a few gems
 

Ok, last night I experienced the Maison Borie, if you are ever in Lyon
you must try it. The dinner was prearranged and all wines were served
blind. I have a terrible cold, luckily most wines had a strong
aromatic punch and they made it through...

Chateau de Malle Sauternes 99, served with pan fried escalope of foie
gras on a cream of squash. I managed to identify the wine as
Sauternes, but having seen the wine list (2 choices) I thought it was
Cru Barrejats 96. Wrong. A classic (and often wrong) match, but here
it worked well, plenty of acidity and very strong aroma of cooked
fruit despite the young age.

Ch. Tour Blanche 1998 with scallops stuffed with raw oysters on thin
slices of green apple and a Bowmore whisky cream. The iodine of the
oysters went wonderfully with what I thought was a Ste Croix du Mont,
but turned out to be another Sauternes, more subtle, more mineral.

Condrieu by Francois Merlin (year?) with sea bass on fingerling
potatoes, mussels, cockles. Wow, what a wine, strong fruit and strong
floral aromas well balanced (rare in Condrieu) with oak well
integrated, a marvel of a condrieu. I identified the appellation, not
the producer, previously unknown to me.

Two wines, different matches. Lamarche Canon 2000, elegant Canon
Fronsac with tannins very present, needs more aging but the match
worked out, rack of lamb with reduced juices and lots of spice. If the
Bordeaux (I could not guess beyond the region) calmed the power of the
dish, the opposite happened with wine number 2, a bombshell of animal
spicy peppery aromas that combined with the sauce to create sheer
taste bombardment that lasted for minutes in your mouth. This
extraterrestrial wine was a Cotes du Rhone Villages St Maurice, cuvee
Renaissance, a GSM made according to the tenets of "cosmoculture" by
Philippe Viret. The metaphysics leaves me baffled, but the result is a
wine that lets everythign through, totally open, odours wafting around
the table even despite the damn cold.

Three desserts without wine, a yellow chartreuse granita served in a
cup made of Valrhona chocolate, a glass of roasted peach, biscuits and
almond mousse, and a chocolate browny with avocado sauce topped with a
mandrake sherbet. I am a dessert man...

Grand finale, Manuel Viron pulls out his friend Jean Louis Chave's 96
Ermitage Vin de Paille, rich amber concentrate of cooked fruit and
splendid acidity.


Mike

a few gems
 

On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 20:26:15 +0100, "Steve Naïve" >
wrote:

>
>From reading your notes, I'd hate to up against you without a cold!

Steve, at the end of the dinner, since we were staying at a hotel a
short walk from the restaurant, we walked under torrential rain and
despite the umbrella got totally drenched, thus putting my nose
totally KO for the rest of the weekend... ouch my brain hurts...

>
>Edited notes;
>> Sauternes served with pan fried escalope of foie
>> gras [...] A classic (and often wrong) match, but here
>> it worked well.
>
>Why do you say a wrong match?

It's just that people think that because they have read that sauternes
goes with FG, then any sauternes will do, but most lack the acidity,
no matter whetherthey ar e old or young. (If the acidity is there to
begin with, it will not diminish with age...)

> Is it because most people serve older
>Sauternes (and the foie gras needs acidity?) I'm probably barking up the
>wrong tree here, I'm not too good on Sauternes (except for that Yquem 1990
>I once had ...)

That was the other choice on the wine list. A bit steep though, $260,
not bad for a restaurtant price, but still....

This place had an incredible cellar, Grange des Peres from every year
since the first, Peyre Rose, Rayas, Gangloff, Jamet, Beaudouin,
Poirel, Gaillard, Ostertag, Gauby, Barral, on and on and on...

Ian, if you are in Lyon, the menu at night is 45 Euro. The room is
stunningly beautiful. This guy is in none of the guides, he used to
run the Cote Rotie in Ampuis. Even before the star arrives, he is
already packing the room just by people hearing about the place on the
grapevine.

BTW, the Maison Borie is in the old abattoir district (appropriately
named "Mouche"), and the building was the site where the first
Parisian bateau-mouche were made...

Mike

a few gems
 

Thanks for the notes.I've heard good things before re the Viret, must give a
try. I can't quite swallow some of the cosmoculture/biodynamie theories, but
there's no denying some great wine is coming from those producers.

Glad to see a Bordeaux you liked. :)

You know, for a Sauternes producer not near the top of the price hierachy, de
Malle can make pretty good wine in so-so vintages.

thanks again.
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

a few gems
 

Salut/Hi Mike Tommasi,

le/on Sun, 05 Oct 2003 21:42:47 +0200, tu disais/you said:-

>Ian, if you are in Lyon, the menu at night is 45 Euro. The room is
>stunningly beautiful. This guy is in none of the guides, he used to
>run the Cote Rotie in Ampuis. Even before the star arrives, he is
>already packing the room just by people hearing about the place on the
>grapevine.

Well, as it happens, I'll be there at the end of January, restocking my
wine cellar, perhaps we should make a date.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare

Sometimes oi just sits and thinks
Sometimes oi just sits.

a few gems
 

Mike Tommasi > wrote:

>>> Sauternes served with pan fried escalope of foie gras [...] A
>>> classic (and often wrong) match, but here it worked well.

>>Why do you say a wrong match?

> It's just that people think that because they have read that
> sauternes goes with FG, then any sauternes will do, but most
> lack the acidity, no matter whetherthey ar e old or young. (If
> the acidity is there to begin with, it will not diminish with
> age...)

May I hop in with a remark that seems extremely important to me:
It makes an extraordinary difference whether one speaks of (cold)
paté de foie gras à l'entier, where Sauternes (or Austrian noble
sweet whites) do an extremely fine job; or if you talk about
(warm) pan fried foie gras. In the latter case, as with any other
entrails (is that the correct word for Germean "Innereien"?), I
would definitely be more inclined to a medium full red that to
something sweet. This latetr would be the wrong match, imvho.

M.

a few gems
 

On 6 Oct 2003 07:41:43 GMT, Michael Pronay > wrote:

>Mike Tommasi > wrote:
>
>>>> Sauternes served with pan fried escalope of foie gras [...] A
>>>> classic (and often wrong) match, but here it worked well.
>
>>>Why do you say a wrong match?
>
>> It's just that people think that because they have read that
>> sauternes goes with FG, then any sauternes will do, but most
>> lack the acidity, no matter whetherthey ar e old or young. (If
>> the acidity is there to begin with, it will not diminish with
>> age...)
>
>May I hop in with a remark that seems extremely important to me:
>It makes an extraordinary difference whether one speaks of (cold)
>paté de foie gras à l'entier, where Sauternes (or Austrian noble
>sweet whites) do an extremely fine job; or if you talk about
>(warm) pan fried foie gras. In the latter case, as with any other
>entrails (is that the correct word for Germean "Innereien"?), I
>would definitely be more inclined to a medium full red that to
>something sweet. This latetr would be the wrong match, imvho.

Hi Michael,

Innereien translate as "offal".

I agree and I usually stay away from noble sweet wines with FG, but in
this case the combination of warm FG with a veloute de courge changed
the balance completely, with more mellowness and a distinct nutty
flavour. In addition, the fatty sensation of the FG was muted by the
courge.

Mike

a few gems
 

Mike Tommasi > wrote:

>>It makes an extraordinary difference whether one speaks of
>>(cold) paté de foie gras à l'entier, where Sauternes (or
>>Austrian noble sweet whites) do an extremely fine job; or if you
>>talk about (warm) pan fried foie gras. In the latter case, as
>>with any other entrails (is that the correct word for Germean
>>"Innereien"?), I would definitely be more inclined to a medium
>>full red that to something sweet. This latetr would be the wrong
>>match, imvho.

> Innereien translate as "offal".

Thank you, I guess we talked about this a while ago.

> I agree and I usually stay away from noble sweet wines with FG,
> but in this case the combination of warm FG with a veloute de
> courge changed the balance completely, with more mellowness and
> a distinct nutty flavour. In addition, the fatty sensation of
> the FG was muted by the courge.

You are correct, of course, it always depends on the sauce. I
remember a warm fois gras au naturel with a kind of apricot
chutney - the botrytis wine was simply perfect.

M.