Artful Burgundies w/multi-course dinner...

Hard to know without knowing the cheese, and even with the name it sounds like we might not.

Burgundian wine with Burgundian cheese is a good first step, but if you want to be safe I'd go with the r.s. That's just me, though...I'm still one of those heretics who thinks that red Burgundy does, in fact, pair better with Epoisses than white Burgundy, which I know is not the hipster opinion.
 
Maureen, where is the baker located and what's his/her name? I'm looking for a baker in DC that bakes good bread. I would love to buy the fig/walnut loaf myself.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Am I the only one for whom Corton-Charlemagne and chiseled tend to sit at opposite ends of the table?
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like totally 50/50

Latour, Bonneau du Martray and (mostly) Jadot ? No.
Roumier and Faiveley ? Yes.
Chandon de Briailles ? Depends on the vintage.
 
Yule, the baker is Quail Ridge - they attend the Arlington Farmers Market on Saturday (at courthouse metro) and the penn quarter market on Thursday afternoon. His quarkbrot and brioche loaves are quite good too - plus a huge, dense round Italian thing that he'll sell in quarters.
 
Maureen -- Your cheese sounds like a Pommard. It's absolutely delicious-- covered with mustard grains. We occasionally can get it out here in SF.

Corton-Charlemagne to me ideally is "chiseled", but remember, we're talking about expositions that vary over 270, greatly with height, and there is great variability with vintage, so there are all types.

Following Richard Olney's maxim that the cheese course is just an excuse to open another good bottle of wine, I would have no objection to a topflight CC, Montrachet, or any other wine, red or white.
 
Rollin Pere & Fils Corton-Charlemagne would seem to me to be a good example of one that exhibits chisel, at least in my experience.
 
originally posted by maureen:
Yule, the baker is Quail Ridge - they attend the Arlington Farmers Market on Saturday (at courthouse metro) and the penn quarter market on Thursday afternoon. His quarkbrot and brioche loaves are quite good too - plus a huge, dense round Italian thing that he'll sell in quarters.
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Thanks Maureen for the tip. It gives me a good reason to finally check out the Penn Quarter market!
 
And you will talk about herring :) Couldn't decide which response to go with so I did both.
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I enjoyed both, but in an earlier version I was considering going with "...and now I'm going to go pillage Ireland. Again." It seemed more butch than the alternatives, like "...and now I'm going to go eat fish marinated in soap and drink distilled caraway seeds."
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Rollin Pere & Fils Corton-Charlemagne would seem to me to be a good example of one that exhibits chisel, at least in my experience.
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the rollin shows the benefit (if one likes that sort of thing) of pinot blanc in corton. it gives oomph without giving it up to blousiness. it is why the regular drinking of white pernand is a sign of genius.

fb.
 
White Savignys can be wonderful, too.

I'm not sure if if it's the Pinot Blanc that makes Rollin's CC the way it is (in fact, if I recall correctly, but it is many years ago, he said he still had some Aligot mixed in there) as much as being on the west-facing exposition.
 
We've been drinking through some white villages Pavelot (Jean-Marc and Hugues) Savigny, that were very good, and 02 Rollin Sous Fretilles. The Rollin has just entered some transitory stage where, with a little air time, the texture and flavors change dramatically, from chiseled and sappy to meltingly cinnamony-spicy. Very striking.

Also have some 07 Bize Vergelesses blanc and wonder if it will go the same route. Normally, I'm not much of a white Burg drinker, but these ones are interesting.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Maureen -- Your cheese sounds like a Pommard. It's absolutely delicious-- covered with mustard grains. We occasionally can get it out here in SF.
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Claude, indeed it was the Pommard - and indeed absolutely delicious. It actually worked very well on the walnut/fig bread I had - the savory aspect of the cheese balanced well against the fruitiness of the bread. But we didn't open the huet as we had too much undrunk wine still (remnants of 01 karthauserhof auction spatlese, 90 CFE VT, a slightly over the hill but still interesting on the nose 95 lafon champ gains, and the 2 93s).
 
Rollin.jpg
A long, lean, and dry finish, if quite broad in the mid-palate with honey and chamomile showing some botrytis.

I inquired as to whether this contained pinot blanc and was told in reply that it did not.
 
A lot of wine/cheese matching gets dicey when folks start with a set of cheeses and then try to match wines to them. I work the other way most of the time - start with the wine and then pair cheeses.

Also, I tend to focus less on flavor and more on elements of balance to make the pairings. For instance, given the richness of many cheeses, if you have wines without lots of acid, you can't get the pairing to work. But to me, that is why I rarely serve high-fat cheeses with wine-oriented cheese courses (since I tend not to drink super high acid wines).
 
A typical dinner at the Bounds house is a large salad with greens from Tom Spicer (sells spectacular greens mostly to the better Dallas restaurants) and one or more great cheeses from Scardello (an amazing cheese shop here in Dallas). Saturday night we had a beautiful La Tur that was perfectly ripe paired with 2005 Luneau-Papin pueri soli. It was a beautiful matching.
For me with few exceptions, whites go better with cheese. And most great cheeses (I prefer soft goat cheeses) seem best with great white burgundies. And this is from a guy who prefers light bodied reds with sushi.
 
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