DRC at Petrus

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Ms Hurricane Big Spender Cheapskate has been talking about this dinner for some time now, Ten years after throwing a big birthday bash with great food and lots of fantastic wines, she decided to do another big birthday bash. This time around, though, she upped the ante both in terms of food as well as wine - centered around a highly prestigious case of wine.

My friend needed help arranging a venue, which needed a private room large enough to accommodate her guests. The venue also needed to accommodate her wish to serve the case of wine she wanted to open. The combination proved to be difficult to realize, so she asked for my help. Well, I immediately sought out The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me, as Restaurant Petrus would be a perfect venue. I was grateful that he agreed to make the arrangements for this very important evening.

As this would be a very important dinner, Big Spender Cheapskate wanted to make sure that the cuisine being served would be able to measure up to the wines. So we even arranged to do a preview a few months ago... and I'm happy that my friend was satisfied and gave her approval.

But first, she convened a bigger group of friends for some Champagne and canapés in the Presidential Suite at the Island Shangri-La. We've got smoked salmon and, of course, some caviar.

Then there were the Alaskan king crab legs along with some kueh pie tee.

Since it's actually a Champagne and caviar party, we've also got some Kaviari Kristal caviar to go with our Champagne...

...along with all the traditional condiments. For me, I prefer mine with some crème fraîche on a blini.

But the focus was always going to be Champagnes, and we've got a damn good collection!

2003 B de Boërl et Kroff, dégorgé en Avril 2016 - nice and ripe on the nose along with lovely marmalade notes. Good depth on the palate with a nice dose of acidity. Turned reasonally metallic on the palate together with some caviar. Always a pleasure to drink.

1997 Salon, en magnum - what a beautiful wine! There was so much toast on the nose, and it was so open and fragrant. The acidity was still very high. There were also notes of minerals and juicy red plums. Soooo nice!

1961 Louis Roederer Cristal, en magnum - the nose was very metallic, with lots of Chinese salty plum. Very grippy on the palate. Such a lovely, mature wine.

After a couple of hours, the core group adjourned upstairs to Petrus - where the whole back end of the restaurant was closed off as our private room.

Oyster: Ostra Regal / caviar / oxtail - at first glance, I would have thought it superfluous to have both caviar and sea urchin with the oyster...

The flavors of the oyster itself was pretty strong, very mineral, and kinda halfway between briny and creamy. The cauliflower was sweet and very nice, and the whole combination actually worked pretty well.

Scallop: diver caught / parsnip / Champagne / white truffle - from the Isle of Mull, my scallop came with a good amount of browning, with a vin jaune sauce that was very thick and rich, and got the sweetness thanks to parsnip. Oh, and a little white truffle shaved on top never hurt nobody...

The scallop was nicely done and very bouncy.

Chestnut: ravioli / egg yolk / chicken jus / white truffle - a simple and hearty dish, made luxurious with a little more white truffle shavings.

I love how the raw egg yolk just ooozes out... Definitely made good use of my baguette for la scarpetta.

Next up was a pretty-looking pithivier...

Pigeon: pithivier / foie gras / matsutake - this was probably the smallest piece of pithivier I have been served, which was definitely out of character for The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me. Of course, one would only complain about not getting enough of something when that something is tasty enough, and one felt short-changed by the small portion. And why wouldn't the combination of pigeon, foie gras, and duxelles made with matsutake (松茸) in puff pastry not taste good?!

Now we have a second "pie", which The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me had put together for this dinner. We had gotten a preview on our last visit, and it was very good. This time around the chefs were smarter, and had already cut the pie before bringing it tableside.

Autumn pie: duck leg / autumn vegetables / jus - duck is always a good idea, and this tasted just fine. No duck consommé, though...

Beef: olive wagyu / mushroom / jus - I really adore the "olive-fed wagyu" from Shodoshima (小豆島) in Kagawa Prefecture (香川県), and made sure our hostess got to taste it at our preview. The beef was just sooooo tender and "like buttah". Once again, The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me made good use of mushrooms to pair with our wines.

Vacherin Mont d'Or - it's been some time since I last had a good, ripe Vacherin Mont d'Or, and this was really, really fantastic. It's unfortunately that this came towards the end of our big dinner, and as much as I loved the cheese, I barely managed to take down half the serving...

Pear: tarte tatin / honey / saffron - OK, I had to make room for a slice of this. Wouldn't be able to forgive myself otherwise...

There was a custom cake for the occasion...

Our generous hostess brought out the big guns tonight - cracking open a 2001 DRC Assortment case - and a few of the guests also pitched in to make sure the line-up was complete in terms of grand crus from DRC. Per our hostess' tradition, her "wine buddies" were pretty much required to participate in a blind-tasting competition and guess the identity of the wines. Normally I dislike these blind-tasting competitions when they're "total blind" - as in the case of our MNSC tastings - because the wines could literally be anything. It gets a little easier when they're "semi-blind" like tonight, where the identities of the wines being served are known, and it's just a matter of figuring out which one is which.

2013 Joseph Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche, en magnum - served around 2 hours after decanting. We've got some toasty notes, but overall the nose was not big and powerful. It's sweet and buttery, with lemon and almost a little apricot. A little bit too ripe for its age and considering the format. 93 points.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet - served about 2½ hours after opening. The nose was so much bigger, richer, yet cleaner. This was soooo fragrant. 97 points.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Saint-Vivant - started drinking more than 3 hours after opening. The nose was fragrant but there was a hint of earthiness, along with leather. Later on came the toasty notes, and perhaps there was a little bit of stem. Funnily enough, I also thought there were elements of Chinese traditional bone-setting oil (跌打酒)... 94 points.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti - started drinking around 3½ hours after opening. The nose was very floral like roses, with exotic spices, as well as a little bit of cherry-flavored [cough] syrup and eucalyptus. 97 points and my favorite wine of the reds.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg - started drinking around 4 hours after opening. The nose showed a lovely fragrance, a little floral, definitely cool fruit. Better than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant but not as good as the Romanée-Conti. 95 points.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands Échézeaux - started drinking about 4½ hours after opening. This was really fragrant and elegant, not quite floral but lovely nonetheless. A little later the toasty notes came out, and it was a little funky on the palate. Still very fragrant more than 5½ hours after opening. 95 points.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux - started drinking the first bottle more than 4½ hours after opening. The nose was more closed compared to the others, with more stem, and was definitely corked. The second bottle was much cleaner with a fragrant nose showing eucalyptus. 95 points for the second bottle.

2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - started drinking almost 5 hours after opening. This was still a little closed, and the nose was kinda meaty. 94 points.

1965 Yquem - nose was showing tons of saffron, honey, marinated prunes, and marmalade. Such a pleasure to drink an aged Yquem!

Believe it or not... I actually won the blind-tasting competition when I correctly guessed 2 out of the 6 wines. I think I was also the only one who actually felt that Romanée-Conti was the wine that was showing the best. I even got myself a trophy...

Needless to say, this was a fantastic evening. All of the wines were fabulous - well, except for that corked bottle of Échézeaux - and so was the food. I felt bad for The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me, because for many of us the attention was squarely on the wines and much less on the delicious stuff coming out of the kitchen. Nevertheless, I am grateful that my chef friend took a lot of effort to make sure that my birthday girl friend and her friends had a great time. Maybe he will complain a little less about me not showing him enough love...

Of course, I'm grateful for my friend's generosity... and for including me as part of her little shindig. Not an evening we are likely to forget.