A Centenarian Wine Evening: 100-pointers paired to French Courses
A Tasting of 100-point wines at Lindsley, the Rajan residence
At the strike of seven, the wine cognoscenti, my Tasting Council of six, arrived. And were launched into orbit, the same instant, by a time capsule of the swinging 90s: a well-preserved champagne, a 1990 Louis Roderer Cristal, made famous by the Rapper Dons, a sparkler that gave hiccups to Dom Perignon, The Czar of all Champagnes.
The nouveau riche or the un-inspired champagne drinkers would have cared less about the Baccarat capotes I served the champagne in. I bought them many years ago from Place du Vendome in Paris. A debate on the finer points of capote versus flute ensued and the flute was declared the frump among vessels. This was going to be that kind of evening. My wife Mariette, a consummate chef with the versatility of rendering French cuisine its apt nuances as she would a flavorful Indian meal, was my pairing companion for the evening.
This is how the courses went.
Episode 1: A crimson beet consommé that resembled a crushed velvet pocket square was served in a Frederic of Hapsburg ceramic tankard and apron saucer, its pedigree from Viennese coffee salons of yesteryear. I had acquired them in Vienna. Also provided was an onion marmalade atop a crostini lathered with a dollop of crème fraiche like a feather on a cap. A boat of grilled okra (ladies fingers) infused with Belvedere vodka completed the ensemble.
A ’04 Chapoutier Le Meal Cote Du Rhone Blanc, a “librarian with a cleavage” (as in serious but vivacious), was an acidic carnival. It sought and found mating signals with the beet and set off the okra like a schooner in the Riviera. An accompanying Rose‘ Del Borro from Il Borro endeared with a blush and rose petals. What a first pairing! Adam and Eve came to mind.
Episode 2: An enigmatic ’98 Ch. Beaucastel Hommage Du Jaques Perrin and the Pian di Nova from Il Borro, a Tuscan syrah-sangiovese blend, both had a loving first glance at the second course, a Sicilian Burrata nested on beefsteak tomato with a puddle of white truffle ointment and a lava of Modena balsamic vinegar and Peruvian grey salt on a Royal Copenhagen charger. The Hommage, acquired from the caves of the grand chateau Beaucastel in the south of France many moons ago, consummated a marriage made in heaven.
Episode 3: The kitchen fahrenheits got an uptick from Chef Mariette’s signature bread-crumb albacore tuna sautéed in jalape?o vapor. She perched the succulent cake on two white french limoges saucers, one shaped like a mother fish and the other its baby, the latter saddling a cream cheese cracker and Osetra caviar. It made the perfect ensemble for the ’02 Joseph Phelp’s Insignia Cabernet blend and the heady, complex Ruffino Reserva Ducale Oro, a blockbuster Tuscan wine that would have sat calm in my cellar for another twenty years. The mid palate on the Phelp’s claret was like a C note from a Marsalis trumpet. So brassy, so smooth. It was a nuptial night for the cab and the fish.
Episode 4: This was garlic asparagus waist-belted with a poached egg string curated on a Royal Albert Rose Coronation plate hosting a neighborhood of prosciutto and melon in a Ming. Our official pairing referees had drummed up a 3-on-3 perfect pairing score so far. How do you pair this complex project? The Oracle was a foggy mistral of a Marcassin Sonoma Coast Chardonnay whose first blushes of citrus and gooseberry austerity exploded into a voluptuous Lolobrigida of classic film starlet fame, with layers of creamy fruit that extracted every flavor note of this legume, egg, meat and fruit course. The 9 Lives Cabernet from San Pedro winced at first but its strawberry and fig aromas came through nicely with smooth and structured tannins.
Episode 5: The next 100-pointer emerged as the long-lost twin brother of the previous Insignia ‘94, this one, the coveted ’97 Insignia. Like Atlas, its broad muscular shoulders carried one of the denser courses of the evening, a Royal Albert Coronation plate hosting a Chanterelle du Portobello in a balsamic demi-glaze chased by a lab test tube of Gaspacho de Tomate did the honors for this great marriage. The twin accompanying Rose‘ from the Commanderie de Peyrassol and the Fantini Farnesse from Montepulciano were an apt refresher in this heady paring. One man’s meat may be another man’s poison. Noble poison, this.
Episode 6: Oops! Houston, we have a problem! A red to pair the next episode, snow-globed medallions of filet mignon in a vintage Madeira reduction, betrothed to Peter Luger’s creamed spinach and a wisp of British Raj Paprika, went missing in action. The cellar was marshaled to a Defcon 3 alert and three clarets emerged, a ’37 Talbot, a ’45 Gruaud Larose and a ’57 Mouton Rothschild. The First Growth, The Mouton, was anointed as the princess bride to the domed Knight.
Episode Grand Finale: The decadence had peaked a while ago but the gents were in Oktoberfest mode and Mme. Chef was a perpetual Stuttgart assembly line pumping out delectable Porsches. It simply had to end. Fauchon and Payard petit fours played the anthem on a Minton tower paired with a Teatro du Diablo crystal service, the little glass devils hailing from faraway Murano, each holding hostage to an 1889 Malmsey Madeira, courtesy His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain’s private cellar.
And that was that. As promptly as the merry gents had come in what seemed just a few moments ago, as quickly as they Ubered out into the warm, dark night.