13 Vintages of Dominus

Ron Siegel set up this tasting at Vintage Vino in Kissimmee, with dinner provided from the restaurant next door, Chef John’s Lakeside. We were joined by Keith and Parla Edwards. I contributed a bottle of the 1986 Dominus.

I hadn’t ever had much Dominus except for the 1991, so it was fun to trace the development of the wine from the first vintage to the most recent. Wisely, Ron had us taste the three youngest wines first, then we skipped back to the beginning. This essentially arranged the wines in order from least to most interesting.

NV Duvall Leroy Brut Champagne
Pleasant, astringent, simple, 88

2007
Chewy, cherries, mint chocolate, 96

2006
Tight, floral, perfume, tannic finish, 93

2005
Very tight, chalky, vanilla, tannic, 92

1983
Very aromatic, floral, figs, vanilla, tannin, tannin, meat, 91

1984 (first release, even though it was the second year)
Coffee, menthol, earthy, slightly short, 93

1985
Coffee, burnt, still tight, tannic, 96

1986
Stewed vegetable, old bay seasoning, curry, long 96

1987
Coffee, curry, short, black pepper, 94

1992
Vegetal, thin, short, 90

1996
Mint, coffee, vanilla, 92

1990
Tight, green, 90

1991
Coffee, ripe fruit, tobacco, like the 1985, vanilla, opulent, ash, 99

1994
Bay seasoning, curry, like the 1986, pepper, spice, 98

Note to self: Buy more 85, 86, 94

2002
Dauvissat les Preus Grand Cru Chablis
Oak, vanilla, chalk, dried fruit roll up, 94

NV Jaques Selosse Initiale Brut
Wow! WOTN. Toast, yeast, buttered toast, vanilla, oxidation, 98

1978 Chambertin Jaboulet Vercherre
Disappointing. Nose of dried roses but tight and short, 88

1976 BV George de la Tour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (from Keith)
Perfect bottle. Youthful , cedar, 98

2004 Domaine Pigalle Chateauneuf du Pape
Soft, vanilla 91

1989 Hermitage Domaine J L Chaves
Bacon, traditional old Rhone, smoke, 93

Victoria & Albert’s Anniversary Celebration

On our 33rd anniversary we invited our friends Ron & Bev Siegel to join us at Victoria and Albert’s chef’s table. Ron and Bev just celebrated their 36th anniversary, so it was a dual celebration. Maitre d’ Israel Perez managed to rearrange his schedule to host us, and Chef Scott Hunnel outdid himself, preparing some of our favorites and introducing us to some new creations.

The Food:

Sour Cream Ice Cream with Caviar
Chef Scott tested a new sturgeon caviar from Florida on this dish, one of my favorites from last New Year’s. He also placed the ice cream on tiny flakes of potato. Amazing dish!

Buffalo served under a glass filled with smoke
Tuna Tartar on a salt block
Scallop and Octopus nicoise
Lobster panna cotta

Simply an amazing course. The buffalo in particular is extraordinary, because of the fresh smoke. The charred (and tender) octopus is also great. The tuna tartar is new.

Curry Lamb
The lamb is warm in the center, but the dry ice under the plate chills the outside, when the juice is poured on. A favorite of ours.

Alaskan King Salmon cooked tableside on a very hot salt block
Another favorite, introduced when they opened the Victoria Room

Pullet Egg with Pork Belly
This was a pretty edgy course, with Chef Scott playing around with “sous vide” low temperature cooking in a bag. The egg was semi-raw. Fun, but I probably wouldn’t have it again!

Maine Lobster in Coconut Curry
This was a completely new dish, and a really neat presentation. Delicious.

Quail with Apples
Boy, does that name under-describe this dish. One of the best game bird dishes ever. A mixture of quail and duck, served on an amazing puree. This experiment is a keeper.

Herb Crusted Niman Ranch Lamb
Just a wonderful piece of lamb.

Australian Kobe Beef with Garlic-Potato Puree
Monterey Abalone with Toasted Capers

A great entree. The abalone was pounded thin and delicate. The Kobe had that grass-fed slightly gamey flavor. But I’ll be glad when we can get Wagu from Japan again.

Cheeses
Israel opened both dessert wines for this, and it was fun to see how the white matched the aged Gouda while the port matched the Stilton

Vanilla-Poached Pear
This was new and delicious. A nice light addition to the dessert offerings

Chocolate Mousse Timbale
Perfect with the port

Assorted Friandises
There’s a new banana-filled chocolate that’s really good

It was fun to try so many new things. We were lucky to go on a night when Chef Scott had time to experiment.

 

The Wines:

For the evening’s theme I chose vintages with special meanings for us, and Ron matched them.

NV Billecart-Salmon Rose (purchased from V&A’s list)
Hard to believe this is supposed to be a rose, no pinot noir character at all.
Very pale, citrus, caramel, 91

93 Haut Brion Blanc (Ron)
Initially corked, but if left to sit and not swirled, the nose blows off
Citrus, creme, stone, wax, caramel, vanilla, 93

2008 Aubert Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay (Steve)
White pepper, citrus, toast, butter, lemon finish, chalk, vanilla, brown sugar, 93

56 Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon (Steve)
Linda’s and my birth year. Unfortunately, a terrible year for wine, worldwide!
Good color, smokey, metallic, some fruit, slightly bitter finish, wood nose emerged after 1 hour, 92

91 Dominus (Ron)
This is the wine I’ve been acquiring for Dani, as it’s regarded as one of the best California wines ever. It was nice of Ron to bring this for her.
Very Bordeaux-like nose, olives, tannic, burnt coffee grounds, 96

1964 Leroy Pommard (Steve)
Classic old burgundy, good fruit balance, spicy nose, mint, spicy, iron, coffee, sweet, 98
My “wine of the night”

78 Corton Renandes Gaunoux (Ron)
Good structure, asparagus, mint, leather, vanilla wafer, fennel, coffee, 98

78 Ch Mouton Rothschild (magnum) (Steve)
I have very few magnums in my cellar, so it was a treat to see how much fruit this had.
Smells just like the Dominus! Coffee, lots of fruit, lead pencil, wax,wood, 96

95 Ch Mouton Rothschild (Ron)
Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really tight! It was simply impossible to drink or evaluate this wine, and this will likely continue to be the case during my lifetime. Check back in 2040 or 2050. 94?

88 Grange (Ron)
Mint, phenolic, vanilla, spicy, still, huge, tight, tannic, 93

2004 Grange (Steve)
Woody, very big but drinkable, menthol, chocolate, vanilla, more open than the 1988.Grange must have made a stylistic change, because this wine is more drinkable than most old Granges, 97

91 Rivendell Tear of the Clouds late harvest Vidal (Steve)
The only wine to ever be a unanimous best of show winner at the Florida State Fair.
Youthful, medium sweet, great acid, not cloying, apricot, 95

92 Guenoc Port (Steve)
Wow, this is holding up well! We should try this against a vintage Fonseca. Youthful, not too sweet, good acid, citrus, great match to chocolate, vanilla, mint, 97

Whenever we go to Victoria & Albert’s chef’s table I always say it’s the best event ever, and this one was no exception. A truly word-class restaurant.

l’Atelier

We saved the best for last. Having been to Joel Robuchon’s l’Atelier in London, we knew it was good, but I had expected his formal restaurant, Robuchon, to be better. However I actually prefer the honest flavors of the simple ingredients at l’Atelier. I also, surprisingly, like sitting at what is essentially a sushi bar, and chatting with the servers and watching the chefs.

Watch my l’Atelier movie

We went on Friday night, and had a great time. One of our servers, a Nigerian named Sunday, was especially nice, and encouraged us to let him make a reservation for us after our show the next night, and so we did. l’Atelier two nights in a row, wow!

Before dinner on Saturday we saw Ka, our favorite Cirque show by a mile. The story line, consistent theming, and amazing technical aspects of the presentation set this apart from all other Cirque shows. My favorite moments are when the huge platform is first revealed and slowly rotates to show the audience what it can do, then when it later transforms itself into a vertical wall. The show has been rearranged since we first saw it, so that the impressive vertical battle—where you feel like you are watching from above—is now at the end, a great way to finish with the best scene.

We finished out meal Saturday with these delicious mini hamburgers. I’d had a hamburger with foie gras and caramelized onions at db Bistro Moderne in New York, but these are much better. The small size—just four bites each—and the wonderful brioche bun make these a little slice of heaven, without being overpoweringly rich. It was a real treat to end out week in Vegas on such a high note.

Backstage at Caesar’s Forum Shops

With our wine group back in Orlando, Linda and I have a few days alone in Las Vegas.  Thursday we met Ron Ford of Simon Malls for lunch at Sushi Roku and a backstage tour of the Forum Shops.

There are two main shows, with very sophisticated gas, steam, lasers, hydraulics, animated figures, audio and video. Over the years Ron has replaced much of the original equipment with Alcorn McBride gear. It was very gratifying to run into so many people backstage who complimented us on the reliability of our gear.

Ron provided a great tour, and I could tell that he and Linda were kindred spirits, as they talked Hoffman Boxes, Elco connectors and PLCs for a couple of hours. What a treat!

For dinner Linda and I walked next door to Andre’s in the Monte Carlo. The food was just so-so, but the wine list was interesting, and not too pricey by Vegas standards. We had a 1955 Cornas that had lost its fruit, a 2001 Clos de Tart that Linda said was good (by this time my cold was bad enough I couldn’t really smell anything), and a tasting of four vintages and types of Reserva Velha Barbieto Madeira that seemed pretty interesting: ’54 Malvasia, ’53 Bual, ’40 Verdelho and ’51 Sercial.

Then I headed back to the room for some Nyquil.

 

Delmonico’s

Delmonico’s was the final restaurant on our Wine Syndicate Las Vegas culinary adventure, and it was easily the best experience. Incredibly attentive and professional wine service by Ryan Anderson made the evening a delight. At last, here was a place that really understood the concept of a wine tasting dinner.

This was also the best slate of wines during the trip, and the best tasting we’ve done in several years. The wines:

2000 Montrachet, G. Amiot
2000 Ch ‘Y’

1968 BV Special Label Burgundy
1976 Clos de la Roche – Pierre Bouree Fils

1964 BV Georges de La Tour Private Reserve
1955 Ch Cheval Blanc tenth

2002 Dominus
1986 Ch Mouton Rothschild

1999 Ch d’Yquem tenth
2000 Ch d’Yquem tenth

All of the wines showed great.The favorites were the 1955 Cheval Blanc and the Chateau Y, which is the dry wine from Yquem. I scored the latter a perfect 100, which I almost never do, for whites, especially.

Earlier in the day we changed hotels, moving from the Vdara to the Mandarin Oriental. I had originally booked the Mandarin as a special treat, but it sort of backfired, because we like the Vdara much more than I was expecting. Our suite at the Mandarin is impressive, with about 80  linear feet of glass wall wrapping around a sharp corder of the building, right on the strip.

Of course, the service at the Mandarin is perfect. Heck, during check-in you get hot towels and tea! Still, we both preferred the quiet environment—and the dramatic height—of the room at the Vdara, and it cost less than half as much.

Lotus of Siam

For lunch we went to Lotus of Siam, regarded by many as the best Thai restaurant in America. It’s in a dumpy shopping center off of Sahara, so I’m sure we looked a bit incongruous piling out of a stretch limo. Certainly it was the best Thai food I’ve ever had, and it was great with a large party, because we could have a little taste of so many dishes.

The wine list is quite amazing, with a thousand or more selections, and priced in many cases below retail. There are many bottles that are simply not available at retail, and we took the opportunity to try several 100 point Parker wines. While I didn’t record the food, the wines were:

  • 1997 Corton-Charlemagne Bonneau du Martray – Waxy, 90 pts
  • 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape, Pierre Usegglio, Cuvee de mon Aieul – (RP 100) Tannic, balanced, chocolate dipped cherries, 94 pts
  • 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape, Domain de Janasse – (RP 100) Velvety, meaty, 97 pt
  • 2007 Clos de Papes – (RP 99) wood, leather, vanilla, 98 pts
  • 2007 Sine Qua Non Pictures – Grenache, 15.6% alcohol, (RP potential 100) Big fruit, mint, leaves, wood, plums, meat, 100 pts
  • 2000 Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Fiacre Champagne – same wine we had a Robuchon, but at half the price! A deal for a vintage Champagne at $75. 95 pts

My scores are mostly lower than Parker’s, but he’s a nut for that 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape vintage.

In the evening we walked over to Ron & Bev’s suite at the PH Westgate for a get-together and had some salmon, Champagne and a 1989 Ch. Angelus that was drinking great, but young. Their suite is expansive, with a wonderful view of the Strip. The blue and red tinted glass is a bit weird.

For dinner we went to Aquaknox at the Venetian, for our vertical Georges de la Tour tasting. We sat at the chef’s table adjacent to the kitchen, which was a bit crowded, like last night, but fortunately this time we just passed the wines so I didn’t have to squeeze around. The vintages were: 63, 64, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79. Standouts were the 68, 69, 70, and the 77, 78, 79. Interesting that they are both runs of three consecutive years.

The food was pretty lackluster, as with my previous visit to Aquaknox:

  • Buffalo Mozzarella with basil and olive oil – probably the best course, because the ingredients worked together
  • Scallop – sliced thin and flavorless except for the parsley on top
  • Poached lobster of truffled creamed corn – Not much flavor to the lobster, but the creamed corn was definitely the best thing we tasted. We should have just had a bowl of this!
  • John Dory – the chef is famous for this dish, but I don’t know why. A nearly flavorless white fish served with trumpet mushrooms that didn’t go with it at all.
  • Maple leaf duck breast with lentils – Nothing really worked here, either. Lentils don’t really enhance duck breast.
  • Veal Ossobucco – A train wreck. The veal was like dried out pot roast, and the mushrooms were bitter and weird tasting.
  • Pineapple-Mango Creme Brulee – this was a delicious creme brulee with some bits of fruit in it, and went very well with the wine John brought, which was the best of show dessert wine from the state fair, a late harvest Seyval Blanc from Ohio.

Needless to say, two strikes and Aquaknox is off my list!

Pinot Brasserie

Monday Linda and I walked up to the Forum Shops and had lunch at Sushi Roku. Our server, Chase, made some great recommendations.

It was a beautiful morning, and we stopped to look back at our hotel across the Bellagio fountain pool.

After lunch we bought some wine and cheese and bread and hosted an afternoon get-together in our suite.

In the evening, Ron arranged for a hummer limo to pick us up and take us to the Venetian.

Pinot Brasserie did a great job with dinner. Our server, Cathy, adeptly handled the entire party.

The Menu:

  • Endive Salad – a nice combination of sweet and bitter, with a cirus edge
  • Seared Foie Gras, Langoustine Tail – Really two courses in one; the truffled morel mushrooms under this were superb
  • Pumpkin Ravioli with chicken with brown butter – this chicken was better than last night’s chicken at Robuchon
  • Chateaubriand and Maine Lobster Tail – Another two course dish, both were delicious
  • Sorbet
  • Cheese and accompaniments – very nice presentation, but we’d been eating cheese all afternoon!
  • Belgian Chocolate Souffle – a nice salty/sweet crust on this
  • Espresso

The format for the wines was six pairs, poured blind, with one Burgundy and one California wine, of comparable ages. It was easy to tell them apart until the last two flights, when things got tough. Nearly everyone had 100% scores until the last flight, when the wine of the night turned out to be a 1973 BV Special Label Burgundy with God only knows what grapes in it!

  • 1949 Charmes-Chambertin, Liger-Belair
  • 1959 BV Beaumont Pinot Noir 
  • 1958 Echezeaux Domaine de la Romanee Conti
  • 1958 BV Beaumont Pinot Noir 
  • 1961 Bonnes Mares – Drouhin-Laroze
  • 1960 BV Burgundy
  • 1967 Chambertin Clos de Beze P. Gelin
  • 1967 BV Burgundy
  • 1971 Beaune Greves Vigne de l’Enfant Jesus Bouchard
  • 1970 BV Beaumont Pinot Noir
  • 1976 Clos de la Roche – Pierre Bouree Fils
  • 1973 BV Special Label Burgundy

I’ll post my notes on the group’s site.

Unfortunately I started getting a sore throat during this event, but Linda was nice enough to go over to the Aria and get me an assortment of medicine to help me try to shake it.

I would definitely have another event at Pinot Brasserie, although it would be better to schedule all these Venetian events earlier, because there is an obnoxious nightclub across the hall from them, and the thumping gets old after a few hours.

 

Robuchon

Today Linda and I explored the area around City Center, including several hotels owned by MGM: The Bellagio, Aria and Monte Carlo. These are connected by a tram, along with the Crystals mall. We had a good lunch of tapas at Julian Serrano in the Aria. The ceviche was the highlight, and a glass of Albarino the perfect accompaniment.

The rest of our Wine Syndicate group had arrived by afternoon, and at 7pm eight of us (Ron, Bev, John, Debbie, Dick, Priscilla, Linda and I) went to see Love at the Mirage.

Let me preface this by saying I’m not a big fan of Cirque du Soleil shows. I’ve seen six of them, and with the exception of Ka, I’ve always felt that they were much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Still, I was surprised how much Linda and I hated this show.

First, the good: The music is superb. Every sound (except a new string part written by George Martin for While My Guitar Gently Weeps) is from the original 1960s Beatles tapes, but Martin and his son have remixed bits and pieces to create a sound collage that transcends the originals. I was very familiar with the CD, but the show’s sound is even better, and contains additional material.

Also terrific is the technology. The moving stage floors, set pieces, scrims, and super-accurate projections thereon are extremely impressive. And an effect involving an audience-covering sheet is quite magical.

But no amount of confetti, streamers, and gimmicks can save this show from utter meaninglessness. Except for a few rare moments when the mindless action on the stage seemed to have some relationship to the songs (A Day In The Life, for example) the show has no story and no emotional tug whatsoever. It’s clear, too that the designers knew they were in trouble, and attempted to fix it by piling on more and more.

It’s almost comical the way the quality of the show varies in inverse proportion to the number of people on stage. One person was usually compelling, two a bit diluted, three confusing, and four a muddle. Now imagine fifteen, and you have an unfocused mess. What a missed opportunity, where the sum of the parts is not only less than the individual values, it totaled approximately zero.

The audience—especially the drunks, of whom there were many—loved it, of course. Bread and circuses.

After the show we were picked up by one of the MGM’s gold limos for our ride to dinner. There were supposed to be two limos, but due to a screw up there was one, so the ride involved some lap dancing, which was entertaining.

The limo discharged us in the courtyard of the mansion at MGM, which is a sprawling complex devoted to high rollers. The walk through this area to the restaurant was a great peek into how the unimaginably rich and stupid live.

The private room at Joel Robuchon was beautiful, and the perfect size for the eight of us.

I had arranged for a prix fixe ala carte menu, which allowed us to each select our appetizer, two main courses and dessert. The rest of the courses were set. This worked out well, because it allowed us to try some different things, whilst avoiding some weird dishes on the 16 course tasting menu. The price of the meal, at $230 per person, was steep but probably reasonable for the quality of the food. The wine list, while extensive, was insanely overpriced, but Ron did a wonderful job of finding nice selections on something less than NASA’s budget.

My meal consisted of:

  • Amuse bouche – a citrus and foam combination that was quite refreshing
  • Foie gras and violet artichoke salad – delicious and not too heavy, the foie gras was a thin pate
  • Chestnut soup – the smoked bacon foam was a highlight
  • Sea bass with lemon grass – great lemony flavor, but the dish didn’t completely hang together for my taste
  • Wagu rib eye with wasabi spinach – a stunning course, with a wonderful assortment of tastes, and intensely flavored beef that melted in your mouth like butter. Easily the best course.
  • Chocolate, coffee ice cream, puffed rice – I traded this with Debbie for banana and passion fruit which I preferred, although I was in the minority on that one.
  • Assorted mignardises

The wines:

  • Vintage Champagne – best wine of the evening, a toasty elegant starter
  • 2007 Chassagne Montrachet – a pleasant, citrusy white Burgundy that accompanied the seafood perfectly
  • 1998 Nuit St. Georges – great earthy nose with lots of Burgundian promise; light palate, though
  • 2008 Penner Ash Pinot Noir – the nose eventually opened up a bit, but not as good as other vintages I’ve had of this. Thin palate of light sweet cherries
  • 1989 Ch. Destieux St. Emilion – Surprisingly soft for the year, this was one of the better buys on the list
  • 2009 Mollydooker Blue-Eyed Boy – as always a knock out, great with the cheese and dessert
  • 1985 Laberdolive Bas-Armagnac – a spectacularly complex spirit, poured by the glass, and a steal at $28. I need to find some of this.

Dinner with the wines, ten bottles of water, coffees, various fees and gratuities came to slightly over $1000 a couple. Worth it? Hard to say, as I’ve had more spectacular meals for less. On the other hand, the setting was magical, and it was a great way to kick off the trip. It will be interesting to compare it to the next-door sister restaurant, l’Atelier, on Friday.

Vdara

Today is the first day of our Wine Syndicate getaway to Las Vegas. We took advantage of our membership miles to fly first class on Delta through Atlanta. It took most of the day, but it was a pleasant flight, with a couple hours spent in two Crown Rooms, and some spectacular views of the Grand Canyon on the way.

I decided to try the new Vdara Hotel at City Center because it offers rooms with kitchens and enough space to have wine get-togethers. Upon check-in the woman at the front desk kindly upgraded us to a penthouse on the top floor (56) overlooking the Bellagio fountain! We have a kitchen, dining area for six, guest bath, and even a laundry room. This must be close to the best room in the hotel. Lucky!

We only had an hour or so before heading to The Monte Carlo for dinner at Alain Ducasse’s Mix.

The restaurant has a contemporary European design. It on the 64th floor of THE hotel at The Monte Carlo. Some of the bar space and dining area is outdoors, which is fairly unique.

The service was amazing. It’s one of those places where things just disappear from the table when you’re done. We timed it, and wine glasses were leaving seconds after we finished with them.

Dinner was excellent. We had two different tasting menus. It’s nice that not everyone at the table has to order the same tasting menu. Highlights were the guacamole served with Linda’s tuna, the foie gras, black truffles and mashed potatoes served with her beef, her curry lobster, the passion fruit, pineapple juice and cocoanut foam cocktail served as a pre-dessert, and her baba rum, which was served as a kit with a delicious Montecristo 10 year rum that was very floral. Yes, she ordered the better tasting menu! The wine pairings were a deal, too, since the wines by the bottle were very steep. The pairing was a bargain, and hers even included a glass of 2005 Quintessa that was superb.

When we returned to our room for a much needed sleep, this was the view: