Unauthorized

With friends from France, we ate in, with my wife doing all the cooking except the Private Reserve steaks from Flannery’s Fine Foods, which I grilled. The food was classic bistro French – although they unfortunately do not have Maryland jumbo lump crabcakes in France – but simple, very pure and of impeccably high quality. I cooked the steaks very rare and, as always, they did not disappoint. Of course, I can eat jumbo lump crabmeat almost daily, as I could white and black truffles. As for the wines, the 2002 Bollinger Rosé Grande Année has a delicate salmon color, a beautiful framboise and raspberry nose and full-bodied flavors, with crisp acids and lots of structure, as most 2002s tend to have. I am not a great believer in aging Rosé Champagnes, but this will probably hold up nicely for at least 10-15 years. 1996 is one of my least favorite white Burgundy vintages. It’s the year where many oxidized bottles turned up, although I have never had one from Domaine Leflaive. The 1996 Chevalier-Montrachet is a baby. At age 14, it could easily be a 3- or 4-year-old Chardonnay. Loads of minerality, citrus oil, brioche, and waxy, honeyed notes are present in this light golden-colored wine. Medium to full-bodied, with searing acids, this wine has at least two decades of cellaring ahead of it. Very few 1996s have lived up to their billing from Burgundy pundits, but ones like this will certainly last 20-30 years, although I suspect it will never fully deliver the pure glories of white Burgundy in vintages that are drinkable earlier. The three 1982 Bordeaux were somewhat of a sentimental journey. I was thinking that with each one of them, most of the people that I met in tasting them have long since passed away. Of course, during that era, it was the two spinsters, the Robin sisters, who permitted me to taste the 1982 Lafleur, arriving on their bicycles from nearly Libourne. The wine is an over-the-top, exotic fruit bomb, with loads of fig, kirsch, black raspberries and licorice in a full-bodied, opulent style. This wine seems slightly more evolved than others from the exact same case I had purchased for $325 as a future back in 1983. Dark garnet-colored, and seeming fully mature (at least this bottle), this is one of the all-time great and singular examples of Bordeaux. My top wine of this trilogy of wines, which can all hit perfection in the right moment, was the 1982 La Mission Haut-Brion. Much more evolved than the very backward Mouton-Rothschild, the 1982 La Mission has classic smoked herb, camphor, hot brick, white chocolate and black currant flavors. Huge body, silky tannins, massive concentration and texture all make for a prodigious wine that should continue to drink well for another 30 years. This is the last of the old-style La Mission Haut-Brions and a truly prodigious one. I never would have dreamed that the 1982 Mouton-Rothschild (decanted five hours in advance, as were the Lafleur and La Mission Haut-Brion) could be so young, vibrant and still not mature at nearly 30 years of age. However, its dense purple color displays the classic crème de cassis notes, with hints of barrique and earth. It is medium to full-bodied, not as lavishly rich as the La Mission Haut-Brion or as exotic and singular as the Lafleur, but a classic Mouton-Rothschild. I remember the ancient cellar master, Raoul Blondin, telling me when I tasted it at Mouton that it would be the greatest Mouton since the 1959 and 1945. He was obviously right, and drinking it recalled this wonderful man who was one of the great characters of Bordeaux, and who, like the Robin sisters, has since passed away. I also couldn’t help noticing that the import strip labels on all three bottles told another story. The La Mission Haut-Brion had been imported by MacArthur Beverages, whose proprietor at that time was Addy Bassin, who worked with his son Bruce Bassin, both of whom have passed away and who were wonderful professional acquaintances and very good friends and mentors. The strip label for the Mouton-Rothschild was Château and Estates, which was the dominant importer of fine Bordeaux in the 1980s, and it didn’t strike me as a coincidence that several days earlier Abdallah Simon, who was the brains and emotional heart and soul behind Château and Estates, had also passed away in New York. Thirdly, the strip label on the Lafleur said “Cross and Blackwell,” which has long since stopped importing Bordeaux, and while its CEO and Bordeaux buyer at that time, Dick Carretta, is still alive, he is no longer involved significantly in the Bordeaux futures business.

With friends from France, we ate in, with my wife doing all the cooking except the Private Reserve steaks from Flannery’s Fine Foods, which I grilled. The food was classic bistro French – although they unfortunately do not have Maryland jumbo lump crabcakes in France – but simple, very pure and of impeccably high quality. I cooked the steaks very rare and, as always, they did not disappoint.  Of course, I can eat jumbo lump crabmeat almost daily, as I could white and black truffles.

As for the wines, the 2002 Bollinger Rosé Grande Année has a delicate salmon color, a beautiful framboise and raspberry nose and full-bodied flavors, with crisp acids and lots of structure, as most 2002s tend to have. I am not a great believer in aging Rosé Champagnes, but this will probably hold up nicely for at least 10-15 years. 1996 is one of my least favorite white Burgundy vintages. It’s the year where many oxidized bottles turned up, although I have never had one from Domaine Leflaive. The 1996 Chevalier-Montrachet is a baby. At age 14, it could easily be a 3- or 4-year-old Chardonnay. Loads of minerality, citrus oil, brioche, and waxy, honeyed notes are present in this light golden-colored wine. Medium to full-bodied, with searing acids, this wine has at least two decades of cellaring ahead of it. Very few 1996s have lived up to their billing from Burgundy pundits, but ones like this will certainly last 20-30 years, although I suspect it will never fully deliver the pure glories of white Burgundy in vintages that are drinkable earlier.

The three 1982 Bordeaux were somewhat of a sentimental journey. I was thinking that with each one of them, most of the people that I met in tasting them have long since passed away. Of course, during that era, it was the two spinsters, the Robin sisters, who permitted me to taste the 1982 Lafleur, arriving on their bicycles from nearly Libourne. The wine is an over-the-top, exotic fruit bomb, with loads of fig, kirsch, black raspberries and licorice in a full-bodied, opulent style. This wine seems slightly more evolved than others from the exact same case I had purchased for $325 as a future back in 1983. Dark garnet-colored, and seeming fully mature (at least this bottle), this is one of the all-time great and singular examples of Bordeaux.

My top wine of this trilogy of wines, which can all hit perfection in the right moment, was the 1982 La Mission Haut-Brion. Much more evolved than the very backward Mouton-Rothschild, the 1982 La Mission has classic smoked herb, camphor, hot brick, white chocolate and black currant flavors. Huge body, silky tannins, massive concentration and texture all make for a prodigious wine that should continue to drink well for another 30 years. This is the last of the old-style La Mission Haut-Brions and a truly prodigious one.

I never would have dreamed that the 1982 Mouton-Rothschild (decanted five hours in advance, as were the Lafleur and La Mission Haut-Brion) could be so young, vibrant and still not mature at nearly 30 years of age. However, its dense purple color displays the classic crème de cassis notes, with hints of barrique and earth. It is medium to full-bodied, not as lavishly rich as the La Mission Haut-Brion or as exotic and singular as the Lafleur, but a classic Mouton-Rothschild. I remember the ancient cellar master, Raoul Blondin, telling me when I tasted it at Mouton that it would be the greatest Mouton since the 1959 and 1945. He was obviously right, and drinking it recalled this wonderful man who was one of the great characters of Bordeaux, and who, like the Robin sisters, has since passed away.

I also couldn’t help noticing that the import strip labels on all three bottles told another story. The La Mission Haut-Brion had been imported by MacArthur Beverages, whose proprietor at that time was Addy Bassin, who worked with his son Bruce Bassin, both of whom have passed away and who were wonderful professional acquaintances and very good friends and mentors. The strip label for the Mouton-Rothschild was Château and Estates, which was the dominant importer of fine Bordeaux in the 1980s, and it didn’t strike me as a coincidence that several days earlier Abdallah Simon, who was the brains and emotional heart and soul behind Château and Estates, had also passed away in New York. Thirdly, the strip label on the Lafleur said “Cross and Blackwell,” which has long since stopped importing Bordeaux, and while its CEO and Bordeaux buyer at that time, Dick Carretta, is still alive, he is no longer involved significantly in the Bordeaux futures business.