Gagnaire x Jadot

I rarely find myself responding to invitations to wine dinners, since I'm a cheapskate and usually find the cost of those dinners to be too rich for my blood.  Every once in a while, though, I'll spot a "bargain" or find wines that I'm genuinely interested in tasting, and those would be the few organized dinners that I attend.  Tonight it was the wines of Louis Jadot paired with the food from Pierre.

I arrived during the cocktail hour, and stood around for a while waiting for dinner to start.  We were served little bites with wine, but I only took a bite of these tarragon marshmallows.  Pretty interesting.

2010 Ferret Pouilly-Fuissé Autour de Fuissé - big nose of toasty oak, heavy smoke, revealing sweet core after the smoke fades.  Almost a little floral.  Acidity strong mid-palate, and almost a little bitter.  Long finish. At 13.5%, definitely felt the alcohol burn going down.  Surprisingly excellent to drink.

When we finally sat down to dinner, I was greeted by the two little chunks of Bordier butter.  I've run out of them at home, and immediately went about attacking the clump flavored with piment d'espelette.  I would later pay for my sins, as the two pieces of bread I consumed with the butter took up valuable space in my stomach...

Black olives jelly, foie gras/tune cubes and marinated watermelon with Mirin, shiso leaf - lots of different things going on with 4 different types of cubes, each with its own texture: crunchy croutons, softer but still kinda crunchy watermelon, softer still but slightly chewy tuna, and melt-in-your-mouth foie.  The savory, almost smoky flavors of the black olives pulled in a different direction than the sweet watermelon.  Finally, white sesame seeds and green and purple perilla leaves lend their fragrance and dominate at the end.

2008 Jadot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot Clos de la Chapelle - mineral, a little sweet, tropical coconut.  Served a little too cold initially.  Definitely lots of body weight, and acidity was very prominent.  Later on this grew fatter and more buttery.

Velvety nettle soup, white and green asparagus, pistachio powder and cubes of burnt onion jelly; scallops and poultry fine mousse - this was soooo good... The nettle soup was almost paste-like, and much thicker than expected.  Pour some shellfish sauce on top, and put together with the lovely flavors of white and green asparagus.  The chicken mousse was a little bland, especially compared to the onion jelly.  The crushed roasted pistachio provided some crunchy texture to it all.  Finally, let's not forget the delicious scallop!  There's a lot going on here, but it all worked together beautifully.

2008 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet - a little ripe, with good acidity balance but slightly acidic on the finish. Toasty, buttery and sweet.  Lovely and elegant.

Warm blue lobster in a ginger butter, stuffed lettuce with black forbidden rice, Dodo bisque - the homard bleu was nicely done... barely cooked.  I dunno what "Dodo bisque" is, but it just tasted like lobster/shellfish bisque to me, although it was very sweet and nutty...  Not quite sure what to make of the ball of black rice inside the lettuce.

 Grey shrimp mayonnaise with combawa/leaves and flower salad/lobster claw - the lobster claw was hidden beneath all the pretty flower petals, with some horseradish in the mayo and kaffir lime.

2001 Jadot Corton-Charlemagne - nose was a little closed at first, with a hint of cheese.  Toasty, and acidic on the finish.

Grilled heart of fillet of beef, morel cream with licorice, beetroot syrup - a fairly big chunk of beef , which was done very nicely.  Very pink and tender.  Unfortunately my bread binge earlier meant I couldn't (or didn't want to) finish the beef...  But what a surprise to find that piece of bone marrow on top!  Yum... The sweet onions and tasty morel cream... Mmm...

2006 Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Ursules - a monopole within the 1er Cru Vignes Franches, which was Jadot's very first vineyard holding.  Really ripe fruit, sweet on the nose with a little eucalyptus and some toasty corn much later.  A bit alcoholic.  Light on the front palate but got slightly grippy at the end.

2006 Jadot Clos Vougeot en magnum - meaty, animal, a bit smoky.  A little more tannic.

Brillat Savarin, smooth grapes juice, golden grapes soaked in Burgundy marc brandy and pecan nuts.  Apple «clocharde» ice-cream - this was also triple-cream Brillat-Savarin like the one I've been having at Caprice.  However this was served cold, so the texture was slightly firmer, although it did still melt in my mouth.  The juice and the grapes were definitely alcoholic, thanks to marc de Bourgogne.

2004 Jadot Chapelle-Chambertin - more animal, leather, forest.  A bit sharp on the nose.  Acidic on palate.

2001 Jadot Corton-Pougets - a bit more body here.

Vanilla Napoleon cake - the millefeuille was very tasty, both in terms of the vanilla cream and the caramelized flavor of the pastry.  The little marzipan on top was good, too.  Oh, and it didn't tip over like my last visit...  The red wine and cassis sauce on the side was good.

Red berries coated with prune syrup, pink champagne granita - really nice to have fraises des bois, strawberries and blackberries in a yummy granita.  Sooo refreshing.

Omiza gel, crispy iced lemon mousse, lemon Wurtz, candied angelica - I'm not sure that I've ever had omiza (五味子) before, but the dominant flavor here was definitely the acidity.

It's been a long time since I was last at Pierre, and it was good to come back to one of my old favorites.  I've been gone so long that hardly anyone remembers me anymore...