I met two buddies at Providence to do the truffle menu with some special bottles. The new menu at Providence is awesome. There was only one miss out of 15+ dishes. They do a riff on Keller’s salmon tartar cone that they call a spicy tuna cannoli. Just killer texture and flavor. The stand out dish was a smoked salmon panna cotta with cured salmon roe, white truffles, and crispy buckwheat. It was spectacular. On to the wines…
1993 Dom Perignon Rose Oenotheque
This was served cold and started out tight, linear, and mineral drive. With time in the glass and as it came up in temperate it blossomed into a huge wine with loads of structure. Wild strawberry and cherry compote. Lots of mineral. Lots of acid. The will improve nicely with several year in the bottle.
1982 Cristal
This was a perfect bottle. The nose started out with freshly cut white mushrooms and dried honey, but quickly fleshed out and picked up weight. With time it developed the baklava flavors I often associate with older Cristal. Pastry, honey, walnuts, cinnamon. Still plenty of fruit with good supporting acidity. Just perfect.
1992 Dauvissat Le Clos
Best bottle of Dauvissat I’ve had. Started out on the fatter side, but over time became more mineral driven while retaining all the delicious ripe fruit flavors. Killer bottle.
1971 Maison Leroy Musigny
Older release bottle. Started out smelling rather autumnal and tired. With air the palate freshened up considerably. Showed best after several hours open. Darker fruit profile with a lot of earthy/dried leave notes. Just shy of being a great bottle.
1985 D’Angerville Volnay Clos des Ducs
This was a perfect bottle for me. Crystalline in structure. Really pretty red fruits. Its hard for me to describe this wine. It was really clean. Exceedingly well balanced. Just a really nice bottle of wine. I’m sad it was my only bottle.
1996 Rouget Echezeaux
Bury these in a dark corner. It really needs more time. Tight, black fruited, and mineral driven with lots of dry extract. Needs several years for the fruit to pop out and play nicely, but all the raw materials for a great wine are there.
There isn’t for most of us Barry. Providence takes special care to abuse Charlie as he is less than effusive in his reviews of them.
Just kidding, iirc it is something odd like five bottles. With som pre-arranging and familiarity they are flexible.
I was talking to Angelo at Factory Kitchen on Thursday about truffles. He said the seasons started early , looked solid and abundant, so pricing was very good. Over the past couple of weeks there has been rain that has negatively affected the prognosis for a great, cheap season. Prices have risen over that period.
Btw, Drago Centro is doing a truffle dinner tomorrow. I’ve said it before, one of the best dishes anywhere is the uovo raviolo Tartufo at Valentino.
I never really noticed Drago Centro being slow and I’ve been 20 times. I recall asking them to slow the pace at a couple of tasting menu dinners. But we are rarely there with anywhere to go thereafter. Ian does a truffled chicken there most seasons that is really good.
Now Melisse, they are slow. We went once and the valet came through asking if they could bring our car up and our first course hadn’t arrived yet. I typically request that they pace our meal faster than their norm there if we are doing a tasting menu, and they are pretty good about it.
I’ve never been there for dinner, so maybe it’s different. Its next to my office so i’ve taken a few clients there for lunch and have never been out in less than 90 min.
Understandable. I eat white-collar dinners, but not lunches. I’m way more likely to eat Jack-in-the-Box while driving than to have a one-hour lunch.
So you must hit Chaya for the $1 oysters at happy hour.
