A quite exceptional lunch

Wine is something that involves passion, both to make and to appreciate, and most people in the wine trade truly love what they do. It is not easy to make a lot of money working in wine, but there are other benefits: people who work with wine in one way or another have the great good fortune to attend rare events, both in their professional and private capacity, that are not available to people outside the trade, and drink some incredible wines. Of course interested amateurs can also have some cracking times and, if wealthy enough, taste wines that ordinary mortals can only read and dream about, but rarely do they have access to or knowledge of some of the more esoteric and interesting things insiders share.

Recently I was fortunate to be invited to one of these events, a spectacular lunch hosted by a friend who has been involved in gastronomy and wine since his days as a university student in Paris in the 1970s. Over the years he has amassed not just a wealth of knowledge about food and wine and co-founded the Greek Academy of Gastronomy, representing Greece on the board of the International Academy, but also created a superb wine cellar with the love of an amateur and the knowledge and keen eye of a professional. He has always bought wine that he would like to drink, albeit perhaps someday in the future, never for investment purposes, with his heart firmly in the European tradition; the value of this can vary from relatively day to day stuff to some extremely unusual, rare and sometimes very expensive bottles. And he likes nothing better than to share these with his friends, all like-minded souls.

The theme of his latest 'event' (held to celebrate the New Year and the feast day of saint John, after whom he is named) was the Grand Cru vineyards of Morey Saint Denis in Burgundy, an area that I have known and loved since the mid-1980s, and to share these he invited some of his closest wine buddies from the trade, the Academy and fringes, all either trade or knowledgeable, experienced wine lovers. What an event this turned out to be, held in Athens on a cold, quiet Sunday lunchtime in early January 2017 at the small, low-key but excellent Simul restaurant.

The restaurant is in a quiet residential street in the affluent district of Kolonaki, near the Hilton hotel. It occupies a minimalist but warm ground floor space elegantly done up, and in the middle of the Greek financial crisis is a brave new venture by a passionate young couple: he is the Head Chef and she runs Front of House. The service is friendly but efficient, the cooking accomplished and everyone is keen not only to please but to learn and improve; this makes a change from gastronomic destination restaurants that presume superiority and dislike criticism, constructive or otherwise.

But there was very little to criticise at the lunch, and this to reach perfection rather than to correct glaring errors - of those there were none. The menu, designed to accompany the wines, rather than the more normal other way around (incidentally our host is an acknowledged master at matching wine with food, widely admired for this by his friends the world over, including the current President of the International Academy), was relatively simple but beautifully executed and fulfilled its role.

The first dish to be served was a single fresh  grilled scallop on a bed of potato 'risotto' (mashed potato, flavoured with herbs and bits in it). To my mind scallops are better when pan fried and slightly caramelised, as it gives them a firmer texture, but this was nicely cooked, delicately flavoured and the accompanying mash was delicious despite the silly name.

To accompany this we were served two wines, both from Chablis and from the same producer, Raveneau, whose style of wine is more subtle, and for me representative of the area, as he does not use new oak:

1. Grand Cru Blanchot 2006, with marked difference between the two bottles tasted, the first of which was perhaps more evolved. My tasting notes read 'Rich and delicate Chablis Grand Cru nose, distinguished and minerally but slightly flat palate' (1st) and 'more restrained, bigger/more powerful' (2nd).

2. As a little extra treat, as we ploughed through the first one rather quickly, we were served a 1er Cru Butteaux from the same vintage, and it really was a treat despite being less highly rated. I noted a complex chardonnay nose, creamy but steely fruit with acidity on the palate and very long aftertaste, with the second bottle being fuller and 'all butter'.



Our excitement was growing now, as it was time for the main event, the Grand Cru wines of Morey St. Denis of which there were two absentees (Clos St. Denis and Bonnes Mares), perhaps to await future occasions... purely a suggestion! Morey is the second of the great villages going down the Cote d'Or from Dijon, mainly a red wine place as far as top wines are concerned and producing some very fine wines indeed. The next two wines were very much representative of the finest Morey can do and served with a  lovely fillet of greek veal with a madeira sauce and porcini mushrooms. The meat was beautifully tender and surprisingly tasty for veal, with the sauce and mushrooms completing the taste profile of the dish, not dominating as sometimes madeira sauce can do.

Ah, the wines, the wines, both from Clos de la Roche, from two of the best producers in the area over the last 30 years; different in style but not in excellence, two beauties (alas I neglected to photograph the bottles...):

3. Domaine Dujac 2000 was an explosion of pinot noir - delicate characteristic colour with an amazingly vibrant nose bursting with strawberry fruit. On the palate it had elegant but explosive endless fruit, for my taste typical of burgundian pinot noir at its best and with a very, very long aftertaste - quite exceptional and seductive, despite a somewhat difficult vintage, and good for another couple of years.

4. Domaine Hubert Lignier 2001 was deeper in colour, more restrained, with a very distinguished pinot noir nose, perhaps more modern in style and more tannic, whiff of green-ness but with good spicy fruit on nose and palate, very long and better when paired with food. Improved in the glass so probably needed a bit more air to begin with.

To be continued!