When in Paris, Drink like a member of the Grand Jury Europeen

WINE TALK
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I was feeling a bit lonely in Paris, coming up with things to do, places to see, restaurants to visit.

My friend and fellow GJE member, Marie Ahm (also fellow WineBerserker) invited me to a dinner tonight at an Italian restaurant in Paris to showcase certain Italian wines, with white truffles featured on most courses. The truffles, from of course, Alba, were flown in just this morning for the dinner, and picked specially for their “bona fides” in terms of flavours by the Italian winemakers.

The wine and white truffle dinner was amazing…with the homemade pasta, the white truffles, and on and on. But…

When GJE members get together, we plan major wine events.

Near the end of the dinner, we decided it was time to step it up a notch and we wanted certain special wines. Around 11pm, we called various GJE members in other parts of France, who were most likely asleep, but gave various recommendations of where to go. We went to one place, with lighting that could light a US Military Base (no good); we left there, and on the recommendation of Olivier Poussier (Sommelier of the World), we went to Georges V, to Le Cinq, where–at 12:30 am–things were hopping with a wine list to match.

We started with the Coche Dury 2004: TN: 2004 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots (France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My oh, my, what a great wine! We said, when we entered, we wanted a Coche Dury to start, and this was the recommendation of the sommelier. Boy, was he right! Wow, the wine was singing right out of the bottle with no decanting. Such minerality and structure–much more like a 1er Cru than a village wine. I love this one!

Then, we stepped it up a notch, by selecting the Meo Camuzet 2002 Cros Parantoux. TN: 2002 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were 3 of us–Marie Ahm, GJE member and critique extrordinaire, and Thomas, a wine merchant in Paris, and me. All 3 of us loved this wine; I think Marie still has that smile on her face! Yes, a bit of wood, and a bit concentrated, but ok…the flavours were pure and forthright. Beautiful wine with such complexity! Give me a few cases of this for my cellar, please, to go with the Coche Dury.

Oh…and the Le Cinq folks–who showed impeccable service–brought us out some Amuse to go with our wines. Gotta love them! (And they stayed 'till we left at 2:15 am!).

Oh…yes, I made a reservation for us tomorrow for lunch. [dance-clap.gif]