Weingolb

I don't think I drank any "Wines of the Year" last night but I did have an awesome 8-course meal that suited each of these personally chosen white, red and sparkling wines. I thought the flight was going to be French but starting and ending with Spanish wines. It turned out to be Franco-American with a little Irish in there, starting and ending with sparkling wine...

Though Phaneuf grants an additional star to the "Gran Reserva Crianza," this Allegro is packed with personality, giving off hints of sherry and toasty Christmas brioche. It went perfect with grilled slices of pain brioché I picked up at Les Co'pains d'Aboard that we topped with a pintade terrine before heading out to the BYO restaurant "Les Héritiers" (see more at bottom) with the following wines:

A gentle, round and lush yet fresh white for two starters that lead the New Year's Eve "St-Sylvestre" menu. The first one was a tuna amuse-gueule on cucumber and a dash of wasabi served with a melon chaser; the second was a prosciutto "bonbon" -- all garlicky and juicy -- served above a consommé broth.

This wine, which had me dashing to Pointe-Claire the day earlier, was opened with the consommé course and it dealt with the hike in savory flavours a lot better than the young Italian white wine did. It was oaked perfectly and paired nicely with the smoky, rich soup. When the seared foie gras arrived, this Sauvignon from Graves continued to be very food friendly. But now with the bottle running low and heaps of sweet French toast topped by a pineapple reduction sauce clinging to the foie gras, we uncorked our Sauternes sweet wine bearing Bordeaux's Barsac appellation (see dessert entry below). An early but suitable appearance for it, to be sure.

This web excerpt from Les Fidèles de Bacchus led us to believe that decanting the first red of the evening was a wise move. The wine was green peppery with tomato on the nose. It was a Loire-tinged Bordeaux with its 20% Cabernet Franc coming through clearly. 70% Merlot hemmed in the edges and Cabernet Sauvignon making up the remainder. (At about this point, there was a service of what I thought was the best Trou Normand palate cleanser I've ever had -- pear sorbet and Calvados that was a cohesively creamy but refreshing course -- and meanwhile the wine aerated further in preparation for the main course.

There is a large range of opinion on this wine on the Internet. For my money it seems to be among the finest young and ready-to-drink Cabernet Sauvignon varietals around. It offers a sense of festiveness, deep and pure fruit flavours that penetrate the palate and conjure up spices and a sweet-ish vanilla finish, not out of place given the season. In other words, what I'd call a winter wine. It firmly switched gears from the more vegetal and mineral Bordeaux of the same vintage. It continued to pair with the main course of gamy ostrich skewers lounging in a port (but most beef-flavoured) gravy, but it went even better with the asparagus and cheese quiche accompaniments. And the individual cheese plates with candied nuts that directly followed was appropriate fare for it as well.

This was really great with the foie gras poêlé of the third course and so I eventually balked at having more at this stage of the evening. Plus the dessert that arrived was enormous, buttery and slightly dizzying, especially considering the substantial cheese plate we had a difficult time polishing off, so I really could not eat any more food to enjoy this wine with. Espresso seemed a not-too-distant certainty.

It was not personally chosen but this lovely non-vintage sparkling wine is still a favourite of mine. It was promptly served at midnight, on the house, courtesy of our generous hosts at Les Héritiers on de Lanaudière at Laurier in Plateau Montreal. The restaurant is a real cozy place (pictured) that's highly recommended and the staff are fantastic (so it was nice to seem them drink some bubbly too when the clock struck 12). Flutes went around the room and I was surprised to find a glass at my place when I returned to my seat. I loved it. It was restorative in a way no other wine so late into a feast could hope to be: Mineral, edgy and tantalizing. I opted to forget about the coffee entirely.

(And thanks to the friendly people from NDG who sat at the table next to us. The foursome also went with a Pessac-Léognan and some fancy dessert wine but what we really all shared were mini-bottles of Bailey's Irish Cream since they had extras and kindly were handing them out.)