French and sake

Dinner at Shinshu.

1999 Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet - a little toast, a little oxidized but drank perfectly fine.  Medium acidity here.  Clashed badly with the scallop sashimi and soy sauce.

Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru, degorgée Janvier 2013 - pretty ripe on the palate, with notes of marmalade.  Always delicious to drink this wine.

2013 Hakurakusei Zankyo "Super 8" (伯楽星 残響 "Super 8"), bottle 127/365 - one of my favorite sakes in the world.  The blend of Yamada Nishiki (山田錦) and Omachi (雄町) rice is milled down to a mere 8% of its original size, taking seimaibuai (精米歩合) to the very extreme.  Initially there was tons of banana, ripe and sweet musk melon and other tropical fruits.  Very sweet on the palate and extremely smooth and rounded.  As it warmed up a little, the palate got slightly drier.  What a beautiful sake!

1970 Angelus - ripe on the nose, a little smoky, a little green pepper and woody.

1996 Dom Pérignon - from some of the very first batches to arrive in Hong Kong.  A very, very well-made Champagne, with incredible balance between the acidity and ripeness.

Full post on dinner is here.