19 June 2010: Our dear friend Jonny, who moved back to New York in 2007, is in Hong Kong for the weekend to catch up with old friends. So we decided to cook him a simple supper at home, just like the old days and we invited Patrick as well, whom we haven't seen for a while and we had wanted to hear about his account of the visit to the Normandy battle fields.
We opened a 1996 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill and we tucked into Richard's famous smoked trout pâté, with our favourite toasted Poilâne bread. The 1996 Winston Churchill was quite different from what we remembered from our last tasting which was about 10 months ago. The nose was still complex but much more evolved: brioche, ripe pears, dried apricots, marmalade, dried citrus peel and honey. The acidity level was less pronounced and made the wine taste a little flabby. I wonder if it had suffered from slight madeirisation. 15.5/20
Then came the pièce de résistance: coq au vin jaune with morels and white asparagus. Richard cooked this dish based on a recipe by Chef Jacques Reymond (based in Melbourne). It was a great effort - the chicken was moist, packed with nutty and savoury flavours from the two-step cooking, and the morels well soaked in the vin jaune cream sauce! (See end of this blog for a description on vin jaune.) Apologies for my slightly undercooked white asparagus!
We chose a 1992 Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet to go with the chicken dish. For me, it was the wine of the evening. A glorious mature white burgundy, with a golden robe, immense complexity, concentration, balance and length. A distinct and developed character showing lemon curd, marzipan, ripe pears, grilled macadamia nuts, toasty and honey, over a hint of smokines. Excellent balance between acidity and roundness, with a lingering finish. Superb wine. Drinking perfectly at peak now, and will drink well for another 5 - 6 years - not sure I would want any of its elements to evolve any further. 19/20
Richard believes that no dinner would be complete without a bit of red - although I would be much happier to have my cheese course with white wine! We opened a 1991 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Vieilles Vignes. A perfumed nose of red fruit, coffee, smoky and sweet spicy character. Very elegant, just about well-balanced. A little drying on the finish. Drinking just past peak perhaps but should drink well for another 3 - 4 years. 17.5/20
Next was a half bottle of 1999 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Vieilles Vignes - a much more lively wine, from a vintage with excellent growing conditions. Complex and intense nose, velvety texture of fine tannins, sweet red fruit character with plenty of minerality and a very lengthy finish. Drinking beautifully now, and will continue to evolve over next 6 - 8 years before reaching peak (for 750 ml and bigger size bottlings). 18.5/20
Jonny brought us a "football-shaped" mango mousse cake for dessert, supplemented by some cannelés that I picked up from Monsieur Chatté's shop late afternoon. (I was going to save some cannelés for breakfast but some unwelcomed guests (aka cockroaches) tucked into them while we weren't looking! Rather annoying!)
A perfect evening with good friends, great wines and a delicious coq au vin jaune!
And here's some basic information on vin jaune:
Vin jaune or "yellow wine" is a specialty from the Jura region of France, made in a method that is similar to that for sherry, except without the fortification. The grape variety is savagnin. Grapes picked at late, at ideal ripeness of 13 - 15% potential alcohol. Fermentation and ageing take place in slightly ullaged casks so that a film of yeast called "voile" forms, quite similar to the flor that is critical for fino sherries. The whole process for the voile to fully develop takes much longer, because of the cold temperatures of the Jura. After full development, the voile fades away and then comes a period of oxidative ageing. The wine is typically bottled into 620 ml clavelin bottles 6 years and 3 months after the harvest. Typical character of vin jaune is savoury, light curry-like spiciness and nutty. Vin jaune should be well aerated before enjoyment, and best matched with chicken cooked in the wine itself or even Comté cheese.
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