A brilliant wine may have been the treat of the year
Obviously I haven't written a thing (besides a few Chesapeake Home articles) in almost a year. My apologies. I have been inspired to reinvigorate my blog by my recent visit to one of my very favorite restaurants in the world, La Beaugravière in Mondragon, France (north of Avignon 45 minutes) on the N6.
We've visited this place at least a few times a year, usually back to back evenings, for more than a decade. The original visit was on the recommendation of Robert Parker because of the wine list. We've returned repeatedly and often with several staff in tow for the sound simple cooking, amazing truffles in season, kind and knowledgeable service and great cellar. There's always the chance to teach a few interesting lessons about vintages, producers and terroirs because of the great vertical and horizontal depth in Rhone Valley wines.
The visit last week was in order to gather up Ashley, my young Assistant Sommelier at Petit Louis, who had been working as a stagere for several weeks at La Beaugravière. Two others from the Louis culinary and service team were along as well. During the day we'd had excellent instructional tastings and visits at Château de Beaucastel and Domaine Moulin-Tacussel. Two growers of enormously differing styles, circumstances, philosophies and outcomes.
During the course of dinner we tasted two 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Papes next to one another: Beaucastel and Clos des Papes. The Beaucastel showed its traditional style even in a super-ripe vintage like 1990 with the Mourvèdre dominant in a flavor and a certain animal character pervasive to the wine. Complexity and interest and length were all quite good. The fruit's appeal was less charming than the Clos des Papes. Often I have had the 90 Clos des Papes and it has shown a bit too much alcohol on the nose for my taste. This example was really balanced and showed none of that. At age 19 it seems to have hit its stride quite beautifully.
La Beaugravière's classic dishes: various terrines, seared foie gras with apples and honey, pigeon, pavé de boeuf aux truffes noires, sweetbreads etc...all show these wines off beautifully. I also had a really pretty Lotte roasted on the bone with tomato confit and basil as a fish course that was superb.
The big treat of the evening (and maybe the year) was an older bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Château Mont-Redon 1961. This was in brilliant condition having come directly from the estate and having been reconditioned and recorked there. At age 48 it remains in its prime decades after many wines from this appellation have long died. The nose was enchanting complex, floral, truffley, notes of garrigues carrying into dried spice and then the spices seasoning some sort of bloody sweet meat. The palate remained full and quite rich. Alcohol was controlled but generous, tannins quite silky and fully realized. Length was admirable and quite sweet with dried raspberry, clove and juniper fruit to finish. It is a bit of a sin that this estate has not made wines like these since the 1960's. The terroir is still amazing. Their neighbors just keep passing by the commercial wine they have been making for decades now.
We all got a lesson with this wine.
We've visited this place at least a few times a year, usually back to back evenings, for more than a decade. The original visit was on the recommendation of Robert Parker because of the wine list. We've returned repeatedly and often with several staff in tow for the sound simple cooking, amazing truffles in season, kind and knowledgeable service and great cellar. There's always the chance to teach a few interesting lessons about vintages, producers and terroirs because of the great vertical and horizontal depth in Rhone Valley wines.
The visit last week was in order to gather up Ashley, my young Assistant Sommelier at Petit Louis, who had been working as a stagere for several weeks at La Beaugravière. Two others from the Louis culinary and service team were along as well. During the day we'd had excellent instructional tastings and visits at Château de Beaucastel and Domaine Moulin-Tacussel. Two growers of enormously differing styles, circumstances, philosophies and outcomes.
During the course of dinner we tasted two 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Papes next to one another: Beaucastel and Clos des Papes. The Beaucastel showed its traditional style even in a super-ripe vintage like 1990 with the Mourvèdre dominant in a flavor and a certain animal character pervasive to the wine. Complexity and interest and length were all quite good. The fruit's appeal was less charming than the Clos des Papes. Often I have had the 90 Clos des Papes and it has shown a bit too much alcohol on the nose for my taste. This example was really balanced and showed none of that. At age 19 it seems to have hit its stride quite beautifully.
La Beaugravière's classic dishes: various terrines, seared foie gras with apples and honey, pigeon, pavé de boeuf aux truffes noires, sweetbreads etc...all show these wines off beautifully. I also had a really pretty Lotte roasted on the bone with tomato confit and basil as a fish course that was superb.
The big treat of the evening (and maybe the year) was an older bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Château Mont-Redon 1961. This was in brilliant condition having come directly from the estate and having been reconditioned and recorked there. At age 48 it remains in its prime decades after many wines from this appellation have long died. The nose was enchanting complex, floral, truffley, notes of garrigues carrying into dried spice and then the spices seasoning some sort of bloody sweet meat. The palate remained full and quite rich. Alcohol was controlled but generous, tannins quite silky and fully realized. Length was admirable and quite sweet with dried raspberry, clove and juniper fruit to finish. It is a bit of a sin that this estate has not made wines like these since the 1960's. The terroir is still amazing. Their neighbors just keep passing by the commercial wine they have been making for decades now.
We all got a lesson with this wine.
posted by Moderator at 5:43 PM
1 Comments:
Tony,
Thanks for sending Ashley to Mondragon. It gave my wife and I an excuse to drive a little farther north than we would have from our base in St. Remy de Provence.
Our meal at La Beaugravière was superb. One of the best ever. We both ordered the truffle menu and Ashley selected a 1998 something or other for us (sorry I can't remember; blurry memory for some reason). This got polished off before the cottage cheese with truffles course, so she made an oustanding choice of a 1993 CNP that matched perfectly. She then showed us around their wine cellar, which was very cool. Wines so old the labels have fallen off and they no longer know what they are.
While in Provence, we also ate at La Fourchette in Avigon (very good) and Oustau de Baumaniere in Les Baux (food from another planet, very imaginative, beyond fresh, downright artful, tasty too). We sprang for a 1998 Chave Hermitage which was superb. My first bottle of Chave; now I know. A great meal, but if we go back to any restaurant it'll be La Beaugravière in Mondragon. It's more welcoming and approachable.
In Paris, we ate at Chez Jean (highly recommended) and Benoit (great escargots and very good cassoulet but they seated us in siberia and sold us a 45 Euro carafe of 2004 something or other that left me cold, even though I had grilled the sommelier to give us something spot-on perfect. Oh well. Worse things have happened.)
Thanks for the recommendations.
Scott
Post a Comment
<< Home