Dinner of the year, 2008 Domaine de La Romanee-Conti series

This dinner was planned since last year, wines were sourced and brought in a few months earlier. And finally the date 18th July was SUPER highlighted on my calendar. Watever happens on that date, nothing can move it outta my way to Cilantro to have my very first tasting of Romanee Conti. YES as in the RC of the RC. YES that RC!!!!!

It is the most sought after and most expensive wines in the world. Wine Lord was really good and managed to sourced these babies. We have seen RC in restaurant's menu but never brought ourselves to ordering it when we were in France. Now that life is so unpredictable and short, just drink watever u want.

Our Wine Lord took efforts and made us individual booklets for this dinner. The maximum comfortable number for this dinner was 8 pax, so that everyone would get a decent pour per bottle. I guess for Dr. Epicurean, the less people would be better bcoz I sensed that he hasn't got enuff to drink that evening.

Monkey was the last to arrive after work and requested for a warm towel to clean her hands before touching any glasses of these holy grail wines.


We had a bottle of champagne to start the dinner, and followed by these 3 babies. It's really great to have a comparison of all 3 in terms of style, profile and pricing. It was only my 2nd bottle of Montrachet RC and it's so so beautiful with a robust botrytis nose.

Somehow I prefer the Fontaine-Gagnard over the Ramonet. Oh well wine preference is so personal, it's about wat you like. Not what the ratings like :)))

Aori Ika with Ohba Gazpacho
this is very Japanese and Spanish :))) The squids were so sweet, paired with the slightly tart fragrant cool gazpacho of ohba leaves.

The RC Montrachet has got a very long length and rounded finish. I guess not many people including myself would pay this much for a bottle of white wine. JS said he would. Yes I know...u bought us a bottle at La Tour d'Argent. With only 250 cases being produced each vintage, it is indeed very very rare so I guess the price point goes with its rarity.

Poached Kuruma Ebi
looked so simple and bland but fully power packed with aroma and taste. There was something very tempura-ish underneath the prawn....hmmm wat was it?

the Men were pretty impatience and quickly hurry the sommelier to move onto the reds.

Kuro Awabi with Coral coulis
a very tender succulent abalone with a dollop of its liver sauce. Yes liver from the abalone, I only found out recently that abalone has got a HUGE ASS green liver.

Kinki with jus claire
noticed its crispy skin? :))) oh yumssss. Kinki is one of my fav fish for its delicate and sweet meat. It's bright red in color with really HUGE eyes for its size.

served with crispy thinly sliced bread, laced with shaven parmigiano. So u just mopped up all the yummy succulent jus off the fish with these crispy babies. In the end we requested for spoons each to finish up the jus.


Civet of Lobster with Roe
the roe somehow reminded me of Hong Kong's har ji. Chef Takashi purposely laced one piece of lobster with sauce while the rest were on its own, eaten with micro herbs.

The lineup went accordingly from Echezeaux to Grands Echezeaux...RSV...then Richebourg
My pick would be the RSV but surprisingly every bottle has got a distinctive rose aroma. I was asking myself how could 2008 be this beautiful? The dining room soon was impermeated with the beautiful nose of the RCs.

then the Tai Kohs came out....first the La Tache which wasn't really that ready. Perhaps we should have open it earlier for it snose to develop.

and finally the ROMANEE-CONTI the RC!!!!! it's the purest and most elegant wine ever made on planet earth. It was so stunning, rounded, balanced but most of all the most SACRCEST. However I found its sweetness to be on the high side, the ripe berries showed so well that evening.


File Pic taken in December 2010

When we arrived at the 1.8 hectares of Romanee Conti vineyard, Monkey leapt outta the about-to-stop-car to the horror of the chauffeur and ran to the sacred wall and KISSED IT!!!

I.Was.Here.!!!!!!!
:))))))))))))))))))))

Summer Ezo Venison with summer truffles and nuts
I'm not a fan of venison bcoz it's so gamey.

Roasted Hokkaido Angus beef is alwiz welcome. Done just the way we wanted it...Medium Rare. so yumms and all of its fats just melts in your mouth the moment it touches ur tongue. There were different type of condiments from yuzukushu to wasabi and other things which we were not briefed.


Dr. Epicurean didn't have enuff to drink that evening :P Thank you for organising this lil party :))) and for imparting your knowledge upon us :)))

additional dish came out after a special request - Uni on warm rice with aged soyu and a smash dash of freshly grated horse radish. This wasn't in the menu hence it was a last minute request I guess?

and soon everyone was soooo sooo soo tipsy..
zzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz


I was already supporting my head with my arms....while our Wine Lord.....tsk tsk tsk...if chef served soup at that time, his face would have landed on it.

except Papa Bear and MW Maho

they have really high capacity. still looking good and steady

While a certain someone passed out.
T_T
I think he drank the wife's share hence it was a double portion for him.

Just a simple White Peach from Japan for dessert. For such a stunning dinner, the menu was created specifically for the wines lineup.

We left a lil of wines from each bottle until the end of the dinner to have a final notes and conclusion on each and every bottle.

I Ching warned to be careful and not to spill any wines on her Birkin

Yes madam!!! We don't want the saga of chocolate Lava Cake at Melbourne repeat itself here. JS is truly an antagonist. Sometimes the more u asked him to take care and becareful of stuffs, the worse it gets. Somehow he would create mess across the table to the horror of diners.

So a few years ago, back in Melbourne....poor I-Ching requested for tonnes of napkins and covered her new spanking WHITE CHANEL. and still.....the hot warm chocolate liquid made its way targeting the Chanel bag 3 feet away from JS's plate.

LOL


the final lineup with the right arrangement.
Thank you everyone for making this evening so special!!!! It was indeed an experience which I'll treasure.

Big thanks to Chef for creating dishes to pair with all the lineup. One of the very yummiest degustation that I had here :)))

Now all of us have to work hard to finance our next wine dinner, which would be Henri Jayer nite? Tee Hee Hee.