Lafite

The title highlighted my Wednesday. I started off with a full day of meetings and at lunch time, I met up with Ms Koh for lunch at Imperial China at Wisma Jaya. We had a hearty meal of dim sum and also noodles matched with the latest gossips. We talked about my future marriage too but I told her it's too far to discuss about it at this point of time. She's always very corncerned who I'm with and who I'll be marrying and thus sometimes she dictates whom I should be dating! It was a good lunch as I have not been seeing her for quite sometime.

Next stop after my meeting was KLCC. My mission was to check out Godiva's first outlet in town. I wanted to try their Chocolixir (the elixirs of life?!!), the chocolate drinks but was put off by the pricing of RM22 per glass. At that price, I can get 2 glasses at Starbucks with the comfort of a couch and wifi. At Godiva, it was pay and go. No way I'm spending that money on a glass of chocolate drink. I can get Valrhona's hot chocolate at Chinoz on the Park at RM16.

Since dinner was at 7.30pm, I called KY for a drink. I had too much chocolate and thus needed a juice fix and we both went to Juice Works located at the lower ground floor right opposite O'Brien's. At RM20, we both get a big cup of blended fruit juice.

I had berry -licious (mixture of strawberries, berries, apple and banana). Seen with me here is a bag of Godiva filled with Napolitains (RM60) and a Jar of Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder (RM103). They're not for me but I'm not telling you why.

KY had some tropical-dunno-what and I asked him to pretend that he's reading since he was seen carrying that Jeffrey Archer book around!

I left at 7.15pm to head to Lafite at Shangri-La Hotel. Thanks to KY's GPS, I managed to find my way there in the shortest time possible without any hassle. My sense of direction in KL is still pretty much senseless. My first time at Lafite. Speechless.

I've heard of Lafite and it's exorbitant pricing but I've never been there. Sadly no man ever offered to take me there.... until recently my dear friend Ellen from Asia Euro invited me for a wine tasting and dinner at Lafite together with the chateau owners from France. They represent the Chateau Cos d'Estournel and Chateau Palmer. It was a dinner for about 40 pax and thus she booked the whole restaurant. Lafite is indeed one of the most expensive restaurants in the country. A normal meal will cost at least RM200 per pax excluding wines.

On normal days, the restaurant looked like this.

That night, they had it transformed to 5 round tables with 8 pax each.

After a round of smooth Nicholas Feuillatte Champagne, we head to our tables and where the appetiser was served. All the guests at my table, and in fact everyone there were experts in drinking wines and I was just an amateur whom started drinking cheap Australian wines and had now accquired a taste for French burgundy and bordeaux.

The first dish, Warm Bone Marrow Custard was made with Beuree Monte and Garden Chives. The accompanied wine, Pagodes de Cos 2004 (by Chateau Cos D'Estournel) was indeed a pleasant young wine. It's about RM150-200/bottle.

Next, it was Warm Forest Mushroom Salad with soft-poached hen egg and grainy mustard dressing served together with Alter Ego 2003 (Chateau Palmer). It was smooth and it had a lovely merlot nose. The wine is getting better and this bottle costs RM113. A 2001 Alter Ego can cost up to RM450.

This dish is indeed the highlight of my dinner. Who hasn't know that I love foie gras?!! This beautiful pan Seared Duck Foie Gras was served with poached cherries, Cherry Meringue and nut crumbles. Absolutely delicious. It was better than the one I had at Cafe Cafe. The foie gras melts instantly on my tongue and the taste was just perfect! Not to mention that we had the 2nd Best Wine in the world voted by Wine Spectator which was Chateau Cos D'Estournel 2002. It has a spicey oak nose with cigar and some spices. The wine was the best I have taken. No wonder at almost RM600 a bottle, I couldn't be drinking it on a frequent basis.

My first time having a Cabillaud Cod as well. The sauce was made with sweet pepper, zuchinni, fennel stew and shelfish sauce. The cod was cooked perfectly and it was so smooth! Such a beautiful dish will only do justice with a good glass of Chateau Palmer 2000. I felt that the palate was rather austere. The anticipated maturity should be 2009-2040. Maybe I should start buying now and wait for a few years. It's about RM600-700 a bottle.

This Melt in Your Mouth Beef was accompanied by Pomme puree, mushroom ragout and thyme sented veal reduction. Veal reduction is basically bringing the stock to boil until it the water reduces by two thirds. I did not finish the beef because I was too full. The beef did not really melt in my mouth but it was still good. This time we had two different wines to go with it. It was Chateau Cos D'Estournel 2000 and Palmer 1995.

The Black Forest dessert which consists of soft chocolate pudding made from Valrhona served with Cherry Sorbet and almond cream with cocoa soil was the last drool. We had a glass of Dow's L.B.V Port 2001 which was medium sweet. LBV stands for Late Bottled Vintage. I couldn't finish the dessert too.

The wine glasses are all labeled with a disc liked label so that we know the name of the wines we were drinking. The glasses gradually gets bigger as the wine gets better. And I had to go to the washroom 3 times as my bladder was not big enough to house all the wines. I still liked Chateau Cos D'Estournel 2002. One thing was missing in Lafite that night as we had the best food paired with the good wines. It was cigars!!! How nice if we can have a puff of Cohiba.

Usually the price of wines is different when you ordered it from a restaurant as they usually have a high mark-up. Sometimes it's almost 200-300% higher. Lafite charges a corkage fee of RM170 if you plan to bring your own wines. It's only worth it if you bring a bottle of RM500 wine and above. Some restaurants might not even allow it.

I like wine tastings like this where we are able to taste from two different Chateaus rather than just one so that comparisons can be made. Now I that I have found my favourite bottle, who wants to buy me dinner and wine at Lafite again?