29th May 2008: Sauternes-Barsac Dinner at Yung Kee restaurant

Over 200 guests assembled for what has to have been one of the most memorable dinners we are ever likely to attend: a spread of superb Sauternes and Barsac wines matched with the innovative and yet classic cuisine of Hong Kong’s famous Yung Kee restaurant with wines supplied by many of the region’s top chateaux, Yquem and Rieussec excluded.

The range of chateaux represented at the dinner was in itself impressive and the event was topped with an auction with proceeds going to relief for the Sichuan earthquake; Christian Seely MW of AXA Millesimes generously donating a magnum of 2001 Chateau Suduiraut, surely one of the wines of the evening.

It was not always possible to match each of the 11 wines we tasted with the dishes on offer, but some ingenious combinations were revealed as well as certain things that didn’t work from a food-and-wine matching point of view.

The menu appears here first followed by some abbreviated notes on the wines themselves:

Menu

Stir-fried chicken with ginger and pineapple
Classically light, most of the Sauternes working with the ginger here and fruitiness of the pineapple.

Roasted goose liver
You can’t go wrong really in terms of this combination with Sauternes/Barsac.

Millenarian Salade a la HK
This needs a little explaining: it was a strongly flavoured salad with julienned vegetables, lotus buds and lots of sesame oil and sesame seed dressing. The sesame was occasionally over-powering for the wines.

Stir-fried frog
We love Chinese bull-frog – amusingly known as ‘field chicken’ in Mandarin – particularly in Sichuan or Hunan cuisine. This was much lighter in the Cantonese style and worked well with most of the wines, apart from the green pepper that was also a prominent part of the dish. Chinese green peppers are a lot stronger in flavour, even chilli-hot, than European ones. It wasn’t a chilli-heat issue here but the flavour of green pepper that just didn’t sit well with botrytised wine.

Deep-fried oyster
Surprisingly good combination with the lighter of the Sauternes listed below.

Smoked pomfret
Again a good combination, but I was beginning to wonder if the general lightness and relative ‘sweetness’ of much Cantonese fare was not contrasting enough with the wines on offer. Spicier dishes would probably have worked better, particularly with the richer Sauternes in the group.

Wild geese resting on plum tree
Now this was a brilliant dish to go with Sauternes (see below): Cantonese roast goose sitting in a marvellous duck and goose enriched broth with dongu mushrooms (shitake). Superb!

Fried rice vermicelli ‘Sichuan’ style
Sichuan style is a bit of an overstatement because there wasn’t even anything to link this dish with even a bastardized idea of Sichuan food. Very well prepared and presented, however, but again essentially too sweet to work with these kinds of wine.

Sweetened Almond Milk Cream
Lovely almond flavour and a pretty good match.

The Wines: Listed in Order Tasted (not as presented) with more photos below…

2002 Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey

Appearance: light gold colour.

Nose: quite noticeable botrytis, has the lightness of fruit of the 2002 vintage – not the easiest one for Sauternes – but is well put-together.

Palate: surprisingly good balance for the vintage, prominent acidity certainly but pretty harmonious with light residual sugar and light candied fruit.

Conclusion: well-made for the vintage. Clos Haut-Peyraguey can be relied on to do a good job, even in difficult years. Drink now or over next two to five years.

Rating: 17/20

2004 Chateau Doisy-Daene

Appearance: lovely medium-gold colour.

Nose: spicy first nose, excellent balance of light candied fruit to botrytis.

Palate: extremely well-balanced, light to medium residual sugar, lovely acidity and impressive length.

Conclusion: we’re big fans of Doisy-Daene, having been fortunate to drink the 1988 and 1990 vintages on a number of occasions. This is our second note on the 2004, in fact. Very, very good. Drink 2012-2024.

Rating: 18/20 (on the night, but will improve)

2005 Chateau Rayne-Vigneau

Appearance: relatively light colour, even for a young vintage.

Nose: delicate first nose, only slight dried and candied white fruits, hint of botrytis.

Palate: richer than expected. Good balance of residual sugar to acidity. It’s rich mouth-feel is not fat in any sense, but grows in power on repeat tasting. Good length.

Conclusion: impressive. We haven’t drunk much Rayne-Vigneau (a half-bottle of the 2003 a few years back), but it is rightly a respected and impressive producer. Their 1997 is said to be spectacular. Drink 2013-2025.

Rating: 18/20 (but will improve)

1999 Chateau La Tour Blanche

Appearance: medium gold.

Nose: spicy first nose and very honeyed (somehow La Tour Blanche always has a lovely honeyed quality, on vintages young and old). Lovely botrytis here.

Palate: more candied fruit and honeyed flavours on the palate, very well-balanced throughout. Long.

Conclusion: La Tour Blanche is another personal favourite of ours (we recall a stupendous bottle of the 1990 drunk in 2006 and no doubt still going well). This 1999 was excellent. Drink 2009-2019.

Rating: 18.5/20

2001 Chateau Suduiraut

Appearance: lovely medium gold colour.

Nose: only just developing, very precise candied fruit and subtle botrytis nose.

Palate: superbly balanced, there’s lovely fruit, great acidity and very harmonious residual sugar here.

Conclusion: very, very good. Expectations were high in approaching one of the celebrated 2001s, but we were not disappointed. People can argue the toss as to whether Rieussec or Yquem 2001 is better – would be great to taste those one of these days! – but this is a very, very good wine with a considerable life ahead of it. Drink 2011-2021, even longer.

Rating: 19/20

1996 Chateau Coutet

Appearance: medium gold colour (actually lighter than the below 2000 Climens).

Nose: gorgeous, mellowed, yet still vibrant honeyed nose with light candied fruits, subtle botrytis, very balanced fruit to botrytis here as the latter is fully integrated.

Palate: complex, wonderful balance of mellowed but still high acidity with integrated pretty high residual sugar, great fruit and superb length.

Conclusion: superb. Actually, to drink on the evening, this was probably our favourite. Drinking very well now, but still with a great life ahead of it. Drink 2008-2016.

Rating: 19/20

1988 Chateau Suduiraut

Appearance: deep gold to amber.

Nose: particularly savoury first nose, bitter marmalade notes, subtle botrytis (as on the 2001 Suduiraut), aged honey notes.

Palate: mellowed, very well-integrated palate. You wouldn’t realize the high acidity content here because of the combination of integration and age with lovely residual sugar.

Conclusion: clearly, a very good Sauternes. This was an extra treat as we were lucky to be sat next to Christian Seely MW – head of AXA Millesimes – and his oenologist wife, the bottle having been brought over for them to taste. Drink now, but will keep.

Rating: 19/20

2000 Chateau Climens

Appearance: deep gold-amber colour.

Nose: quite botrytised, less overt fruit here, but well put-together for what is not an easy vintage.

Palate: rich fruit, dominant botrytis, but nice acidity and pretty good balance with medium-high residual sugar.

Conclusion: this wine shows the quality of Ch. Climens as a producer because 2000 was not the easiest year for anyone in Sauternes. Drink now.

Rating: 17.5/20

1998 Chateau Guiraud

Appearance: deep gold.

Nose: rich nose as characteristic of most Guiraud wines with honeyed fruit, nice botrytis and other savoury aromas.

Palate: full-on, clearly full-bodied, packing pretty high residual sugar, nice acidity and an overall sense of power.

Conclusion: this is a better vintage for Guiraud than in some other years. The wines always tend to be quite massive stylistically. Impressive. Drink now to 2013, or longer. One to watch given the new ownership arrangements at Guiraud.

Rating: 18/20

1997 Chateau Myrat

Appearance: deepish gold to amber.

Nose: immensely raisined first nose, overt botrytis, nutty.

Palate: more very raisined fruit, perhaps not quite in balance here with the sugar and acidity, at least on this bottle.

Conclusion: would go well with a cheese board rather than Cantonese fare, to be honest. This is owing to the nature of Myrat as a producer rather than Cantonese food per se. Not bad. Drink now to 2012.

Rating: 16/20

2003 Chateau Filhot

Appearance: bright gold colour.

Nose: immensely savoury first nose, but also very honeyed with nicely integrated botrytis.

Palate: an impressive amount of acidity for the 2003 vintage (where heat was obviously a problem) and fairly well put-together in terms of fruit to acid to sugar balance. Quite good length too.

Conclusion: A good vintage for Filhot. Drink now to 2013.

Rating: 17.5/20

Posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 5:02 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.