2013 Roger Belland Criots Bâtard-Montrach, 2016 Clos des Lambrays

The great SC hosted a very small group to an exquisite dinner at Imamura on Sentosa island on 04 November 2022. Helmed by Michelin-starred chef Hirofumi Imamura, the restaurant is most discreetly located at a disused chapel off the premises of the Amara Sanctuary Resort. Don’t expect to see any signages at all until you actually arrive, if you can find it, lit by the dimmest lighting possible. With more than twenty years working in Japan, USA and Hong Kong, chef Imamura-san is perfectly skilled in the art of sushi and kaiseki, very much in the Kyoto manner. Paired with the specially curated wines generously brought by SC himself, every item on the carefully prepared seasonal menu came alive, arousing the five senses without resorting to gimmickry. The teacups are ancient, and you choose your chopsticks from a range of different length and wood. Imamura must surely rank at the top of the very long list of Japanese restaurants in Singapore. Many thanks, Sir, for the wonderful evening.

2013 Domaine Roger Belland Criots Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. Poured from magnum. This wine opens with distant lemon and cool citrus on the nose, rather elusive at first like a virginal beauty before gaining traction, teasing the palate with smooth intensity as it developed further notes of pomelo and lime with a warm velvety freshness, all the while remaining subtly shaded and layered, equally subdued in its minerality as it stretched out with elegant length, increasingly alluring with each sip without any hint of its 14% abv. Very lovely. Perfect with the 10-month-old virgin oyster.

2016 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru. Beautifully clear ruby, promising ripe cherries and red fruits that are delivered with open exquisite intensity, subtly structured with darkish overtones at the side with a deeper core of tangerines. The medium-full palate is imbued with great verve, revealing refined inner detail of earth and dry charcoal amid seamless layers of red fruits supported by exciting rasping tannins. Wonderfully balanced and proportioned, finishing with excellent length and linearity. This was exactly how it had tasted from barrel during my visit to the domaine in November 2017 (https://winebyric.com/2017/11/26/__trashed-7/), only even better now. I have never been partial towards Clos des Lambrays, but this may prove to be pivotal.