Spring and early summer events@RSJ Restaurant

Château de Saumur

Wine Tastings with Dinner  Start 7.15pm

Monday 18th April:  ‘The splendours of Saumur’       £45.00

 We will be tasting  wines from the much vaunted Jean- Pierre Chevallier, Thierry Germain, Régis Neau and various other vignerons.

Amongst the wines to be tasted are:

2001 Terres Chaudes (Thierry Germain)

1999 Marginale (Thierry Germain)

1989 Les Châtains (Régis Neau)

Jean-Hubert Lebreton on his last visit to the RSJ

Monday 16th May:  Vigneron Tasting – Jean-Hubert Lebreton £45.00

We are delighted that Jean-Hubert Lebreton from the Domaine des Rochelles in Anjou will be joining us this evening to show his wines from this famous property. We will be tasting reds, dry whites and sweet whites as well as a couple of older vintages from the last decade.

Jean-Hubert speaks excellent English [having worked in Australia for some time] and this promises to be a wonderful evening.

Italian Sunday Lunches with Ursula Ferrigno    Start 1.00pm

Sunday 8th May:      ‘Magical Marche ’                             £30.00

Involtini di peperoni –Sweet pepper rolls with olives, pine nuts & anchovies served with home made flat breads

Gnocchi di Ricotta – with gorgonzola sauce

Insalata di Granchi – a famous salad from this stunning region, light refreshing & colourful

Fave con cipollo rosso, salsa di menta – Broad beans with mint and red onion in a lemon and parsley dressing

Torte della mia nonna – A light lemon tart studded with pine nuts and scented with vanilla

Formaggio – A special hand selected cheese from the region with fruit and balsamic jelly

If anyone wishes to assist Ursula in the kitchen, we have a limited number of places available [cost £30.00]

For event reservations please contact:

tom.king@rsj.uk.com      Tel: 020 7928 4554

RSJ Restaurant   33 Coin Street     London     SE1 9NR          www.rsj.uk.com

Italian Sunday lunch at RSJ with Ursula Ferrigno: 20th March

Ursula rolls out the pasta


There are still places available for the Italian lunch on 20^th March.

If you would like to come, please advise as soon as possible

 

Italian Sunday lunch at RSJ

with Ursula Ferrigno

[starts at 1.00pm]

 

‘Enchanted Liguria ’

 

£30.00

 

Foccacine with roasted vegetables and grilled goats cheese

 

Canneloni con frutti di Mare – seafood cannelloni with saffron sauce

 

Leeks with white beans and a herby dressing

 

Crunchy leaf salad

 

Chocolate & hazelnut pudding with white chocolate sauce

 

Formaggio – the  Ligurian cheese

 

 

 

We also have a few places available to learn from and assist Ursula

in the kitchen  [£30.00]

 

 

For bookings please contact:

Tom King

RSJ Restaurant

33 Coin Street

London  SE1 9NR

Tel: 020 7928 4554

E-mail: tom.king@rsj.uk.com

20 years of Chinon: 8th March 2011

1990 Clos de l'Echo

 

Last night we held a dinner and tasting of Chinons stretching from 2009 back to 1990. 

Aperitif

2009 Sauvignon Blanc Domaine de Bablut, Vin de Pays 

Tighter, more mineral and refreshing but less opulent and exotic than it was last year.  

2009 Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour
This is Baudry-Dutour's easy drinking cuvée from gravel vineyards close to the Vienne. Attractive red fruits with refreshing acidity.   

 

2009 Chinon Beaumont, Catherine and Pierre Breton

From vineyards on the undulating clay and limestone slopes around Beaumont-en-Vèron. This had considerably more weight than the Perrière – partly due to the different terroir but also from doubtless lower yields. With black fruits and spice, soft tannin, the Beaumont is drinking well now but can be kept for a good five years. I have been critical of some of the Breton wines but this 2009 was showing well.   

These two wines were served with a balontine of foie gras & confit of duck with fruit chutney.

Then onto two vintages of Baudry-Dutour's Vieilles Vignes
2006 Vieilles Vignes Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour

2002 Vieilles Vignes Domaine de la Perrière, Christophe and Jean Baudry

These, which come from gravel vineyards, showed the importance of vintage in the Loire. The 2006 being fuller and richer with plum and liquorice flavours reflecting the good summer of 2006, which was potentially a very good vintage until the rain and the onset of rot at vintage time meant that the grapes had to be hurriedly gathered in. However, there are some very good 2006s, if not quite at the level of 2005. 

2002 was one of those Loire years when September and October saved the vintage after a poor summer. Sunshine and an easterly wind allowed the grapes to ripe and the drying conditions concentrated the grape juice. Less concentrated than 2006 and more in the red fruit spectrum with more present acidity. Like many 2002s it has lovely balance.

Both cuvées are aged in barrique. The 2002 was made before the creation of Baudry-Dutour in 2003.

1999 Coteau de Noire

Next up two wines from Philippe and Claude Alliet. Philippe is a cousin of Christophe Baudry and he set up his domaine in 1985 and is widely acknowledged as one of the top Chinon producers.

1995 Vieilles Vignes

1999 Coteau de Noire, Philippe Alliet

1995 Vieilles Vignes, Philippe Alliet 

The Alliets acquired the Coteau de Noire in the early 1990s. On the steep limestone coteau a little to the east of the town of Chinon, the 1999 comes from vines of less than 10 years old and is all the more impressive for this. Elegant concentration, structure and length, this is another example of how well the rather unregarded 1999 vintage is now showing. 

Without food the 1995 Vieilles Vignes (from vines on gravel) shows some of the angularity that has been typical of this vintage with present tannins and acidity. With food the sweet, evolved fruit comes through.  

1990 Clos de L'Echo, Couly-Dutheil (in magnum)

When this was first opened we were rather concerned that this might be past it, initially light and quite bricky in colour this developed in glass with attractive and charming sweet fruit with a touch of rather grainy tannins. Given that the storage conditions for these two magnums of Clos de l'Echo had not been the best, they were showing pretty well. Doubtless any examples of the 1990 stored at Couly-Dutheil's cellars in Chinon would be more youthful. 

Served with braised veal, mashed potatoes, carrots, spinach, red wine jus.

B-D's Chinon Blanc is closed with a screwcap

2009 Chinon Blanc Baudry-Dutour

We created some controversey at the end of the evening by deciding to serve this with the cheese – a Brie de Meaux. Tasted blind few people I fancy would pick this out as Chenin Blanc – many would opt for Sauvignon Blanc with its zippy, grassy, citric fruit although in the finish it does have that characteristic touch of bitterness typical of many Chenins.


Along with a number of the assembled company I thought it went well with the cheese bringing out the wine's fruit, while others thought that it didn't work at all and were rather aghast at the idea of serving white wine with cheese.

20 years of Chinon: 8th March

 

Vines@Cravant-les-Coteaux

Wines for Tuesday's tasting (completely sold out – sorry) are as follows:

2009 Sauvignon Domaine de Bablut (apero)

2009 Chinon Blanc Baudry-Dutour

2009 Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour

2009 Chinon Beaumont, Pierre Bréton

2006 Vieilles Vignes Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour

2002 Vieilles Vignes Domaine de la Perrière, Christophe and Jean Baudry

1999 Coteau de Noire, Philippe Alliet

1995 Vieilles Vignes, Philippe Alliet  

1990 Clos de L'Echo, Couly-Dutheil  [Magnum]