Wine Dinner with Rhone Gangs

A wine dinner organized by Sinolink. It has been years since my dad and I are participating in a wine dinner together, wine dinner as in those cordially invited by the wine merchants. Recalling the last time joining Sinolink wine dinner would be year 2004, while I was still in Uni. Their first comment was that I should learn how to drive so that somebody could drive the drunk dad home. So here, I got my driving license and as expected, I might get drunk as well.
 To accommodate my office hour, we’ve chosen to join the “Dinner with Rhone Gang” at Backstage in Central – A familiar lunch choice for me.

Chateau de Montfaucon Comtesse Madeleine 008 Cotes du Rhone (Serve with bread)
Viognier, Marsanne, Bourboulenc & Clairette. Cirtus notes with grapefruit and honey. Light and good choice as the first wine to taste

Rhone Gang Hold-up No.6
Pinot Noir & Grenache. Grassy, mineral with red berries and kirsch note at the end. light body.

Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas Rose 2008 (Served with fig salad and parma ham with cantaloupe)
Grenache only. Rhone seldom have one vine to produce one wine. Normally 5-9 vines blended.
Wild berries flavour, nutty in nose. Not a typical rose which has more focus on flower.

Chateau Pesquie Quintessense 2006 Cotes du Ventoux ^.^
Syrah & Grenache. Notes of eucalyptus, sprice, strong leather. Very elegant wine. My favourite of the night, though a bit too alcoholic, seems can last for quite a while. Long and deep finish.

Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas Valbelle 2007 (served with lamb shank & mashed potato)
This wine matches well with the lamb shank dish. Grenache & Syrah. Blackberry punch with floral touch. Hint of licorice and tar in the tip of the tongue. Balance body, less tannin than previous yet still stands out its own charcter.

Chateau de Montfaucon Mr Le Baron 2007 (Served with petit 4 & chocolate cake)

Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Counoise, Mourvedre, Muscat, Alicante, Tempranillo, Viognire, Marsanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Picpoul -- 13 wines. I thought the vines will fight with each other!!! That's why when you drink it, it's like explosion from the world war in there, lol. Unique style, fruity and floral with elegance. Powerful punch, change in flavours along the palete.

Sons of the 4 chateaux owners were travelling round Asia to promote the wine. Just back from Japan, carry forward with their momentum from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Started with a flash about how commonplace their chateaux are and how family-oriented are the essentials in producing the uncommon wine. One of the chateau – Chateau Pesquie was praised by Robert Parker as one of the most talented wine producer.

Despite wine, music is one of their talents too. Playing jazz, singing quartet that arouse our interest to the French culture, songs etc

Thought of the night: Important to have the wine producers present in the wine dinner to inspire guests with more exposure to the wine world, vineyard and history of wine. Otherwise guests would have only focused on the price of wine, the flavour of the wine without even notice the reason behind those flavours being produced. Perhaps this was to memorize some hard moments of the producers. You’ll never know without get to listen to the stories, the 1st person touch.

Tips for the host: Shall approach the restaurant to see whether they can serve extra if brought the food along. E.g. instead of ordinary cheese platter, discuss with wine producer to find the best match cheese and settle that before the day of dinner. That would present the best effect to the guests. A win-win to both the host & the restaurant.