MNSC Burgundy Trip Day 4: memorable oldies

We started the morning with a visit to Domaine Bruno Clair in Marsannay.  Tasting notes can be found here.

Our second stop of the day was Domaine Dugat-Py in Gevrey-Chambertin.  Tasting notes can be found here.

Lunch today was at Chez Guy in Gevrey-Chambertin.  I had some trepidation when I saw the words "and family" written in English...

Two amuse bouches: the mushroom soup was very salty, but I guess that's not surprising.  The artichoke cream was not bad.

I had a spoonful of the truffled eggs, which were pretty delicious.

I wanted to keep things light, so I asked for a green salad.  The waitress seemed puzzled that I didn't want anything substantial, and asked if I wanted to have some pork terrine with my salad.  I agreed to her suggestion and ended up having jambon persillé maison, câpres à queue, cornichons et petits ongions, mesclun à l'huile d'olive...  Instead of having terrine with my salad I ended up having a small pile of greens on the side of big chunks of terrine.  Argh!  At least the terrine was pretty decent...

As I didn't get enough greens the first time around, I asked for a second, much bigger plate of greens.  Much happier.

I did have dessert.  Figue rôti au Mas Amiel, jus à boire, sorbet figue framboise sounded good, and also tasted pretty good.

2003 DRC Echezeaux - an obvious bargain on the wine list.  Initially a little tight, funky, savory, smoky, spices with fruit underneath.  Palate was a little flat.  Second time around the finish was longer and the wine was more concentrated, with game meat notes.

2006 Méo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Cros-Parantoux - nose was a little closed, with sharp alcohol.  A really concentrated wine.

2006 Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes - soft, open and fragrant, with mint and a bit of sweet fruit.  Round and lovely.

First stop after lunch was Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron in Nuits-Saint-Georges.  Tasting notes can be found here.

Next stop was Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux in Vosne-Romanée.  We were treated to a lovely bottle of '71.  Tasting notes can be found here.

Our final visit of the day was Domaine d'Eugénie in Vosne-Romanée.  I had tasted the 2007s and 2008s in Hong Kong a week ago, and this was a chance to try the 2009s and see the progression.  Tasting notes can be found here.

Dinner tonight was at Ma Cuisine in Beaune, just a short walk from the hotel.  The restaurant is well-known for its solid food as well as its wine list, and is a regular hang-out for many of the winemakers and others in the trade.

Salade de St Jacques poêlées - these were really, really good.  The scallops were big, fat and juicy.  Perfect execution.  The pile of greens in the middle also helped keep things light and balanced.

We shared a few orders of œuf brouillé aux truffes, which were the best we've had so far.  The consistency of the eggs were just perfect - not too runny - and there was plenty of black truffle shavings on top as well as in the eggs.  Every mouthful was fragrant ad lovely.  Each of us could have easily gobbled down a plate or two of these...

The pigeon entier rôti au jus was the best I've had that I can remember, and I've had a few pigeons in my time.  The pigeon was plump and incredibly succulent - oozing with juice and flavors emenating from within each bite.  Lightly spiced with pepper and herbs outside, and the mushrooms played their supporting role well.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't the alcohol talking when I was overcome with emotion while savoring each and every little mouthful of heaven.

The wine list was pretty extensive for a restaurant of this size, and there were a number of gems we unearthed tonight.

1996 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet - sweet, honey and buttery...so rich and creamy, with a bit of minerals, a hint of acetone.  Color was golden yellow.  Acidity was quite high on the palate, even though it was hot and burned a little on the finish.  Later on the nose showed a bit of grass, oak, more minerals, flint and toast.  An incredibly lovely wine.

1961 Henri Sorrel Hermitage - none of us had ever had the privilege to taste this wine before, although the name Sorrel is a distinguished one in Hermitage and one can't exactly go wrong with a '61 Hermitage!  Really nice and amazing.  Lots of herbs and spices, a little turpentine, sous bois, black olives, soy sauce, smoke and mushrooms.  The wine still had reasonable body for its age, but slightly high in acidity and burned the back of my throat on the way down thanks to the alcohol.  A real treat to be able to drink this!

1972 Guigal La Mouline - the second bottle of red just had to be this one, with so many fans of La Mouline present and also being Dayliao's birth vintage.  I'm sure I am biased when I say that I found this more enjoyable than the '61 Sorrel.  Lovely, huge nose with floral, bacon fat, grilled meats, violet, sweet and ripe fruit, prunes.  Soooo explosively sweet it was amazing.  After more than an hour the floral and sweet nose started to fade.

Yet another wonderful evening...the third in a row!  This would be our last evening with a full crew on this trip, and what a way to finish!