Yotam Ottolenghi drinks the world’s five greatest wines*

Noble Rot meets one of Britain’s best-loved chefs for the ultimate liquid lunch

Words by Dan Keeling | Photos by Juan Trujillo Andrades

t’s early May in central – a celebration of classical duck presses, centrepieces for and summer’s gastronomy so diametrically elaborate preparations that I arrival can be felt in the opposed to today’s zeitgeist turn classical French cooking warm concrete glow and for casual dining it may as into acts of pure theatre. languid pace of Gray’s Inn well offer its menu in shillings As the location for Noble Rot Road. Black cabs and buses and crowns. There’s nothing to reappraise the famous shuttle weary passengers about this place that should 20th century gastronome northwards to King’s Cross work, but it does. Mixing Curnonsky’s list of the Station or south to the City, old-school table service with world’s five greatest white past strip-lit takeaways, eccentric charm, it features wines with Yotam Ottolenghi cafés and Otto’s Restaurant antique silver lobster and it couldn’t get much better.

*according to Curnonsky

36 Noble Rot “I’m absolutely bemused by Gastronomic France and in do’,” says Ottolenghi, the idea of a lobster press,” the 1930s classified what he observing a 1990 Château chuckles Ottolenghi as we considered to be the world’s d’Yquem being decanted. To settle down for a Tuesday five best white wines drink all five wines over the lunch of Lucullan proportions. (Montrachet, ‘Clos de la course of one sitting promises “How much juice do you get Coulée de Serrant’, Château- to be an extraordinary out of a lobster? I’m dying to Grillet, Château-Chalon and experience. It is, as they say, see,” he ponders as owner Château d’Yquem – all a dirty job – and Noble Rot is Otto Tepassé appears pushing French, naturellement). the magazine to do it. a dining cart carrying two “When I told friends I was Curnonsky died in 1956 colossal 70-year-old doing this today I had so but, among many gastronomic Crustaceans. “Oh my god – I many jealous people saying insights, he’s still best can’t wait to eat them,” says ‘That’s such a fun thing to remembered for his slogan, Yotam, admiring the barnacle- encrusted beasties. But before Noble Rot gets stuck into a menu of cheery artery cloggers such as ‘Homard à la Presse’ and ‘Poularde de Bresse Demi-Deuil en Vessie’, a bit more about today’s premise: who was Curnonsky? Was his list of wines really that good? And do they still justify such prestigious reputations today? Maurice Edmond Sailland AKA Curnonsky was born in Angers, France in 1872 and became the most influential food and wine writer of his generation. Voted ‘Prince of Gastronomes’ by Le Bon Gîte magazine in 1927, Curnonsky wrote a series of books about regional food called The

(Left) “Have you heard the one about the German, the lobsters and the antique food press?” Otto Tepasse and friends

(Above Right, Left to Right) 1990 Château d’Yquem, 1990 Château- Grillet, 1990 ‘Clos de la Coulée de Serrant’, 1992 Baron Thénard Montrachet, 2007 Macle Château- Chalon

(Right) Otto’s dining room

38 Noble Rot Noble Rot 39 “Les choses doivent avoir le written, do many of your I once visited a hotel and they assistant always says to me, into real trouble because I test during the week. Some goût de ce qu’elles sont”; readers still think you’re a had a beautiful elk head on “before you tweet, call me…” got the figures completely recipes have taken 15 times things should taste of what vegetarian? the wall – a stunning animal wrong. It was supposed to to perfect. I also work with a they are – a sentiment that that died years ago – so I NR: Before you moved to say two-hundred thousand lady in Wales – every recipe Noble Rot’s special guest Yotam Ottolenghi: They don’t tweeted a picture of it. But I London you were a journalist and I wrote twenty thousand goes to her. She goes definitely agrees with. “A think that I’m a vegetarian, had to take it straight off on a national newspaper. Did and almost got fired. One shopping where she lives chocolate cake should, first but some of them don’t like because of the amount of you interview people or was decimal point wrong, but for a around Cardiff to buy the and foremost, taste of the idea that I eat meat. horrible comments I got. My it all news? news story... ingredients, cooks the recipes chocolate”, Yotam and for her family, then writes me business partner Sami YO: I was a news editor. NR: Your recipes are a report on how it went. She Tamimi unwittingly echoed in When I was at university in renowned for always tests all the timings and their introduction to The Tel Aviv I worked in the working. Have you ever temperatures so by the time Ottolenghi Cookbook, the first newsroom in the evenings made any mistakes with it comes back from her I feel in a series of phenomenally writing headlines. It was so those? confident that it’s fine. successful publications intense – we’re talking the (including Plenty, Plenty 1990s, with a room full of YO: Not many. With books, NR: And I suppose if you can More, and Nopi) cigarette smoke, just like in occasionally you find there find all the ingredients that, along with television the films. I was the first are two or three mistakes around Cardiff you can get appearances and five central generation that worked on that are normally fixed in the them anywhere… London restaurants, have computers and it was a very second print but I’m slightly established Ottolenghi as the funny time. obsessive about testing my YO: That’s the thing. I’m most influential gastronomic recipes. In my test kitchen famous for using obscure brand of the last decade and a NR: So what’s the funniest there’s no interesting kitchen ingredients, so she also has to half. Responsible for headline you’ve written? gear – no lobster presses get the ingredients and tell introducing a long list of – although I think I might me how she got them. She’ll exotic ingredients to the YO: I was really crap at need one of those. I’ve got a get some online, or she’ll tell shelves of British finance and stock market small team I send ideas to on me “I can’t get curry leaf in supermarkets, most ardent news. One time I got myself the weekend, which we then Cardiff, what should I do?” fans will at some point experience a minor existential crisis when another shopper snaffles the last bottle of pomegranate molasses in Waitrose. A chef who has done more than any to inspire “From the first Ottolenghi Cookbook a nation of mediocre home everybody does the traditional cooks to engage with real food, Yotam Ottolenghi we Palestinian chicken with lemon slices salute you. Bring on the and za’atar and sumac Montrachet! – if you haven’t, go home and try it!” Noble Rot: Given how many meat-free recipes you’ve Yotam Ottolenghi

40 Noble Rot Noble Rot 41 CURNONSKY’S FIRST FLIGHT I’m strict about offering NR: And free meals, right? Yotam Ottolenghi: (Sniffing surrounding appellations are pronounced flavour than ‘Clos alternatives, however about ‘Clos de la Coulée de famous for their super-sweet de la Coulée de Serrant’, one in every 30 recipes there YO: I don’t need any more Serrant’) Wow, this is so Chenin, this is the complete typically featuring aromas of is no alternative ingredient meals, that’s the problem! wonderfully dry. opposite. fenugreek, curry leaves and – like you can’t do this (laughs) When I started out walnuts. without dried mandarin peel, in London 20 years ago it was NR: It’s got that Sherry-ness NR: We checked the lunar which is only available in much less democratic than it to it, hasn’t it? calendar earlier and today is YO: As it ages it gets those certain shops in Chinatown. is today but now something a ‘fruit day’. According to curry notes, right? Yeah, has changed. I was under the YO: It’s beautiful, and you can biodynamics, some days have fenugreek, I can taste NR: Which recipes are you impression that whatever see how you could carry on better conditions for drinking fenugreek here, no question most proud of creating? happened, you needed to drinking it for a while and making wines. What do about that. The benefit with work in a Michelin-starred because it’s not cloying in any you think of the Château- wine is you can take a YO: The ones that I’m most restaurant and suffer terribly way. If a lot of the Chalon? It’s got a more metaphor of something that proud of are the ones people for a few years in order to cook most. From the first become a good chef. But Ottolenghi Cookbook that’s a complete myth everybody does the perpetrated by certain traditional Palestinian people. I couldn’t take it so I chicken with lemon slices and left and went to work at za’atar and sumac – if you places that were more haven’t, go home and try it! civilised. With Rowley Leigh, From Plenty there’s a recipe who was a real breath of fresh for confit garlic tart which a air, and then I worked at lot of people do. It’s got three Baker & Spice because I heads of garlic in it that are specialised in baking. These cooked very long and very were places where your slow. (Sipping the Château- talent and enthusiasm meant Chalon) I hardly ever drink so much more than how you wine during the day, so this is came through the ranks and such a luxury. I drink in the ‘did the time’. I worked for evening because drinking Maison Blanc in their factory during the day takes me off in Park Royal for two course. months. I wanted to learn how to make French pastry NR: A lot of people who properly, but it was horrible. worked in the kitchen with I made strawberry tarts for you have now started their 12 hours straight. The guy (Top) 1990 Nicolas Joly ‘Clos de la (Left) Otto cuts open the pig’s bladder Coulée de Serrant’, Savenièrres, Loire, to extract the chicken own restaurants (Honey & that stood next to me once France (Above) 2007 Domaine Macle Co, Berber & Q, Good Egg, asked me, “Do you have a Château-Chalon, Jura, France (Above) Poularde de Bresse Demi- etc). Does that you make you driver’s license?” I said, Deuil en Vessie Served with Poularde de Bresse proud? “Yeah why?” And he said, Demi-Deuil en Vessie “So, why aren’t you a minicab YO: Really happy, yeah. driver?” (Laughs)

42 Noble Rot Noble Rot 43 CURNONSKY’S SECOND FLIGHT is from a completely different Otto: (Arriving tableside to being too small. Then a 1990 Nicolas Joly ‘Clos de la Coulée de Serrant’, stratosphere – in a sense it do the business with the beautiful place called Savennières, Loire, France  shows how much there is out lobsters) For the lobster Bradley’s on Ledbury Road ‘Clos de la Coulée de Serrant’ is a powerful, dry Chenin Blanc there in terms of wine. bisque I’m going to start by came up. It was the perfect from the top vineyard within the appellation of Savenièrres, This wine covers the whole adding some Pernod, then spot. When we started we not far from Curnonsky’s Angers birthplace in the Loire Valley. palate. Cognac, and for some didn’t know what we were A singular wine that stands in stark contrast to the plethora of sweetness, Grand Marnier. doing – the way the brand has sweet styles made in the region, ‘Clos de la Coulée de Serrant’ NR: You sell some interesting Then I add the juices and evolved is clear now but we is owned by leading biodynamics evangelist and ex-J.P. wines from producers like then the shells. didn’t know that at the time. I Morgan banker Nicolas Joly, and varies considerably between vintages. Today, Joly’s daughter Virginie runs the estate. Gabrio Bini and Arianna remember the first day, when The 1990 has a bouquet of wet wool, lanolin and apple with Occhipinti in your Yotam Ottolenghi: I love this Sami finished his first order of intense minerality and cut. Very long finish. restaurants. (Both are profiled theatre. What’s in the other fruit and vegetables to cook in Noble Rot Issue 11) pot? for the next day, and these 2007 Domaine Macle Château-Chalon, Jura, France crates full of aubergines and  YO: Yeah, our sommelier Otto: The other one contains courgettes arrived I was like, Château-Chalon is the Jura in Eastern France’s most Heidi Knudsen loves natural what was in the top of the “You’re mad! We’re never prestigious appellation, and Domaine Macle its premier wines so she hunts them lobster’s head. We drag the going to sell all this food!” producer. Tasting like an unfortified alpine Sherry, the down. We mostly have contents out with a spoon. When you guys started Noble ageworthy Château-Chalon is a ‘yellow wine’ made from natural wine – 60-70% What we press is the mass of Rot you had the magazine but 100% Savagnin (not to be confused with Sauvignon Blanc), natural. I’m a philistine when the bone structure that we were just nothing, we just aged under a ‘veil’ of yeast cells in old oak barrels for a it comes to wine; I know what comes off the legs. had this space – but the food minimum of six years and three months before being bottled I like but I don’t know the sold. Day one in a restaurant into 62cl clavelin bottles. Great vintages can evolve beautifully names or how to choose. YO: So nothing’s wasted? If is always terrifying because for decades although they are very hard to source. The 2007 is absolutely classic – rich, complex, intense and very long. you didn’t want that I was you’ve got nothing to compare NR: What do you drink at about to offer a recipe for fish it to – you don’t know whether home? cakes. (Laughs, taking a sip you’re going to have one Poularde de Bresse Demi-Deuil en Vessie is a famous of the Château-Grillet.) For a customer or 50. Lyonnais speciality created by la Mère Filloux, mentor to Mère YO: I don’t really drink much wine that’s over 25 years old Brazier, the first female chef ever to obtain three Michelin at home. [Pause for horrified it’s so fresh and youthful. It NR: Does Sami mind that Stars (see p85). Bresse chicken breast in ‘half-mourning’ is silence] We do drink, of doesn’t feel like something you’re the face of the business? stuffed with black truffles and slow-poached for 3½ hours in a course we do, but it’s not that that’s been around for so long. pig’s bladder, then served with two separate sauces – morel much. I love both wines, but When you opened Noble Rot YO: He likes the limelight less mushroom, and truffle and Madeira. Reports that Prêt À of these two I think the restaurant last year were you than I do. You know what, it’s Manger are set to release a diffusion range of sandwiches Château-Chalon works terrified? really hard to say now how featuring Poularde de Bresse Demi-Deuil en Vessie remain better with the chicken these things work, I think unconfirmed. against all that salt and Noble Rot: Excited and what made it really work was sweetness in the jus. I like (Top) 1992 Domaine Baron Thénard, terrified. How did opening that fact we had this amazing Montrachet, Burgundy, France. (Above) Sherry, so when it arrived 1990 Château-Grillet, Northern Rhone, your first restaurant in reaction: people saw the food I knew I was going to like it. France come about? and they loved the visuals. Why did Curnonsky only do Served with Homard à la Presse five whites but not also five YO: Originally it was going to NR: It was like nothing we’d reds? I guess he’s too dead be in a little bakery in ever seen before – those now to find out the answer. Hampstead, but it ended up meringues!

44 Noble Rot Noble Rot 45 (Right) Preparing Homard à la Presse

YO: In a way it was a kind of creative experiment where Alex our architect/designer made these white counters and said “fill them up”. We realised that the more you put out there the more people buy. In retail, if you put out four sandwiches, they’re never going to sell, but if you put out 30 they’re going to sell – and nobody’s going to touch the last five.

NR: So the sparseness of the décor was deliberate?

YO: Alex is from the John Pawson school of thought: put nothing there. I was really reluctant because – and I use the word ‘cold’ a lot – I thought all that whiteness would feel too cold, especially in London. I thought we needed some warmth, some wood, something natural. But that was the genius – I didn’t think it was going to work but once we put the flower arrangements and the food out nobody could see the white and it made the food stand out more. When people came in they said it felt like being in Melbourne or Sydney

“My dad, when he looks at my food he takes a deep breath – he’s so nice and polite but I know that deep down he thinks it’s way too busy.”

Yotam Ottolenghi

46 Noble Rot Noble Rot 47 CURNONSKY’S THIRD FLIGHT – places where, because of the them. I’d get more excited are masters of 1992 Domaine Baron Thénard, Montrachet, Burgundy, France humidity, you can’t have going for breakfast in Tartine understatement and I’m  anything but really clean, bakery in San Francisco. obviously more of an Montrachet is the ultimate expression of Chardonnay. solid surfaces otherwise it all They have the most overstatement kind of guy. A visually unremarkable vineyard straddling the communes of goes wrong. For a long time incredible croissants, pain au My dad, when he looks at my Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, Montrachet people assumed we were an chocolat and Danish pastries. food he takes a deep breath produces Burgundy’s rarest and most expensive whites that Australian brand. I would probably go for a – he’s so nice and polite but I should, according to Alexandre Dumas, be experienced “on good coffee and one of their know that deep down he bended knee, with head bared”. Many producers own small (The finished Homard à la pastries, or a slice of the thinks it’s way too busy. But sections of Montrachet, so quality is variable. Comte Lafon, Ramonet and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are among the Presse arrives) sourdough bread. as much as I see things finest examples, but at over £3000 for a vintage of the latter differently, I learned from we plumped for a sensational 1992 Baron Thénard at a tenth YO: Wow, this feels so NR: What’s a typical him to separate your courses. of the price. Deep, rich and creamy, balanced with a gorgeous decadent and extravagant for Ottolenghi fan like? I can’t stand putting lots of lemon-like acidity and long intense finish. When combined a Tuesday afternoon. things on my plate. My hell is with the lobster, it was a true showstopper and Noble Rot’s YO: I shouldn’t say this but… Christmas dinner, because I wine of the lunch. (1992 Domaine Baron this lunch is a great way of don’t really know what I’m Thénard Montrachet is getting me to say things I eating. I hate it so much I get 1990 Château-Grillet, Northern Rhone, France  poured) shouldn’t say. One of my goosebumps. Château-Grillet is both the monopole appellation and name partners said that my fan base 1990 Château d’Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France of the producer, located in the Northern Rhône Valley. NR: This is so rich and intense is mainly middle-aged women. NR: Who do you admire as a Often mistakenly referred to as France’s smallest appellation – it has a sensation of And I said I’ve got lots of cool recipe and food writer? Served with Roquefort cheese, (several Côte de Nuits Grand Crus are smaller), Château- heaviness without actually young blokes with beards who fresh apricots Grillet and its neighbouring appellation of Condrieu are famed being heavy. are fans. Then when I went to YO: A lot of writers from for producing rich, voluptuous whites made from 100% Viognier, which one writer evocatively compared to “a sweet Australia there was a big California – Alice Waters, Noble Rot: Do you think it’s apricot tart with a great dollop of crème fraîche on top”. YO: It’s so rich. It’s like that queue at Sydney Opera House people like that. I like the unfashionable to drink sweet Unlike Condrieu, which should be enjoyed young, good kind of vanilla, citrus… to get books signed, all clarity of the way they cook wine today? vintages of Château-Grillet can evolve well – although trying to butter. It’s very difficult to women, mostly middle-aged. – that a vegetable is a find them for sale is very hard indeed. This 1990 is still very compare to the Château- But at the very end of the vegetable, or a fruit is a fruit Yotam Ottolenghi: Not in youthful, full of minerality and life. Hints of citrus meld with Grillet because there’s just so queue were a couple of really and you put it at the centre. my world. This Roquefort is savoury notes; an understated Viognier with great clarity and much going on with the cool looking hipsters with There are books I like to cook excellent and the perfect unusually good acidity. Montrachet. Actually I have beards. I was so happy they’d from and ones I like to read. I salty contrast against the to say that this is really finally arrived. Then they love to read ’s richness of the Yquem. magical. I don’t think I’ve asked, “Please could you sign writing – she writes so For Homard à la Presse a lobster is poached in court-bouillon ever had anything like this this for my mum?” (Laughs) effortlessly. I also like NR: Now you’ve had all of and the claws served with scrambled egg, beurre blanc and before… This is just Stephanie Alexander and Curnonsky’s five wines, Oscietra caviar. Meanwhile, the shell and roe are pressed and something else. NR: One of your grand- Maggie Beer from Australia, could the Yquem be your the juices incorporated to create a rich lobster bisque. The dish was served with baby vegetables and a Champagne parents is Italian. Where do and Deborah Madison from favourite? sabayon. Otto’s own one of the few antique silver lobster NR: What’s your favourite you go for Italian food? California. She writes these presses in existence, made in 1910. restaurant, Yotam? vegetable bibles. She goes YO: I’m old-fashioned so I YO: I like to cook Italian food over every vegetable and always go for sweet, which is YO: Restaurants do it much at home. The funny thing is exhausts everything you a bit cheap. I like it with the less for me these days my food is the opposite of could do with it – I read her fresh apricots, but it is way because I’m constantly out in Italian food because Italians books all the time. more intense with the

48 Noble Rot Noble Rot 49 the best new natural wines. 1990 Château d’Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France But the beauty of this meal is  that it proves how much food After the extravagance of the previous two flights, we’ve two and wine matching can be a simple but classic matches for Château d’Yquem. The kind of perfection. To have superstar producer of Sauternes (which specialises in sweet that lobster with the wines made under the influence of noble rot), Château appropriate wine! I mean, it’s d’Yquem is located about half an hour’s drive south of quite obvious there are so Bordeaux city centre. Noble rot, AKA botrytis cinerea, is a many variables: reasons to fungus that spreads through the vineyards in late summer, caused by foggy mornings alternating with hot afternoons at drink wine, times to drink the confluence of rivers Ciron and Garonne. A blend of wine, food to drink wine approximately 80% Sémillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc, with… But the Montrachet (Sémillon wines are rich and waxy, Sauvignon Blanc adds was outstanding. crispness and nerve) Château d’Yquem is very expensive to make – it takes one vine to produce one bottle of red Bordeaux NR: Lastly, even though it’s compared to one vine per glass of sweet Sauternes. only the start of summer, this A favourite tipple of Russian Tsars and American President afternoon feels like the Thomas Jefferson, earlier this year a bottle of 1811 Château afterglow of a decadently d’Yquem was sold by Hedonism Wines for over £93,000, festive lunch, so we’ve got a becoming the most expensive white wine ever sold. 1990 was a great vintage for the estate, producing wonderfully rich but Noble Rot word association balanced wines. It has a glorious, honeyed bouquet of game to end with. Yotam, butterscotch and ripe apricots with bright freshness on the please pick which of the palate – powerful yet understated. following options you prefer and tell us why... east London or west London?

YO: I’m going to be controversial: west London. Roquefort – it brings out the don’t have the vocabulary or It’s where I got started so it YO: Public transport. The had a lot of crap music – the flavour. So the Yquem for me, the knowledge to say things would be so fickle not to go trouble with a private jet is ‘90s was better. yes. But that Montrachet! as I should, but you get with west. that I’d have to hang out with And I like the Château- modern wines that have a people who I can’t stand, so NR: Boris Becker or Boris Chalon with the food we had little bit more – oh my god, I NR: Johnny Depp or Johnny I’d rather go on public Johnson? – I thought it was a brilliant really want to find the right Vegas? transport because I don’t match to all that richness. word – idiosyncrasy. Just a have to talk to anyone. YO: What kind of a question is little bit more interesting in YO: I love Johnny Vegas, I that? I like Boris Becker, NR: Do you think Curnonsky’s the sense that they would was on Saturday Kitchen NR: 1980s or 1990s? actually. selection still represents the fit in a certain food niche or with him a couple of months world’s five greatest white corner that these don’t. ago. He’s so charming, I like YO: The ‘90s, for sure. I’ve NR: Sumac or za’atar? wines today? I mean, they’re all really everything about him. never had a strong affinity magnificent, but not all of with the ‘80s, the ‘90s is when YO: Ah, now, there’s a YO: No. I’m going to sound them are eccentric in a way NR: Public transport or things started to become question. Sumac is nice but like a philistine because I that you get from some of private jet? more diverse. And the ‘80s za’atar is a revelation.

50 Noble Rot Noble Rot 51 SIMPLY THE BEST? Noble Rot asks the experts whether Curnonsky’s list of Jancis Robinson Daniel Johnnes Frank Cornelissen Jay McInerney Hugh Johnson Queen of wine writers America’s Sommelier-in- Mount Etna artisan Novelist, wine writer and Doyen of fine wine greatest wines still Chief extraordinaire bon vivant holds up today, and what other bottles There is one obvious problem My answer is “yes” and “no”. Curnonsky’s list is a good Curnonsky’s list holds up Only two of Curnonsky’s they would add with this list: that it’s all Yes, because at their best choice if the choice is pretty well after all these wines remain unquestionably French. What about the these wines are among the restricted to only France, years, though of course at the top: Montrachet and world’s greatest white wine most intense, complex and although I would include a Château-Grillet has had ups Yquem. Château-Grillet has grape, Riesling? Tip-top Saar transparent of terroir of any Clos Saint Urbain, Rangen de and downs in terms of been invisible for years – Riesling surely belongs here. wines. And no, because so Thann, Sélection de Grains viticulture and winemaking, though it now has a billionaire How about Scharzhofberger? many other wines rival them Nobles from Zind-Humbrecht as has ‘Coulée de Serrant’. owner and will revive. ‘Coulée And it seems strange to but do not have the historical instead of Château d’Yquem. There have been poor de Serrant’ has become too ignore Sherry and Madeira, wealth to confirm their status. If we open this list beyond the stretches for both of these eccentric to be considered both of which can be sublime Of Curnonsky’s five, three of French borders here’s my list properties, but Grillet under great, though some and, especially Madeira, last them are single-producer in preferred order: its new owners will certainly Savennières neighbours are forever. If Curnonsky wines (Yquem, Grillet and become more consistent. In excellent. Château-Chalon appreciates Château-Chalon, ‘Coulée de Serrant’), and their 1. ‘Clos de la Coulée de the ‘80s and ‘90s I might have occupies a niche where it will he should surely acknowledge quality wavers depending Serrant’ – Nicolas Joly been tempted to substitute never be disturbed – or much the archetypal flor wine. I’d who is at the helm at any 2. Montrachet – Domaine de Condrieu for Grillet. Château- drunk. It’s strange that certainly agree with the point in time. The other two la Romanée-Conti Chalon is a wine more talked Riesling didn’t enter into it, choice of Yquem. I can’t (Château-Chalon and 3. Kallstadter Saumagen about than tasted, even with until you remember that remember a bad bottle and it Montrachet) are appellations Riesling Auslese Trocken the recent burst of interest in Alsace was considered keeps on surprising me with with multiple producers. R – Koehler-Ruprecht the Jura. Montrachet, at its German. Today it belongs at its longevity and ability to There are some great 4. Arbois-Pupillin Vin Jaune best, is incomparable, though the top, whether from Alsace evolve for the better in bottle. Montrachets but many – Houillon-Overnoy there are some very or Germany. Moselle and Saar And the finest DRC mediocre examples that are 5. Pinot Gris, Sélection de indifferent wines being Rieslings can be superlative, Montrachets – although the surpassed by Premier Cru or Grains Nobles ‘Clos Saint produced to this day. Château and Scharzhofberger vies reputation of the appellation even village-level wines from Urbain Rangen de Thann’ d’Yquem, thankfully, with Montrachet as the has been so sullied by some great producers. Today, I from Zind-Humbrecht. continues to amaze. world’s greatest white wine halfhearted renditions. would add Domaine de Trimbach’s ‘Clos Sainte Hune’ vineyard. The other strange Frédéric Engerer is doing his Chevalier Blanc, Laville from Alsace is worthy of a omission is white Hermitage, best to restore the reputation Haut-Brion, López de place on the list. usually on French lists of of Château-Grillet but there Heredia Blanco and greatest wines, and at its best was a long period of under- Hermitage Blanc to the list. well worthy. Outside France performance before François there are too many fine Pinault took over, so it’s too Chardonnays to put in order, early to judge how the new but Western Australia’s era wines will age. Same with Leeuwin Estate is my ‘Coulée de Serrant’. Virginie number one. It depends on Joly seems to be doing a great your timescale. No Californian job but she’s only just starting or South African Chardonnay to re-establish the reputation has a long enough consistent

of this great terroir. Michael Lionstar by Photograph McInerney Jay track record for this list.

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