Had dinner at SingleThread this weekend and decided to splurge on their “unforgettable” wine pairing (most expensive of the three tiers they offer). Rotates every day and is based on limited bottles the somms pick out from their cellar.
2009 Dom Perignon Rose: Offered as a welcome drink when we sat down and to accompany first course which was a myriad of fun small bites (can’t remember all of them). Notes of strawberry and blood orange, long finish. Great way to start the meal
2023 Keller Kirchspiel: When I saw the somm walking over with the amber labeled Riesling bottle I was hoping it would be the G-Max, but Kirchspiel was still excellent. Citrus blossom, white peach, very mineral forward. None of the typical jet fuel on the nose. Paired with a turnip course with caviar
Sake side-by-side: Heiwa Muryozan 30 and IWA 5. Muryozan was my preferred of the two. Melon lychee notes and very silky texture. Generally not a big sake drinker but it was super smooth. The IWA 5 by contrast reminded me of a watered down pina colada. Both paired with a tuna and cucumber moriawase
Alvina Pernot Corton-Charlemagne 2023. Plenty of stone fruit in this one with a little undercurrent of salinity throughout. Maybe my favorite white of the evening. Paired with Hokkaido scallop.
Georges Vernay Coteau de Vernon Condrieu 2022. White flowers and almonds throughout, very perfumed. Long dry finish. Paired with Black cod Fukkura-San
Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2021. Tons of dark fruit with a powerful earthy backbone. Fine tannins, still very fresh. Ten more years and this could be a stunner. Still my preferred of the two reds. Paired with a duck course.
Chateau Cheval Blanc 2011. Crazy complexity with dark fruit, tobacco, chocolate, and some floral components coming through. Full bodied but velvety mouthfeel. Paired with wagyu and barley
another side-by-side. Chateau Gilette Crème de Tete 1985 and Chateau d’Yquem. Somm brought the former over first and then surprised me with the latter to do a comparison. Gilette had some stone fruit jam like qualities with some honey in it and I got strong hints of saffron on the nose. The d’Yquem was brighter and had more lemon curd note to it. Ultimately preferred the d’Yquem better as it felt more alive. Both paired with a strawberry dessert.
D’Oliveiras Madeira 1895. First time trying something from the 1800s. Wow this thing was crazy. Dried fruits, coffee, walnuts, but still had incredible acidity to cut through the richness. Fantastic way to end the evening. Paired with wagashi
Was it worth it? At $1,500 for the pairing I don’t think so. Some great special occasion wines in the pairing but at that price I would’ve expected a few more whites/reds with age. Somm was very polished and knowledgeable, also topped me off on occasion. The other pairings go for $300 and $500 but I don’t recall what they entail. My wife had the NA pairing which was excellent and thoughtful. Separately, the restaurant/meal was excellent and highly recommended.
by juiceboxxx
12 Comments
Thank you sharing 🥂
I thought the same thing about the mid tier $500 pairing. They have an amazing wine list I think next time I visit I’ll be selecting a bottle from there.
It looks like you got more than you paid for actually.
If you are looking for back vintages, that should be the conversation you have the Somm.
Cheval Blanc, Yquem, Keller, not to mention Bonnes Mares, Corton-Charlemagne, and Dom. The price of admission is laid out
Extremely young wines for such an expensive pairing. Amazing labels and very expensive bottles but a lot of those wines are not near their peaks. Keller GGs can go 20yrs easily, cheval blanc can age for eternity. Find it hard to believe they don’t have back vintages of these wines either, maybe they are just saving them for the list?
Thanks for sharing. I’d hesitate to open village level burgundy from 2023, so it seems way too soon for a grand cru. I’d be curious to hear the reasoning from the somm. Sounds like it was tasty anyway.
Was Yquem a supplement? Don’t see it on the menu. How was the 2010 drinking?
I’ve been trying to source a bottle of IWA 5 for almost a year.
As soon as I saw this I knew it had to be their top tier pairing. I had the lowest tier pairing when I went and was honestly kind of let down for it being such a famous restaurant I was expecting a little bit more in terms of explanation as to why they chose the individual wines they had. Unbelievable service and great food and probably the most expensive Japanese toilet I’ve ever seen, but I wouldn’t recommend the entry level pairing. This looks a lot more “worth it.” young vintages as pointed out but I like em young tbh lol.
I went ~6 years ago and they had only one tasting tier for ~$300. I recall it was worth it at the time but don’t remember what we actually drank.
Fun story – my wife enjoys wine but hasn’t taken the time to be knowledgeable. She didn’t want the tasting but rather just order a bottle. She likes “big reds”. So she opened the wine book, turned to “large format” and asked the somm for a reco. After about 5 minutes we realized what she was trying to explain that she wanted a “big red” not a “large bottle of wine”. She got a 375 of a Zin.
To this day, we still describe wine first as to whether it’s “big format”.
I think at $1500, this is acceptable but not stellar value. You can probably comfortably purchase all (or the bulk) of these bottles in full bottle format for around $2500, maybe less if you buy at auction. So whether $1500 is a good value is a bit subjective depending on whether you are with a partner or not. If so, by math alone it’s not a good deal. But for the experience, it’s a pretty sweet lineup and I wouldn’t have been disappointed.
Am I the only one who just doesn’t get sake? I’d be so disappointed to get it in a premium lineup. But maybe I just haven’t tried the right ones
Most wines are way, way too young for that price point