Haut Brion & Amaroni - Celebrate big wine with big family

Uncle & Aunt are inviting our family for a super family dinner, where my dad contributes his one of the valuable wine - Haut Brion as a compliment to their hard culinery work.

First: The Oyster with Japanese 大吟釀, taste so like vodka mixed with 浙江紹興酒, one of my hometown chinese wine, apart from it has less medicine taste in it. You really can't tell how much alcohol in it, especially when the taste is dominated by the lemon & wasabi filled creamy oysters.

Followed by Aunt's oven baked salmon with mexican mango salsa. Fat salmon, oil burst out from the oven...the mango salsa surprisingly is a perfect match of it, in which till today my mom still urge my dad to make one for her~

Third: Beef stew with fettucine & french bread, cope with Haut Brion 1994.

This Haut Brion has already been aired for over 2 hours, still in the decanter. Nevertheless, when put in mouth, still have a feeling of potential of further oxidation, so leave it for another half an hour, where the prune and apricot flavour hinges are out of our palate. Wonderful and harmonious , well balanced wine, yet the body is not too heavy that I am a bit confused whether it can be that impressive to be under the top 5 grand cru wine. Perhaps it's the vintage that matters.

Fourth: Chocolate Fondue with fresh strawberries, grapes with brie, blue and smoked cheese, companied by Amaroni.

Amaroni is a super fruity wine. Once you smell it, a huge punch of fruit platter is bombing towards your nostril. The complexity of the fruit would be plum, then tropical fruit, ending with green apple note, it tastes with clarity of 3 steps in fruits before the aftertaste bounce back, so complex. All I can say is...Fruit bomb. Merry well with cheese, a good compliment with fruits, or I shall say, fruit doesn't make a difference afterall as you have already enjoyed it in the wine :P, but the sweetness is competible with the chocolate fondue, which is a bonus.

Wonderful meal, wonderful wine. Nice chat, best combination of wine, ppl & food.