January 28, 2013

Tempier at St. Jack

A week ago, friends were visiting from San Diego and we all went to dinner at St. Jack, a lovely French restaurant in SE Portland. What a meal. To start, pours of a Cremant du Bourgogne of some portion Aligote. Delicious, thirst quenching but more interesting than that. Salad Lyonaisse for me, full of tangy and smoky bacon. Then steak frites with '08 Domaine Tempier Bandol, showing well the modern turn of recent years in this cellar. Still, if I produced wine like this I would be more than thrilled. It's deep, aromatic, just hinting at what's to come in a few years as it softens. It's richly fruity, with a more purple color than I remember any Tempier wine from the '90s and earlier. And it's delicious, especially with good steak frites.




Incidentally, St. Jack is also a cafe and patiessiere in one part of the restaurant each morning, with some of the best baked goods available in Portland. The canale alone are worth a long drive. Perhaps the best I've ever had. The bad picture doesn't do them justice. Trust me and go there if you are in town.

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