one final lunch before the joys of covid.

[Ken Gargett]

we have a small group that tries to meet a couple of times a year - max of 8 people only and a top wine necessary. was a cracking lunch, though trying to organise 8 people to enjoy a lunch is ridiculously difficult. lord knows why.

anyway, finally heading home that evening and started to feel a bit crook (i know what you are thinking but this was different). by the time i got home, full blown covid - i had been fine all day. still soldiering through the covid (thankfully i was up with all vax and boosters and the antivirals have been amazing) but do get to live on the memories of a fabulous day. 

i even spent ages locking in all the photos upright in the system and yet... drives me insane. 

kicked off with two champers - the pierre peters les chetillons 2000 was the first oenetheque version they have ever made. my first time with it. it was fabulous but overshadowed by a stunning Taittinger comtes 2002, which overall was voted wine of the day. it was that good.

this dish of scallops, jamon and caviar (apparently from Uruguay of all places) was amazing.

a couple of whites next. the henri boillot corton Charlemagne 2020 was truly exquisite. the Giaconda chardonnay 2006 i served blind (actually served them both blind). every single person picked it as a grand cru white burg, from corton to chevalier to batard. it really was amazing. two stunning wines. 

this was the other dish of the day - fraser island spanner crab pasta. heaven.

next bracket, three reds. the Roberto Voerzio Barolo 2008 Sarmassa in magnum. the Giacomo Conterno Francia Barolo 2005. Haut Brion 2016. all fabulous. the HB very young of course. 

then two brilliant burgs. the Olivier Bernstein chambertin clos de beze 2009 which was all complex and stemmy and fabulous. then the montille malconsorts 'çhristiane' from 2019. this was obviously very young but truly stunning (a tiny plot of land that juts into/out of la tache). it was my wine of the day, just ahead of the comtes. the corton was third. 

as we have discussed, no self respecting decent lunch can be without an yquem. the 88 here. as good as one would expect. 

finally two VPs. sadly the dows was a dud. cork failure. the fonseca, on the other hand, exquisite indeed. 

all up, a cracking day and way more fun than covid. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

Thanks for the post Ken, hope you feel better soon!

[TR]

Speedy recovery my friend!

[BrightonCorgi]

Cork failure on '83 Dow is not so common.  If it were '77 Dow; that's another story.

Get well soon!

[anthem]

Hope you feel better soon!!!

[GVan]

@Ken Gargett, I love living vicariously through your wine dinner and lunch posts!  Awesome wines served.  

Thought that you'd appreciate this sad story.  About 3 months ago, the cooling unit compressor in my wine cellar went out.  I wasn't smart enough to install a back-up system when we built the house.  Called out a service as soon as the first temperature alarm came in -- cellar went up to 72 deg's for 7 days as we waited for the new compressor to be installed.  Despite years of excellent storage conditions -- that's all it took.  Looks like I had 7 bottles of 2005 Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne turn or at least the last two bottles we opened weren't good.  Still hanging on to the last 5 in hope that maybe one has survived.  The reds all seem to have made it through -- at least so far.  The perils of collecting!

Get well soon.

[Ken Gargett]

19 hours ago, GVan said:

@Ken Gargett, I love living vicariously through your wine dinner and lunch posts!  Awesome wines served.  

Thought that you'd appreciate this sad story.  About 3 months ago, the cooling unit compressor in my wine cellar went out.  I wasn't smart enough to install a back-up system when we built the house.  Called out a service as soon as the first temperature alarm came in -- cellar went up to 72 deg's for 7 days as we waited for the new compressor to be installed.  Despite years of excellent storage conditions -- that's all it took.  Looks like I had 7 bottles of 2005 Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne turn or at least the last two bottles we opened weren't good.  Still hanging on to the last 5 in hope that maybe one has survived.  The reds all seem to have made it through -- at least so far.  The perils of collecting!

Get well soon.

sorry to hear that. you would not think that such a change - not that hot (assuming you are talking F and not C) - for that period would do that. won't have helped but shouldn't have been so catastrophic? i would not be surprised if the others surprised you and were not so bad.

but all that said, white burg from that era is bang in the middle of the pox. i would be much more likely to look at that. Girardin is not normally a producer i associate with a high rate of premox, like lrrflaive or jadot, but 2005 was a horror year. i'd guess that the pox is more likely the culprit. 

[Ken Gargett]

6 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Cork failure on '83 Dow is not so common.  If it were '77 Dow; that's another story.

Get well soon!

thanks all. slowly getting better. 

i don't see a great deal of cork issues with VPs. but have seen a few 83s. had much better luck with the 77s and have drunk a good number of dows 77. i sometimes wonder if different countries get different experiences. for example, we might have got a bad batch from the 83 vintage. your local distributor might have copped it from the 77 vintage. 

[BrightonCorgi]

57 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

thanks all. slowly getting better. 

i don't see a great deal of cork issues with VPs. but have seen a few 83s. had much better luck with the 77s and have drunk a good number of dows 77. i sometimes wonder if different countries get different experiences. for example, we might have got a bad batch from the 83 vintage. your local distributor might have copped it from the 77 vintage. 

For sure in the US, '77 Dow has a lot of cork variation.  We talk about it from Boston to LA.  I don't even look for that vintage unless it's too good a deal.  Other 77's fare much better.

[Connoisseur Kim]

I wishing you a speedy recovery Ken.

[vinnyvega]

18 hours ago, GVan said:

@Ken Gargett, I love living vicariously through your wine dinner and lunch posts!  Awesome wines served.  

Thought that you'd appreciate this sad story.  About 3 months ago, the cooling unit compressor in my wine cellar went out.  I wasn't smart enough to install a back-up system when we built the house.  Called out a service as soon as the first temperature alarm came in -- cellar went up to 72 deg's for 7 days as we waited for the new compressor to be installed.  Despite years of excellent storage conditions -- that's all it took.  Looks like I had 7 bottles of 2005 Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne turn or at least the last two bottles we opened weren't good.  Still hanging on to the last 5 in hope that maybe one has survived.  The reds all seem to have made it through -- at least so far.  The perils of collecting!

Get well soon.

Ken is 100% on point.  Pre mox got those.  72 degrees for only 7 days did nothing negative to your wine.  

Good news is that the pre mox numbers look to be getting better in the last 10 years.  We'll see......

[Namisgr11]

While I'm an unsophisticate regarding the many libations, I do know that those plates of food look fantastic.

Glad to learn you're on the road to recovery.

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, therealrsr said:

@Ken Gargett she swears you're british, and she's being randy.  help

????