Unauthorized

It is encouraging to see this splendid restaurant in downtown Baltimore continue to do well in what is undoubtedly the worst recession since the Great Depression of 1929. I chose a menu that was relatively light, although I did order a couple of portions of Chef Cindy Wolf’s cornmeal-crusted deep-fried oysters as they are one of the great delicacies of the region, if not the entire United States. Those were followed by her delicious grits with Andouille sausage bits and heads-on shrimp, a real southern dish with exuberantly intense flavors. The local rockfish was perfectly cooked, but while its sauce was superb (as are all of Chef Wolf’s sauces), the breast of pheasant was slightly dry and flavorless.

All of the wines came from my cellar, and the reds had been double-decanted six hours prior to the dinner. The whites were all beautifully made wines, but I was surprised by the fact that they all lacked a “wow” factor. I had expected a lot more from each of them. The 2002 Leflaive Bienvenue Bâtard Montrachet revealed plenty of minerality along with crisp white currant, quince, and poached pear notes, medium to full body, and good acidity. It remains a young, pure white displaying none of the dreaded oxidative issues that have plagued many white Burgundies in recent years. The Verget 2002 Corton Charlemagne was so backward, it tasted like a liqueur of crushed rocks. It possesses terrific acidity, and came alive when drunk with food. In normal times, I would say forget it for a decade, but given the oxidative issues in recent white Burgundies one does not feel comfortable taking that sort of risk. A wine I expected to be out of this world, the 1995 Verget Chevalier Montrachet, proved to be superb, but not a mindblowing experience. Honeysuckle, white sweet corn, orange blossom, and tropical fruit characteristics are all present in this full-bodied, light gold-colored wine. It is seemingly still intact, but I am not sure it will get any better. If you own any, it should be drunk up.

Having recently done a large retrospective on 1982 Bordeaux, I pushed the double decanting further back, and the wines seemed even younger tasting than when I did my retrospective. The 1982 Trotanoy got richer and richer as the night wore on. This wine was the most mature upon decanting, and showed the most evolution, but as it sat longer in the bottle, it seemed to get even younger and deeper in color. A beautiful Trotanoy (it is eclipsed by the 1998 and 2008), it exhibits a glorious perfume of roasted herbs, coffee, plums, incense, sweet kirsch, and underbrush. This full-bodied wine still has 10 or more years of drinkability. The 1982 l’Evangilewas much younger than previous bottles I have had. Its dense, saturated plum/garnet color is followed by a big, sweet nose of cedar, black fruits, charcoal, and caramel. The wine is full-bodied, deep, brooding, rich, and shockingly unevolved. Speaking of unevolved, the most backward wine of this group was the 1982 Le Gay. After this wine’s blockbuster performance in my retrospective for The Wine Advocate, I wanted to taste it again, and sure enough, it is really strutting its stuff. More monolithic than its stablemate, Lafleur (both wines had the same proprietors and were made by the same team in 1982), it can’t compare with the previous three wines in terms of aromatic complexity and richness. However, in the mouth, it is a giant of a wine with extraordinary depth of fruit, a taste of iron, and plenty of plum, black currant, and fig notes. Still dense purple to the rim, throughout the night it got better and better, and is at least 8-10 years away from hitting its plateau of maturity. A remarkable wine!

We then moved to the sexiest, most complex, and most prodigious wines made in the last 30 years, the 1982 Lafleur. Pure sweet licorice, kirsch liqueur, and caramelized red and black fruit notes are followed by a full-bodied, opulent wine boasting extraordinary intensity, yet laser-like precision, purity, freshness, and vibrancy. While it is a massive wine, it comes across with extraordinary delicacy and palate presentation. I treasure every sip of this magical wine. Interestingly, both the 1982 Mouton Rothschild and 1982 Latour were much younger at this dinner than when I tasted them for my Wine Advocate retrospective (even though they were from the same wooden case). Both seemed more like 5 rather than 27-year-old wines. This was the most backward showing of Latour over the last decade, and the Latour matched the 1982 Mouton Rothschild step by step in terms of power, richness, and youthfulness. Both wines still possess dense purple colors, with the Mouton having a slightly more purple hue along with hints of mint, crème de cassis, flowers, and spice box. This formidable wine will not be at its finest for another decade. Latour is usually the most precocious of all the 1982 Pauillac first-growths, but this particular bottle was mammoth. Backward, rich, and inky/ruby/purple-colored, it possesses plenty of mineral, black currant liqueur, and spice box characteristics, a huge, full-bodied mouthfeel, and a tannic, dense finish. The mysteries of wine are doubt obvious when we are in the presence of genius in the bottle, but how they can go from seemingly drinkable to backward in the course of a few months is an endearing asset of wine that I hope is never fully explained.