A wiser man then I was of the belief that you ought to limit your drinking of the best wines in the world. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford them, he could. It wasn’t that he didn’t like or appreciate the top wines. He’d spent a life in wine and tried most things. It was rather a belief that once you’re drinking the best wines all of the time, their values don’t appeal in the same way for very long. You get jaded, yawning into your 1961 Palmer and your passion for the wines is dulled. You lack that fervour and childish excitement about getting your hands on the good stuff. In wine, as in all things, balance is key.
So that philosophy, combined by my miserliness, means rare is the chance to drink, not taste at the very top table.
But, good things come around every now and then, and a chance to share some great Burgundy with some friends and wine-lovers to celebrate a 40th birthday was well cherished.
The venue was Ottos on Greys Inn Road. A serious wine haunt as the empty bottles evince, it is a restaurant that if you don’t love, in the words of Jay Raynor, ‘you have no soul’. I would agree. The food was sensational, the service impeccable and the general ambience incredible. It’s nicely quirky, with strange pseudo Warhols nestling up to vintage film posters in their atmospheric cellar room.
We kicked off with some Salmon Tartare and paired it with two vintages of Domaine Roulots 1er Poruzots. The 2009 and 2012. It was a strong contrast and athough Jean-Marc warned us that the 2012 was not open for business, I think it showed really strongly and a wholey more cohesive personality then the 2009, that showed ripeness and richness but had a finish that maybe lacked the definition of the 2012. Both wines were stunning expressions of the Roulot style, very mineral, struck match and structured.
Moving onto some fabulous Lobster Risotto, we went for something a bit more mature 2002 Chevalier Montrachet Leflaive and 2008 Chablis Blanchots Raveneau. Unfortunately, the 2008 was corked, and we were left with the 2002. Holy Crap! What a wine! We cooed away at one of those Burgundies that could keep you entranced for hours just on contemplation of the nose. Fabulously ready, impeccably balanced, it was one of my top three white wines of all time. Incredible. As an interesting aside, we weren’t sure about this as 2002 Leflaive wines have a bit of a reputation as unreliable performers and one of the party told a good story of how Anne-Claude was showing some of this wine at a dinner, opened 2 bottles, discarded both, drove back to the domaine, and emerged with a couple of bottles of the Batard instead.
At this point we had a mystery wine, we were all a bit off on this one, veering towards a Breze from Clos Rougeard, as it had a real Chenin style character of bruised apple. It was a nicely developed 2008 Meursault 1er Hameau de Blagny Maison Leroy
Moving onto the reds with another fabulous dish, a rump of lamb, we had a flight of 2007 Echezeaux DRC, 2002 La Romanee and 2002 Charmes-Chambertin Bachelet. What a treat! All of the wines had very distinct characteristics, a green tinge but real light-footidness on the DRC and earthy power to the pair of 2002s. The DRC was my favourite, as I loved it’s elegance of extraction and nice fruit definition.
Second blind wine was served, I went for late 1990’s CNDP or Grange des Peres, and it was 2005 Hermitage JL Chave. Very dense, very deep, quite polished and maybe deserving more years in the cellar. This will go and go and superbly put together. Just needs a bit of time to draw out more Hermitage character I think.
With the cheese we went for a contrast between two very different styles. 1999 Clos-St-Denis Domaine Dujac and 2001 Clos Vougeot Rene Engel. The Dujac was much more appreciatively ‘modern’ in style, but excellent and packed with dense fruit and still showing very youthfully. The Rene Engel was not statuesque, it just had an uncannily ‘unforced’ style. It was what it was, not trying to be anything else. It was a mellow, elegant Clos Vougeot that was drinking perfectly now.
Another mystery wine was served here, I went for later 1990s Barolo, I thought it was a bit Conternoesque. We had a few takers for Bordeaux. It was 2001 Barbaresco Asili Giacosa. A bit more rustic then I might have expected but when you know what it is, you get the pure cherry lift that I associate with Giacosa. A little Rayas-like I would say.
We had a few more mystery wines, a 1992 Hermitage by Bernard Faurie and something else that eludes my memory, before ending with a 2005 de Fargues which was unctuously textured and quite sweet.
By this point, it was the early hours of the morning and time to go. What a night it was and what a joyous celebration of the best of Burgundy. It was a real privilege to drink these wines in such great company. Thanks Dan