212 Notre Dame Street West, Montreal | Tel. (514) 845-5436
he last time I was here the restaurant was called Bistro au Cépage. Its owner, ex-food critic and journalist Ashok Chandwani, had just passed away, and the local journalists, foodies, cartoonists and other marginals got together for a couple of hours of reminiscing. The restaurant had that old dark look, situated below ground level, the walls moist with centuries of history, the lead plumbing imported by Napoleon himself.
The petoncles (scallops) with a puréee of mashed peas and curry sauce
Now freshly renovated in a blend of art deco and techno styles, minimalist and gorgeous, it was revived as a restaurant and wine bar, Aszú. The front half of the place has a number of stunning S-shaped tables set alight from within. Designed at bar-stool height, it is a pleasure to dine on them nevertheless. The light reflects through the wine glasses and warms the faces of the diners. It is a place that says Relax, enjoy, have a drinky winky, tell good stories, pick up women at the bar.
Wine can be had here by the glass, but we decided to try a bottle instead, opting for a Pinot Blanc from the Alsace region. The selection is extremely interesting but spotty. For example, my favorite after-dinner drink, Marc de Bourgogne, was nowhere to be seen. Still, there is enough here to keep even the most demanding wine lover occupied for some time.
They have nine Tokaji Aszú wines dating from 1993 to 2000, with prices varying from 77 to 870 dollars for a half liter bottle, the maximum reached for 500 milliliters of 1993 Château de Pazjos. The same wine can be had in 100 milliliter shots for 151 dollars – now do the math: five times 151 is 755, so why should I pay 870 for a 500 ml bottle? Recent research reported in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that two glasses of Aszú per day can turn a perfectly healthy restaurant owner with 80/120 blood pressure into a mathematically challenged diabetic. Here is why.
Tokaji, meaning of Tokaj in Hungarian, is used to label wines from the wine region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary, a small plateau near the Carpathian Mountains, where the iron and lime-rich soil is of volcanic origin.
Botrytised wines are wines that have a sweet honeyed flavor and fragrance. Their unique aroma is caused by grapes that have been infected with a mold called Botrytis Cinerea, also known as bunch rot or noble rot. Yes, mold, as in the black stuff that grows under your porch. Tokaji Aszú is botrytised, but so are the famous Sauternes and Barsac wines. Australia and California too have botrytised wines.
And how about that granddaddy of them all, the Château d'Yquem?
Aszú's Furmint grapes are individually picked out of the bunches, collected in big vats and trampled into the consistency of paste, known as aszú dough, basically a purple mold pizza. Must, the juice of freshly pressed grapes, is poured on the pizza and left for two days. Then the wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed, a slow process that takes years. The aszú wines were traditionally categorized by the number of puttony of dough added to a cask of must. Nowadays the puttony number is purely diabetic: it measures the sugar level, not the politically incorrect mold level. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú-Eszencia for wines above 6 puttonyos.
End of the medical explanation of the owner's mathematical handicap: mold in the liver.
The menu is almost an afterthought here – the dishes are small, almost tapas style, and are meant to be had standing up or sitting on a bar stool. If you are in that kind of a mood, and like decoratively seductive settings, Aszú is just the place for you.
The three lobster bisques
I started with a trio of differently spiced lobster bisques, each served in its private glass. The coriander and estragon flavors were especially appropriate. One of my companions started with a refreshing though slightly undersalted octopus and calamar salad ($9).
She continued with a perfect mushroom and raw ham risotto in truffle juice ($17). The menu has only about twenty items in all, and some are meant to be shared. One of us ordered the petoncles (scallops; five for $21), which were accompanied by a purée of mashed peas and a curry sauce to make a delicious, colorful and aesthetic mix.
The mushroom and ham risotto in truffle juice
Desperately looking for the largest portion on the menu, I tried the magret of duck with a hint of anise and foie gras in its sauce. Beautifully displayed with assorted colours, this too was a gastronomical delight.
We finished with an excellent crême brûlée. Dinner for one puttonyo and two lovely puttonyas, including a $60 bottle of unmoldy wine and the usual botryfication tax, came to $180.04. -- Reviewed by RestoSpy (Feb/07)
