TN: Cbuttoulet night at Solano Cellars

A recently inaugurated tradition in our household is to repair to a local wine shop-bistro (Solano Cellars) for a Friday evening tasting-meal. This week was their annual cbuttoulet night. As cbuttoulet is one of my guilty pleasures, we found ourselves seated at a table for an early meal that included a salad and light dessert along with paired wines.

With a salad of watercress, Belgian endive, Cara Cara oranges and walnuts, dressed with a walnut oil-citrus dressing:

Garretson 2003 Roussanne ($28) color: golden yellow nose: initially reticent (served too cold), later showing apricot and pineapple palate: rich, almost thick, bursting with apricot and pink grapefruit with underlying notes of tropical fruit

We had the 2002 last year at the winery, but this was far more impressive. Deep and full-bodied with plenty of fruit, it held up well with the salad (a 3 on the Hoare scale). Though I've never had the Beaucastel VV version, this was the best Roussanne I've tasted to date.

With the cbuttoulet of duck confit, garlic sausage and flageolet beans (very good, BTW, if not so good as the one I make):

Gilles Robin 2001 Crozes-Hermitage Cuvée Alberic Bouvet nose: oak, blueberries, game and leather palate: smooth entry, medium body, jammy fruit with flavors similar to those in the nose and a slightly oaky finish

I'd call this a "New World" style Crozes. It was a good example of its style, but the new oak did put me off a bit. It was, however, not a good match with the cbuttoulet (2 on the Hoare scale) as it lacked the tannins to compete. To try and help this situation out, we got a glbutt of:

La Bastide St. Vincent 2002 Gigondas ($24) nose: a touch of alcohol, cedar and red berry fruit palate: medium body with typical Gigondas herbaceousness, moderately tannic (hooray!) with good fruit

A Gigondas from the disastrous 2002 vintage? It came highly endorsed by the staff, and indeed was a pleasant enough wine. The more tannic Gigondas did indeed show far better with the cbuttoulet, though I was left wishing that they'd found a Madiran to try with it...

Since they served a very humane portion of the cbuttoulet, there was just enough room left for the dessert of pear-hazelnut frangipane tart with an apricot-Sauternes sauce. With it, they served: