Exclusive E. Guigal Wine Dinner at OPUS, Bangsar

On the 3rd of September, I got a call from Fat Boy Bakes, who got a call from one Mr. Peter Yew, manager of the Opus, Cava, Moxie & Leonardo chain, inviting us to partake in an EXCLUSIVE wine dinner by E Guigal Chateau d Ampuis, at Opus. FBB, Craving Joe, Ciki and me made up a table of four. Many thanks for the invitation. Rachel couldn’t make it, the invite was for only one person. Rachel was at home eating Maggi Mee.

It has been a while since I met the gang, so we got quite a lot to catch up on the cozy environment of Opus. What’s made it more wonderful was the company of Cheng Yi and Ciki, and not so Joe. LOL.

We started of with Cotes du Rhone Blanc 2007 (RM82). 33% Rousanne, 25% Clairette, 25% Viognier, 15% Bourboulenc, and 2% Grenache blanc. Clear. Bright, yellow colour. A fresh, crisp wine. White flowers, acacia, white peach. A fruity, fine, rich wine. A complete wine combining elegance and balance.

A brief introduction on the wines was done by Rod Hull, Asia Pacific representative of E Guigal. He explained the wines in details, fine and crisp.

We started with Wild mushroom forest with black truffle oil. One would wonder if I would digest such nicely presented magnificent green dish. A mouthful of the “forest”, was a combination of wild mushroom, the greens and the significantly fragrant black truffle oil. Paired it with E Guigal Condrieu 2007, it was no other than a perfect match to start with.

The E Guigal Condrieu 2007, Viognier. Clear, bright, gold yellow colour. An intense flowery (violets) and fruity ( apricot, white peach, citrus fruit) nose. Fresh, crisp and full. Plenty of fat, richness and smoothness for a dry wine. A harmonious balance between a pleasant, low acidity and full, fleshy fruit. A great deal of elegance and finesse.

One would really mistaken this as a coffee and yet it was a cappuccino. To be precise it was a Lobster Cappuccino. The taste was like a thick prawn soup. I drank it like a cappuccino instead like a soup. It was a good pairing with E Guigal Condrieu 2007.

One would wonder why the spaghetti is called hard, it was a clear typo error on the picture to attract attention. Spaghetti with King Prawn & Anchovies was nicely done. What would be make it nicer was to pair it with E Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rouge 2006. I had no complains with the big king prawn. Would you?

Wilson Ng