Jacques Lassaigne’s Champagne Blancs de Blancs Le Cotet. Lassaigne is a new producer for me, although I’ve heard the name thrown about before as grower worth seeking out. Three of his wines turned up at Chambers Street Wines this week, and I started at the top. Le Cotet is gorgeous Champagne, featuring a ripe but crisp Chardonnay fruit profile, floral notes, and a chalky backbone. Not inexpensive (around $70) but very highly recommended.

Giant Mosefund Farm Mangalitsa pork chop and roasted carrots. And I guess the Pahlmeyer 1995 Cab blend is worth a mention as well… This was a gift (anyone looking to give me gifts, take note); a wonderful, wonderful wine at 17 years of age.

Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2010. I took this photo to highlight the wine, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I was equally excited about everything on the plate—pan-seared Moulard duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, mixed roasted potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm (it’s still hard for me to believe that one producer’s potatoes can be so much better than the rest, but still…), and roasted Brussels sprouts marking the return of Lani’s Farm to the greenmarket scene. All great. But, the Rivers-Marie is a special wine. It’s fresh and vibrant, with mostly notes of cherries, cranberries, and baking spices. While young, it’s very well balanced and oh-so-easy to drink. But the really hard to believe part is that it only costs $25… if you can find it, but it!

A mini-Champagne report on a few delicious wines I’ve enjoyed in the last week or so.

The Vilmart 2002 Coeur de Cuvee (pictured) is one of the finest Champagnes I’ve tasted in the last year. It’s 80% Chardonnay, and it drinks like great white Burgundy—tropical fruit, perfume, and just a hint of toast—with fine bubbles. It’s pricy ($150) but worth every penny for a celebration.

I tasted Prevost’s La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines (NV) twice and it’s quickly becoming a favorite. The recent bottlings (2008 and 2009) are even better than previous years’ efforts, showing plenty of fruit and perfume on top of good structure. This too is not cheap at $85, but like the Vilmart is well worth it.

Finally, Andre Clouet Brut Nature Silver (NV) is always a favorite at a more reasonable price point ($45). It’s pinot dominated and very different than the above but it is very likable for it’s pure fruit expression.

Sausage mac and cheese. I love the sausage and mac and cheese combo.  Stone does a great version at their brewery/ restaurant. Here I just used basic spicy Italian sausages, cooked them most of the way in a skillet then sliced them and finished cooking them cut-side-down for maximum browning. Just add the sausage to the mac and cheese before baking. Also, for this batch I used pipette rigate pasta which is great because each noodle really fills up with creamy cheese sauce.  With this, enjoy a nice Zinfandel like this one from Carlisle.

Marie-Noëlle Ledru Champagne Brut Grand Cru. I first posted about Ledru Champagne back in April, and it has since become one of my favorite producers. I love that it’s a lovely little old lady making fantastic Champagne, disgorging every bottle by herself (here’s a great blog post about Ledru). But mostly, I love the wines. In this photo on the left is the flagship wine that I posted about before (~$57) and the “basic” bottling, the Champagne Brut Grand Cru (~$45). These aren’t cheap wines, but if you compare them to others at the same price, they seem like a steal. The Brut is a perfect balance of crisp, green apples and toasty brioche like flavors. The Cuvée du Goulté is more of everything with the addition of some earthy and orange peel flavors. I highly recommend  buying whichever you can find. Or both!

Crispy-skinned lola duck breast and asparagus risotto. Duck is always great, but the asparagus is the more interesting thing here. Maybe everyone else already knows this, but I recently discovered the trick of puréeing the stalks of the asparagus in some stock and using the purée as the final dose of liquid in the risotto cooking process. The only problem with this is that the purée really has to be added at the very end for the best flavor, but the eye of a risotto master is required otherwise the rice can end up gluey and overcooked. In this photo, you might be able to tell mine is overcooked by a couple of minutes; it still tasted great but Gordon Ramsay would’ve been screaming at me. I’ll work on a recipe over the next few weeks and post it.

The wine you can barely make out in the background is the 2009 Antica Terra Pinot Noir Botanica. Antica Terrra is a relatively new discovery for me… Winemaker/ owner Maggie Harrison is a former assistant winemaker at Sine Qua Non, and now she’s making my favorite Oregon Pinots.

Memorial Day dinner. A hefty 50/50 short rib-brisket burger, classic potato salad, and greenmarket vegetables tossed in olive oil. And an all-American old vine Zinfandel from Carlisle Winery.

Quick flounder dinner at home. With a great piece of flounder from Blue Moon Fish and some greenmarket veggies in hand, I set out to make a really quick but tasty dinner. This took 20 minutes start to finish not including time for the oven to preheat. The carrots were mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme, and roasted at 450 for 15 minutes. Then, I dredged the flounder in a flour, salt and pepper mixture, dipped it in egg, coated with Panko, and cooked for a few minutes per side. While the fish cooked I made a gremolata using fresh spring garlic. It was all washed down with a very nice Russian River Valley Pinot from Williams Selyem.