A couple of Way Cool bottles from over the Holiday weekend

November 29, 2010

Yr mst Hmble & Obdt Svt trusts that you, gentle reader passed as pleasant a Thanksgiving weekend as I did. First off, I made the VERY BEST thing EVER for Thanksgiving...RESERVATIONS! At Carillon, which is batting a thousand so far as best restaurant in Austin.

Chef Josh Watkins kept up his track record with amazing and bountiful food in a buffet that was never empty. They even included free Champagne based cocktails and one of the best Bloody Marys I have had in years, complimentary with the meal.  What a treat and leisure to not have to deal with grocery store madness, Cooking, and the inevitable post prandial clean up of the kitchen and dishes.  We just showed up, drank cocktails and ate ourselves silly, then went home and napped. Perfect.

Had grabbed a couple of bottles over the last week or so from John at The Austin Wine Merchant, and popped them open over the long weekend. Amazing wines, that needed to be shared with you.

First up:
Les Herétiers du Comte Lafond Macon-Bussières "Le Monsard" 2007. Wow, was my first and most repeated comment. Now, one rarely thinks of Maconnais wines as being anyting more than daily pleasant plonk. THIS one is a horse of another color. Wonderful rich nose, floral and lightly citrus and a hint of warmth. The palate was fat, in the good way, with nice rich viscosity, balanced with lovely acid and a nice bracing minerality. It really reminded one of being an AC Village wine from a better part of Burgundy. At $29.99, it was pricy for Macon, but very reasonable for the excellent wine in the bottle. Well worth the price to me.

Then
Chateau Puy-Blanquet St. Emilion Grand Cru 2006. Lovely, and elegant, more feminine, on both the nose and palate. Dark cherry and slight cedar on the nose. More nice cherry and cigar box on the palate, but a very solid yet light structure and clean acids. Most pleasant and pleasing to drink, it paired nicely with Beef Rib Roast. At $17 per bottle this wine was a STEAL. I would much rather buy two of these (which I did!), one now and one for the cellar, than just about any single red from Northern California or Washington at $35. This one could even make the Oracle of Bacchus deign to drink Merlot!

Cheers,

Rob Moshein
Austin Wine Guy