Unauthorized

This charity event, which benefitted my local community, was purchased by a generous and gracious group from Los Angeles. All the wines were pulled from my cellar and sent to the restaurant four days in advance. The flights of Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignons were double-decanted four hours in advance. It was a great night of wine, food, and people. Cindy Wolf’s cuisine was, as usual, sensational, with every dish a terrific success (although I must confess I am not a fan of Buffalo meat, even though this came from a high school friend of mine who started a bison ranch near my home). Her Scottish Salmon Tartare, Cornmeal Fried Oysters, delicious English Pea Soup and Husk Roasted Corn Chowder, Terrine of Foie Gras, Pan-Roasted Scottish Salmon, Wood-Smoked Rabbit Confit, and her unbelievable version of Beef Wellington, the tenderloin of beef with Umbrian truffles and seared Foie Gras in puff pasty, were all exquisite. We were all in agreement that Chef Wolf is the greatest chef in Baltimore, and her restaurant, Charleston, is known for its impeccable attention to detail and service.

We started with one of my favorite high quality rosé Champagnes, Bollinger’s 2002 La Grande Année. Freshness, vibrancy, and terrific aromatics are found in this relatively flavorful, full-bodied rosé from an undeniably great vintage for Champagne.

The flight of Chardonnays was exquisite. White Burgundy lovers will not find a better wine than Leflaive’s 1996 Chevalier Montrachet. Crystal clean and incredibly young at 14 years of age, it exhibits lots of quince, citrus, and floral notes intermixed with a liqueur of minerality. This classic grand cru white Burgundy is capable of lasting another 15-20 years. Three of my favorite California Chardonnays were offered, including the more earthy, firmer structured, terroir-driven2005 Marcassin Sonoma Coast, the unctuously textured, beautifully honeyed nectarine, apricot, and peach-scented 2008 Peter Michael Belle Côte, and the exquisite Corton Charlemagne look-alike, Aubert’s 2008 Chardonnay Lauren. Every glass in this flight was completely drained by the guests as the wines were not only captivating, but were also the perfect foils for Chef Wolf’s duo of soups, Scottish salmon tartare, and cornmeal-fried oysters.

We then moved to a trio of Châteauneuf du Papes. The most seductive, the 2005 Rayasappears to be close to full maturity, but that is somewhat deceptive. This wine has never had much color (1995 and 1989 are the only two vintages that were very dark), but it offers explosive aromatics of framboise, raspberries, licorice, and pepper. The 2005 Clos St.-Jean Deus Ex Machina has moved into a relatively closed stage. Dense, full-bodied, and powerful, it is a virile, masculine wine, but this was the tightest, most backward bottle I have yet had of it. Similarly-styled, but gloriously rich, dense, and bursting with potential is the 2005 Vieille Julienne Réserve. There are fewer than 200 cases of this wine made from the estate’s oldest Grenache vines (planted in pure sand). The extraordinary 2005 is probably 5-10 years away from maturity.

The fourth flight was an extraordinary group of four of the finest Bordeaux I own. Two of them were perfect expressions of Bordeaux. The 1996 Lafite Rothschild is revealing surprising complexity and aromatic maturity for a 14-year old Lafite. It boasts ethereal aromas, medium to full-bodied flavors, silky tannins, sensational complexity, and vinous gravitas. A huge hit, the 1990 Cheval Blanc exhibits lots of bay leaf, plum, black cherry, earth, and spice characteristics in an opulent, full-bodied, slightly atypically fat and succulent style. The color is revealing some amber at the edge, so owners may want to take a look at it. The youngest-tasting wine of this flight was the 1990 Beauséjour-Duffau. This infamous one-hit-wonder is a monumental titan that has not been equaled since, although the 2009 may come close. The extraordinary 1990 reveals lots of crushed rock notes (no doubt from the pure limestone soils) as well as unbelievably dark black raspberry and blackberry fruit interwoven with a hint of violets, but no noticeable oak. This full-bodied St.-Emilion tastes like an 8-10 year old rather than a 20 year old wine. A brilliant effort, it is one of the greatest young Bordeaux I have ever tasted, with the emphasis on the word “young.” Because the 1990 Petrus is made from 100% Merlot, it tends to fool people because they think it is going to be overwhelmingly thick, unctuous, rich, and up-front. In truth, it never really is. While it may seem that way out of barrel, after bottling, the wine seems to tighten down, and stay there for two decades or more in top vintages. I have given this wine a perfect rating in the past, but at this event, despite four hours of double-decanting, it didn’t come out of its shell until the very end of the evening. The Petrus does not have the density or richness of the Beauséjour-Duffau, nor the complexity of the Lafite Rothschild, but it is a brilliant wine, and multi-millionaires who own it are best advised to hang on to it for another 4-5 years before pulling a cork.

The fifth flight was magical. Five of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignons from my cellar all performed beautifully. The 2003 Quilceda Creek from Washington state may have suffered somewhat in this company, but it was very elegant and rich, with more tannins than expected. It offered beautiful notes of black fruits, earth, and spice. The 2003 Sloan was full-bodied, massive, tannic, and closed. It was just beginning to reveal some chocolate, espresso roast, and crème de cassis characteristics in its full-bodied, dense, multidimensional personality. Three utterly perfect wines generated a number of comments, and the group was split as to which was the best. I’d drink any of these three anywhere, anytime. There is something about Abreu’s 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Thorevilos that is other-worldly. Abundant aromas of blueberries, flint, white flowers, and black currants emerge from this inky/purple-tinged beauty. The wine seems extremely young at eight years of age, has an unctuosity and thickness that are remarkable, but also an elegance, precision, and purity that are awesome. This is one of the greatest young Napa Valley Cabernets I have ever drunk, and it still has three decades or more of life ahead of it. The 2002 Screaming Eagle may go down as one of the all-time greats made at this estate. Remarkably impressive, the wine is pure crème de cassis, licorice, graphite, and spice box. Full-bodied, opulent, and sumptuous, it is the showiest of these three perfect Cabernets. The 1997 Harlan Estate is considered somewhat controversial because there are rumors that some bottles have been plagued with excessive amounts of volatile acidity. However, I have never encountered that problem in any of my tastings. It represents a Napa Valley version of a great Graves blended with a top-notch Pauillac. Cassis, cedar, chocolate, smoke, and forest floor scents soar from the glass of this full-bodied, unctuously textured, extraordinarily complex wine that is just beginning to enter adolescence at age 13. A tour de force in winemaking, in the archives of Napa Valley history, it will be one of the single most compelling Cabernet Sauvignons ever made.

We finished the evening with a wine I thought would evoke more emotion than it did. Only 1,500 bottles were made of the 1991 Quinta Do Noval Nacional. I only own one bottle, and I decided to serve it for this very worthy cause supporting my local community. While beautiful, this great Port was not as riveting or sublime as I had hoped.