Saturday Night - Август Восемь – Part 2

Click here for Part 1

The second wine we had was the Barons de Rothschild Blanc de Blanc.

 

 

The nose on this wine was even bigger than the Brut one was and had pretty aromas of birthday cake, hops, lemon/lime, peach/nectarine and tropical fruit. Tasting the wine, you get a burst of refreshing grapefruit and lime with some walnut in the background. The structure on this wine was beautiful and lively with good fruit and acidity and a chalky/mineral like finish that lingers. This was really good on its own but did get a bit funky with the food at times; it really worked with curried squid but with most of the sushi/sushi rolls it wasn’t very good. I really liked this wine as it was very distinct and had a nice character to it. The downside is it didn’t play very nice with the food and I’m a bit stumped on what I would recommend pairing it with other than maybe another curried based dish. If you are looking for a nice starter/statement wine to kick off a party though this would be a good choice.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 89, Mark – 89, Kathy – 88, Amy – 88, Overall – 88.5.

Here is the LCOB information on the wine –

Champagne Rothschild Brut Blanc De Blanc

VINTAGES#: 263731

Price: $95.00

750 mL bottle

Alcohol/Vol: 12.5%

Made in: Champagne, France

By: Societe Champenoise Des Barons & As

Varietal: Blend – Other

Note – When I picked this wine up it was on sale for $85.00 a bottle

Both Champagnes were good though the Blanc de Blanc was certainly the more unique of the two, but neither are a rush out and get more. I probably will pick up the Blanc de Blanc in a couple of years from now to see how it has changed.

August 8 was good, we usually get our Sushi from Spring Sushi and comparing the two I would say it was tied as there were some items I liked more from August 8 and vice versa. The nice thing is August 8 is much closer to us and it will be nice having a Sushi place just around the corner.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night - Август Восемь – Part 1

This past Saturday night it was my turn to host and we have a new Sushi place, August 8 that opened near us so I thought that would it would be fun to try. If you are wondering about the Russian title to this article, I have been learning Russian via Rosetta Stone for the last six months or so and Август Восемь is August 8 in Russian pronounced “Avgust Vosem'”. The Sushi dinner also worked as I had two new Champagnes for us to try (a Barons de Rothschild Brut and Barons de Rothschild Blanc de Blanc) and as Sushi is a good pairing for most Champagnes this sounded like a good plan.

 

I will review the Barons de Rothschild Brut Champagne first and then do the Barons de Rothschild Blanc de Blanc in Part 2.

The nose was big for a Champagne and no swirling of the glass was needed to find the aromas of yeast and floral with background notes of nectarine and Granny Smith Apple. Tasting the wine, ginger with a touch of lime was the main flavour. The structure wasn’t bad but it came across a bit thin as there wasn’t that big pop you’d expect from a Champagne. The finish was a touch awkward as it came across like drinking flat ginger ale. I wasn’t a huge fan of this wine on its own but it was good pairing with all of the food and was exceptional Salmon sashimi. I suspect this wine would really shin with any dish with good fat to it such as Alfredo or a gooey cheese dip.

 

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 87, Mark – 87, Kathy – 86, Amy – 87, Overall – 86.75.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

Barons de Rothschild Brut Champagne

VINTAGES#: 263715

Price: $75.00

750 mL bottle

Alcohol/Vol: 12.5%

Made in: Champagne, France

By: Societe Champenoise Des Barons & As

Style: Rich & Complex

Varietal: Champagne

Note - When I picked this wine up it was on sale for $65.00 a bottle.

Click here for Part 2