Unauthorized

On our way back from Montreal, we stopped at the Shangri-La of wine cellars, the residence of Park B. Smith, a dear friend and restaurant owner/textile magnate from New York City. (His home is about five hours south of Montreal and about five hours north of mine in Maryland.) To say we were treated like kings/emperors is the understatement of the year. We were met at the front door with an unbelievably great Champagne, the 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal (from magnum no less, as all these wines were). This hit the spot with its brioche, white citrus, and honeyed Wheat Thin notes and medium to full-bodied, fresh, lively flavors, which belie its age of 21 years. This wine certainly can go for another 20, based on this particular magnum.

As people who have read any biographical profiles of Park Smith in different wine magazines would know, he has had access to the greatest wines in the world for over 50 years, and about 20 years ago he concluded that his wine of choice was Châteauneuf du Pape. He has quite a selection of them in his magnificent cellars, and we had four of his favorites (and mine too, for that matter). The Domaine Barroche 2005 Pure is one of the greatest Châteauneuf du Papes I have ever tasted. I have had it well over 15 different times, and every bottle has been a spectacular concoction of dark raspberries, blueberries, incense, lavender, and other assorted floral notes. Pardon the pun, but there is a “purity” to the wine, an unctuous, full-bodied texture, stunning richness and a silky integration of tannins that make this a perfect wine, with a flawless/seamless integration of all the component parts. I had hopes that the 2007 would turn out to be every bit as great, but the producer now acknowledge that at least one-third of the production is refermenting. This wine should go on for at least another 10-15 years, but who can ever manage to wait that long?

Two of the greatest wines from the justifiably maligned but occasionally profound vintage of 2003 are Pierre Usseglio’s cuvée called “Mon Aïeul” (aged totally in tank and old foudre, and composed of nearly all Grenache) and Clos St.-Jean’s 2003 Deus Ex Machina, a blend of 60% Grenache aged in tank and 40% Mourvèdre aged in small casks. The 2003 Mon Aïeul is fully mature, as even the great wines of this vintage seem to be on a fast evolutionary track. This wine is another exhilarating expression of Châteauneuf du Pape, with loads of pepper, herbs, garrigue, lavender, blueberry, raspberry and kirsch liqueur. It is a full-bodied, stunning wine with slightly more complex aromatics than the Pure (two years older), but again, it is a phenomenal expression of old-vine Grenache. A different animal altogether is the more structured 2003 Deus Ex Machina. This is a huge, massive wine with the Mourvèdre giving the wine more structure, tannin, leather, earth and meaty notes combined with the kirsch liqueur aspects of the Grenache component. Full-bodied, unctuously textured, stunningly pure, it is a tour de force in winemaking and should continue to age beautifully for another 5-10 years. A young, massive, perfect wine is the St.-Préfert 2007 Charles Giraud. I have drunk nearly two cases of this wine, which is one of my favorite 2007s, and while that is certainly infanticide, I can’t resist the purity, the extraordinary fruit density and richness of this wine, which is a blend of 60% Grenache aged in tank and 40% Mourvèdre aged in small barrels (in fact, an identical blend to the Clos St.-Jean Deus Machina). It is stunningly dark ruby/purple, with a voluptuous texture, awesome layers of loamy soil, garrigue, black currant and black cherry liqueur notes. The wine is full-bodied, pure and rich, with the tannins velvety and well-integrated. This is a wine that will probably never go into a closed state and should age beautifully for at least two decades.