Master Classes, Château La Mission Haut-Brion vertical tasting

Château with a brilliantly outstanding achievements; the unofficial sixth First Growth and once more...


a unique chance to experience a superb wine vertical tasting.


Jean-Philippe Delmas of Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Sarah Kemp – shared the podium.


A tasting of 8 vintages from 1995 to 2005 and two vintages Laville Haut Brion, each offering pleasure and finesse one after another...

First Flight: 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000


Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2005
Very closed but with a long, long nutty finish. So silky... somehow mix between 2000 and 2001. (19+/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2004
Farm, earthy, such a classical beauty... (18/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2003
This is quite strange... tannic bite,red fruit... (17/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2001
Cedar, tobacco, havana, very elegant and somewhat easy to drink... (18.5/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2000
Deep layered nose, very complex, long finish and such a elegance and complexity (19.5/20)

Second Flight 1999, 1998, 1995

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 1999
A big beauty, sweet nose, very approachable right now, very long finish, lasts for a minutes... (19/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 1998
Open, concentrated and very precise. Round and well integrated with a marvelous nutty aftertaste... (19+/20)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 1995
Dark core, minerally component, appealing and lean character. Very elegant but a little green (18+/20)

Third Flight: 2006 and 2007

Château Laville Haut Brion 2006
Big and fatty semillon... long and amazing.

Château Laville Haut Brion 2007
Just amazing white...

Master Classes, Vintage Champagne

I had a chance to discover the exciting and much-praised cuvées from some of Champagne’s finest vintages...


with Essi Avellan MW, Finland’s first Master of Wine and editor of Fine Champagne magazine.


knowing your vintage...


let's the game begin...

Philipponnat Grand Blanc 2004
Nice one but not my favorite style of champagne.

Taittinger Vintage 2004
No toastines, delicate, withe fruits, fresh and vibrant (17 pts.)

Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs 1996
Toasty, baked apple, honey, nutty, creamy, long and fresh finish. Delicious wine (18.5 pts.)

Champagne Clos du Faubourg Notre Dame 2000
Closed, no oak, no malolactic fermentation, long and acid finish. Bone dry. After half and hour or so it start emerging with some woody-spicy nose and notes of mineral and flint (17.5 pts.)

Tarlant La Vigne d'Antan 2000
Closed and not my favorite style of champagne.

Chartogne -Taillet Les Barres 2006
Round, not so focus, volatile nose. Very young taste.

Pommery Cuvée Louise 1999
Mmmm... elegant and creamy, hints of gunpowder and flint, apple. Despite it's already fells an brilliantly evolved maturity, still extremely young. (19 pts.)

Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires 1995
Intense and very round. Nose of sweet, gunpowder, tropical fruits. Very long and a real sense of liveliness (19+ pts.)

Piper-Heidsieck Rare Vintage 2002
Deep color, still closed but one can feel the power and concentration of this strong and masculine and in the same time elegant wine. Needs aging of 10-20 years. (19 pts.)

Louis Roederer Brut Rosé 2004
Beautiful peach/salmon color, fresh and nervous, waxy, yeasty, autolytic nose... (19 pts.)

Billecart Salmon Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Rosé 2000
Quite Burgundian nose, complex, spicy and with a strong character. This need more time. (19 pts.)

Veuve Clicquot Cave Privée Rose 1989
Onion skin color, nose of an old Champagne, dry fruits, coffee, spices, once more Burgundian nose. Elegant, with long finis. Perfectly developed and integrated aromas.This is fantastic food wine (19.5 pts.)

Master Classes, Opus One vertical tasting

One of California’s most famous wineries, Opus One was founded by Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild and renowned Napa Valley vintner Robert Mondavi.


Michael Silacci, wine-maker responsible for the last nine remarkable vintages...


Opus One 1979
Remarkable youth color. Leather, earth, farm yard, long smooth and silky. Balanced, elegant and integrated. Very very nice (17.5 pts.)

Opus One 1987
Woody-spicy, minty, eucalyptus, still still relatively tanic. Balanced and young even after 23 years! Very exciting wine (18 pts.)

Opus One 1991
Exuberant but still developing and work in progress...

Opus One 1995
Rich, robust, warm spices, bitter chocolate, very seductive (17.5 pts.)

Opus One 1997
Tick color, nutty, concentrated nose, almost sweet. Very rounded and long and pleasant finish.(18.5 pts.)

Opus One 2001
Beautiful, rich color, very complex nose, spicy, fresh, voluptuous and creamy texture...Just fantastic wine! (19 pts.)

Opus One 2005
Classic stuff but to much for my taste(17.5 pts.)

Opus One 2006
Big contrast to 2005. Exuberant but in the same time restrained. This has fantastic potential (18 pts.)

Rambling Electronica 2010 @ München, Visual Diary

La Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise @ Prague, A Guest Blog Post

La Dégustation is a remarkable place. Hidden in the maze of streets that makes up Prague centre, it waits for you like a silent creature, crouching in the dark, camouflaged against the surrounding buildings. You open the door, and it pounces. Out of nowhere.

You lose your footing slightly, your pupils dilate wildly as they try to focus on what hit you, the rush of adrenalin making your heart pound so hard that it skips a beat.

Then the moment passes.

And you find yourself smiling back at a person who is welcoming you and helping you with your coat. Excuse me, what happened?!





Buzzing atmosphere
The evening we were there, all tables were full, and people were waiting in the bar. Good sign! There was a lot of lively talk, but not too loud, just the right kind of buzz to make you happy that you ventured out in the night.


Pristine Praha
Once more, we wanted to enjoy food & wine with a Pristine Praha touch, so we opted for the menu Dégustation Bohême, which had a more local twist than the Chef's menu.

A generous 3 x amuse-bouche maison got us off to a good start, all three elegant and exactly right. My favourite was the tatar caught between waifer thin layers of crisp bread. Yummy.

Entrée
Then for the entrée which was hmmm not the very best in the world. Diced pork in a marjoram béchamel with pickled cucumber. The thick, glue-like consistency of the marjoram béchamel was not appealing to me, but the dish as a whole was still tasty (saved by the pickled cucumber).



Remembering a pair of yellow rubber boots
Soup next. Prague ham soup with a quail egg, celery root, carrot and lovage oil. This was a delicious, mouthwatering soup that hit me with a wave of nostalgia when the lovage oil opened up memories of my grandmother in her herb garden on Fyn in Denmark. Yellow rubber boots planted solidly in a myriad of herbs, skirt tied at the hip and a big grin on her face. She would have found great pleasure from the delicate pairing of lovage and quails egg.



The Birth of Venus
From one delicate dish to another. Butter poached pikeperch tickled by a few petals of brussels sprouts, resting on peeled barley, hazelnuts and encircled by a beautiful line of beetroot. What is it with Prague chefs and fish? Precisely like Le Terroir the day before, this fish was cooked to perfection. It was like silk.



However, if I could do this dish, I would cut down on the foam, and let the colour-clash of the fish and beetroot stand out even more. That would create a bold and dramatic visual counterpart to the soft, innocence of the fish. Imagine the white flesh of the fish, with only a little (sea) foam at the base, presented on a backdrop of deep red beetroot. It would evoke Botticelli's The Birth of Venus...



Cute
Well that was what flashed through my mind anyway. Venus is a lady you cannot take your eyes off, so unfortunately I was a bit distracted when I gulped down the next amuse-bouche. Cute spoons, don't you think?



No fire without smoke
Ahh, ready for the smoked beef tongue, pickled shallot garnished with white bean and apple puré. This dish was in the same exquisite league as the pikeperch and a welcome powerful punch at the taste buds. I need to try to prepare this at home.



Braisé
The next dish was lamb accompanied by a garlic purée (a bit too tame I think), parsley root chips and rosemary juice (again, a bit too tame). Somehow there was something missing in this dish.



Back on track with the amuse-bouche du jardin
Cleansing the palate with the next amuse-bouche.



Fromage and...potatoes?
Yes, seeing it is believing it. Cheese with... potatoes. Although in a molecular disguise. Still, the kitchen lacked courage here. They should have aimed for a more prominent potatoe taste, that could pick a fight with the scrawny (but extremely tasty) cheese. I liked the caraway track. It made me think of Hansel & Gretel's breadcrumb track through the forest.



A sweet finale
Finally, a wonderful dish of sweet buns with walnuts, plums and rum foam. This is the kind of dessert that challenges your patience and manners. It is so incredibly tasty, that your instinct is to gobble it up in 2 seconds. Oh no, no, don't do that in a super restaurant like this :-o



So, with a controlled effort to respect general etiquette, I managed to slow down, and succeeded in prolonging this lavish Bohêmian experience right until the very end, until I reached the full stop, and put my spoon down with a content sigh.

Wine
The wine was exquisite all the way through. 95% of it from the region or neighbouring regions. I don't know what to say except that I loved it, and I was slightly annoyed that they didn't pour very much in each glass. But then again, maybe that is a good thing.

The wine connaisseur in action


Rating
I will leave the rating to this blog's rightful owner, but suffice it to say that La Dégustation won a star in my book, a star that has a really sexy sparkle in its eye.

It doesn't get full points though, because we both agreed that they were stingy with the wine :-(

La Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise
www.ladegustation.cz/en