I have a half-bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem (1979) that I’m opening this weekend.
It is almost the color of a lager.
I can serve it by itself, or with fruit and/or cheese (IIRC from Wine pairings 101).
My question is: What fruits/cheeses/pates would not overpower this vintage?
And no, you can’t have my address; it’s a two-person party. if you know what I mean…
Oooooh…Y’quem!
I wouldn’t worry about overpowering it. Looking at this: http://www.winemega.com/tasting_yquem_joe_belmaati.htm#d’yquem%201979 it appears to be a decent vintage.
Nuts, cheeses, fruits…all will go well with this wine. If it were me, I’d do some stilton or other aged bleu, some dates/figs, creme brulee, walnuts…
Damn I envy you.
Pretty much what FoieGrasIsEvil said, with the addition of Foie Gras, since it’s not evil, and it would go great with that Yquem.
And yeah, I’m totally jealous as well.
It.
I’ve had Yquem twice, and both times I was so busy contemplating it that I really didn’t notice the food. Otherwise, FGIE is pretty spot on. Maybe light, innocuous crackers too? It’s not so much that the food’s going to overpower the wine—that’ll be tough, with Yquem—it’s that they’ll clash. Athena’s suggestion of Fois Gras is great too, normally, but with this particular Sauternes, a little too much of a good thing, IMHO.
Normally, a 30+ year old sweet wine isn’t going to be all that sweet, just to warn you. When I had Yquem though, one was about 20-25 years old, and it (the 1975) was still incredibly youthful and rich. I would’ve thought that a 30 yr Yquem would be darker than a lager, but I don’t have much experience with it. Still my favorite white still wine of all time. (Well, it and the 1983.)
You’re in for quite a treat. I’m jealous.
Have had it a few times; fortunate enough to have a friend with a great cellar that I get to visit once a year so he brings out good stuff.
The soft-ish French(?) cheese with the strip of ash down the middle works well. Smoother pates. I really like biscotti, but that is more of a desert course vs. a cheese course. The biscotti taste like “dessert” but aren’t so sweet that they compete with the wine.
Enjoy (like you need encouragement ;))
I tend to prefer something with a little more acidic zip in it when I have a dessert wine with foie gras, if for nothing else just to cut through all that richness in the food (and in the wine, too…Y’Quem has an incredibly unctuous mouthfeel).
So OP, just for future reference, if you even want to try something different (and far, FAR cheaper!), a good Esiwein would work, as would an SGN Riesling/Gewurtz from Alsace, a beerenauslese/trockenbeerenauslese from Deutschland, and my personal favorite, a 5 Puttonyos Tokay dessert wine, made from a grape nobody’s heard of (Furmint) from a place not normally associated with wine (Hungary).
But jeez…foie gras AND Y’Quem? Talk about expensive!
OP, when come back, bring descriptive tasting notes!
Yum! If you like it you might try a good Cadillac or Gaillac (from the northern bank of the Gironde), but they’re much more variable in quality, and finding good ones is very difficult.
A good French blue cheese, of course, such as ripe Roquefort.
You might find this of interest too.
Is that the wine mentioned in “hannibal” , savoured together by Hannibal Lecter and the young female detective?
As in “fava beans and a nice Chianti”?
OP…come back, you must tell us how this wine tasted!
Thank you!
I enjoyed it with a nice Stilton. OMG. I purchased the bottle back in 1982, and it took everything in my power not to drink it since that time. I am glad I waited.
Thank all of my fellow Dopers for their suggestions…
I forgot…It had the aroma of toasted sugar and apples. The taste was somewhere between vanilla, honey, and a Fuji apple.