A last-minute cancellation of dinner plans at home had Marina and me scurrying and getting a reservation at Txikito, a Basque tapas place in Chelsea. We had excellent shared dishes highlighted by trucha, which was a fresh brook trout that was butterflied and slightly baked with a thin layer of jamon Serrano and drizzled with garlic vinaigrette. Every dish was delicious and fun to eat and we will definitely be back, next time much sooner than the 1.5 years it took this time to make our way back to this restaurant.
While the wines were OK, and I would have preferred to have brought Spanish wines but didn’t have enough time to request delivery from my off-site storage, it was the food that made this dinner much more memorable.
2005 Domaine du Closel ‘Clos du Papillon’ Savennieres
On the decline (I purchased at the winery back in August 2010 and which I admittedly failed to store appropriately). The wine still provided decent refreshing drink with mineral and very lean fruit component. B-
2000 Noel Verset Cornas
This bottle drank very well, too approachable for what I expected to be a still tight wine. Plenty of savory meaty notes on the bouquet. Rustic, as all Noel Verset that I’ve had always brought forth. However, this had a slightly more lushness with the ripe fruit mixing in with the savory characteristics. I liked the Northern Rhone syrah spiciness that it offered all throughout the drinking experience. B+