Jet-lagged as hell, after arriving early evening in LA and then working in the winery until 9 pm, I arrived at Major Dōmo, the talked-about new-ish (summer 2018) opening from New York’s David Chang (Momofuku). Despite my jet-lag, this was a sensational meal. We shared everything, and every morsel I put in my mouth was delicious and quite brilliant.
The food is amazing. But it comes at a price. One of the dishes, which was amazing – the dry-aged ribeye, B.S. fries, cheese sauce – was $153, although it does serve a few!
The wine list is stunning, with a brilliant selection of very cool bottles. Again, not cheap, but this place justifies the sticker shock. This is what we did.
This Tunia Sottofondo 2016 is an interesting wine. It’s Trebbiano (mainly) from Tuscany, and it’s refermented in the bottle with the aid of some vin santo. Tart and complex with a lot of vitality.
Labet’s Champs Rouge is a Chardonnay from 60 year old vines grown on limestone. We were served this one blind and couldn’t nail it – I thought it was Chablis. Very tight and linear.
Ex Vero III from Werlitsch, 2012 vintage. Quite profound, with intensity and minerality. A stunning wine from the south of Austria.
This was verging on the profound. Absolutely benchmark white Burgundy. Served to us blind, again. It’s on the restrained side, but with layers of complexity.
Olek Bondonio Barbaresco Starderi 2014. A brilliantly focused wine with pure linear red fruits. If you can find some of this, then buy it.
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No criticism of course, but I couldn’t help being surprised that your group ordered 5 out of 5 European wines in California.
It’s a good point. I guess the answer is that I was with Californians who have a European wine sensitivity, and this amazing list specialises in non-Californian wines
Fair enough – I figured you’d probably be helping explain some European styles to the locals and no doubt LA is big enough to have every kind of wine list imagineable. Never been myself, trust you’re having fun.