Chevaliers Lagrazette Cahors 1997

We picked up a Bell & Evans duck from Whole Foods this weekend and found this interesting 10 year old wine to pair with it. Since I believe that duck legs and duck breasts require separate cooking methods, I chose to sauté the latter tonight and save the legs for a braise later in the week. I also made some wild rice with roasted chestnuts.

This is one of those wines that reminds me of Robert Ulin's book Vintages and Traditions. Ulen suggests how important the 1855 classification was to distinguishing and promoting the wines of Bordeaux from those of the rest of southwest France. Had the government not paid special attention to Bordeaux, we might all be drinking a lot more Cahors and Madiran and be no worse for it. Wines from Cahors are made mostly of Malbec (a grape that has reclaimed some notice thanks to Argentina), and, as this bottle demonstrates, they can often rival those from Bordeaux. Here's a decade old wine with plenty of grace and sophistication showing signs of maturity but still indicating a number of fruitful years ahead. It's medium-bodied and deep garnet. The classic signs of bottle age - leather, earth, wood - are still in balance with hints of red fruit and citrus and a tight but palatable tannic core. At $17, it would rival many classified growths.

Krug Clos de Mesnil Blanc du Blanc 1992 and some other really delicious wines

It is unusual for me to blog the same night as a meal (often the wine consumption makes me less articulate than usual), and it is unusual for us to entertain on a week night. But night was an enormous exception.

John and Jonathan came for dinner tonight to celebrate fiddlehead fern season. We have all had a lot to celebrate lately (our wedding, Jonathan's job offers (which were celebrated by both Jonathan and John)), and John decided to surprise us all with a celebratory gift. Of course by now you know that it was the world famous Krug Clos de Mesnil Blanc du Blanc 1992 Champagne. What an incredible wine! At a decade and a half, it was still light and fresh. The nose showed true aromas of toast and bread dough. It was rich but balanced, fragrant and restrained, wonderful and delicious. Krug's standard wine is so much better than most producers' tete de cuvee, and this wine, made entirely of Chardonnay grapes from a select vineyard, really sets the curve. Thank you John!

As it happens, we also had a number of tasty wines this evening. The Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay 2004 was full-bodied yet balanced with notes of lychee and well-integrated oak. It paired well with roasted beet soup with Cypress Grove chevre and beet chips. And the Chateau Lafon-Rochet St. Estephe 1996 was in perfect harmony with NY strip steaks a la Colicchio, fiddlehead ferns, and new potatoes roasted in goose fat. It was medium-full bodied, with roasted red pepper and graphite notes (Jonathan declared it really, really good). We finished the night with the near-profound Jasper Hill Farms cloth-bound cheddar and a decadent bottle of Chateau Saint-Amand Sauternes 2000. I detected ripe pineapple at the core of its penetrating sweetness.

It was a wonderful evening, never to be forgotten. Thank you all.

Ch. Malartic La Graviere 2003 & Ch. Pedesclaux 2003

It rained for the 41st consecutive day in Chicago, but this time I was ready for the weather. I braised some beef short ribs and made some lovely mashed potatoes with more butter and cream than Stephanie was aware of. The short ribs were excellent. They may very well be the most naturally flavorful cut of beef.

We paired dinner with a couple of 2003 Bordeauz. The Malartic La Graviere hails from the Pessac Leognan and has a rich floral and hotdoggy aroma. On the palate, the flowers turn to red fruits backed by a solid by unintrusive layer of tannins. The Pedesclaux comes from Paulliac and shows rich fruit and floral aromas and a matching palate. The finish on the Pedesclaux is much longer than the Malartic, but it is also a more extracted and modern wine. Both wines were surprisingly restrained considering that they were produced during the scorching 2003 vintage, and both matched well with the meal. If I had to choose, I'd give the edge in the wine-food pairing to the Malartic and the edge in stand-alone pleasure to the Pedesclaux. But, fortunately, I don't have to choose.