My favorite restaurant in Bordeaux (and one of my two or three favorite bistros in the world), La Tupina’s cruncy, deep-fried tripe may not be for everybody, but I adore this tasty dish and recommend readers give it a try unless they suffer from gout. That was followed by one of Bordeaux’s sublime seasonal delicacies, their white asparagus. When it’s this fresh, it just melts in your mouth. Several people at the table were concerned it would not work with the wine, but I had a piece of bread and a sip of mineral water before I drank the 2000 Giscours, and there was no problem whatsoever. The Giscours is performing surprisingly well, displaying loads of fruit along with a plush, dark berry, almost chocolaty character with hints of forest floor and underbrush, medium to full-bodied flavors, and silky tannins. We then moved to one of the monumental wines of the last century, the 1982 Pichon Lalande. Every time I have this wine I am amazed by how superb it is. Since bottling, it has flirted with perfection, and was a sprinter out of the gate, which gave rise to questions about how quickly it would begin its decline. However, at age 27, it retains all its glossy, rich, flamboyant cassis fruit, chocolaty, berry jam-like notes, and plenty of earthy, foresty flavors. This is a full-bodied, extravagantly rich Pichon Lalande seemingly devoid of acidity and tannin, but the wine is incredibly well-balanced and pure. It is an amazing effort! Next we opened the 1990 Haut Bailly. While elegant and outstanding, it is not up to the quality level of recent vintages produced under the new ownership of American Robert Wilmers and his winemaker, Veronique Sanders. The complex 1990 offers up subtle yet persistent aromas of red currants, tobacco leaf, spice box, and smoke. This medium-bodied, fully mature wine exhibits sweetness as well as lushness, and is capable of lasting another decade. The 1947 Château Talbot was the best bottle of that wine I have had. With sweet fruit as well as a plush, textured, sensual style, it is a fully mature, but still impressive 1947.

We finished with a monumental wine, a pristine, impeccably stored bottle of 1949 La Mission Haut Brion. Pure perfection, it boasts an extraordinary nose of charcoal, smoke, scorched earth, black currants, and cedar, and a remarkably full-bodied, lavishly rich, incredibly pure personality. It was a thrill to smell, sip, savor, and swallow. How I wish I had some of this wine in the cellar. Once again, provenance and storage are everything.