Berserkers,
The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™ held it’s third Champagne and Fried Chicken Night this past Sunday. Fellow board and TWEC ™ members Mike Grammer, Jay Shampur, Dylan Provencher, Tim Burnett and his wife Alyssa Burnett as well as our friend Debbie Shing gathered at Mike’s condo for our third go-round at this beautiful pairing. As promised in my last posting on this topic, I actually rose up to the challenge and surprised the group with homemade Korean Double Fried Chicken. I’ll post a thread over on Epicurean Exploits with the exact recipe and process after this posting and come back to link it here.
So as soon as we got to Mike’s, I headed to the kitchen to get to work on the KDFC while we waited for everyone to arrive. We decided to have a sparkling aperitif to whet our appetites:
HONSBERGER NV CABERNET FRANC BRUT – This is a local Methode Traditionelle sparkler made from 100% local Niagara, Ontario Cabernet Franc grapes. This has really strong ripe green apple aromas and flavor with a slight phenolic note. This goes on for days on the palate and has a really long finish. Really unique, I enjoyed it and would definitely buy and drink again.
While we had this, I prepped and cooked away in the kitchen. This version of Korean Fried Chicken is breaded and fried twice over and the coating is a mixture of rice cracker crumbs, Panko bread crumbs, multigrain flour and cornstarch. Check out the full details in my post over on Epicurean Exploits (Korean Double Fried Chicken -- Official TWEC (TM) Champagne and Chicken Night Recipe), but the TLDR is below. Behold my creation:
CONSTANTINE SOLARRIS BLANC DE NOIRS NV BRUT CHAMPAGNE – This was new to me. 100% Pinot Meunier. It was actually an interesting NV as it had nice if basic red apple fruit and toasty brioche aromas and flavors. What made this for me was a clean saline note at the mid-palate and a really interesting sweet vanilla note that comes out of nowhere on the finish.
RENE GOEFFREY NV CHAMPAGNE EXPRESSION – Crisp unripened pineapple flavors dominate here with a slightly phenolic note on the background. Tart and very fresh.
At this point we sat down for the chicken which I made and served with a Soy Honey Garlic Smoked Habanero sauce on the side. Debbie also brought some Jollibee’s Filipino Fried Chicken along with a side of gravy.
VEUVE CLIQUOT NV DEMI-SEC CHAMPAGNE – This seemed to have been brought half as a joke and half as an opportunity to get rid of it. Everyone was ragging on it before we even opened it, yet it was actually the first Champagne to be opened to go with the KFDC itself. I suspected it might actually be a good match.
Not helping this bottle was the fact that it was slightly corky and needed time in the glass to blow it off. Once it did though, Mike pretty much summed it up by calling this Sparkling Moscato. That was both a very apt description and a possible insult as well. It was neither inaccurate nor undeserved. Now it was sweet, refreshing and fruit-forward. Certainly a pleasant drink once the corkiness blew off and to be fair a good match with the chicken. The major issue that I had with this is that it didn’t really express itself as much of a Champagne. Michael’s note was dead on and I honestly would have trouble differentiating this blind from a good quality Moscato d’Asti which would also be five times less the price. So if I wanted to drink a sweet refreshing fruity sparkler, why would I go for this over a Moscato? I really can’t recommend this in good conscience because it’s a terrible choice for Champagne lovers and a bad value QPR for those with a sweet tooth like me given what else is available on the market.
JM SELEQUE NV SOLESSENCE EXTRA BRUT – This is a non-dosage Champagne based on their 2016 vintage. This is quite dry and phenolic with plenty of unripe green apple flavor and a very high acidity. Easily the most powerful palate cleanser of all the bubblies so far at this point of the night. Might’ve been my WOTN but for something else that came along later.
TSARINE NV CUVE ORIUM BRUT – I’ve loved every Tsarine vintage Champagne I’ve ever tried including at the last iteration of this event. This just went on discount here at the LCBO due to low sales and I picked up a bottle hoping that this would be a worthwhile bargain as I usually don’t pick up NV Champagne but was willing to try this out and see if it was worth stocking up on. This has pleasant green apple flavors, very light toast and high acidity. The body and mousse, however, noticeably dissipate very quickly on the palate which was a little concerning. Overall, though, this is pretty good and certainly worth it if you can get it for a low price. Here at our LCBO, it dropped to $CDN 68.25 which translates to just under $50 US. Definitely worth it IMHO and I’ll think about grabbing another bottle or two.
BILLECART-SIMON 2009 BRUT – Per the Internet, this is the first vintage in which Billecart-Salmon used Pinot Meunier as part of their blend. This was a crisp refreshing apple orchard in a glass. The apple fruit gets stronger and stronger in the glass as it warms up but this never becomes cloying thank to the high acidity and fine body. Easy WOTN and a great match with the chicken.
** MYSTERY SPARKER ** – We had a mystery sparkler show up. This one is crisp, lightly toasty, and has nice fresh apple fruit flavors. Body dissipates quickly but so did the Tsarine’s and nobody complained. In fact, they were both really quite similar to each other.
Revealed as the Tawse 2013 Spark Blanc de Blancs. This is another local Niagara, Ontario sparkler and it punches well above its weight. Again, it very nearly matched the Tsarine and I certainly would not have pegged it a local sparkling wine.
LAURENT PERRIER 2008 BRUT – This came off as off-dry and refreshing to me, though no particular note stood out to me personally. It was a good palate cleanser to get us ready for the dessert course.
For dessert, we had some gourmet chocolate covered strawberries:
CHATEAU SUIDIRAUT 2019 SAUTERNES – All botrytis tingle all the time all the way through from beginning to very end of this one which made it really fun to drink. Classic dried pineapple and sweet creme brulée flavors that are quite strong due to its youth. A delicious treat and a great argument for drinking Sauternes in its youth. Very complimentary to the chocolate covered strawberries as well.
DUVAL-LEROY NV BRUT RESERVE – This had the great disadvantage of being both rather average and also the final bottle to be opened. It’s very much in the Riche style and now that I think about it, it was really the only one as all the other sparklers came off as to me as the Modern Lean style. This was by the far the toastiest of all the Champagnes with the brioche completely dominating the sweet red apple flavors. We really should have had this earlier for two reasons: it wasn’t a good match with dessert and came off as average or less after the higher end Champagnes we had already had.
ERADOUR 22 YO HIGHLAND OLOROSO CASK SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY – If you read my reports on our latest Weekend at Berto’s event, you know that whisky tastings to end the night are rapidly becoming a tradition for us. This is a sweet whisky with high heat and a slight citrus note on the palate. Good stuff.
GLEN SCOTIA DOUBLE CASK CAMPBELTOWN SCOTCH WHISKY – This no age statement whiskyh is matured in first fill bourbon barrels before being finished for 12 months in PX sherry casks. It has a salty sweet taste on the palate and high heat to go with it.
Well, that was a fun evening. I look forward to staging the next iteration of this event soon.
This showed a nice level of maturity and is rather settled now, but still with good authenticity and depth. 2013 really was the year for sparkling in this Province, and I don’t think any year since has come up to that level.