Diary from the Pyrenees August 2010 - Dinner with Loïc and Simone

Dinner with Loïc and Simone (24 August 2010):


About 7 pm, Jacques (Taltarni’s Financial Controller, aka my housemate) came back to the cottage to fetch me to go to Loïc’s house for dinner. The house perches on the hillside and normally it would be a lovely walk amongst the vines, but not when it was 4.3 °C outside and blowing a gale force wind with lashing torrential rain. So Jacques drove. We passed by two enormous trucks, heavily laden with bottles. Thank goodness they made it to Moonambel in the storm! We needed the bottles for bottling the following morning! What a relief!


We started with some Greek starters (dolmas which are stuffed vine leaves with rice, olives and grilled saganaki with crackers) and a delicious bottle of 2000 Vintage Brut of Clover Hill (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier). The wine has already matured to reveal a rich bouquet of brioche, honey, ripe pear, frangipane, marzipan and toasted almonds, with a full-bodied and smooth texture, very fine mousse and balanced by refreshing acidity. Finishes long. I think this is more than an aperitif beverage and could pair well with seared scallops in a balsamic sauce or tempura prawns! Slightly disappointing that there was a faint corkedness which was initially relatively well masked by the temperature of the bottle, but the wine was beautifully made and just a lovely expression of the cool climate in Tasmania and the ripe fruit of the vintage. 17.5/20

Then we tasted the 2001 Jean Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Clos de La Mouchère that I had brought with me. The wine was much more evolved than I remembered, and it tasted slightly madeirised, which was rather disappointing because I had been so impressed by the balance between the refreshing minerality and the rounded character of this wine. On the nose, it was lemon curd, melon, fig, nougat, honey, cloves and toasted hazelnuts. Full-bodied, creamy textured and still well balanced despite the slight madeirisation. A wine that would normally work well with a coq au vin jaune, for example.

Naturally, we had red wines to go with the leg of lamb (butterflied and cooked on the barbecue) and kangaroo sausages brought by Jacques. Loïc served us a 2001 Taltarni Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Blended with less than 15% of Merlot and Petit Verdot. Maturation of 24 months in French oak. Well-made in the Bordeaux style and gracefully aged revealing perfumed notes of blackberries, black cherries, blackcurrant, violet, cedar, tobacco and just a faint hint of toasty oak. A very fine finish. An elegant and expressive wine that speaks immediately of its French winemaking style, the gravelly loam soil and the Pyrenees regional characteristics. Drinking well now, with potential to further develop in bottle and will drink well for 10+ years. 17.5/20 (Taltarni did a vertical tasting of Estate Cabernet Sauvignon at Rockpool Melbourne recently and I heard that the 1977 showed extremely well!  So will be interesting to track the development of this 2001 over time!)

Loic with a glass of 2004 Reserve
Shiraz Cabernet in hand

Then we had the 2004 Reserve Shiraz Cabernet, which was a different style altogether. Open top fermentation, followed by 15 months in new French oak. This wine showed much more of a fruit-forward style (mainly ripe red fruits, plums and blackcurrant), complemented by the spicy character of Shiraz and well-integrated notes of toasty oak, mocha and cigar box. More spicy, savoury and warming chocolate character on the palate. Full-bodied, with a very rich mouthfeel and a velvety texture, propped up by fair levels of soft ripe tannin and acidity. A marriage of opulence, elegance and spicy character. The wine could do with further development to allow the mid palate to fill out even more. I would probably match this wine with a lamb tagine or a rich duck or goose dish. Also good with a nutty hard cheese with some lovely Maggie Beer quince paste. Drinking well now and will continue to evolve in bottle for 10+ years, with a long life ahead. 18/20

Then we finished the meal with Simone’s deliciously baked apple sultana pot with a granola crumble topping. We talked a bit more about wines and when the conversation turned to Australian football, I was completely lost and realized that it was time to go home. Plus Jacques was going to get up at 4 am and saying goodbye to our generous hosts at 10:30 pm didn’t leave him much time to sleep! Although Jacques is the Financial Controller, he diligently gets up at 4 every morning and goes to the office (literally a 5-minute walk) at 5. He is the most hardworking FC I’ve ever come across!