My wife and I just celebrated our - 25th Wedding Anniversary in NYC this past weekend. Sometimes you get exceptionally lucky. Nice that silver is an affordable symbol for the milestone.
Maialino - The buzz for this restaurant is still well founded. Excellent meal with one tasty Roman trattoria dish after another:
2002 Domaine Ruinart Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne
Soft, clean, minerally, subdued and a bit lackluster. Thoroughly enjoyed the pear/citrus notes with decent acidity. The wine was in general…pleasing, which is not at all what I expect for $125+. It refused to fully wake up over the course of 1.5 hours or show much interest in cranking up the party. Maybe the intensity will improve after cellaring.
2006 Jacques Prieures Meursault-Perrieres 1er Cru
A perfectly tasty ripe white Burg encrusted with a jarring amount of toasted caramel oak. Some tropicality which it carries off without losing focus. Decent acid and weight. Couldn’t get past the wood damage. Friends at the table loved it. I’ll be gifting my remaining bottle this Xmas.
2003 Piero Busso Barbaresco Borgese
Hand carried from Milan several years ago. It was balanced and approachable with an inoffensive touch of new wood. Darker cherries with floral Nebb notes. Decent acidity with accessible gently rubbing tannins. Moderate length. Not showing any appreciable 03 issues…maybe a trace of roasted character if you really scrutinize. Perfectly serviceable with the meat plates featuring lamb chops and baby pork (with crispy skin). Impressively tasty swordfish chunks too.
Sojourn - It’s not a destination and the decor is a bit dark and uninspiring. The menu seemed pretty sedate with modern American fare. The food exceeded expectations. The corkage service was excellent.
NV Chartogne-Taillet Heurtebise BdB Champagne (2008 base)
Yum. Expressive and extroverted compared to the Ruinart. Excellent balance. It favors the citrus and white/yellow fruit side of things. Crisp and clean, providing subtle mineralilty and mild spice complexity. Excellent intensity, grip and length. Yes please.
1986 Ceretto Barbaresco Bricco Asili
The ‘98 Giacosa Falletto Barolo to start the weekend (Talula’s) was a bit advanced but completely delicious, progressing in to its prime drinking window. This was simply, a bit too tired. Wonderful integration, suave, subtle, earthy with hints of the dried herbs and rose petals. Completely accessible. Aged redder Nebb fruit. No hints of VA. The midpalate remained soft with a pleasing gentle finish. This bottle was probably sensational 5 years ago. Still quite enjoyable.
I love Maialino - we had a Cappellano tasting there last year in a private room, and the courses were deelish. Not to get you off-thread, but I linked the food photos from Ken V’s site, as he does a great job with food photography (although try as he might, the attendees still come off as a rather motley bunch) - the octopus appetizer was a stand-out, and the roast suckling pig was as good as you’d expect. Liz, who took great care of us that night, unfortunately moved uptown to another very nice Italian place, but this restaurant is definitely a keeper.
Bob, that’s quite the wine dinner. Great photos. We enjoyed a sepia (baby squid) appetizer and the roast suckling pig dish among many others. All the food was great and eventhough we were pretty full by the time the 3rd and 4th courses arrived, everyone found a little extra room.
A Rubin Stein: 1) Friendly corkage and good stems at $25/btl; 2) Reasonable review in the BYOB forum + a couple other resources; 3) Convenient. I expected boring from the menu but the food was really quite good. Excellent Burrata, way above expectations…reportedly brought in fresh from Italy. It wouldn’t have hurt to use a headlamp to see better. Afterwards we took an easy stroll over to Bar Pleiades (part of the Boulud empire) for delicious warm mini-macaroons. Dessert wine glass pricing was crazy, but the setting is romantic.
Dan: Corkage was a major factor in our going to Maialino. Incredibly accomodating at $25/btl. Highly recommend going.
Jon, quick photo of the Ruinart bottle (this is the 2nd of 2 bottles purchased together). Planning to let this one sleep a while. J & I both very much preferred the Chartogne-Taillet. Hope all is great in Tucson!
That’s the one! I’ve heard only good things about this particular wine - the '02 Ruinart Dom Ruinart. “Montrachet with bubbles”, etc - hope my first one of these lives up to my expectations.
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