Unauthorized

Wonderfully sweet, plump crabcakes and nicely aged beef were the perfect foil for two bottles of white Burgundy and two terrific bottles of red Bordeaux. The Louis Jadot 2004 Corton-Charlemagne is a somewhat under-the-radar, delicious wine. I wouldn’t age it very long, but I liked its minerality and medium-bodied notes of candied citrus and lemon blossom, as well as its beautiful purity. The 1989 Corton-Charlemagne, which had been fabulous from my cellar, seemed to evoke mixed emotions, and I was probably the most disappointed. It was oily, unctuously textured, still fresh, with no signs of oxidation, but it just seemed a bit monolithic, and having held onto it for so long, I thought to myself that I would have preferred to have drunk it five, or perhaps even ten years ago. C’est la vie.

The 1985 Le Pin was rocking. Dense ruby/purple with notes of mocha, espresso roast, chocolate, and plenty of dense berry fruit, it is full-bodied, still very youthful, but like many 1995s, just beginning to shed some tannin and show its concentrated fruit and density. Of course, it was eclipsed by an absolutely magnificent wine, one of the legends of the last century, the 1989 La Mission Haut-Brion. Dense bluish/purple to the rim, with an extraordinary nose of charcoal, acacia flowers, blueberry and crème de cassis, with a hint of graphite, low in acid, with sweet, sweet tannins, and a remarkable mouthfeel, this full-bodied, unctuously textured wine is incredibly pure and certainly capable of lasting another 20-25 years. Jean-Bernard Delmas, currently at Château Montrose, made this wine as well as the neighboring Haut-Brion, which I have also rated 100, and I stick to that rating with no reservations. It will be fascinating for owners of both wines to track them over the next 20 years. They are indeed among the most distinctive and compelling Bordeaux made over the last 30 years.