Jean-Paul Barbier's Le Lion d'Or, Arcins We had an excellent dinner with our friends from Pauillac at Jean-Paul Barbier's Le Lion d'Or in Arcins. We ate there last year and the cooking was very good and it was exactly the same this time. Generously they allow you to bring your own wine and don't charge any corkage. We did try to add something to our bill (around 160€ for five) as we had taken four bottle and not bought any from their list but this was refused, so we left it as a tip. The waiter brought an ice bucket and left us a corkscrew. Highlights of the meal included an soft poached egg in a tomato sauce with a couple of small slices of Spanish bacon, the perfectly cooked pigeon – lightly pink – with a piece of fresh foie gras and a very flavoursome côte de veau with truffles and goose liver – not forgetting a café ligeoise, made with real coffee.
2002 Le Mont Moelleux, Vouvray, Domaine Huet We had the lovely, delicately honeyed 2002 Le Mont Moelleux, Vouvray from Domaine Huet balanced with crisp acidity with just a hint of evolution – showing what a fine, balanced vintage 2002 is for Loire whites both dry and sweet.
2006 Rémus, Montlouis, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups We moved on to the 2006 Rémus Montlouis Sec – good concentration, still a hint of wood spice, especially when first opened. Worked very well with the poached egg dish.
2001 Le Grand Clos, Saumur-Champigny, Château de VilleneuveI haven't tried the 2001 Le Grand Clos for a while. Definitely soft, supple and very attractive now suggests that this vintage of Grand Clos may need drinking up reasonably soon. I suspect the 1996 may well outlast the 2001.
1997 Château de Suduiraut, Sauternes With dessert we enjoyed a half bottle of rich 1997 Suduiraut full of apricot confit and rich, concentrated honeyed flavour.
All in all we had a really relaxed and very enjoyable evening paying for five of us less than the cost of one menu dégustation at Cordeillan-Bages for 175€.
All in all we had a really relaxed and very enjoyable evening paying for five of us less than the cost of one menu dégustation at Cordeillan-Bages for 175€.
4 comments:
How was the 2002 Le Mont? Surely a touch young and a risk of it being closed up at the moment?
Jimmy – please see note on the wine above. Certainly a reasonable assumption that the 2002 might be closed up. I wanted to try it to see how it was coming along. Not closed up and showing very well, although you could obviously keep this a long time.
Great to see Loire wines showing so well in Bordeaux! Coals to Newcastle.
Bob from Alberta.
Bob. I always think it is a sound principle to take some Loire wines with me when visiting Bordeaux.
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