Search for
Articles
  • Wines
  • Articles

Vito's Cafe

Another wonderful meal at this casual Italian bistro included excellent food. The wine of the night was the fully mature 1978 Villa Mt. Eden Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, which was in great condition. It exhibited a dense plum/garnet color with some lightening at the edge as well as beautiful aromas of crème de cassis, damp earth and spice box. Full, thick, rich, and unlikely to get much better, this brilliant 1978 was made by Nils Venge 34 years ago. The 1996 Screaming Eagle seemed monolithic compared to the Villa Mt. Eden, although it is certainly outstanding.

The 2001 Verité La Muse tasted like a two-year-old wine. Potentially fabulous, but in need of at least 5-7 years, this wine should be forgotten for now. The 2009 La Tour Martillac Blanc still exhibits some youthful oak, but the honeyed melon, quince and lemongrass characteristics are impressive.

More articles from this author

Petit Louis Bistro

From Gourmet

A lookalike, authentic French bistro, Petit Louis in Baltimore's Roland Park is the creation of restauranteurs par excellence Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman. You feel like you’ve walked into a bistro on the Left Bank of Paris when you enter Petit Louis. The food is classic bistro, and they do it well. All of the courses we had were flavorful, sometimes a trifle rustic, but delicious in their intensity. This was good comfort food prepared extremely well. The wines started with one of the major surprises for me over the last year, the 2006 sparking wine from Tony Soter in Oregon. I had this several times while I was out visiting Oregon, and I had always been impressed, but this is a 10-year-old sparking Rosé that is just sensational, and I’m talking world class—it’s that good. Something this good from France would cost at least two to three times as much, so kudos to Tony Soter. The 1995 Billaud-Simon Chablis Mont de Milieu was oxidized and undrinkable. The 1996 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos St. Urbain Rangen de Thann was sweet, and although it went well with the foie gras, it was just a little too unctuous and sweet a wine...

La Toque - Cheval Blanc Dinner

From Gourmet

This was a spectacular night of fabulous food at La Toque in Napa, California. Every course was right on target, and we had the joy of hosting Château Cheval Blanc’s administrator Pierre Lurton for this night with Wine Advocate subscribers.
Back to top
Loading…