Unauthorized

Little Saigon is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in the United States. On this visit we began with their exquisite rice wraps called Bobille, which are filled with vegetables and sausage. The soup with shrimp, bamboo shoots, and tamarind was outstanding. We then enjoyed their extraordinarily crunchy, fresh, deep-fried calamari, beautifully prepared baby quail, which are cut in half and eaten on the bone, and delicious, superb rockfish (local striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay) as well as roast pork courses.

The white wines were dominated by a brilliant showing of the 1999 Marcassin Chardonnay Three Sisters Vineyard. An extraordinary nose of petroleum, honeysuckle, marmalade, and crushed rocks could have easily been mistaken for a ripe, opulent vintage of a top Bâtard Montrachet. At age nine, this still young Chardonnay appears to have a long life ahead of it. I loved the freshness, lightness, and zesty fruit of the 2007 José Pariente Verdelho, which is a tank-fermented and aged, crisp, dry white. That and the Hirsch Grüner Veltliner 2006 Heilgenster were both wonderfully fresh, lively wines. I preferred them to the very good Vacheron 2005 Sancerre as well as the underwhelming, even disappointing given the producer, 2003 Raveneau Chablis Montee Tonnerre. Rudd’s 2006 Sauvignon Blanc from Mt. Veeder exhibits lovely fig and lemon zest characteristics, but I have had slightly better bottles in the past. A brilliant bottle of the 2003 white Burgundy, the Domaine de Bongran Maçon Clessé, revealed none of the blowsy, overripe fattiness this vintage of dry whites can possess. Unfortunately, the 1996 Domaine de Bongran Maçon Clessé, from magnum, provided by one of our guests, the inimitable Pierre-Antoine Rovani, was badly corked. We also had a 2001 Richter Riesling Graacher Himmelreich, which was delicious, although it was somewhat lost in this crowd of white wines.

As for the reds, the 2006 Mordorée Châteauneuf du Pape Reine de Bois was fabulous as was the 2004 Fontalloro Felsina. The red wine of the day was undeniably the Quilceda Creek 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, another brilliant showing of a nine-year old wine that remains very youthful. It revealed notes of blueberries, raspberries, and flowers along with a full-bodied opulence, and superb freshness, length, and intensity. The surprise of the day was the South African Syrah, the 1994 Boekenhoutskloof Syrah. This cuvée, a dead-ringer for a Languedoc-Roussillon Sryah, displayed great complexity as well as beautiful balance. The blockbuster2003 Shirvington Shiraz came across as surprisingly civilized. It has calmed down and lost some of its baby fat, and now reveals true Shirz character. The Serafin 1999 Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes is a very good village wine from this reliable producer. The Pradeaux 1994 Bandol was rustic, hard, hollow, and uninteresting.

Other good wines included a beautiful 2005 Tor “Rock” Syrah from the Hudson Vineyard, which tasted like a barrel sample, and Andrew Will’s elegant, Bordeaux-like 2005 Champoux Vineyard.

We again proved quite convincingly that Vietnamese food, which possesses some unusual spices for Western palates, can be enjoyed with an assortment of red and white wines.