Wine and cheese at Circle Liquors, Washington, D.C.

Last night I went to a wine tasting at this absolutely wonderful wine shop in Upper Northwest D.C. near Chevy Chase circle called Circle Liquors. It's a big shop on Connecticut Avenue, but it's not just big, it has a very nice and very well thought out selection of international wines from all price ranges. They apparently do a tasting about once every six weeks.

The theme of last night's tasting was French burgundies. They presented six wines, four white and two red.

The first white was Domaine Chavy Puligny-Montrachet 2001, which retails for $39.99. It was a very nice, light, crisp wine with a light straw color, no oakyness, and almost classically steely. It would be good as an aperitif, but it did not stand up all that well to the cheeses (more about cheeses later). Next was Domaine Matrot Meursault 2001, $33.99, which was a big, fruity, full-bodied wine with a bit of limestone, a hint of honey, and a good acidity. It did well with food, and I think it was probably my favorite white of the evening. The next two wines were both Domaine Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne chardonnays. First, they presented the 1993 ($105.99). It was good. This was a bit of a surprise, since it's a twelve year old chardonnay, but French chardonnays do tend to hold their age better than do California chardonnays. The next Corton, though, the 2002 ($119.99) was amazing. It was a lovely wine, clear, mellow, woodsy, with good complexity and a honeyed finish, and it stood up to the food very well. The sommalier was saying it was still a bit tight and would only improve with a little bit of age.

Next, they presented the reds, both pinot noirs. First up was Domaine Tollot-Beaut Chorey Cote de Beaune 2000 ($27.99). This wine comes from the southern half of the burgundy region. It had a burgundy color with a slight tinge of brown, but drank very well. There was definitely a forward fruitiness to the wine and a lot of floral notes. It didn't stand up to the strong cheeses as well as the other red, but I still think I prefer this wine of the two. The second wine was Domaine Grivot Nuits St. Georges "Les Charmois" 2001 ($39.99), which comes from the northern half of burgundy. This wine definitely had more structure than the Cote de Beaune, and a touch of tanin which allowed it to do very well with the cheeses. It was a nice, medium-bodied wine with a hint of cherry. C'est bon.

The cheeses used to accompany the wines were worthy of their own tasting. There was the omnipresent brie, this one a very nice 70% butterfat cheese that was sufficiently aged so as to have a nice, soft, spreadability without the strong ripeness the French love but Americans hate. They had a lovely three year old gruyere I turned to often. The cheddar entry was a pleasant Red Leicester, but I noticed as the evening went on and the cheese warmed to room temperature, it got rather too soft for a leicester. The "smelly cheese" category was filled with the only slightly so smelly morbier, which had a very nice, soft texture and flavor. The morbier was probably chosen more for its talking points--this is a unique cheese made half from "morning" milk and half from "evening" milk, separated in the wheel by a thin layer of grape leaf ash. It has a nice appearance with a "stripe" running down the middle from the ash, and the more discriminating palates can detect a very faint difference in taste from the morning side versus the evening side of the cheese.....I always say the evening side has a bit more of a grassy taste, since the cows have been eating fresh grass all day long! The star cheeses from this tasting were both three year aged Grand Goudas, which were both hard and granular and so full of wonderful flavors. One of the goudas was plain and the other was applewood smoked. These were absolutely wonderful cheeses, and I think a 3 year old Grand Gouda probably retails for about $18-20 a pound.

I helped the sommalier carry his stuff out to his car after the tasting, and he gave me a bottle of the Puligny-Montrachet and a plastic baggy full of the leftover cheeses. Yum.