04 Domaine des Remizieres, Crozes-Hermitage Cuvee Particuliere

There can be such an ease to drinking Crozes-Hermitage, probably the friendliest of Rhone syrah, that you would never guess the region is basically a patchwork of potholes and puddles injected with the occasional vineyard. Remizieres' Crozes plot sits amongst them, making some of the most flattering everyday wine on the market--a reason, really, to finally pass on the glut of Cotes-du-Rhone in favor of a purer, cleaner example of the just-complex-enough winemaking style that the valley should be famous for. The Cuvee Particuliere might just be the baseline for syrah, the point from which others can spike or dive. The violet and plum flavors would be sweet in a lesser (or higher alcohol) wine, but here they're immediately tempered by an old, peppery finish and dry tannins that cry out for New York strip. Yet, there's a pinot-like poshness that could make Sideways blush--an unexpected elegance amongst the brash, brambly country syrah. This wine is the heart of the dinner table, as the kitchen is the heart of the home. In it, I smell the smoke of crisping lamb leg in the oven, the savory richness of bubbling bolognese, the feral earthiness of pork served slightly pink. There is better. I don't want better. I want this beautiful, beautiful wine.

04 Robert Chevillon, Bourgogne Nuits St Georges

Best to write about this while it's still fresh in my mind--sometimes I fear the memories will be as fleeting as the flavors. This is the thing you don't get elsewhere. I chose the Chevillon last night to follow champagne at Tru (what a ridiculous sentence this is shaping up to be), and it couldn't have been a more perfect pairing... for the champagne. It disappears next to even the simplest of foods--olive-oil-poached salmon, sashimi--this is not your en vogue try-it-with-turkey pinot. I wouldn't even challenge it with stuffing. About the only thing that goes with this wine from the hilly north-Burgundy limestone of Nuits St. Georges is another wine. The acid and fall fruit of blanc de blancs champagne fill the void in this pinot, which is more about its ambrosial aromatics than flavor--smelling like the sweet flour of warm pate a choux. I regretted not getting one of Chevillon's 1er crus instead, like the much-heralded Les Vaucrains. I suspect it has the concentration that this Chevillon is lacking. A tease, really, as it is--round and floral with a rooty sweetness, as though carrots or parsnips could blossom, could groom the ire of this raw, rocky soil.