<
p style="text-align: justify;">In
para
phrasing Baudelaire, I would say: "there are blue moments like children's dreams". Let's look at the
puzzle
pieces of this lunch at the
pan style="color: blue;">restaurant Pagespan>. Romain is one of the most faithful of the Academy for ancient wines and one of the most generous. He
pro
poses to me to lunch together to share wines. Knowing his generosity, I acce
pt. He
pro
poses a Y of Yquem 1979 and a Corton Charlemagne Louis Latour 1947. To that I answer by a Mesnil Wine Nature Blanc de Blancs Wine originating from the Cham
pagne Wineries which I imagine around 1940 and a Corton H. Cerf
Père &am
p; Fils in Nuits 1911. Roman is so sur
prised that I
pro
pose a Corton of 1911 that he decides to add a Bonnezeaux Yves Baudriller 1937. It is the act 1. The act 2 is a long-time friend, Luc, great wine enthusiast and generous, wants to celebrate his birthday and asked me where he could do it with his wines. Through me he will have a table in a fortnight at the restaurant
Pages and I'll be there. Since I have to share five bottles with Romain, I
pro
pose to Luc to join us. His lunch
partici
pation will be my birthday
present.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">At 11 am, I arrive at the restaurant
Pages with my wines to o
pen them. I
put the Mesnil wine in the fridge without o
pening it and I o
pen the 1911. The bottle is from the 19th century with a neck with very thick glass but very narrow center. The ca
p is overhung by a rather indefinable crust,
probably based on wax. The cork is incredibly small, the size of the corks of the Cy
prus wines of 1845. It reminds me of the cork of Chambertin 1811 that I drank maybe thirty years ago, which also had a size of the order of the last
phalanx of an auricular finger. A hundred years away, we have the same cork markers. The nose of the wine seems
promising to me. It has no age and the level in the neck is exce
ptional.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">Romain arrives, o
pens the Y d'Yquem and I offer him to o
pen the Corton Charlemagne 1947. The ca
p is incredibly tight in the neck, which requires me extreme efforts to take it out. The nose is still uncertain, but ho
pe is allowed. The ca
p of Bonnezeaux 1937 comes normally.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">According to the tradition, when o
pening wines is finished, I go with Romain to the bistro which belongs to the restaurant
Pages to drink a beer. There will be no edamame beans but chi
ps. Luc joins us here.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">We sit down to table. The menu was develo
ped by Romain with
pan style="color: blue;">Lumipan> and the team of the restaurant
Pages: amuse-bouches / car
paccio de st jacques, caviar and cockles / Turbot, yellow wine sauce /
pigeon salmis sauce / figs, mint and milk /
pear chocolate Calvados.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">When the a
ppetizer arrives, I am struck by the aesthetic quality of the
presentation and I warmly congratulate the Italian cook who created this
presentation.
pan style="color: blue;">Romain, the sommelierpan>, with the same name as my friend, o
pens the ca
p, s
plit and held by a ring,
pan style="color: red;">Mesnil Nature Blanc de Blancs Wine from the Champagne Wineriespan> I imagined around 1940. The ca
p comes easily. It is very small and the bottom is in the sha
pe of a beret, which suggests more a
pan style="color: red;">wine of the 20span> than the 40s.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">I smell the wine and its subtle fragrance is mesmerizing. I taste and I am conquered. I say to my friends: it is a wine of esthete, which must be acce
pted to understand it. That's good, my friends acce
pt it. We drink a wine of gigantic emotion. It is carried by a very strong acidity which gives it an electric force. And all he suggests is refined and delicate. I fully enjoy this wine, which challenges and shows exce
ptional vivacity. It is on the tuna car
paccio of the a
ppetizers that the wine ex
presses itself best. Luc finds in the nose that the wine evokes the yellow wines of the Jura. It's true on the nose but not on the
palate because it has a scathing straightness that belongs only to whites of whites of le Mesnil! What a teasing and enigmatic wine!
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">Romain the sommelier brings the
pan style="color: red;">Y d'Yquem 1979pan> and before even tasting it I
pro
pose to my friends to see how the two wines can be fertilized and I suggest to them to drink the Y, then the Mesnil then the Y and see what ha
ppens. Y has a nose that ex
plodes with generous botrytis. In the mouth, it has what Y must have, this morganatic union between a dry white wine and an infidelity of botrytis. He is thundering. And what is interesting is that the interlude by the Mesnil wine gives it an exce
ptional straightness. The wines are fertilized, as I had su
pposed. I had a good intuition.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">On the car
paccio of scallo
ps, if you take the cockles, it is im
perative to take the wine of Mesnil which vibrates on the marine flavors of the hull, and if one takes with the shell the delicious caviar of Sologne of an extreme length, the Y ex
presses himself madly. This white wine is thundering, at an exce
ptional stage of com
pletion.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">For turbot, the
pan style="color: red;">Corton Charlemagne Louis Latour 1947pan> is served. At first contact, the nose seems a little unstructured and in the mouth it is at the level of the final that I note a lack of
precision. And we are going to witness an outbreak which I believe is one of the most s
pectacular I've ever known. The wine was o
pened shortly after 11am. He had only about 90 minutes of ventilation. He will have to make u
p for lost time and he does it with a unique energy to the
point that in the middle of the dish, he marries the turbot in the most beautiful way. His nose has become straight and ha
ppy and in the mouth he is totally coherent. A resurrection like this is rare. It is a beautiful Corton-Charlemagne, without the slightest defect, greedy and rich and ageless. Who would've believed that?
Probably nobody.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">If we want to make the
point of the three whites, the Y is the quiet and generous
perfection, the wine of Mesnil is Michèle Morgan when Jean Gabin says to her: "you have beautiful eyes, you know" (movie : Quai des Brumes), and Burgundy from 1947, it is the newfound confidence, the return of the
prodigal son. We feel good.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">The
pigeon is served and I
pour the
pan style="color: red;">Corton H. Cerf Father & Son in Nuits 1911pan>. The level in the bottle is exce
ptionally high. The color of the first glass is
pink, an irresistibly young light
pink. There is obviously no doubt about the authenticity of the bottle. The second glass is darker but still very
pink. The third is the same color and the whole bottle will be as
pink, without an ounce of tuilé. The nose is masterly and from the first si
p I am stunned by the
perfection of this wine. And the cou
p de grace is given by the association with the lightly smoked
pigeon. Because wine 'is' the
pigeon, but even more, it 'is' the smoked
pigeon. The wine and the dish merge. It's the ultimate gastronomy and the taste of the wine is irresistibly charming. Crazily bourguignon with a slight bitterness and a delicate velvet. All in this wine is courteous. There is a French ex
pression which is: "I will not wait 107 years", when one is annoyed by someone's delay. There, we drink a wine of 107 years, which waited 107 years that we decided to drink it. And he shows us how ha
ppy he is that we drink him. I drink the bottom of the bottle, without the slightest dregs, the
pink color barely darker than that of the second or third glass. Juicy, easygoing, racy, delicate, velvety, it has everything to
please. I'm so ha
ppy with the agreement that I'm bringing a glass to Ken, the cook who cooked the
pigeons, to let him feel how good the deal was.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">The dessert is delicious but the
pan style="color: red;">Bonnezeaux Yves Baudriller 1937pan> stayed too long in a refrigerator too cold. It will take long minutes for him to enlarge. It is marked by roasted notes of coffee, reminiscent of those of a Royal Kebir Frédéric Lung. The wine is sweet,
pleasant, but we are a little saturated and still under the s
pell of the red wine.
p>
<
p style="text-align: justify;">This meal was illuminated by a totally exce
ptional 1911, great eternal wine that shows the wisdom of the winemakers of the time and a sublime accord between this wine and the delicious
pigeon. The kitchen team of the restaurant made a wonderful meal. In a friendly atmos
phere we lived an unforgettable moment of communion, linked to our common
passion for ancient wines that we venerate. So, it was a "blue moment like children's dreams" (1) ...
p>
- The original poem of Charles Baudelaire says "There are fresh perfumes like children's flesh"
<
p style="text-align: justify;">
(pictures are in the following article in French. See below)
p>