My "I HAVE NEVER" wine dinner

David Dyroff, Mike Powers, Tyler Burklow, and I got together at Truffles in St. Louis last night, sadly Mike Kelly and Salil B couldn’t make it. David organized the dinner and told me just to bring bubbles. After all the bottles were on the table, he had me guessing what the theme of the dinner was.
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At first I was thinking all ABV below 14%, but then it was revealed the wines (except for the Mount Eden) were all on my I HAVE NEVER list, posted about a year ago.

Every bottle showed quite well last night, with no slouches in the lineup. Thank you David for sparing us the corked bottle neener

But First, Champagne: 2015 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier d’Or

Tons of orchard fruit on the nose with some hints of fresh-baked bread and chalk. Crisp on the palate with predominantly red apple and pear notes, with well-integrated acidity. This didn’t have the depth or breadth of complexity as I typically find with the Coeur de Cuvée bottling from Vilmart, not sure if this is due to the vintage or typical of the cuvée in comparison to the CdC.

Something Different: 2008 Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve Santa Cruz Mountains

Purchased at Truffles and decanted about 30-45 minutes, but still needed time to open. I’m not big on CA chardonnay but this was quite lovely. Cream and Meyer lemon, with hints of butterscotch dominate on the nose. On the palate there is initially lemon curd, cream, quince, and butterscotch notes, but with more orchard fruit notes coming out as the wine warms up in the glass. There is great breadth of flavors and vivacity on the palate, which I attribute to its bright acidity (even as a riesling geek I was impressed) and undertones of chalky minerals, both which I think balanced the richness quite nicely. Might make me rethink CA chardonnay a little…

A 100-Point Wine (by any reviewer): 2001 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese Auction

Rated 100 points by Mosel Fine Wines, and well deserved. Complex aromas of lightly honeyed yellow apple, honeydew melon, saffron, and lemon curd with wisps of petrol. With more air the wine turns to more citrus and tropical notes, including fresh-picked orange, marmalade, key lime, and underripe mango. Perfect concentration of flavors and great dry extract, without being too rich, the wine is nimble on the palate and supported by refreshing acidity and some undertones of wet slate minerals over a long finish. This was spectacular.

Bordeaux First Growth: 2004 Chateau Margaux

Decanted for about an hour I believe. Lovely perfume of baking spices, cassis, and dried violet petals, with some smoke and cigar box overtones. This gave way to flavors of black currant, dried black cherries, cedar, and leather on the palate. This wine was elegant and more polished than I was expecting, with silky tannins and great finesse. Worth checking in on now but I think could be even better in 5-10 years.

Grand Cru Burgundy: 2014 Gérard Mugneret Echezeaux

Since my original post I have had a couple bottles of Grand Cru burgundy, but this nice to see in youth. Perfumed nose of black pepper, dried blackberry and boysenberry, licorice, mocha, and wet earth. Mostly dried black fruit and black cherries on the palate with earth and spice tones. Has grippy tannins and zesty acidity providing lots of structure at the moment. I really appreciated the depth of this wine.

Dry Wine Older Than 1971: 1964 Fratelli Barale Barolo

Mike picked this up from Lopa recently, and it was decanting at the restaurant about 3-4 hours prior to serving. Lovely balsamic and grilled nut aromas at first, leading into notes of dried red fruit (raspberry, black cherry), saddle leather, and chestnut on the palate. With more time in the glass, the balsamic notes recede and the wine takes on a complexity of herbal/medicinal/amari-like aromas which I find quite pleasing. Despite its age, this wine has the energy of an adolescent, supported by grippy tannins (moreso than the Burgundy in my opinion) and fresh acidity in its structure.

We didn’t have any sweet wine older than 1976 or sherry/madeira brought to the dinner, but finished the night with some NV Rare Wine Co. Boston Boal on the list which is delicious.

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Wow, that’s a very special dinner. Awesome lineup!

Fantastic stuff.

The Coeur de Cuvee is a notable step up from the Grand Cellier, even the vintage version. Of course it’s also a pretty big step up in price to the Coeur.

That’s a cool lineup of wines for a dinner. Nice notes and reflections, Brian.

I certainly appreciate that now. Though I have a couple more bottles of this vintage GCdO, I just looked and was surprised to not have any CdC in my cellar or even pending. May need to rectify this.

This is why we let/made Brian take all the notes!

Mine mostly say things like “damn this is good,” but at least that’s better than “had this at Truffles with Brian S,” right?

It was a great evening, and fun to welcome the new guy to town in style and with a nice surprise theme, even if we had to delay it a year so he’s not quite so “new” in town any more.

All of these wines seem to have plenty of years ahead of them. Both whites got better and better over the time they were in our glasses. The Barolo still has tannins to shed(!) but they weren’t intrusive. And if 2004 is a lesser Bordeaux vintage, I’m not sure they got the memo at Ch. Margaux. Still plenty of primary fruit on that one, and it had more depth than I was expecting given that it’s not one of the top vintages, but “silky and polished” certainly applies as well. These first growths seem to like to remind you that you’re drinking class in a glass.

As we all commented, it can be rare to have this many wines and have all of them show so well. Everything was open and expressive on the nose and palate - nothing in a closed or dumb phase, nothing over the hill, nothing cooked or corked - I should have bought a lottery ticket on the way home!

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What a great theme! Well done

Very cool! Waiting for my friends to do the same… [whistle.gif]

I have some of the 2011 Coeur pending. It’s an astonishing wine from that indifferent vintage.

What’s your “I HAVE NEVER” list?

I should add a shout-out to Brandon and everyone at Truffles.

They have a great wine list, including some mature and well-priced gems like the Mount Eden, and they wave their corkage fee if you buy a bottle.

Once upon a time, the menu had a New Orleans focus, but while they’ve kept touches of that (the soup of the day is always a gumbo and the apps include Cajun shrimp and a crawfish dish), over the years with some chef and ownership (IIRC) changes, they now have a focus on high-quality meat, with their own gourmet butcher shop next door.

The steaks were outstanding, and the wine glasses were plentiful and up to snuff, which is never a given in a restaurant setting. Recommended.

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I’d be in for that one as well, but I’m fresh out of 1811 d’Yquem and I can’t imagine there’s anything else on Buzz’s list…. [snort.gif]

What a wonderful idea for a wine dinner!

Truffles, especially with Aleks as wine director is great. One of the things I miss from STL.

My list: I have never had dinner with Brian S.

Maybe Francois Audouze has some.

Where are you now?

Those were also some of the best truffle fries I’ve ever had.

HA…you forgot…I started that thread! [wow.gif]

Didn’t realize you started it! Yeah those are some lofty goals.

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Bravo! My wife and I drank a magnum of that auction Haag Spat on Xmas day 2011. Superb.