Unauthorized

I prepared grilled Copper River salmon while my wife made a sumptuous, heavily garlicked shepard's pie with ground lamb and creamy mashed potatoes. 1998 may be a difficult vintage in the North Coast for California Cabernet, but it is a top-flight vintage for producers who waited and picked fully ripe Chardonnay. Kistler's 1998 Cuvée Cathleen is tour de force. That was followed by an elegant grouping of Bordeaux, including a rich, concentrated 1990 Clinet that perhaps wasn't as powerful and rich as I have had in the past. The 1985 Lynch Bages has been fully mature for a number of years. This bottle was showing considerable amber and needed to be drunk up. Another fully mature wine, yet appears capable of adding weight without drying out is the 1983 Lafleur. It is an exotic wine with floral notes intermixed with raspberry and kirsch liqueur. The once outstanding 1981 Lafite Rothschild reveals a classic ash tray/lead pencil nose intermixed with red currants, minerals, and cedar. It is light to medium-bodied with moderate tannin, but it will not get any better. Although the 1971 La Fleur Pétrus is in decline, it is still delicious. Amber at the edge, but fat, ripe, and soft, it requires immediate consumption.