on toast points
Summer fruit and triple cream basket

  • 1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut - France, Champagne
    Light golden color. Slightly oxidative notes on the nose. Baked apples and nuts in the mouth. The acidity seems a bit high and slightly out of balance. A nice way to start.

Warm and cold oysters with fennel & white pepper curry cream and cucumber mignonette

  • 2008 Didier Dagueneau Sancerre Les Monts Damnés - France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre
    So sweet on the nose I initially mistook it for riesling and thought the wines may have been served out of order. With air it became a bit more typical on the nose with floral overtones and almost lime/lemon curd notes with the acidity that was initially muted on the nose giving it lift. The acidity in the mouth is prominent from the get go, and works well with the warm and cold oysters. This wine seemed to fade after 2 hours in the glass.

Mackerel escabeche & prosciutto de Parma, shaved sweet onion, blistered cherry tomato, carrot coulis, fingerling chips

  • 1998 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune - France, Alsace, Alsace AOC
    From the Steve Verlin collection. Dark color. Oxidative nose with glycerine, petrol and honey coming through on the nose. More petrol in the mouth, with bright acidity. A beautiful foil to the mackerel.

Breton Lobster, potato gnocchi, haricot vert, sweet corn kernels, and corn pudding

  • 2004 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
    Jeroboam. My oh my. Upon opening this big bottle had a huge stoney nose, with tons of sulfur. The wine was poured in the cellar in to glasses around an hour before being served. It was still a bit tight in the glass, but giving soaring notes of honeysuckle and beautiful minerality. It really fills all corners of the mouth, and just lingers and lingers on the finish. Truly great chardonnay. It never really tired in the glass.

Hen and chicken of the woods mushrooms and butternut squash with root vegetable and uni vinaigrette

  • 2003 Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Savennières-Coulée de Serrant
    As expected, not the crowd favorite. Bottles were decanted 7-8 hours prior to service, at which time a distinct apple juice note was present. A very dark golden color. At the table, it had prominent oxidative notes, and bright acidity. With the food it really became more complex win the mouth. A somewhat polarizing wine, but one of the better pairings of the night, when every dish was masterfully paired.

“Brandade” of Atlantic cod cheeks and cauliflower, dried duck hearts, baby artichoke and apricot tartare, brown butter vadouvan biscuit

  • 2010 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu Coteau de Vernon - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Condrieu
    A fantastic white wine. Mixed floral, heather, stone fruits on the nose. Balanced acidity coming through. Great depth to the nose. In the mouth, nothing is lost. Equally balanced, and perhaps the first of several great wines where the nose and the palate are in synchronous harmony. There is weight without being remotely heavy. Supreme balance.

Seared foie & foie terrine, creamed couscous de maiz, tomato jam, candied pistachio, salted cashew, brioche

Indiana rabbit saddle and boudin blanc, grilled salsify, turnips, burgundy truffle, rabbit liver jus

  • 1980 Maison Leroy Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru
    This wine initially presented with marked acid on the nose, with the fruit lurking underneath. Dark color, and cloudy without throwing much sediment. With 20-30 minutes in the glass darker Gevrey fruit began to emerge on the nose and palate. It’s possible there was a bit of bottle variation, or perhaps I didn’t give it enough time to open up.
  • 1978 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard 1er Cru
    A last minute decision to open and pour this wine following the Leroy. Significant bricking, the most mature color of the night (appropriately). The nose is that of an aged burgundy, with sweet darker fruit coming through. Immediately opens in the glass straight from the bottle. In the mouth it is a big wine with the Pommard rusticity being tamed by the harmony of the vintage.

Light cured duck breast, warm salad of shredded confit, chanterelles, and crisp wild rice, celeriac puree, cherry & herbs de Provence demiglace

  • 1990 Château Lafite Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
    Really tight when opened. 10+ hours later, including 6+ in the glass, offering up beautiful cassis, hints of coffee, earth. Still a baby, but textbook Pauillac.
  • 1990 Château Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
    Pronounced leather, tar/rubber (not in a bad way) and slight gamey notes on the nose. It took aggressive swirling and for the fruit to make its presence known. A big and complete wine. Still needs time.

Red wine braised Wagyu short ribs with smokey white beans, carrots and kale, braising essence, and a touch of radish

  • 1990 Pétrus - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
    Distinctly different nose, but not one that I would have guessed 95+ percent merlot. A little tight at first, but fills the mouth with a luxurious mouthfeel. Dark cherry/cassis/blueberry fruit. It is an opulent wine, and will last longer than anyone reading this note.

lamb glazed potato & olives with lamb loin & tongue

  • 1990 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
    Beautiful purity of dark fruit. Meat, leather and tar, yet not remotely that of the Haut Brion. Black fruit and black pepper. Lingers in the mouth. Another complete and beautiful wine.

“Cheese” (A single macaron with triple cream cheese and fig jam)

Apricot Napoleon with apricot vanilla jam, creme mousseline, and candied apricots

  • 1983 Château d’Yquem - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
    Like a harvest moon—amber-orange color. Sweet apricot and honeyed notes. Not as sweet as I expected in the mouth. Heavier than the SGN, but with a beautiful lift in the mouth and a satisfying, lingering finish. A beautiful Yquem.

Posted from CellarTracker

A few side notes:
The printed menu has the 1961 and 1990 Pétrus being served together. Day of event circumstances prevented the '61 from being served.
Local chefs did the cooking, and there was full French service with a total of 17 servers/wine captains/sommeliers for 22 guests. I believe photos are forthcoming, and I’ll add them when they become available. A most memorable evening!

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“A bit sweet, yet very dry.”???



PS: What was the tarriff for that meal? Sounds amazing.

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Gosh, that seems utterly amazing!

As for the Bordeaux, the 1990s are even so a quarter of a century old.
How remarkable that natural wines that can age - and improve - for so long!

Alex R.

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A jeroboam of PYCM Montrachet ! Sounds like a great dinner. Looking forward to the photos.

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I’ve had the 04 PYCM Montrachet from Magnum but not from Jeroboam! Wow!! A great wine…and sounds like a fantastic dinner.

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Damn Andy. That’s all I can say !

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Great write up! What are toasted hemp hearts? I’ll be out picking Chicken of the Woods mushrooms this weekend!

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Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Roberto: For the Weinbach, I ineffectively was trying to convey that the wine was bone dry in the mouth. There were sweet qualities to it, but it was very dry. Sometime with Alsatian riesling, it seems to be a mystery as to whether the wine will be sweet or dry (particularly with Zind-Humbrecht pre-label index).

The indirect cost of the dinner is tricky to calculate. The dinner originated with the head sommelier (also a professional server) longing for an event where fellow industry members could execute their craft in its highest form. He presented it to a friend who ran with it, and got local chefs on board, who also wanted to work both individually and as a team to create a memorable menu. There was a goal of doing a tour of great French wine regions/great wines. Some brainstorming took place (and then a great deal of planning), but the wines really kind of selected themselves. Guests provided the wines for the dinner, and, those who did not, brought great bottles that went to the chefs, servers, sommeliers, dishwashers etc. Everything from 1990 monopole burgundy to young, highly rated hermitage. The dinner wines were not solicited. When diners learned of the event, they proposed the fantastic wines that were listed. Three bottles of most wines were available, with, for the most part two being opened. Pours were 2 ounces (more for the Montrachet), with some diners electing to take a smaller pour, and some diners foregoing wine in the glass. With the latter phenomenon, and wine left in decanters, many non-diners tasted the majority of the wines.
Servers donated their services, but it was decided to overrule them and pay them, in addition to the wine. Chefs donated their time, and only requested payment for the ingredients. The event space was generously donated. As mentioned, wines were freely contributed. So the cost was a mere fraction of what conceivable could have been charged for a similar event.

Alex, it is amazing to me how well good wine can age. This year I’ve had a 1912 first growth, and grand cru burgundy from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s etc. The burgs were direct from the producer, and the bordeaux from a pristine source. They were fantastic.

Anthony and Jerry, the PYCM Montrachet was a special wine, and the format was incredibly fun. I had the good fortune to pull the cork on the bottle–almost as fun as drinking the wine!

Nick, we need to find a time to drink together!

And Mark, I don’t know about the hemp any more than I can google. Looks like hulled hemp seeds–likely used for texture as much as flavor. And good luck with your mushrooms!

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The good will of your dinner can only be imagined. What a great event.

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Where were all these chefs when I visited Indianapolis? Certainly didn’t look like a mecca of fine dining to me.

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I was lucky enough to be invited to this gala black tie event, which lasted seven hours, and I am not likely to see anything like it again. Apropos your comment, Paul, about restaurants in Indianapolis, there is a group of gourmands here, most members of the Confrérie, who try to encourage young chefs and patronize their restaurants. The problem is the larger clientele. I think perhaps the chief reason the chefs were so anxious to be part of this dinner is that they were able to create dishes that 95% of their customers would never order. But there is definitely movement in the right direction going on. If you visit Indianapolis again ask Andy for a list of the best places to eat.


Some random thoughts on the wines. I was interested to see that Andy found the same slightly off-putting acidity in the '96 Krug that I did. I had a similar experience last year with the '85, where the acidity was even more pronounced. There must be something about Krug I don’t get. My favorite wine of the evening was a tie between the Colin Montrachet and the Vernay Condrieu. There have been so many oxidized bottles of white burgundy opened in our group recently; it was thrilling finally to drink a completely intact example of Montrachet, a wine of tremendous depth and persistence of flavor, which was still developing more fragrance and power at the end of the evening. I don’t think I had ever drunk a Condrieu before and that experience was equally exalted. The nose was Sauternes-like, but in the mouth there was such an ethereal quality to the wine – not to wax poetic, but it was like drinking a delicious cloud.

The Bordeaux suffered, I think, by coming after so many whites and a mature red burgundy. Several people at my table couldn’t deal with the undoubted youthfulness of the wines (too bad the '61 Pétrus didn’t turn up), but I still found much pleasure, especially in the '90 Haut-Brion and Pétrus. The mouth feel of the latter is hard to put into words, except to say that I can see why millionaires compete for bottles.

A tremendous effort by the organizers, chefs, and staff, all of whom I want to thank again.

David Kubiak

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Andy,

Andy,

A mutual friend that was also in attendance described the event to me but you certainly made it come to life for me! What a night. Hope you are doing well and that our chef friends had the opportunity to blow it up and truly showcase their talents. Look forward to popping a few corks with you.

All the best,

Bill