With Hart, date night at Ma Cuisine the day we got our marriage license 🙂

I originally picked a 2021 Savigny les Beaune – I wanted something fressshhh. Crispy. Something to match the food. Something to follow up on the beautiful SLB/NSG we enjoyed at Her Place supper club. The somm gently but firmly guided us away, convinced that the 2021 was a touch young. The 2017 Volnay, he argued, was drinking beautifully by now, still had acidity but was nicely rounded. I was happy to take his suggestion.

Freshly poured: wine was cold. Nose was tiiiiight and subdued. Red cherry, tinge of black current. Nothing else. But I was hopeful: sure enough, beautifully crispy acidity on the palette, light bodied, fruity, juicy. Pure red fruits.

The wine was left to aerate in the bottle, and candidly its nose struggled for a solid 40mins or so. But oh, when it eventually opened up it was delicious. Aerating. A. Wine. Makes. A. World. Of. A. Difference. It just does, regardless of what anyone says otherwise. The light thin red fruit expanded into a deeper perfumey nose of sour cherries, touch of plum, and white pepper. The palette expanded too: medium bodied red fruits with minerality, and veeeery long juicy finish. Delicious.

In retrospect, because this was the only bottle we shared for the entire dinner, leaving it in the bottle probably worked out well. The wine got to full bloom by the time we were done with our starters and got into the duck and ravioli, and it was excellent. Had a blast.