Group regression

Pin It

It was pissing out there tonight, and not exactly a good night to be roaming around the city.  But it was time for another MNSC gathering, so I tried my damnedest to get myself across town and up to hill to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, where Dr. Poon was hosting us in the Derby Restaurant.  Unfortunately, due to a combination of my own stupidity, weather conditions and just pure bad luck, I ended up arriving last and was seriously late.

We were doing the set menu, and some of the choices had been made on my behalf.  Given that they were exactly the choices I would have made myself, this just shows how well my MNSC boys know me...

Smoked eel, beetroot and green apple, horseradish crème fraiche and crumbled pumpernickel - not bad.  I am normally not a big fan of beetroot, but in this case I think it worked well with the rest of the ingredients.

Leek and potato soup, sautéed frogs legs and black truffle - pretty yummy.  I didn't see the menu until much later, so I didn't know that the chunks of meat were actually frogs legs.  I was wondering why there was yakitori (焼き鳥) in my soup...

Roasted Boston lobster, aromatic crustacean foam, fennel, carrot and celery compote - pretty nice and delish.  Loved the crustacean foam, along with the combination of celery, carrots and fennel.  Aromatic, indeed.  Would have loved to get some bread to wipe the bowl clean.

Yogurt sorbet

Slow cooked jumbo quail, black pepper sauce, pumpkin porridge and fennel confit - the quail was delicious, even cooked pink as it should have been.  Not a real fan of the porridge... I knew I was eating something akin to a porridge that was mushy, but it just wasn't my type of stuff.

Coffee crème brûlée, banana and hazelnut compote, Baileys madeleine - I wasn't expecting the banana and hazelnut on top, but I guess overall it was pretty good.  The madeleine failed.  Not only did I not taste any Baileys, the texture was also wrong.

When I'm dining at a club, my expectations for food are drastically lowered.  Besides, tonight was really about the wines.

1982 Joseph Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche - really ripe and sweet, with marmalade, mineral and grassy notes on the nose.  Ripe on the palate, short finish.

First pair: opened 30 minutes and decanted 10 minutes prior to serving

1975 Trotanoy - pretty farmy, bacon fat, a little sharp alcohol in the nose.  A little smoky and plummy, a little savory, and slightly exotic towards the end.  94 points.

1975 La Conseillante - sweet, ripe, a little earthy, smoky, pencil lead.  A leaner wine compared to the Trot.  92 points.

Second pair: opened 2½ hours prior to serving but not decanted

1982 Palmer - smoky, a little sharp alcohol, savory on the palate with some ripe fruit.  92 points.

1982 Latour a Pomerol - smoky, pencil lead, a little farmy, smoky and coffee notes.  Really opened up after 3 hours. 94 points.

Third pair:

1991 Chapoutier Le Pavillon - sweet fruit, a little farmy on the nose.  94 points.  I've tasted this wine (and other Chapoutier wines given 100 points by Parker) and I've never rated it anywhere close to 100 points...

1991 Vogüé Bonnes-Mares - a little dusty, very savory, black olives, a little vanilla and coconut later on.  94 points.

Tonight's lineup of wines wasn't meant to be tricky, but almost all of us stumbled... and ended up guessing pretty much the wrong wines.  Sometimes we failed so spectacularly that it wasn't funny.  Thirteen years after we first started drinking wines as a group - and ten years after the blind-tasting format began - have we actually gotten any better at it?  Methinks... not.