Great notes. Lot of serious Burgundy lovers in Chicago!

You know anything about Duroche? It's a name I see from time to time but don't know much about.

I would go Champagne (Launois, mentioned above, is very good)--> Burgundy with the timbale, a nice Cote de Beaune or Vosne-Romanee to highlight the red fruits--> older Burgundy or, as someone else suggested, Barolo with the roast (something that will go with the mushrooms, which are a tough wine food)-->Port, to go with the cheese and dessert. Chocolate with tropical fruit is tough to pair, though; when I saw it the first thing I thought was "beer!"

Selosse is a great one. I'm counting days beacuse in january i'll finally open a couple of "Substance"...
For cheaper champagnes i usually love "Aubry" and "Gaston Chiquet", which are excellent wines with a modets price.

So here is what I am considering. I'm shopping for 10 persons since I'm not very used to this I'm slightly in doubt of how many bottles I should buy?

Welcome + 1st course: Launois Pére et Fils NV ($35) or 2000 ($56) (I did prefer the 2000 to the NV so I'll probably end up going for that one). Bollinger NV because at $44 I am very tempted to at least try it and others might prefer this style over the Launois.

Timbale: Continue on the champagne or switch to a Riesling. I know noone suggested Riesling but I really like it and I've read that it should go well with smoked fish dishes. I am considering a Kubler Riesling 'K' 2007 ($32).

Terrine of cockerel: Continue on the champagne or go to a red burgundy - Beaune or Vosne-Romanee.

Roast beef tenderloin: Matteo Correggia Roero Roche d'Ampsej 2004 ($61), Silvio Grasso Barolo Pi Vigne 2004 ($53) or Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2006 ($30). With the first two I'd buy a Roero Nebbiolo for later in the evening, I can get one I like for $15 and before it has been very nice even after bigger Nebbiolos. With the Ratti I have to buy 12 bottles so we'd have more than enough of that.

Cheese: Continue with the red wine or switch to a sherry. I have been looking at two different ones. Lustau Don Nuno Oloroso, Emilio Lustau S.A. ($27) and Lustau Old East India Solera, Emilio Lustau S.A. ($28.5).

Cake: I have a bottle of port lying around in my cellar, should be decent but not mind-blowing. I have found a beerenauslese made of 70% riesling and 30% chardonnay from Austria. I can get this one - Kracher Cuvée Beerenauslese 2007 - for $17 per half-bottle which seems like a very reasonable price to me.

So I'm narrowing it down but still have some open issues as you can see. depending on which wines I end up picking I've also gone way over budget but **** it, I don't mind blowing a bit of money on wine for my friends

Thanks again.

i can respond for the italian wines: I don't like Ratti, but the price is good (too good almost, sure is correct?). I dunno very well Grasso, but a friend told me that PI vigne is the bottom side of their wines. Correggia instead is a great producer, and roero d'ampsej is a jem! 61$ is a bit too much, but this is absolutely much better compared to other wines.

I guess you live in Italy right? Groceries and especially wine is much more expensive here in Denmark so the price comparison is a little tricky.

I have tasted the Correggia and the Grasso before and I agree that the Correggia is definitely the better one and I don't think the price is unreasonable compared to the general cost of wine here, nor is it unreasonable compared to the cost of the Grasso imo. I did like the Grasso as well, I just preferred Correggia.

Regarding the price of the Ratti. It is sold by a company that sometimes is able to sell wines at a very favorable price, the trick is you have to buy in cases of 12 to get the good price (in comparison, 1 btl of the Marcenasco is $53). I do not like this company very much since I think their standard prices are BS but the offers they have can be very good. The reason that I am unsure of the Marcenasco is that I have read mixed reviews and since the people coming over think they have payed "a lot" for wine for this evening I obviously want to give them a good wine experience and still make sure that there is enough of each wine.

As stated earlier these people aren't connoisseurs and some might prefer a bit less wine but with a higher quality and others might prefer a little lower quality but more bottles. Really I am just trying to balance things out here.

Thanks again to all of you contributing your great advice

Yes i'm italian and i run a restaurant, that's why i know the estate prices for italian wines. btw, correggia is surely a very good choice; you could maybe choose ratti only if you need to lower the budget.
I would'nt confuse you, but if you like Roero, i like "cascina chicco" Montespinato or Valmaggiore; thats lot cheaper than Correggia, but quality is still good .

The wine I mentioned above that I will buy a case of to drink after the dinner was actually Cascina Chicco Nebbiolo Mompissano 2003. I can get that one for $15 per bottle, and I think that is very good value here in Denmark. I have also tried their Roero Superiore Valmaggiore Riserva 2005 but to me it still tastes too closed somehow. I will see if I can find a bottle of the Montespinato somewhere.

I like Aubry a lot too. The Nombre d'Or blew a group of us away a few years ago at a tasting of current releases. I wasn't super impressed with the Chiquet special club ('98, I think, but I can't remember) but I haven't had the straight NV.

Current favorites include the Deutz '02 and Pol Roger '99. Enjoy the Substance, I'm jealous!

I haven't had the Oloroso. The Old East India Solera is excellent but very sweet, and might not mesh well with the cheese. The Kracher style is pretty low acidity, which isn't my thing, but a lot of people love 'em.

The reason I selected these particular sherrys was because I found a few different ones in this shop and these were the ones recommended with cheese. Any other bottles from there you could recommend with cheese?

The beerenauslese was chosen because Kdawg mentioned it, and this was the only one I could find room for in the budget. Maybe a port is better, or I could try to find a sauternes although they seem to be really expensive here as well.

I've tried for a long time to have it, and finally made it in october: i bought 3 boottles for 119€ each, and i'm waiting the suggested 6 monthes after the "degorgement". In january i 'll have a champagne dinner with friends and "Substance" will be the "Main event".
Some suggestions for other champagnes ? I'm quite new at the sparkling (french) world, so i'm looking to some good ones.

Henriot 1998 is an excellent Champagne and a crazy good value. Haven't had the 96. Bollinger RD is always great. I love Pol Roger Sir Winston, it's probably my favorite grande marque, but it's gotten very expensive. Ruinart is on a very good run. Try Clos des Goisses if you haven't!

Hard to go wrong with Salon, Krug, Clos du Mesnil, Clos St Hilaire, but you're talking US$300+ on those!

clos du mesnil is in a completely different stratospheric category, the clos d'ambronnay is even worse


to go along with Evilganz's rec's, I'd also throw in any vilmart you can get your hands on, henriot des enchanteleurs is always a real sexy wine, and I'll second Clos des Goisses

indeed i think clos du mesnil and ambonnay are a little expensive. Talking about Krug they've offered me a '96 Vintage at 200€ . should be a very good vintage but im not sure at all.
Pol Roger sir winston could be a nice choice: a few people told me that's a very good one and could be one of the choice.
For the specific dinner we'll be 6 people and everybody will carry 2 bottles.
My choices are "substance" from selosse and an italian "annamaria Clementi" rosé, which is the ultimate cru from CàdelBosco.
Since i can have good prices my friends charged me to buy all wines so i need to buy 10 bottles in a range between 40 and 150 € .Thats why Mesnil and Ambonnay are out of the range.
Thanks for help

I've had the 1996 of both Winston Churchill and Krug. The Winston is a really nice wine although not life changing. The Krug is an exceptional vintage but when I drank it (not long after release a couple years ago) it was WAY WAY too young. Incredibly acidic and tasted like it needed a decade to even begin to be approachable.

KDawg,

Would you be willing to host such events at restaurants for fellow Chicago residents with a budding interest in wine?

smarty, i'm more than willing. shoot me a pm

If you're in that price range, Salon '97 is surprisingly approachable and good introduction to the house style.

I'm not in that price range generally. Both of those were for special occasions. Thanks to Australia's insane wine tax regimen, imported premium wines are ludicrously expensive here. The Winston Churchill was $250 and the Krug I paid $650 for as it was very difficult to source at the time, though I believe it can be had for more like $500 now if you shop around.

I'm a huge TOOL fan and watched this documentary "Blood into Wine" last night that's about the lead singer Maynard James Keenan moving from LA to Arizona and starting a winery. I was wondering if anyone here had tried the wine? The name of the wine is 'Caduceus'.When I googled it, I saw a couple places to buy it online (varying from like $20-50 depending on the wine) and was thinking of buying a couple bottles for fun but was hoping someone here may have some experience with it.

snipes,

http://www.cellartracker.com/list.as...earch=caduceus

Got lucky yesterday. We opened a bottle of Charmes Chambertin '53 from Poulet, a negociant I'd never heard of, with a failing cork; that was DOA, but a bottle of La Tache '52 with an 8cm fill and a severely eroded cork (flaking off into the bottle). It wasn't great, but it had a good core of sweet fruit and shades of La Tache's personality.

jsnipes, you may find this and this interesting. From 2008 though so the reviews will be out of date.

for my birthday i had a couple of nice presents: 2004 brunello "Soldera" magnum, that i know for being one of the best brunello out there, and a champagne, "salon" 97 mesnil sur oger, which i don't knew at all. Do you guys think it's a bottle that is "drinkable" right now or i need to wait some time?