Grape Wine Journey

 I’ve been procrastinating probably for about three weeks over my first post on Grape Wine Journey since Madam urged me to starting putting my thoughts on wine, and others great adventures, on this blog.

I really, really wanted to do it sooner as I have the greatest respect for Madam (and her wine collection), and shared her passion for chancing on a nice vintage in the least expected circumstances.

One of the main reasons I’m writing tonight is that we (my other half and I) happened to order one of the wines that Madam raved about when she came back from her trip to Bordeaux last summer – Pontet Canet. We didn’t have the 2001 that she ordered (directly) from the chateau, but we did manage to find a 2002 bottle at a restaurant called Les Saisons at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

To make a long story short, after discovering Western cuisine in Japan a few years ago, we decided on this trip, to include at least one Western restaurant in our itinerary on this trip. Plus we were lazy and decided on the restaurant inside the hotel we were staying at. To be fair, Les Saisons also garners ONE Michelin Star in the Tokyo guide, so it wasn’t such a random decision.

The meal went something like this – a fois gras amuse-bouche lollipop, followed by gazpacho with scampi and saffron jelly, followed by fois gras ravioli in vegetable consommé. Then came braised sea bass with a whole langostine, followed by lobster (although the menu said langostine) thermidor. The main course was a filet of Japanese beef with onion puree in beef consommé.

We started with a glass of rose champagne the name of which escapes me. Then we have a major problem since the menu obviously called for a bottle of white followed by a glass of red. The problem was that there weren’t that many choices for both white and red that were within our budget. We decide to go with a glass of Chablis Premier Cru instead, followed by a bottle of the Pontet Canet, which at about 14,000 yen – was a little bit beyond our budget as well – but we got 30% off because of the 120th anniversary of the hotel.

As you can expect from the sommelier of a Michelin-starred restaurant, the wine was prepared immaculately. First, the sommelier opened the bottle, smelling the cork, and then pouring some out into a glass, which in most cases, he would have tasted. Instead, he tested the bouquet on the wine, then, to my surprise, he carefully poured the wine from the glass into the decanter. Again, to my surprise, instead of pouring the rest of the wine into the decanter, he swiveled the wine about inside the decanter, then poured it back into the glass before tasting it. When he was satisfied that the wine was up to standard, he put away the glass and poured the rest into the decanter.

We actually didn’t get to taste the wine until the lobster course – after our champagne and white wine.

Because I had finished my white wine first, I actually tasted the red wine. When I first put my nose over the glass, the bouquet was exceptionally strong and I thought it needed more time to breathe. But upon actually tasting the wine, it was nearly perfect – complex, full-bodied, rounded with hints of something a bit stronger – like cinnamon, even chocolate truffle.

To say the least, the wine matched our mood – and the beef course – to a tee, hence my motivation to write this post.

There are probably several reasons for my enthusiasm for the Pontet Canet that evening. First, it was definitely a pleasant surprise to find such refreshing flavours (both the lobster and beef were Japanese with the hotel having special arrangements with the suppliers) in a surrounding (typical hotel restaurant) that I had little expectations of. Plus the service was excellent, and somehow, we managed to find a bottle (inside a wine list that was a tome) that was within (barely) our budget, and which we enjoyed immensely – thanks in part to Madam!