An evening with friends began with the brilliant 1996 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart Champagne. With exquisite minerality, laser-like citrus notes, full-bodied intensity, and delicately flavored, this is a superb champagne to drink over the next 5-6 years. The 2005 Aubert Chardonnay Reuling is utterly profound. Its stunning minerality as well as superb perfume of hazelnuts, marmalade, and lemon blossoms are both persistent and endearing. Full-bodied with excellent acidity, freshness, purity, and texture, this is the consummate classic, cool climate California Chardonnay that ranks alongside the greatest white Burgundies. It should drink nicely for another 4-5 years, possibly longer, but it is irresistible at present.

We then moved to a mini-vertical of the great single vineyard Côte Rôties of Guigal from my cellar. 1997 was a surprisingly good vintage in the northern Rhône (unlike in the southern Rhône), and the 1997 Côte Rôtie La Turque appears to have reached its plateau of maturity, and it is probably best consumed over the next 4-5 years. Meaty, bacon fat, and floral notes intermixed with copious quantities of black fruits, earth, and forest floor emerge from this medium-bodied, pure Côte Rôtie. There is no evidence of oak, even though all of these wines are aged 42 months in 100% new oak casks. We finished with a mini-horizontal of the 1991 Côte Rôtie vintage, a year that was relatively dreadful throughout France with the exception of the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy, Beaujolais, and the northern Rhône, especially Côte Rôtie, Hermitage, and Cornas. The 1991 Côte Rôties have hit their peak of maturity, and this was a brilliant display of 18-year old Côte Rôties. La Mouline is always the most fragrant with an exotic, tropical fruit-scented nose (there is 11-12% co-fermented Viognier in this offering). It was the softest as well as most sexy of these wines. The 1991 La Landonne was pure beef blood, crushed rock, bacon fat, and lard, dense and rich as well as silky smooth (a rarity for La Landonne). In between was the 1991 La Turque, which offered up an exquisite perfume, plenty of sweet richness, but not the complexity of La Mouline or the density of La Landonne.

We finished with two perfect wines, one still very young, and one mid-way through its plateau of full maturity. The 1988 Côte Rôtie La Mouline, an exceptionally great vintage for Guigal as well as for Côte Rôtie, remains slightly firm. Its deep ruby/purple color is followed by an exquisite bouquet of spring flowers, honeysuckle, blackberries, truffles, pepper, and spice. In the mouth, the wine is very full-bodied, still powerful and rich, and appears to have another 5-8 years of upside before it hits its plateau of maturity. It is an ethereal wine. The 1978 Côte Rôtie La Mouline is one of the most monumental Côte Rôties every made. I carried a full 12-bottle case of this cuvée back to the USA after buying it from Guigal (the regular price when it was released in 1982 was $150 for a 12-bottle case - today it is about $150 an ounce!). I carried six bottles on each shoulder, and had bruised shoulders for a week thereafter. This wine possesses a huge amount of sediment as well as a dark plum/garnet color, and an ethereal bouquet of melted licorice, bacon fat, lychee nuts, blackberries, truffles, and camphor. The extraordinary aromas are followed by a wine with full-bodied opulence, incredible purity, a multilayered texture, and a finish that lasts well over a minute. It is a remarkable wine! Sadly, this was the next to last of my 12 bottles.

As usual, Chef Cindy Wolfe’s food was superb. Her soups, sauces, and gentle handling of fish and vegetables are to be admired. She remains Baltimore’s single greatest chef, with no competition in sight!