A Smorgasbord of Seafood and Laurent-Perrier
On Tuesday evening, Lilia from K&L Redwood City and I were lucky enough to be invited to a dinner at the Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse by Naomi Smith, the director of sales for Laurent-Perrier in the U.S. It was a marvelous night with two of my favorite women in the wine business, and the fantastic seafood went perfectly with the elegant wines of Laurent-Perrier.
For the aperitif we started out with the Laurent-Perrier "La Cuvée" Brut Champagne $54.99, a wine that showed so well at the begining that I couldn’t help but return to it at the end of the evening. This wine enjoys four years of aging on the lees, and is composed of 55% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, and 15% Meunier. The star of the blend is their high-quality Chardonnay, which gives this wine a Puligny-Montrachet–like lime character and excellent freshness. It is balanced out by a lovely baguette toast from the lees contact. I loved the combination of this wine with the king crab legs and the lobster on the top of our decadent sea food tower. The bright chalky finish is still with me this morning!
We then moved on to the Laurent-Perrier "Cuvée Rosé" Brut Rosé Champagne $84.99, which is an icon of the Champagne world, and composed entirely of Grand Cru Pinot Noir, with all of the skins macerated with all of the juice for maximum aroma and flavor. This batch (perhaps the 2020 base?) was quite dark in color, but the aromas were much more subtle than the look suggested. It has great red cherry Pinot Noir expression and super generous pain au levin toast. It was a great partner to the Ahi sashimi, and the famous Hamachi shots, as well as going very well with my main course, the salmon au chartreuse. The elegance and delicacy of this Champagne is truly special—I think it is completely unique in the world of maceration rosé to have something so fine.
The star of the show was the Laurent-Perrier "Grand Siècle" Iteration #26 Brut Champagne $249.99, one of the greatest of all tete de cuvées, and perhaps the greatest period in the clean fresh style for drinking on release. You can’t cheat time, and Laurent-Perrier has lavished a lot of it on this Champagne—the youngest element in Iteration #26 is 2012, with 2008 and 2006 making up the rest. Entirely made in stainless steel, in the most reductive and fresh of styles, the long aging has given this wine a fine brioche aroma that is laid back and subtle and balanced perfectly by the Meyer lemon zip of the mid-palate. It is a wine for the jaded connoisseur, impossible to tire of, and it hides its complexity and depth with its light, vibrant personality. It was magic with the main course, and by itself afterwards. If you love Champagne and deserve a treat, this is one not to be missed.
Thank you so much for the great evening Naomi—what a great reminder of the stellar quality of these world-class wines.
A toast to you!