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Last night I had dinner at a well known St James's hostellerie with two rich American friends who love their wine and have amazing collections. As they were buying dinner, I provided two wines and they provided the third.
We were due to eat fish so I decided to take along a couple of magnums of Burgundy, Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche 1999, and Nuits St Georges 1er. Cru Les Proces from Robert Arnoux 1985,( I like mature red burgundy with grilled fish).I wanted the white decanted and slightly chilled , but the red not decanted. I should mention that we are regulars at this restaurant and had agreement ahead from the manager to bring our own bottles and pay corkage etc. (too few top restaurants allow this, and I understand why, one needs to be very discrete, bring something exceptional that they have nothing like on their list, and be prepared to pay corkage or in some instances I give them one bottle and drink the other if I know the owner loves great wine.) {mosgoogle}
The sommelier was not on duty but the headwaiter and a trainee sommelier took control. On the good side they had a magnum decanter. On the bad side they couldn’t get their minds around decanting the white and not the red, so we waited at least half an hour before we got our first taste, whilst they argued about what I had asked for. Sensing a problem I explained the need for a young great wine like Montrachet to breath, whilst the Nuits was fully mature and needs little extra air, and had little or no sediment. They were intrigued but then had to admit that the real problem was that they couldn’t get the magnum decanter into their fridge or ice bucket it was too big to chill. We ended up with two bottle decanters and a bit more aeration, which did no harm. Grilled Halibut and chips magnificent with the red, and d'Yquem 71 a small vintage as desert. Of course the headwaiter and young sommelier were encouraged to taste all three wines, after all, two magnums and a bottle between three is enough to allow some generosity in the spirit of education.
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