For the first time in a long while, I got to spend a holiday with some out-of-town family. My folks returned from Palm Desert on Easter Sunday, which gave me an opportunity to prepare a special and festive dinner for them. While we might normally have gone out, it was highly likely that most places would have been closed down for the holiday.
As they arrived in the early afternoon, we began the day with a bottle of Andre Robert's Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Champagne, Brut NV. I don't know that I've mentioned sparkler wine yet, but it has quickly become my new "house" Champagne. As well as the glass pour at Jar! It's a combination of three to four vintages and bottled from Grand Cru vineyards in Les Mesnil sur Oger. A very good value and satisfying bottle: Rich orange marmalade, citrus, very fruit driven with minerality behind it. While it has slightly less acidity and mineral than I might like, it has been a terrific crowd-pleaser both at home with guests and at the restaurant.
If there wasn't enough mineral in the Champagne for my personal palate, I got it back in spades on the next bottle: the Domaine Servin 'Butteaux' Chablis 1er Cru 2008. I served this wine with a trio of oysters that included Fanny Bay, Kushi and a local oyster from Carlsbad. I think we plowed through somewhere between two and three dozen oysters as we enjoyed this wine. The Chablis is still incredibly young, of course, and shows a lot of primary citrus flavors, but I was loving it with the oysters. I once heard someone say that a core of lemon flavor in your wine will preclude the necessity to add lemon to your oysters. While I don't usually add anything to my oysters, it's nice to re-introduce that layer of flavor to the pairing without tainting the integrity of the oyster itself. I think we all agreed the Kushi oysters were the best oyster and pairing. The Carlsbad oysters were a little too intense for the wine and showed a bitter radish finish that might have been better complemented by a Gruner Veltliner or something of the like.
The next course is one of my absolute favorites to prepare at home because the wine pairing just blows everyone's mind: a Brie and Blue Cheese Quesadilla with Brown Sugar and Pear Compote matched with Alsacian whites. I have traditionally matched a Gewurztraminer with this, but wanted something slightly less intense for my folks. I went with the Kuentz-Bas 'Eichberg' Pinot Gris 2004. It showed the rich, fat character of Alsace with honeyed notes of red apple, orange and pear. It was perfect with the warm, cheesy goodness oozing from the crisped tortilla. As I explained to my folks, I don't always gravitate toward Alsace for drinking because it's just a bit too heavy for me, but I would never drink anything else with this small plate of food. They don't have much exposure to Alsace wines, but I think this was an eye-opener for them.
After an extended break to digest, we opened the third course with French Onion Soup that we drank some Kistler 'Cuvee Elizabeth Bodega Headlands Vineyard' Pinot Noir 2004. This came from my step-father's cellar and was classic Kistler Pinot: dark fruit with perfumey florality, hints of spice and an overall feel of extra-ripe young Burgundy from the barrel. It worked well with the soup.
For dinner, I prepared individual Beef Wellingtons. I keep using this dish because it is fairly quick and easy to prepare, and continues to get "wows" from everone who cracks into that golden pastry. We enjoyed a bottle of Levy & McClellan 2004 with this course. This is the first time I've sat down for a meal with a wine from this producer, although I've tasted it before. The 2004 is their first vintage and is still showing incredibly young. Formidable tannins wrapped in black fruits, licorice, smoke, and chocolate. This is a monster of a wine and should not be opened for a number of more years to come. I blind-tasted mom on this wine and she said it was Harlan-esque. Good for her! Same winemaker, but different vineyard source.
Before I opened the Levy & McClellan, Dave had pulled a magnum of 2000 Harlan Estate from his cellar to enjoy over the rest of the evening. It was one of the most tragically corked bottles I have run into in a while. It's also the first corky bottle of Harlan I've experienced in my career. My mother, whose favorite wine is Harlan, noticed immediately after smelling it. While she doesn't normally notice corked wines right away, her vast exposure to this producer made it fairly obvious. After licking our wounds, Dave had me pull a 1999 Harlan Estate from his cellar instead to go head-to-head with the Levy & McClellan. This was a perfect bottle! It reminded me very much of a younger version of the 1993 I had recently tasted. Impeccable balance, graphite and pencil lead, blue and black fruits, florality, coffee, herbaceousness, anise and terrific depth of fruit. This wine also went very well with the Wellingtons, and was showing much better than the Levy & McClellan with the additional age.
In need of more wine as we settled in for the night, we also opened a Hundred Acre 'Kayli Morgan' 2005. My palate was fairly fatigued after the extended day of drinking and all of the monstrous California Cabernet we had just drank, so I will reserve any formalized tasting notes, suffice it to say that the style was consistent with the very rich and silky Hundred Acres I have enjoyed in the past. It was no slouch in comparison to the big dogs we had just put away.
It was wonderful to have a holiday with family again. I think we made the most of the opportunity. It certainly took its toll on our wine cellars!
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