A few magnums and Christmas is almost here!!!

23 Dec 2011:  Our annual pre-Christmas celebration at home....always a nice reminder that Christmas is just a couple of days away!  This year Richard and I shared the cooking duties.....Our menu read:

Amuse Bouche: Ivy's Prawn Toast and Engel's Samosas
Starter: Ivy's oven-roasted halibut in a lightly spicy lemongrass and coriander broth
Main Course: Richard's braised beef in rich red wine sauce, served with fingerling potatoes and pea shoots
The best of English cheese: Stinking Bishop, Mrs. Montgomery's Cheddar and Stilton
Dessert: Carribean rum cake and mince pies, served with rum butter (so yummy that I highly recommend anyone to rush out to M&S to secure a few pots!)

All the wines were in magnum format, except the champagne and dessert wine:

1990 Krug: Light golden hue.  A rich and mature nose of savoury, mushroom, gingerbread, kumquat confit, honey and caramel.  Creamy mousse, very fine bubbles, and a harmonious wine, perhaps a touch lacking in vibrancy and energy. Long finish. Drink now. 17.5/20

1996 Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet (in magnum): This tasted much fresher and much more youthful than the 750 ml bottle we had 3 weeks ago, in fact almost like a different wine!  Heaps of minerality, some citrus and floral character.  Beautifully structured, showing real pedigree, class and purity. Suitably weighty, and deftly balanced by firm acidity. Finishes very long.  A glorious wine that is so easily enjoyed now and has at least another 15+ years of drinking window.  19/20

1989 Haut Brion (in magnum): Ruby core. Compared to the 1990, a much more tertiary nose of smokey, earthy, leather, cedar, graphite and savoury....some blue and black berries and liquorice notes. Elegantly structured and velvety texture.  Acidity not particularly high and well-integated tannin. Glorious and majestic. Drink now and over next 20 years. 18.5/20

1990 Haut Brion (in magnum): Deeper ruby.  Some similarity on the nose: smoke, tobacco, plum, black cherry, blackberry and cassis, lifted by some spicy and earthy notes.  Compared to the 1989, this shows more energy on the palate, a bit more acidity and a more rounded mouthfeel.  If 1989 could be described as elegant and graceful, then the 1990 was rather voluptuous, plump and supple.  After 3 hours, the wine shut down a bit in the glass, and the mid palate went a little hollow.  Equally long finish.  Drink now and over next 20+ years.   19/20

We left 2 glasses of each wine out as benchmark and had totally forgotten about them until the following morning. One of them showed clear signs of deterioration while the other smelt and tasted still rather fresh......the winner was interestingly the 1990, and not the legendary 100-pointer 1989!

2001 Climens: Golden core, with amber highlights.  Orange marmalade, apricot and honey. Racy acidity, balancing the richness. Very very long finish.  Drink now and over next 50+ years. 18/20

The irresistible rum cake!!!

Unfortunately the Climens had to compete a bit with the rum cake, which was a really very pleasant surpirse!  I bought this cake in August at the airport in Barbados, quite by accident.  I was actually looking for aged rum, but didn't find many fine samples.  Then I overheard someone saying, "These are the best rum cakes" in front of the Tortuga shelf (as there were two brands competing side by side). So I joined the crowd browsing the immense selection of rum cakes of different flavours: original, coffee, banana, key lime, chocolate, coconut, etc.  I chose the Original Version of the Tortuga brand of Carribean Rum Cake, apparently from the Cayman Islands (and they ship worldwide!!! Check out: http://www.tortugarums.com/).  Soft and moist, totally infused with spices and rum, and made even more irresistible with a good dollop of Marks & Spencer's spiced rum butter!!!  If you are a big fan of moist carrot cake with lots of sour cream icing, think rum and you have this version of rum cake, topped with rum butter!  I highly recommend! (And the mince pies came from M&S too - yummy!)

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!