New Year’s Eve is held in our house in the south. We will be six, including four drinkers. I like coincidences and it always fascinates me. A friend who will attend the dinner calls me at lunchtime and tells me that he intends to bring a wine for the meal and asks me if his input will be consistent with what I have planned. And he announced his contribution: Richebourg Domaine Anne Gros 2003. I had already chosen the wines so that my wife is inspired to compose the menu and among them there is a Richebourg Domaine Gros Frère & Soeur 1987. I obviously agree its contribution which will give rise to a pretty juxtaposition.
At 5 pm my friend delivers his wine and I open all the bottles of the dinner. The friends arrive at 20:30 and we take the aperitif with a Champagne Laurent Perrier Cuvée Grand Siècle magnum non vintage that I have for ten years in cellar. The color is already somewhat amber with a beautiful gold patina, the bubble is very active and the champagne is a rare richness. If the general trend is that of lemony notes, the message of the wine changes constantly, overflowing with complexity. And the finish is inextinguishable as the wine is penetrating. It is a very large champagne with an elusive message as it twirls. With this champagne we nibble thin slices of a Pata Negra well fat and tasty, small tiles with parmesan, small dry salted petits fours and slices of an excellent sausage.
We go to the table. My wife planned: scallops / foie gras lobes fried with truffle slices / low-temperature lamb with pan-fried parsnip / variety of cheeses / supremes (which means without skin) of pink grapefruit with confit kumquat and saffron from our garden / financiers and small dry sweet petits fours.
The Meursault-Charmes 1er Cru Domaine des Comtes Lafon 2003 has a rich wealth opulent smells. He invades the mouth and settles there. It has both beautiful minerality and sensual fat. It is a beautiful white wine merry, perfectly adapted to the shells and a little less to the foie gras even if it suits him.
The gigot welcomes two Richebourg. The Richebourg Domaine Gros Frère & Soeur 1987 has a slightly dusty nose. It is nice but has lost a bit of its vivacity. It highlights the Richebourg domaine Anne Gros 2003 with the live fruit, generous of a very young wine. The fight does not take place because the 1987 is a bit frail but the juxtaposition is possible, both Richebourg being very pleasant. The 2003 is a noble and racy wine.
Our pace of absorption is sustained also is it time to open the wine I had planned before my friend declared his contribution. The Côte Rôtie La Landonne Guigal 1987 is a marvel. It has the youth of the 2003 that we just finished and the legibility of a generous wine and immediate access. And what transcends it is the freshness of its finale. My friend reports his menthol notes which are those of an exquisite freshness. This wine is pure pleasure. The cheeses are so numerous and varied that we must choose those who go with this splendid Landonne. The Laguiole is well suited as well as the Saint-Nectaire, but also the superb blue Termignon, very lively.
For the supreme grapefruit, the Château d’Yquem half-bottle 1990 is the ideal companion. And I did not expect it to go as well with raw, uncooked slices. They give a boost to the wine that is in a glorious state. He is fat, strong, joyous as a golden ingot. It should be noted that the traces of saffron magnificently excite the sauternes, giving it a complement of vigor.
At the request of my friend we vote and if the votes are different an agreement is found to rank first La Landonne Guigal and in second ex-aequo the Grand Siècle and Yquem.
We had been kissing for New year for a long time and thirst is always present, so I open a Champagne Krug Grande Cuvée that I entered in the cellar about four years ago. The champagne is straight, precise, complex but a little unidirectional and far enough from the beautiful complexity of the Grand Siècle by Laurent Perrier. We nibble at sweet little petits fours and delicious financiers from my wife. We are rebuilding the world as one of the guests is overwhelmed by what we have been drinking.
It is three o’clock when begins my first night of 2017.
The next morning, lunch with the cheeses of the day before and the rest of the Krug. It is very much better, wider, fuller. I had probably misunderstood it, at the end of our agape.