With hors d'ouevres (goat cheese,duck breast with caramalized onions and shrimp) we all loved the 2005 Crystal. Fresh,crisp with citrus and apple but brioche notes on the nose. Lovely start.
With soup and salad we loved 2012 Bachedler Oregon Chardonay. Fabulous. I love this guys wines. Origonally from FrBurgundy transported to Niagara region prodcing some of the best Pinots of the region for 15 years and now out on his own. He has an intersting line up over seeing vineyards in Niagara,Oregon and Burgundy producing both Pinot and Chardonay utilizing the same production methods and the only difference the terroir. All of his wines are same same but different but all delicious and this was no exception! Everthing I want in a chard with little malolactic if any. Crisp,soft and all balance with lovely finnish. Not sure if this gets exposure outside of Canada but his wines are worth seeking out.
With main of racks of lamb with rosemary raspberry reduction we started with the 2003 Pontet Canet. Man this is in a sweet spot at the moment. We all enjoyed this at the luncheon table with Mr Tesseron in the Spring and this just brought back great memories and stories. All I can say is delicious Pauillac firing on all cylinders. For the second bottle I tried a little deception. I've been big on the 2009 St Paul that I've talked about in a recent thread and I thought that I' d put this up against the PC. Both were decanted and the deception was putting the empty PC bottle beside the real deal but putting a 2002 Palmer empty bottle beside the St Paul. I must say the latter was outstanding and certainly showed more Pauillac notes than Margaux for sure. The St Paul certainly held its own but to my palate it didn't have the fullness and length that the PC showed.Great Cru Bouergouis but not in the same ranks as the great growth Pontet Canet for me. Regardless two couples after seeing the Palmer bottle swore the second wine was far superior to the PC and there was no convincing otherwise. My buddy however was right on the money. He wasn't part of the deception but he felt the SP didn't hold a candle by comparison and he was questioning the typicity of the wine being a Palmer. It was put off to being a bad bottle or lesser vintage. I felt a little guilty about the trick but I found it fascinating at how the bottle influenced the unitiated or maybe it just says something about how good the St Paul is that it can sit beside the Pontet Canet and hold its own.
A Nice start to the Christmas season.
