The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™ returned to the beautiful and prestigious grounds of Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada to celebrate the end of our practically non-existent Winter season. We last visited in August 2023 for an end of summer luncheon. This time, we returned on a chilly not quite Spring yet evening for dinner in the main dining hall. Fellow board member Jay Shampur, fellow TWEC ™ member Michael Wright and I arrived quite early thanks to surprisingly good traffic and decided to relax at Wilke’s Bar, their in-house craft cocktail bar, in front of a fireplace with a cocktail. The drink menu has changed over since our last visit and can be seen below.
I was very tempted by the non-alcoholic options again and almost went for the Boreal Fizz but ended up going with the Glass Bird which was the closest drink on the menu to a classic sour style cocktail.
Michael ended up choosing the Crimson Punch.
Jay chose the Sunseeker.
For our first wine, Jay brought the Dhondt-Grellet Dans Un Premier Temps Brut Champagne. This non-vintage is assembled from 50 % Chardonnay, 30% Pinot noir and 20% Pinot Meunier. This was opened and served by Nikki Does, our sommelier. This was our first time meeting her and we quickly became fast friends with her. This had a very strong brioche and caramel nose, nearly smelling like a baked cinnamon bun. Michael noted this was a challenging wine that doesn’t like friends. When I asked him to explain that, he said he meant that it would not pair well with other food. He was correct. A particulary strong slate chracteristic paired with bitter lemon fruit flavor and a juniper note on the finish meant this cleaned out the palate but good. I noted it was definitely a very powerful Champagne. I see where Michael is coming from but I don’t feel that a Champagne has to be able to pair with food necessarily. It’s most common uses are as an aperitif to get the appetite going or to cleanse out the palate between food bites and like I noted, this did the latter job almost as well as a dental cleaning. I can’t recall a Champagne that served this purpose as well as this one, in fact. We shared some of this with Nikki as well.
The meal started with an amuse bouche of Aubergine purée served with pesto over a house made red pepper cracker. This was extremely flavorful for such a small morsel – and the Dhondt-Grellet completely wiped the umami, heat and fat clean out of my palate. Very intriguing interplay here between the food and drink.
The bread course came next. We were served both the housemade Sourdough and the Chia bread along with some artisanal butter. There may have been more than one slice of each consumed. (Not pictured)
For our meals, we went a la carte and chose two appetizers each followed by a main, coffee and dessert. For our first appetizer, Michael and I chose the Foie Gras Parfait. Fois gras was served with late harvest wine jelly, orchard apple, wood sorrel, and brioche slices.
Jay chose the Juniper Cured Trout. Cured trout is served with braised red cabbage purée, Balsam fir glaze, marigold leaves and Brussel sprout leaves.
For our second course, all three of us chose the Creme de Homard. Poached lobster is served with a butternut squash purée foam and a spiced pear compote.
We ordered our second wine off of the list, the Marc Morey & Fils 2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chenevottes. This was decanted beforehand at Michael’s request and it was a good thing it was. This had an extremely strong matchstick nose and palate as it was after decanting, I wondered what it was like upon opening. It actually ended up being quite balanced with lots of fresh fruit as it reposed in our glasses. Beautiful match with the lobster. We shared this with both Nikki and Cody, our waiter for the night.
Our next course was the Ricotta Gnudi dressed with shaved black winter truffle, glazed Paris mushrooms and Champagne and truffle foam. Gnudi is simply Gnocchi made with Ricotta cheese instead of mashed potato as the binder. I’ve actually made it just once before. Notice I said only once before. There’s a good reason for that. It’s an absolute pain in the ass to make due to both the textural change and the stickiness that results from using soft cheese instead of starchy potato. So kudos to the Langdon Hall kitchen staff for pulling this one off. Honest to God, this was the dish of the night. An absolute explosion of umami flavor. Jay and I would’ve been happy to drown in several servings of this dish because then we’d both at least die very happy. This was incredible.
Along with this we the Zind-Humbrecht 2006 Clos Saint Urbain Rangen de Thann 2006 Riesling. The Riesling was beautiful and complex, crisp, off-dry and with a slight touch of bright bitter citrus on the finish.
Then we had the Figli Luigi Oddero 2008 Barolo. This had a very perfumed Rose water nose, had a slightly bricked color, smoothly integrated tannins, mellow stewed red fruit and high acidity. This was delicious.
Before our mains, we had the pleasure of a visit from executive chef Jason Bangerter to our table. Interestingly, we were reminsicing before his arrival of our first two ever meetings years ago. On our first TWEC ™ visit, we made his acquaintance and invited him to join us for dessert wine after service which he graciously accepted. The second time, he gave us a tour of the kitchen facilities. As he joined us at the table, we reminisced again, this time together with him. Time does indeed fly.
For our mains, Jay had the Cauliflower Risotto. This was topped with fried capers, raisin jam, crispy shallot and Parmigiano Reggiano.
Michael and I enjoyed the Smoked Beef which was served with silken rutabaga, hen of the woods mushrooms, and Madeira thyme jus.
For our last wine, I brought the DeBortoli Black Noble. This is an extremely rare get, so much so that Nikki, who actually spent time in Australia and enjoyed DeBortoli wines including the revered Noble One, was actually unable to try Black Noble during her years there. Talk about serendipity, here I am showing up with the very wine. This is composed of their famous Noble One sweet wine made from botrytised Australian Semillon grapes which is then fortified and put back into Noble One barrels to age patiently in a Sherry solera style. The result is a thick black viscous nectar that appears similar to a PX Sherry, but is quite different on the palate. Whereas PX Sherry is noted for raisin and rancio flavors, this has tangy dried apricot and rancio balanced with a decently high acidity. Nikki noted a chocolate mousse note and Jay noted a very floral nose. This was absolutely delicious. We extended an offer to the floor staff to sample some and were quite pleased that many of them actually took us up on the offer.
For dessert, I ordered the Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding. This is a classic chocolate pudding made with Langdon Hall’s own milk chocolate which they had sourced and crafted in France. It’s topped with Frangelic jam droplets and edible flowers.
Jay received the Chocolate Coffee Tiramisu.
Finally, the meal ended with a couple of petits fours. An orange pate and a 70% chocolate truffle.
TWEC ™ would like to thank executive chef Jason Bangerter and his kitchen staff for the incredible food and our sommelier Nikki for her exceptional attention and banter, and the service from our waiter Cody. We appreciate their generosity and look forward to returning soon.