A small posse of wine nerds traveled to Las Vegas for two nights of legendary wines and food.
The first night featured mainly Bordeaux — but also a few stellar burgs — the 90 Dujacs were both fantastic, the CDR was a bit darker, more intense and brooding; the CSD was extreme bright, vibrant, with incredible energy and extraordinarily fresh tasting berry fruit. I preferred the Clos St. Denis (I usually prefer the CDR!).
Highlights of the night for me, were the 59s (versus the 61s). I literally preferred all the 59s over the 61s.
Someone ran next door to Emerils (“The Berns Of Las Vegas”) and purchased a 1985 DRC Richebourg off the list (serial number 508!). This turned out to be the wine of the night.
We finished with a 1975 D-Yquem — probably the greatest young (!) Yquem right now (v. the 1967 and the 1990).
The private room at Joel Robuchon is a perfect room for 8 people — really gorgeous. All the New Yorkers said they much preferred the food here to the NYC Robuchon. The Bread is the best bread in America.
The next night was Burgundy night at The Gorgeous Guy Savoy private room. We started off in my suite with 1976 Krug and 1976 dom — both were delicious, with the Krug slightly fresher in color and palate. At Savoy, we had some bad luck with a few bottles of DRC — both bottles of 1990 DRC (La Tache and Richebourg) were NG, as was a bottle of the 91 — this is was an all time record for me — I have never been at a dinner with so many bad bottles of classic DRC. It was indeed tragic for those that brought them, and because there were no backups. Hence, the Rousseau Chambertins ran off with the night. On this particular night, the 91s took first place (versus the 93s, which sometimes take first), followed by the 93s, with the 90s in third. These wines are amongst the greatest burgundies ever made and this was an incredible lineup. There was also a terrific bottle of 91 La Tache — really bright and fresh and vibrant and surprisingly drinkable. We finished with an incredible bottle of my favorite D’Yquem: 1921.
A standout dish for me was the Guy Savoy signature dish: The Artichoke and Black Truffle Soup with the Black Truffle Brioche (for dipping) and Truffle Butter. This is one of my global top ten dishes.
Here are the menus:
And here are the photos:
