TN: New Year's Eve

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
We were upstairs at a neighbor's house for NYE. She made 4 courses of the 5-course menu (caviar, curried onion soup, deconstructed Beef Wellington, cheese plate) and I made dessert (the richest chocolate cake I know). Analogously, she provided the first wine and I provided the rest:

Veuve Clicquot NV Champagne Brut Rose - Nothing exciting here but nothing terrible here, either. It appears that the rumors are true that some effort is being made to put a palatable wine in a VC bottle nowadays. We finished the bottle... it is NYE after all!

No wine with Julia Child's curried onion soup. Sorry.

Marechal, Catherine et Claude 2001 Chorey-les-Beaune - I'd had a nice bottle of this recently and so snapped this one up when Chambers St found a few more. It's soft and slightly stinky but very pretty and secondary and (just!) enough life left to work with beef and mushrooms. We finished this one.

Peter Michael 1999 Chardonnay "Belle Cote" - I advertised this as a "bombastic" white but it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Sure, it's plenty o' butter, vanilla, caramel and popcorn but adequate acidity, only a little overripe, and whistle clean. Glad it's gone from my inventory but not overly sorry to have tasted it. Lots of this left over.

Dow 1983 Vintage Port - (I think I mentioned somewhere that I had a 1985 queued up but it turns out to be 1983.) Cork tore apart, even with Ah-So'ing. Kinda thin and spirity; disappointing. But I've decanted the rest so let's see whether a day or two will improve it.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Veuve Clicquot NV Champagne Brut Rose - Nothing exciting here but nothing terrible here, either. It appears that the rumors are true that some effort is being made to put a palatable wine in a VC bottle nowadays. We finished the bottle... it is NYE after all!
Click to expand...

Very interesting. About 1.5 months ago at a family gathering, my brother's wife opened a 2004 Veuve Clicquot Rosé I found oddly not horrible. She, though, was surprised by it. "It seems so... dry."

I wonder if they've changed their dosage policy.

In any case, it was not what I would have thought.
 
Clos du Mont Olivet Cuvee de Papet Chateauneuf du Pape '90 -- As good as ever, and a nice pairing with sauteed apples/foie gras and cheese tart w/salad, then sweetheart (chocolate) cookies.

. . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Clos du Mont Olivet Cuvee de Papet Chateauneuf du Pape '90 -- As good as ever, and a nice pairing with sauteed apples/foie gras and cheese tart w/salad, then sweetheart (chocolate) cookies.

. . . . Pete
Click to expand...

Yes, this was the real thing, not as it has been since 2000. I wish I had some left.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Dow 1983 Vintage Port - (I think I mentioned somewhere that I had a 1985 queued up but it turns out to be 1983.) Cork tore apart, even with Ah-So'ing. Kinda thin and spirity; disappointing. But I've decanted the rest so let's see whether a day or two will improve it.
Click to expand...
Yes, a few days, stoppered and fridged, did help. It fleshed out a little, and the extra palate presence displaced the spiritousness. Still not a fabulous drink but both Jim and I had a little glass each night.
 
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