A Past Dinner

We've decided to slide back in time for a moment just to recall a delightful dinner at home in the Onzieme with the Prince Consort, the Chef Cousin, La Serveuse, and His Nibs. Jokingly we will often say that food, certainly a planned meal, is only a foil for wine to be served, and when eating with the Chef Cousin, that is of the utmost truth.

The weekend before this dinner, we had attended with the CC the Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendants in Paris. Loyal readers will remember our reminisces on this salon last year. At that event, the CC had purchased a bottle of Riesling Sélection de Grains Nobles. Naturally, it is a wine from Alsace, made from 100% Riesling grapes. It is a sweeter wine, not as sweet as a Sauterne, and not really a dessert wine. Riesling is a light wine that carries a fruity nose combined with flowers. It always makes us think of springtime.

Sélection de Grains Nobles means it is made from grapes specifically chosen because they are beginning to exhibit a certain type of rot, 'Noble Rot' as it has been called in English, which elevates the sugar level in the individual grapes. Unlike Vendages Tardives (late harvest) which is made from grapes left on the vine late into the season that have begun to dry slightly, a phenomenon which increases the sugar content in the grape simply because the amount of water in the grape is diminished, Grains Nobles maintain the signature nose and flavor of the Riesling with a slightly increased level of sugar.

The CC had alerted us to the fact that he planned to bring this bottle for dinner, and we decided to create a massive spread of hors d’oeuvres as the foil for this Riesling. The wine was lovely, the sweetness was an appetizing beginning to what would prove to be a long meal, and the fruitiness simply sang in the mouth. For hors d’oeuvres we had found ready-to-bake traditional Burgundian stuffed escargots and despite lacking a proper pan in which to cook them we bought a dozen and baked them in a casserole dish with gros sel spread over the bottom. The salt won’t burn and the snails are supported so they do not fall over and loose all that yummy garlic and parsley sauce. We always eat several in honor of Her Grottiness.

There were also several spreads, olives, and crackers. The Riesling went quickly and we moved on to another white wine, not as particular but well done at the same time, a 2001 Montagny 1er Cru, Domaine des Champs de Bey, Le Vieux Château. We’ve discussed this wine before so we won’t bore you again; mind you however, dear Reader, that 2001 is an excellent year for Montagny 1er Cru. We have tried several different domains', all to good result.

Finally to table for the first course: scallops on a bed of fennel and shallots sautéed in Argan oil with a bit of broth made from sauce fumet, the French fish equivalent of bouillon cube (aren’t those French clever?!). Argan oil is made from a plant that grows on the edge of the desert in Morocco. The fruit, the seeds…? (I am still not sure) are pressed to produce an oil that when you smell its light but distinctive odor you think of the finest couscous restaurant into which you have ever entered. Apparently the production of the oil is one of the first women’s-centered equitable commerce efforts in Northern Africa. The Prince Consort’s sister brought the vial back from vacation.

With the scallops we drank a 2000 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières, Olivier Leflaive. Puligny-Montrachet is typically a beautiful white wine, all Chardonnay, of course, and this premier cru was no exception. The color was a deep yellow with tinges of green along the edges. The nose was full of spring orchard flowers (think about the odor of apple blossoms), light minerals and the desirable musk. In the mouth, the wine was “very rich” as my notes say, filled with the taste of the minerals in the soil in Puligny and the blossoms have left the faint taste of their fruit, full and lingering in the mouth. A beautiful wine.

I would be amiss if I did not say something about Olivier Leflaive. From an old Burgundian family, Olivier struck off on his own as négociant, a buyer rather than a grower of grapes, outside of the family domain in 1984. He quickly established a reputation for quality with his white wines. Now he controls several hectare of vineyards but continues to buy grapes from growers with whom he has had long relationships. His employees supervise the entire production – the harvests are done by hand and the fermentation is in barrels – from beginning to bottling. His wines often command a premium but those we have tasted have been worth the extra. We would be further amiss if we did not point out that The Girlfriend introduced us to Leflaive.

The scallops were followed with a small pasta course – cream sauce, sautéed leeks, raisins plumped in a Tunisian fig liquor. The pasta was an artisanal form, flat with rippled edges, long like spaghetti but broader, although not as broad as lasagna. I am sure that the Country Lady or the A-Girl could tell us the name. Read the comments later, dear Audience, I am sure you will be rewarded. This course was imagined to back up a 1999 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Domaine Bouchard Père & Fils. Now of course we all know that Charlemagne is white (to protect his beard from stains), and Bouchard is a centuries-old domain known in New York primarily for the cheaper wines they produce from grapes or even pressed juice they buy in the region.

We recently learned that this domain makes excellent grand and premier crus from grapes it actually grows in parcelles that it owns. It is one of these ‘special’ wines that we found by accident in a large French supermarket, similar to Wal-Mart, by checking on the top shelf in the wine section, behind all the other bottles! Luckily the French are shorter than we and this bottle had lasted there long enough to be priced reasonably for its age and quality. We’ve noted that if the village wine is good, the Premier Cru stands to be better and the Grand Cru, great. This Charlemagne did not disappoint; it was rich, full and hyper-interesting. The fruit was present as was the muskiness and minerality. However, we observed that it could have been older, perhaps as much as 7 years older. That age probably would have given a better development to the spice and honey that we appreciate in a wine such as this one.

Honestly, the remainder of the meal was not as memorable. The main course was pork in a light sauce, cooked in a sauté pan. Interestingly, in NYC I seem to cook all the meat in the oven, in Paris, it’s all stovetop, don’t know why. There was a 1998 Fixin 1er Cru Clos du Chapitre Domaine Guy Dufouleur with this course and the cheese. Fixin is another of our favorites, and one we’ve discussed before (review your notes, loyal Readers). Domaine Dufouleur has a Monopole on the Clos du Chapitre and year after year makes an elegant wine that we always enjoy drinking.

Many of you are wondering, “How could they, given this opportunity, not drink another red with the cheese course?” Well, frankly, it would have been over-kill. La Serveuse drinks very little (she is the designated driver, lovely thing) and His Nibs and the Prince Consort had fallen short at the end of the white wines. Besides, this gave us a chance to taste again the Charlemagne and the Puligny. Loyal Readers remember, we’re sure, our frequent chastising of American friends for drinking whites too cold, and retasting these two wines at room temperature was excellent proof of our belief. The Charlemagne was still too young, but the real magic of Laflaive’s work was fully apparent in the Puligny. So full of flavor it was simply explosive.

We’ll close on an anecdote, an exchange with the Country Lady who has had the pleasure to eat at the CC’s restaurant, Restaurant de La Cordonnerie on the rue Saint Roch in Paris. She expressed amazement tending on fear over the idea of cooking for the CC. In reality, he is easy to entertain, happy to eat anything and try new tastes. Our problem is always what to pour in his glass. That is the most difficult problem when entertaining someone who spends several weekends per year in Bourgogne. We hope that at this meal we succeeded!

Eat well, drink wisely!