TN: Kiawah weekend with Palmer, Louis Michel, Cotat, Morgen Long

A friend invited a few of us for a golf weekend in Kiawah and I got put in charge of sourcing some wines. We set a $1K budget, and put together wines to go with two really nice dinners. My friends all like wine, but none are wine geeks, so I tried to stick with bottles I knew would land well - so no super old BDX or geeky N Rhône, but still lots of great stuff. Notes below (they are brief since we were busy eating and drinking!):

First dinner was a private chef who did a four course meal:

Course 1 was grilled oysters with herb butter and Parmesan. For pairing we did a Chablis vs Oregon chard:

Oregon: Morgen Long Memorie I (NV). This is a blend of several vintages and is just getting into the zone with plenty of life left ahead. Notes of sea breeze, an almost mountain stream note, rich Meyer lemon, fresh warm Brie, touch of lime, oyster shell and crushed rock. Full bodied and a bit rounded from likely neutral oak, but with some ripping acidity for structure. This is rich but super well balanced. Great stuff - 94ish

Chablis: 2014 Louis Michel Grand Cru Les Grenouilles I had originally sourced a Les Clos, but switched to this when that fell through. This was much more delicate vs the ML but outstanding complexity. Touch lemon and lime, a real nuttiness to the palate, flowers, and green apple. This was much more delicate and less intense than other Grand Cru Chablis I’ve had but still very nice. Hard to say which was better of the 2 chards. 94

Second course was a smoked flounder pate on a sweet potato and apple pancake

2012 Maximin Grundhauser Abstbeg Riesling Spatlese. I like Riesling but am by no means expert. Thought this was really nice, with decent ripeness plus acidity and sweetness all in good balance. Palate has lots of yellow peach, a bit of lemon, some apricot, with a light mineral note underneath. Very nicely balanced, and a great value at $33, though not as complex as the chards. 91

For the main course we did a surf and turf with a red wine sauce. I was conservative on my red wine pairing but it paid off with great reviews

2000 Chateau Palmer. Gave this a 3 hour decant, and it was definitely needed. The first indication this would be a hit was when my buddy took a sniff and said “holy s***” this smells amazing”. Really intense floral notes on the palate with roses, violets, and other fancy flowers that my wife could probably name. Underlying notes of red cassis, lingonberry, campfire smoke, and rich tobacco. Rich plush texture with nicely balanced acidit and somewhat integrated tannins, this had a good 60 second finish with tons of depth. This just getting into the zone but is phenomenal right now and will be iconic in 10-15 years. Not cheap, but if you want a $400 iconic bottle (which was the goal here), you could do a heck of a lot worse than this. 97

Dessert was a pumpkin crème brûlée with smoked chocolate ice cream

1988 Chateau Climens. I’m not a Sauternes expert but picked this up while buying the Palmer. I wanted something with a bit of weight and flavor to stand up to the crème brûlée and this did its job well. Still plenty sweet, lots of apricot, lightly burnt crème caramel, butterscotch, with a nice smokiness and richness to it. Plenty of acid for balance. This was really nice and probably still has 20-30 years to go. 93


I’ll post night 2 later (we made crabs and grilled oysters), as this post is getting a bit long and my phone is dying.