Learning By Drinking

After a great dinner party Sunday nearby- where I didn’t have to make a damn thing- I got another break last night in the city as I dropped in on Kris and Ken following a very productive day. David joined us, and later Mary, and we had simple food and excellent wine: curried chicken with okra and mashed potatoes (Kris makes incredible curries) followed by chili and rice, then 5 cheeses, then possibly the best bread pudding I’ve ever had.

David makes the wine for Camille Giroud in Beaune, so the guys pulled out some excellent bottles and we tasted them blind. To begin, a 2001 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett, which they had opened on Saturday and was rich, perfumed, and had an astonishing taste of rainwater on apricots, lychees, and stones. Then, with the food, a 2002 Joguet Chinon “Les Varennes du Grand Clos” that was clearly a cab franc, but the geography was puzzling; it tasted almost like a St. Emilion. Next up was a Faurie 2001 Hermitage (that we guessed was a St. Joseph) that was restrained elegance with the classic Syrah profile of fruit intertwined within the structure of the wine. Last, a Magnien chambolle-Musigny 1er cru Borniques that started out wonderfully and got better and better.