Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Chocolate Chip Muffins@Demona's home

Demona: I am baking these chocolate chip muffins as a small farewell gift for my colleagues.



Demona: The electric mixer ferociously beat both the butter and sugar to fuse them together. I just love the sweet buttery fragrant aroma that these two entities released when they are mixed together.



Demona: A bowlful of these cute, buttony looking chocolate chips, to add more sugary sinful goodness into my muffins and to give them the polka-dotey look.



Demona: Time to dress up my little baby muffins, with black "dresses" and give them a retro polka dot look!



Demona: After finished decorating my first batch of muffins, I took out mom's space craft oven to preheat for about 10 minutes or so.



Demona: While waiting for the first batch to be baked, I covered the batter with a cloth to prevent it from drying up. Mom had to clear the food dishes away from the dining table for this baker wanna-be to make a mess out of it.



Demona: The baking time for each batch was around 20 minutes. While waiting for my polka dot babies to turn brown and fragrant, I went to chill out with my darling dog... who seemed really sleepy and bored as the afternoon was hot as hell.



Demona: Can you see them chocolate chips melt and the light yellow batter slowly baking their way into the golden brown colour?



Demona: Whoa-lah! These babies are ready to be devoured! They smelt absolutely buttery wonderful! I individually packed each into a plastic bag and left a note for each of my colleagues.



Demona: Do not be fooled by the bulging chocolate chips, they actually melted once I bit them! But of course, this only happened when the muffins were still fairly warm. The ones inside were melted, giving a marble effect. The sweetness of the batter was subtle, which was great because in between bites, you get a taste of sweetness from the chocolates.

However, the freshness factor still plays a major role in baking I realised. The moisture of the muffins were very much reduced even after a day, and by the time they reached the mouth of my colleagues, they were a bit hardened already. What a disappointment. I probably could have added more milk, but the best thing is to eat them within hours, fresh from the oven.

Of course, that was not possible then as I could only bake back in Taiping, and not in KL where I worked.

Anyhow, I hope I am able to get a small portable oven soon in Singapore, so I can do some baking on my own on weekends! Soon... I believe... soon!

Black Canyon Coffee@Jaya Jusco, Ipoh



Demona: YK and I decided to make a pit stop yamchar session at Black Canyon before we continued on with work. I've eaten here a few times before, and they had presented fairly decent food as far as I remembered.



Demona: Empty, empty place... business must be bad these days. Most of the customers here ate at the revamped food court instead. I guess, the food court offers cheaper food than the rest of the restaurants here, and people probably became less picky on their food after the fuel hike.



Demona: This was a mocha coffee shake. The coffee shake was ooooh, oh so creamy! Yet, the taste of their south african imported coffee was quite strong, and thankfully, the drink was not diabetic. The scoop of ice cream was clearly, the cappucino ice cream from KING's. I used to love eating that ice cream back in school, and the chippedy chocolate chips made it very enjoyable. RM 8.95. (Good quality, and STILL cheaper than Starbucks/Coffee Bean etc)




Demona: I was itching to try something different. The "Jamaica Coffee" name caught my eye. Thus, I opted for it. Same price as the one above, but volume wise was truly disappointing. You could see the dark brown layer on the bottom of the glass, that was the brewed coffee, and the probably 100 ml milk on top of it, and the rest half portion was covered by whipped cream. URGH. The coffee was good, that was without a doubt. But, too little to drink, too whippy to handle.



Demona: I wasn't exaggerating on the whipped cream, haha. It was so much that I could cover the saucer.

Verdict: Do give Black Canyon a try, they do have some good thai fusion dishes... well, if they had maintained their quality from the previous meal I had in their branch at Centerpoint, One U until now. Drinks wise, I would say they're all more or less quite enjoyable. Much cheaper than a frap that u are paying for in Starbucks or Coffee Bean, and yet give quality sense of satisfaction. One thing though, just skip the Jamaica drink.

Location:
Kinta City Shopping Centre
No 2, Jalan Teh Lean Swee,
Off Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Utara,
31400 Ipoh, Perak.

Wine Session@YY's

Demona: I remembered craving wine for that few days, and one fine day.. my crave went to its most desperate level. I sent out a mass text to my colleagues for a wine session at YY's house, and knowing that it was my last few weeks of work, many were OBLIGED to agree to my proposed plan. Hahaha. The art of blackmail.

These were the wines of the night.



Demona: I called Dogma and asked if I could open a bottle from my stocks here. Reluctantly, he suggested the Green Valley 2002 Shiraz. This was the first bottle of wine bought by him but drank without his presence. He was excited to know my opinions on the wine, but saddened that he could not take a sip of it.

I may not have thorough explanatory terms such as Dogma's, but the following was the impression that the wine had given to me:

The colour was quite bright reddish. I could smell some berry fruitiness in the beginning. The wine was quite smooth, with mid acidity and tannin. This didn't make it hard to sip it down fast. Typical of a Shiraz, it had a peppery taste too. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot because of its smoothness. YY agreed with me on this point as well. Anyway, I've always enjoyed Margaret River wines.. all introduced to me, courtesy of Dogma.



Demona: The lady host, YY opened two bottles of this. The colour of the wine was dark reddish. Very strong fruity smell also, and not too tannin too. The wine was not as smooth as Green Valley, I'm not too sure.. because it is still a young wine? A bit of peppery taste too, but very mild. I still put my heart on Dogma's great choice among the two.

P/S: OMG. I think this is my first post on wine. Hence, this :

Dogma says:
ur description abit limited

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Horrifying Italiannies@The Curve

Demona: One of my best girlfriends, LY was going to turn a quarter century old in a few days time. We came to Italiannies to celebrate this joyous (LY, is it?) occasion. A joyous occasion quickly turned sour due to the terribly horrifying experience in this restaurant.



Demona: These were the usual bread slices that they offered as appetizers, along with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some herbs. The bread was a bit too hard but we were extremely hungry by then, thus anything would taste good.



Demona: N ordered an Aglio Oglio pasta. The portion was undeniably huge, but she barely ate a mouthful out of the monstrous plate. There was barely an inch of Aglio Oglio taste in it. It was as if, a 5 year old kid cooked it, and learned it from a ABC book. She was furious, and you don't want to mess with N, especially when her hunger mode was switched on. Using her pre-learnt law school methods, she debated her way through and demanded that this meal was taken off the receipt.

And.. she made a peculiar remark to the chef itself.

N : I'm sorry. Your Aglio Oglio is not glistening at all. It doesn't even look like one. (Glistening?)




Demona: I ordered a Hawaiian chicken pizza, to share with Princess G. The crusts on the side were so dry and hard that I left all of them aside. The toppings were pretty average, tomato paste with chicken meat, some capsicum slices and pineapple chunks. N ended up eating pizza as well because of the rejected un-glistened pasta.



Demona: This was the birthday girl's dish. I can't recall the exact name of it, but it was something like, grilled fish with capers and lemon. From the look of the dish, you could clearly tell that... *blegh* this was going down hill all the way. The fish tasted so wierd that when all of us tried it, we just couldn't put any words to describe its taste.



Demona: This was EV's dish. I think it was the chicken parmigianna. All of us agreed that her dish was the safest among all because it was basically deep fried bread crumbs coated boneless chicken and tomato paste based spaghetti. I think any of us can easily make this in their home's humble kitchen.

Verdict: It cost each of us nearly RM40 for this ... I can't even call it a meal myself because to be honest, we left most of the food behind. A truly traumatic experience, I do not think any from the 6 of us will want to spend a penny more at this restaurant. The quality has gone with the winds.

Rhone Tasting @ Vinum

B invited me for a Rhone tasting at Caveau on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Somehow, more often than not, a simple wine tasting has extended into a 9 hours (12pm to 9pm) marathon of wine drinking. But surprisingly, i wasn't drunk but just uncomfortable with the huge amount of food/crackers and liquid consumed.

We tasted 19 Rhone wines at Caveau ranging from Cote Du Rhone, CDP, Gigondas, Cote Rotie to some whites from the region. i'll just have a brief note on the wines that day.

2002 Clos du Caillou Cotes du Rhone@40SGD:
Eye: Dark Garnet Red
Nose: Gamey, Kirsh. Animal
Palate: Some lift of bitter herbs at end palate. So so

2003 Clos Du Callou Cotes Du Rhone Bouquet Des Garrigues@48SGD
Eye: purplish
Nose: Candied Cherry, some LorHonGuo or chinese herbs. Sweet big bitter chinese tea. Complex
Palate:Silky, tannin, end palate some grippy tannin emerged
Star Wine!

2003 Lucien Et Andre Brunel Cotes Du Rhone Cuvee Sommelongue@47SGD
Eye:pale red
Nose:Woody tone, furry pepper
Palate:Grippy tannins, enjoyable for a CDR

2003 Fonsalette Cotes Du rhone@102SGD
Eye: Intense red
Nose:Complex and intense nose of fruit, MOU-FA-GUO, chinese herbal note
Palate:Grippy tannins
Very impressive Cotes Du Rhone, but the price put everybody off

2001 Domain De La Vieille Julienne CDP@70SGD
Nose:
Sweet, cherry beefy
Palate:
some woody tone on palate. So so typical CDP.
Rated 90RP but boring stuff. Jammy

2002 Domain De La Vieille Julienne CDP@64SGD
Similar to the 2001 but with more alcohol heat and less complexity and intensity

2003 Clos Du Caillou CDP@117SGD
Nose: Sweet Licorice, herbs
Palate: Grippy tannins. Typical CDP

2003 Lucien et Andre Brunel CDP les Cailloux@72.76SGD
Nose: very Complex, bitter furry licorice. Beasty
Nose: Very very great intensity without killing alcohol. Liquor nose.
AMazing, the best CDP so far!

2001 Domain De LA crillone Cotes Du Ventoux@58.85sgd
Nose:
Furry, bitter, woddy, kirsh. Big on medicinal herbs
Palate:
Silky

2003 Saint Cosme Gigondas@70sgd
Nose: Less but still noticible liquor, candied cherry
Palate: Gummy, but clean grippy tannins.

2003 Saint Cosme Saint Joseph@58.85SGD
Nose: Gamey, liquor, leather, chinese herbal
Palate: Big tannins, some greenish note, lift of chinese herbs at end palate

2001 Thierry Allemand Cornas Les Chaillots@80sgd
Nose: Big rounded, alcohol nose
Palate: Herbal mid, some cherry at impact.

2001 Jean Paul et Jean Luc Jamet Cote Rotie@140SGD
Nose: Big, purple flower, cooked nose iwth cherry, liquor fur at the back bone
Palate: Bitter, tannic, big structure

2002 Bernard Burgaud Cote Rotie@80.25
Big smelly cheese nose..... blue cheese. cant taste much on palate due to overpowering nose. Divide the crowd into "hate it" or "Love it" camps

2002 Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie Cuvee Terroir@94sgd
Nose: cooked Vegetables, big
Palate: bitter tannins

2002 Saint COsme Cote Rotie@98SGD
did not record much but just written Complex, enjoyable in my note

2003 Chateau Cosme Cotes du Rhone Blanc@40.66
Nose. Pineapple
Palate: BIGBIGBIG palate with complex note of oilyness and whatever

2003 Vignobles Brunier Vieux TElegraphe Blanc@80.75
Rated 91RP. nose of wood and honeyed citrus but pretty complex big palate

2004 Saint Cosme Condriue Blanc@100SGD
Toastynote, honey suckle.

DOMAINE GUY ROBIN Chablis Grand Cru Valmur 1999


Nose: Some off minerality on the nose. Not very clean. Some oxidized note.
Palate: Not too harmonious. The mineral, acid did not come together. Probably at its sleeping stage now.

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng@SS2



Demona: I came over to Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, located next to Gloria Jeans, in the busy streets of SS2 to join my colleagues for lunch. Personally, I had a horrible experience with Kim Gary, and frankly speaking, I did not place my hopes high on this similar dining concept.

The menu was extremely lengthy... felt like I was reading a story book.



Demona: I ordered my drug for the day, iced coffee. The glass was.... TALL. Check out the height difference, compared to YK's handphone and the spoon. However, do not be fooled by its first appearance height, the diameter of the glass was small, thus not much volume. The mountainful of ice inside didn't help either. A big time gimmick to cut cost. Grrrrrrrrrrrr...

The quality of the coffee was bad as well. The coffee taste and aroma was minimal. They were all covered with sugar. Blergh.



Demona: This was some sorta' Mango Yogurt Shake. It came in a jar, which reminded me of Murni's rendition of mango shake. However, their jars were full, and there were plentiful of fruit varietals added. This present one, however, had much less fruits and it was only half filled, and cost much more.

The shake was TOOOOOOO sweet. Although I'm diabetic free, I probably needed an insulin jab after having this shake. Grrrrrrrrrr....



Demona: This was another mango rendition, offered by WKCCT. I couldn't recall its exact name, but it's something like KTZ's mango dessert. This was better, if you're comparing with KTZ's. At least, there were more fruits in it than KTZ's. The sugar level was much less in this one, which made it more enjoyable. In fact, this is an extremely easy dessert to make, if we have an ice blender at home.... and the cost is probably reduced by a few hundred percentages!



Demona: Another fruit drink (I don't know what fruit it is, but apparently the seeds are edible). Giant bottle again, but packed with ice. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....



Demona: This was the XO sauce fried rice. I would say, the fried rice was quite enjoyable. A little bit of wok hei, savoury, not too oily and I guess the biggest culprit for this dish's success was the amazing sambal. People out there, who wishes to try this dish.. do not forget to request for some sambal! One lousy part though.. I barely tasted the XO. It got me wondering.... one tiny drop of XO, 5 tablespoons of it, can also be labelled as XO sauce fried rice. This plate was definitely under the 1 drop category alright.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr........



Demona: These were some sweet and sour beancurd wrapped meat rolls. Average dish. The outer layer was very sticky, gooey, sweet but opened up to savoury, tangy, meatyness inside.

P/S: The sambal helped made them tasted better.

Verdict: 3 drinks, 2 mango desserts, a plate of XO fried rice and some beancurd meat rolls cost about RM 75. STEEP pricing.. I would say, considering the amount of food that we've ordered. I do not think I will be back here anytime soon.

I knew the experience would be similar as Kim Gary's, but comparing both, I think I prefer wasting my money here than KG.

Good place to hang out for Chinese youth, who would spend RM 15 at least. Not a place for food lovers. You will end up paying for something unsatisfying to your tastebuds and your pockets.

Domain Bart Bonne Mares Grand Cru 2001

I could not get much information on this small Burgundy Producer. However, this Bonna Mares carried the most weight compared to the Volnay and Aloxe Corton that we had this evening.

Domaine Bart is one of the many producers in Burgundy that is overlooked. It is quite unfortunate as they makes beautiful wines from Marsannay to Bonnes Mares with an emphasis on value and terroir reflection. Martin Bart's grandfather was a Clair of Clair Dau, one of the most revered families in all of Burgundy. In fact, Domaine Bart got their Bonnes Mares and Chambertin Clos de Beze when the Dau domaine was broken up un the early 1980's.

Nose: Big cherry, after aeration turned into sweet tea.
Palate: Elegant but significant intensity. Sappy tannins in the end.

Patrick Javillier Aloxe Corton 2006

Domaine Patrick Javillier covers about ten hectares and this guy is famous for his Meursalt and his blending of different climats of vines to achieve great complexity. He describe his Red wines as follow: I think that my red wine is very old style. It’s not a lot of colour. It’s very elegant, but not a lot of body.The wines I make are not supposed to be drunk the first year. You can begin to drink my wines one to one and a half year after bottling. In general my wines are at their best when they are between five and eight years. Some vintages are possible to keep for ten to 15 years.

Nose: Whao,,amazing nose of bloody beef, with red fruits. After aeration becomes a complex nose of meat, sweet cherry and some tea.
Palate: Light with a very good structure. Amazing intensity yet not losing its elegance.Not much fruit extraction on the eye but i were amazed by the intensity.
Verdict:Very goood!

Louis Boillot Volnay 1er Cru Clos de la Chapelle 2005

After a 19 wines tasting session in Vinum, W and I proceed to Le Benaton to taste this bottle of wine that was just brought back from Burgundy. W was travelling and visiting vineyards in Burgundy and he chanced upon this small vineyard upon cycling at the Pommard, Volnay area.

Nose: Clean nose with an explosive nose of white flowers. Very floral and secondary truffle upon 45min aeration
Palate: Clean, silky tannins with a good balance of acidity. Light to medium weight. Further aeration brings out slight tea.
Verdict: WOW is the word of the day. S and P was truly amazed by the classic styled burgundian white. Minimalistic, clean , elegant, without much fruit yet carried good complexity. Heads up to W who kindly shared this bottle with us.

Voyager Estate Semillion Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Another Margaret River Gem that I'd thoroughly enjoyed courtesy of JT
Nose: Some toasty brioche, citrus, vanilin powder.
Palate: Clean, extensive minerality. Medium to heavy weight. Good structure. Ahh, this is such an elegant white to be drank on its own if you like cool climate, burgundian styled white

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Baronda Pizza (Artz Pizza)

There are numerous write ups on the Baronda Pizza which is situated by the East Coast Beach. Demona and I paid a visit to catch some post Church bite before sending her off to catch the coach back to KL.

We ordered their signature Onion Ham Pizza and was duly disappointed. The ham was soggy and without much flavour while the pizza was overwhelmed by soggy onions.

Disappointment.

The pizza cost 20 bucks plus and I dun think we will be visiting them soon.

Joochiat Teochew Restaurant

Demona: After the Sunday mass, we strolled aroung Joo Chiat area in search of some interesting goodies for our growling tummies. I am a bread enthusiast, and Dogma wanted to introduce to me an interesting toast bread near by the church. His brief synopsis of it got me tingling all over with excitement.



Demona: Dogma took charge on ordering a plate of rice with some Teo Chew dishes, while I took handled the bread and a regular dose of caffeine. He walked back with a mountainful of food. I remembered the first word that I uttered out was, "Whowwwwwwww....".

Some "Kiam chai" (salted vegetables), baby squidies, omelette, duck meat slices, and a little hill of rice. ONLY SGD 5. Gosh... you definitely can't get this at RM 5 back home, especially the fact that the dishes were of seafood, and meat like duck, and sooooo much of food.

The dishes were average, but for the price, I would say good overall performance! I wouldn't mind eating these often.



Demona: Some of the yummy juices available for us to coat the dishes with. Dogma's breath was like the king of dragonland. *close nostrils*



Demona: The toast bread was quite interesting, just like what Dogma said. It had a brownish toast colour but yet the bread was soft, fluffy, lovable to chew.... as if it was steamed. Maybe, they actually did both steps! The butter and sugar coating was a bit too 'economical'. The uncles should coat more! No kaya was added in their toast bread.

Verdict: Wear mask protection when the waiter uncle approaches, either that, or order your drinks and bread a metre away from him. When you tell him what you want, he immediately screams out your orders to another expert drink maker uncle behind the counter. I felt a few drops of saliva from this dear uncle... URKS. :(


\

Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ



Demona: HELPPPPPPPPPP.......!!!

I was trampled all over by chipsie chips! Dogma went chips frenzy all over, and bought 4 huge ass packs of these disc shaped potato goodies. A healthy pack of Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ shoved its big fat ass on my face! I was trying to push it away with my hands... but I sufforcated. *chokes*



Demona: Sir Dogma, bravely fought through his guts to release me from these savage chips. The battle was brutal. The victory was sweet. Kettle pack burst open, and these golden glitters were released. I was saved.....! *swhings*

The chips were extremely crunchy.. which was the best part! I could munch of 'em all night long. If only calories did not exist. Flavour wise, I think that the Jalapeno was still the more superior one. The BBQ flavour was too mild for our liking.

Evans & Tate Shiraz 1999

Margaret River has always been my fav Austrialia region for wines. The 1999 Margaret River Shiraz was awarded the Best Red Wine of the show at the 2000 International Wine Challenge in the UK out of 2000plus participating wines.

Nose: At 9 year of age, it carried some reduced fruits, sweet licorice and some herbs on the nose. Absence of the monstrous pepper and alcohol heat so evident and annoying typical of Barrosa Shiraz.
Palate: Harmonious, with sweet licorice dominating and cedar. Tannins emerge at the backpalate, slightly sappy. Nice.
Verdict: An elegant cool climate styled aged shiraz. Very similar to Rhone style. Great buy from Aussie!

Yuet Loy Take 2

Demona: (screamsssss out... "WOK HEI!") Dogma's mind was clouded by these thoughts during his first Yuet Loy experience. He wanted to infect us with some wok hei goodness too and we had our double date dinner here, A, S, Dogma and I. The hawker centre was like a maze, with a gazillion stalls, it was packed to the brim at every corner and worst of all, they looked the same. Dogma was the leader of the pack, with his powerful sense of smell, he smelt his way into Yuet Loy. Kaching!



Demona: YL's owner pre-empted us of a 1 hour waiting period. "Whoa.. 1 hour??? The food must be darn great alright." That did not stop Dogma's hound-like nostrils. He sniffed himself away somewhere, and before we realised anything, he was.... gone.

*poof!*

And this hunger driven Dogma came back with a plateful of sinful lard and duckies. Siohhhhhh Bark! Siohhhhhhhh Ark! I believed they must taste really good, for an impatient one, like Dogma, queuing up with the rest of the world to buy them.



Demona: The roast pork was a bit too fatty for my liking, but it suited Dogma nicely! The roast duck was quite nice though: tender, savoury, and not too fatty. His mood was a little under the weather that evening, and you could hear silent growls when he was interrupted during his meal.

Demona: Hey, where did you buy them from?
Dogma: Grrrrrrrrrr... Grrrrrrrrrrr..
Demona : Urks. Ok nevermind.




Demona: This was the ginger steamed chicken. Quite an interesting dish, considering the pungent ginger flavour cleared any possible blocks in our nostrils. The chicken meat was average, very fatty too. Urks.



Demona: This was their home made tofu, with some bean sprouts. I enjoyed them tofus very much! They were very soft, mmmmmmmmmm... and flavourful. The egg taste was quite apparent too.



Demona: This was the fish meat with fermented sauce. I loved the sauce, extremely hot and spicy! The fish meat was average, maybe cuz' I'm usually a bit turned off eating a boney fish. I choked badly once when I was a kid over a huge fish bone, and since then, I'm slightly put off over them.

Verdict: We had one more dish, with minced pork and vegetables. That was the ultimatum among all! Very peppery, spicy, flavourful, and had the most wok hei among the four dishes. Dogma mentioned it had MUCH more wok hei locked in during his previous experience. He said this was not the best performance by their chef. Maybe it was the weekend, and peak dinner hour (since we waited for an hour).. Mr. Chef may had been tired and busily rushing through his cooking. Anyhow, pricing wise, was quite decent. SGD 40. I'm sure we'll head over here sometime soon again!

Provence Take 5



Demona: I think I'm going to walk to Provence almost everyday if possible, to get my lunatic cravings for these sweet, delicious, creamy buttery golden brown pastries. I am probably one of the easiest girls to please: There is no need for flashy leather bags, expensive jewellery, exotic holidays etc.. just feed... me... with... yummy tum tum food.

This was another chocolate danish pastry. The swirls reminded me of my darling red bean bun by Baker's Cottage. The danish pastry was so soft, buttery, and very chocolatey indeed as the swirl layers were quite thick. In the midst of the softness, in comes the crunchy fragrant aroma of toasted almond slices. Purrrrrrr-fect. Mmmmmmm.... looking at the pict made me all lunatic now!

Ch, Lafite Rothschild 2002

My first Lafite and I wasnt impressed.
In a way, we are commiting infanticide by opening the bottle barely 6 years of age. Even after 3 hours of decanting, the wine has nothing much to offer on both the nose and palate.

Nose: big Licorice and tobacco. No complexity but its a tight big nose
Palate: Tight, heavy mouthfeel.. currant, mineral and cassis. Needs time!!

Rated at 95 pointer at Winespectator, i guess it will take some 20 years to unfurl its fullest potential
Crushed berries and intensity to this, with grapey, toasted oak and cedar notes. Big and concentrated, with chewy and firm tannins. Very long. Very tight, though, and just beginning to show its true nature. Score range: 95-100

Beaulieu Estate Private Estate 1975 Cabernet Sauvignon

Beaulieu Estate Georges De Latour Private Reserve 1975:
Beaulieu Estate has been the pioneering winery in America. I had tasted the 1973, with an interesting sweet nose that still stays in my mind.
The 1975 was not rated too highly @ 83 pointers in Winespectator:
Rich, smooth and elegant, a fully mnature wine of harmony and finesse, with smoky coffee and currant flavors and gentle tannins. Showing very well in this tasting.--Georges de Latour Private Reserve vertical. Drink now through 1994. 21,400 cases made.

Nose: Initial nose of sweet berries, graphite that slowly evolved into black tea and then hoysin saltish note. Evolving.
Palate: Soft soft tannins, hardly noticable. Many complex tertiary and dark berry note. Light mouthfeel.
Verdict: Very well made with character. The BV can really stand the test of time, it still stood elegantly with a feminine touch after 33 years of sleep.

"Produced Entirely from Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes" The back label is kinda funny. I guess back in 1975, a single varietal Cabernet Sauvignon have to be the "IN" and "Classy" thing.