A Dim Sum extravaganza and wine blow out at Mark’s Duck House is about as much fun as one can possibly have. It’s like the advertisement for the Outback Steakhouse ... no rules. The Dim Sum was as superb as always. Although the special shrimp, lobster and scallop dumplings must be pre-ordered, they are well-worth the effort as well as the price.

The white wines included one of my favorite wines of the afternoon (and one to which I kept returning), a magnum of 1981 Krug Champagne Collection. This exquisite, full-bodied, bone dry Champagne is still quite young, displaying plenty of citrus, earth, and brioche. The 2005 Beaucastel white Châteauneuf du Pape exhibits beautiful marmalade and honeysuckle fruit characteristics in a full-bodied format. It has not yet gone into that “dumb” oxidative state. TheKumeu River Chardonnay Mates Vineyard from New Zealand was very good, just in tough company with the classic Krug and the stunning white Beaucastel. Possibly a good buy (I don’t think this producer receives much publicity), is the 2007 Vincent Dancer Meursault Perrières. Hopefully this is an example of what we can expect from the 2007 white Burgundies. While lighter than a great vintage would be, it exhibited plenty of buttery citrus, honeysuckle, and good minerality, medium body, and outstanding purity. I would recommend consuming this lovely white over the next 3-4 years.

The red wines offered a mixture of styles as well as some irregularity. The Burgundies included a still young, but plump, rich, cassis, black cherry, and earth-laden 2002 Richebourg from Gros Frère et Soeur. Owners are advised to wait another 4 to 5 years before popping a cork as it is still young yet vibrant, full, and impressively concentrated. A mini-vertical of Rousseau’s grand cru Chambertin exhibited the pure brilliance of the 1990. Although it did not possess much color (light ruby with amber at the edge), it boasted explosive aromas of Asian spices, sweet currants and cherries, and forest floor. Sweet and round, with real opulence and fleshiness, it is a decadent, fully mature red that is a hoot to smell and drink. Less impressive, the 1991 Rousseau Chambertin possesses stunning aromatics, but the wine seemed to dry out in the mouth, and finished narrowly. It was out-performed by the long forgotten 1987 Rousseau Chambertin. The  latter wine revealed earthy, forest floor, sweet kirsch, currant, and Asian spice characteristics. Impressive for the vintage, this fully mature wine did not display any signs of decline with extended aeration in the glass.

Moving to some of the bigger wines, the 1986 Léoville Las Cases had obviously not been well-stored as it displayed a cooked character, and was basically all tannin with no fruit whatsoever. The full-bodied, rich, superb1982 Latour was not as profound as the bottle I had several days later from my cellar, but it is still a great wine offering silky sweet tannins and gorgeous notes of cassis, earth, and spice. Two major disappointments came from Tardieu-Laurent. The 1997 Bandol was nearly undrinkable because of harsh tannins, and a wine that I had predicted would be great, the 2001 Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Spéciale, was closed and backward. While dense, the tannins as well as the wine’s dryness are cause for concern. It’s possible this wine is going through a dormant stage, but it is also possible that it could be drying out from being aged too long in wood. I need to pull a bottle from my cellar to see how it is doing, but this was a very disappointing performance.

The stars of the day included the beautiful 2001 Clerico Barolo Per Cristina (named as an homage to his late daughter). It possesses sweet tobacco, black cherry, licorice, and nori (the seaweed wrapper used in sushi restaurants) notes, full body, and an elegant, complex personality. Just beginning to strut its stuff, this is a superb Barolo that should drink nicely for another 15+ years. The inky/ruby/purple-colored 2000 Cristia Châteauneuf du Pape Renaissance reveals loads of spring flower, meat, mushroom, blackberry, and cassis characteristics. It is still a young, vibrant wine that will benefit from another 2-5 years of cellaring. Both 2003 Châteauneuf du Papes performed superbly. The 2003 St.-Préfért Charles Giraud is an extravagantly rich, velvety-textured Châteauneuf with flamboyant black fruits intermixed with notions of lavender, roasted herbs, licorice, and pepper. Super-rich with no hard tannins, it is a tour de force for this vintage. Already drinking well, it should hold for 5 to 6 more years. The 2003 Les Caillloux Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Centenaire from André Brunel exhibits abundant quantities of sweet kirsch fruit, but this bottle revealed a slight over-ripe character which I have not noticed in other examples. In any event, this afternoon, the guests seemed to be split between those who adored the wine and those who didn’t. A brilliant effort from Spain is the monumental 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico. Along with the 1982 Latour, it was the finest red wine of the day. Gorgeously sweet cassis and black cherry notes intertwined with hints of oak, earth, and spice box are found in this full-bodied, incredibly fresh, vibrant, super-concentrated wine. Lastly, the 1991 Ridge Monte Bello remains a very deep ruby/purple-colored, rich, woody, backward wine that is still 8-10 years from full maturity. The blatant oakiness became exacerbated with the seafood dumplings. This is a potentially great wine, but with Dim Sum, a horrible match-up.