Right Time, Right Bottle with Clareti Wine Club

Saint-Aubin is often seen as the little cousin of Chassagne-Montrachet or Puligny-Montrachet. “It’s meant to be drunk young”, is what everyone will tell you. Drinking a thirteen years old Saint-Aubin is unusual. But 2013 was a hard year to grow through, bad flowering and disease pressure for months before a sunny November harvest saved it. What's left now in the glass is a low-yield, concentrated wine that has finished resolving and showing itself well. Domaine François Carillon's Les Charmois sits close enough to Chassagne-Montrachet to borrow its weight, which is why Burgundy people call it the mini-Chassagne. With the Raviolo al Tartufo, the umami from both the wild mushroom and black truffle complemented that wine to a T.

Château Tertre Rôteboeuf means the hill of the belching ox, and François Mitjavile has made every vintage off this single six-hectare plot by hand since 1977. This is the kind of name that is quietly passed around in collector’s circle, and often not recognised by new wine drinkers. 2011 gave him a hard year to work with, uneven heat, sudden rain, acid spiking early. But his signature late-harvest style let this wine sidestep the harsher tannic edge that marked many other châteaux that vintage. Fifteen years on, the oak integrated into the wine seamlessly, with hints of smoke and truffle again, a nod to the earlier raviolo course. While the more celebrated 2009 and 2010 from this estate are better off waiting a few more years in the cellar, 2011 is open and silky right now. Whether it was with the Sher Wagyu striploin or the Australian mountain lamb rack, attendees no doubt enjoyed the wine.

To close off the night, the Chapoutier's Muscat Petits Grains Passerillés 2022 comes from vines at 570 metres, high enough to keep the acidity vibrant and prevented the wine from being cloying. Wines from passerillage can live for decades, but even newly released ones are lifted and generous right now. It closed the night against a Homemade Flan, custard steam-baked with jaggery sugar.

On the surface, any other wine event. But when you look closer into it, there is much consideration behind it. Because there is a best window to drink every wine.