It was a Sunday evening and we had booked an early dinner at Le Supreme, before we went to see “Wicked” with another couple. My Bride and I had brunch there a couple of months earlier, right after their opening; and there are only so many brunches and Mimosas that I can write about.  There were two buildings side by side, the southern edifice was the Book Building and on the north was the Book Tower, both built by the same designer. When I was a kid, I used to walk by these two buildings and at that time, the major airlines of the day had their booking offices in Downtown Detroit.  For all the years that I was down there, it was the first time, I had ever been in the building, and let me tell you that the Book Tower was magnificent, then, and it has been brought back to its former glory again.  The buildings along with the later Book Cadillac Hotel towered over Washington Boulevard and the dream of the Book brothers, who at the time were the wealthiest men in Detroit, was to have a street more impressive than Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Le Supreme is a Parisian-inspired brasserie offering French fare breakfast through dinner.  A truly delightful destination, but we did have to warn the other couple that the lavatory facilities were a common-room sink destination with seven private stalls, first come, first serve.  After that it was easy, especially because the venue felt Parisian in a subtle way.  The other couple we had went with to see a play in Toronto last year, and they wanted to be with us again, and were even going to be a bit more daring for dinner.  We suggested that they share the Steak Tartare in a classic plating of hand-chopped beef, capers, cornichons, and a quail egg.  My Bride and I went with the Pâté de Campagne, a country style pâté with a picked vegetable salad and cornichons. The concept was that the four of us, could share the two plates along with the fresh baked bread and hotel butter.  We ordered two bottles of wine, for dinner, and started off with Chateau Guiraud Sauternes 2019, a First Growth, Premier Cru Classe in 1855.  The estate has eighty-five hectares planted with Semillon and Sauvignon with vines that average about thirty-five years of age on a soil of sandy and clay gravels, over red clay, limestone, and fossilized oyster beds; perfectly conducive for the spread of Botrytis Cinerea, or the Noble Rot that has made Sauterne wines immortal.  The estate was originally the Noble House of Bayle and bought by Pierre Guiraud in 1766, and stayed in the family until the 1980’s when it was bought by a group of like-minded friends.  The wine is a blend of sixty-five percent Semillon and thirty-five percent Sauvignon Blanc.  Only grapes that have been affected by the Noble Rot are picked by hand and fermented plot by plot in new oak barrels.  After the wine attains the desired level of sweetness it aged for about twenty-four months in oak, before bottling.  This youthful wine had a beautiful golden color and offered notes of peaches, pears, apricots, tropical fruits, white florals, and nuts.  On the palate there were tones of rich orange and yellow honey-imbued fruits and a nice long count finish of the honeyed-fruit and terroir; which was a perfect segue to the following course.

The service at Le Supreme was exceptional and they split one entrée into two plates for the ladies of Trout Amandine, which was Michigan Rainbow Trout, along with Haricot Verts, toasted almonds and brown butter.  The men both had Crispy Duck Confit, Fois Gras, Pommes Sarladaise (thinly sliced potatoes roasted in clarified butter, goose fat and truffle paste) and frisée lettuce; it was the Fois Gras that called for saving some of the Sauterne along with the red wine for the second course.  I wasn’t enthused by the Pinot Noir selections which would have been perfect, with both the trout and the duck, so I went with Chateau du Petit Thouars “Les Georges” Chinon 2021.  When Yves and Marguerite du Petit Thouars married in 1974, they hadn’t planned that in in thirty-five years they would be managing a sixteen hectare fully equipped winery.  When they were going through papers in the family estate’s castle that had been in the family since 1636 and bought on the advice of Cardinal Richelieu, they discovered that there had been a vineyard.  The estate is in the heart of the Loire Valley between Chinon, Saumur, and Bourgueil.  This cuvee is from the Les Plantes vineyard planted on clay and limestone soils from 1978-1988 and is named after the many ancestors named George.  The wine is pure Cabernet Franc and they only use the “vin de goutte” (free run juice) and fermented and matured in Stainless Steel tanks for six months.  This deep purple wine with magenta highlights offered notes of black fruit, violets, eucalyptus, Sous-bois, and bell pepper.  On the palate the tones of black cherry, plums, silky tannins, and a touch of licorice, balanced though with a bit of acidity; followed by a medium count finish of fruit and wet stones.