And so it was a table for ten at St Pierre and what a stupendous dinner it turned out to be. It was a 9 course dinner and every course was paired with great wines.
We started with Amelia fruit tomato with fleur de sel and Japanese tuna carpaccio and paired with a Meursault 2003 Domaine et Selection made by Coche Dury. Yes, the one and only Coche Dury. Any white burgundy made by him will be excellent! Thanks to Alain who unselfishly contributed this bottle ;-).
Next came roasted king scallop with vanilla scented parsnip puree and grilled chicken jus and paired with Penfolds Grange 2000 and 1999. It is seldom that someone combines scallop and chicken for a dish but the chef in black was able make a glorious combination. However, every one of us was throwing praises at the Grange 2000. The wine was simply delicious. We will definitely be looking out for this wine.
The third course was a low temperature hen’s egg with fricasse of girolles and black truffle marmalade. This dish was my favourite that night.
Eggs with truffles will always be one of my favourite dishes. Emmanuel was generous with the truffles so I suspect that the truffles may have come from Australia……kekekeke. This was paired with Grange 1994.
After that, we had the oyster scented mini risotto with bottarga. I am still getting used to the taste of the bottarga and find it overwhelming on the risotto. I have to remind myself that I still have some bottarga in my fridge which I have to consume soon.
The risotto was paired with the wine of the night (to most of us) - the Grange 1971. This wine is 28 year old but it still has a lot of oomph in it. It was simply heavenly drinking it and a few of us quietly asked for a second pour. I think this wine will still go on for at least another 10 years.
The braised Boston lobster with shiraz dressing, glazed baby turnip and vanilla scented Fiji apple was next and it was paired with Grange 1991 and 1996. Lobster is also one of my favorite seafood and I wished there was more lobster meat ;-).
The lobster course was followed by roasted pigeon with caramelized figs and braised ratte potato in pigeon sauce which was paired with Grange 1983 and 1986.
I don’t like pigeon and try to avoid it as much as possible; reason being that I hate the “wild game” taste. You sometime get this type of taste when eating a duck but the pigeon “wild game” taste is always so much stronger for my liking. But this was different. It was roasted to perfection. The “wild game” taste was barely there and it was juicy good. Many pigeons I tasted were usually tough and dry.
It had been a long time since I finished a pigeon dish placed in front of me. The Grange 1983 was great but I think it should be decanted for a longer period.
By this time, it was getting late into the night and we were all quite full and tipsy. But we were all eagerly waiting for the star dish of the night – certified ribeye wagyu beef from Japan and cooked for 72 hours with wasabi scented gnocchi, Madeira emulsion and organic broccoli puree. But it came out to be a disappointment for most of us as there was simply too much fat in it. I guessed because we were very full and high on alcohol by that time. All of us dreaded taking in more fat even though I took a piece and found it agreeable. The wagyu paired with Grange 1990 and 1998. The Grange 1998 is another wine that I remind myself to look out for.
It was way past 11 pm and most of us could not touch the desserts and 24 months old comte “trou de souris”. Luckily it was not epoisses in which I would have wallop it;-). I settled for a cup of good old coffee to keep my head clear for going home.
Overall this dinner was excellent especially with such excellent range of Penfolds Grange wines. It is only once in many moons that one will come across such a range of wines in one sitting.
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