Unauthorized

One of my favorite local dishes is the Oysters Avery served at the Oregon Grille, a barely poached New England oyster with copious quantities of nicely spiced jumbo Maryland crab meat loaded on top and then baked. It’s a full-flavored, killer dish. The Oregon Grille has the finest steaks in the Baltimore area, and their aged strip steaks are always perfectly prepared with lots of flavor and texture.

The wine selection began with a brilliant 2003 Champagne from Bollinger, which continues to age nicely. It reveals lots of brioche, honeyed orange, and caramelized citrus notes in a full-bodied, fresh, lively style. The delicious 2002 Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles is still young and vibrant, exhibiting no hints of oxidation. It offers plenty of honeyed citrus, white peach, subtle hazelnut, wet stone, and lemon custard characteristics. That was followed by a Bordeaux mini-horizontal that began with the surreal, perfect 1996 Lafite Rothschild. This was the first time I had this great wine in a few years, and it still boasts an inky/blue/purple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of black walnuts, graphite, black currants, pen ink, and a hint of spice. The enormous concentration of fruit, combined with the wine’s ethereal elegance, purity, and precision is something to behold. It should benefit from 5-10 years of cellaring, and will keep 50 or more years. I have mixed reservations concerning the 1990 Latour. I have had some upper ninety point bottles, but more recently the wine is exhibiting a more flaccid, loosely constructed style without the level of concentration expected. Tasted next to the 1996 Lafite, the 1990 Latour showed less concentration, far greater evolution than one would expect in a 19-year old Latour (there is some amber at the edge), and an attractive spicy, plump, round, juicy style, but it is not at the level of the 1982, 1996, 2000, 2003, or 2005. Owners should start drinking it as I’m not sure it will hold up another 20-25 years. The same can be said for the fully mature 1982 Cheval Blanc. This was a perfect wine in its first 10-15 years of life, but it is now a 98-100 point wine for the first 30 minutes after decanting, and then it quietly turns into a wine in the low nineties as it loses its fat and succulence very quickly. Owners of it should drink it up, and do not do extended decanting. The 1962 Vega Sicilia was wonderful. Very cedary, rich, and opulent, as well as fully mature, it easily held its own against some great Bordeaux.

Lastly, the 2000 Taylor Vintage Port, from a half bottle, was magnificent.  While still young, my recollection is that it seemed surprisingly evolved for a 10-year-old port.