Wine: 1990 Moet Chandon Dom Perignon
Region: Champagne
Sokolin Price: $289/btl
Rating: 96 RP
Wine: 1988 Sassicaia
Region: Tuscany
Sokolin Price: $449/btl
Rating: 97 WS
So on a cold and rainy winter evening last week, we happened to visit one of our favorite restaurants in Manhattan, the Union Square Café. We are always greeted with smiling faces and get a fabulous table upstairs with plenty of room for the wine we bring along. The staff is amazing, and the food is even better.
After the proper amount of chilling for our legendary 1990 Moet Chandon Dom Perignon in the ice bucket, we popped the cork and let the evening begin. The DP had an amazing bouquet of fresh garden flowers, toast and incredible hints of apples and pear. On the palate, the Champagne still had a crisp and bubbly dose of pure elegance and balance. It was still full-bodied and starting to resemble a grand cru Burgundy from an amazing vintage, but still maintaining its terroir. It really is an amazing bottle, and if you have not had a chance to try older Champagne, you are missing out on a real adventure. We paired this incredible bottle with several different salads.
Next, we moved onto our main courses. We had opened the 1988 Sassicaia at the beginning of dinner and decanted it. We tried it immediately upon opening, and it was striking! We were hoping for even more for this thoroughbred Super Tuscan.
The Union Square Café is truly known for its amazing pasta and fish dishes, so we paired this Sassicaia with the famous hand-made gnocchi in a light marinara sauce. This pasta is so light it actually melts in your mouth and is rather easily to consume every last morsel. Unlike most pasta dishes that will fill you up quickly, this dish taunts you when the plate is empty.
We swirled and swirled the Sassicaia and noted the very dark purple color of the wine, and the nose was quite powerful gushing with dark very ripe fruit, hints of earth and lots of spice. On the palate, the wine maintained strength and full body even with almost 24 years of age. It was silky and tasted more like a first growth Bordeaux than your typical Super Tuscan. The finish lasted for 45+ seconds and had a tremendous amount of secondary nuances that just made this wine extremely memorable. It was the perfect complement to the pasta and intermingled with the marinara like they were made for each other. As you can tell, it was an absolutely wonderful dinner with the perfect wines.
Recommendation: Treat yourself to a hard earned dinner with fabulous wines. You deserve it. Feel free to give us a call at 1-800-946-3947, and we'll twist your arm and even send the wine?.
Our Score - 1990 Moet Chandon Dom Perignon - 99 points, 1988 Sassicaia - 98 points
Drinkability - A+ for both