It will be a nice dinner tonight

[Nicklasss]

Two salmon (raw and smoked) tartare. With 2008 Roederer rosé.

Beef filet mignon aux olives. With 2000 Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline, 2000 Château Gruaud Larose and something my guess will bring.

Vanilla panacotta with basil syrup. With 2001 Château Lafaurie Peyraguey.

Nic

[Comte Flaneur]

Look forward to your notes Nic...will the Gruaud be open for business and will the 2000 Guigal deliver the goods?

[DavidG]

Wow, you are pulling out the stops tonight Nic!

[Chateau Vin]

Sounds like quite a good lineup, Nic... Looking forward to reading your notes...

[Nicklasss]

The meal and wines were just great.

The 2008 Roederer rosé is a superb Champagne. The bubble are not as fresh as a youngster, but geez what a nose and mouth. A niçe mineral, cranberries, strawberries, and what else i can't identify? Chalk and light honey. The best Champagne i had in the last 6 mouths. TN: 92.

The 2000 Guigal La mouline, decanted 2 hours ahead, drank over 4 hours, is a superb Côte-Rôtie. In a great vintage, this wine must be something, but that 2000 tonight was a specimen on it's own. Dark color, nose is meat, bacon, herbs, minerals, rasberries, coal, flowers... Mind boggling. Smoke, red berries. The mouth is like cashmere, with soft abundant tannins, very full of flavours, rasberry fruit, meat, flowers, a sip is dense and powerful, the next one is more elegance, The next one is coal and tannic, very long long final on minerality, oak and dark berries. For me, a must. TN : 95.

Finally, we did not open the 2000 Gruaud Larose, but JF's 1999 Insignia, that Is at a nice place now. Blackcurrants, rasberries, spices, oak, more red berries In The nose. In mouth, seem more powerful than the LaLa, but it was for a short time. Blackcurrant cream, rasberries, some herbs, oak vanilla, integrated, lush, tannic, long. A nice vintage but could not go over the LaLa In complexity or power. But a suerb wine too. TN: 93.

The 2001 Château Lafaurie Peyraguey was also great, with honey, medium botritys, apricots, toffey, vanilla, but la king a bit if acidity. Good amount of sugar, long, thick, but not as complex In The nose or mouth as The vintage would pretend. My best Lafaurie Peyraguey In sometimes, but still a slight deception. TN: 91.

A very niçe time.

Nic

[Nicklasss]

Jean-Frédéric (that was my guest at The 2014 BWE convention) and me, with two glorious bottles.

[Nicklasss]

The big question: should i open wine tomorrow? When you taste stuff like that, expectations are high...

Nic

[Comte Flaneur]

Glad the La La worked out Nic.

[Nicklasss]

I liked it very much Comte. Problem is the high price now. The 2008 is 320 $can and The 2009 is 472 $can...

I will probably buy some Château d'Ampuis as it is less than half the price of the LaLa. Or Côte-Rôtie from other producers.

Nic

[Jay Winton]

Nice dinner Nic and Jean-Frederic. I keep reading good things about the 2008 vintage in champagne.