Dinner at Harvest Vine

This coming Saturday I am enjoying what should prove to be a spectacular wine dinner with 10 folks. In order to give my wines a chance to rest, I dropped them off at the host's house (Steve Cramer) a few days in advance. We ended up chatting for a while, and then Steve graciously opened an impeccable bottle of 1990 Lynch Bages which was part of a recently auction purchase. Mmm!

• 1990 Château Lynch-Bages 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  This was a pristine bottle with a high fill and a spotless cork. The moment we opened it the nose reeked of tobacco and cigar box. With more air the aromatics yielded up an amazing note of cocoa powder followed by spicy cedar and then a return to tobacco with a hint of brett and leather. The palate was approachable from the get-go with initial notes of graphite and smokey minerals that were quickly swallowed by masses of black fruit. The mouthfeel was impeccable, lush and rich as any good 1990 should be, yet very well balanced and with good focus. The finish initially showed some drying tannins, but with air this smoothed and lengthened considerably. Mmm, this is such a fun, pleasurable young wine with loads of life ahead, fantastic claret!

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Time flew by before I realized I needed to dash across town to meet up with a friend at the Harvest Vine, a fantastic local tapas bar featuring Basque cuisine. We parked at the counter in front of the two chefs and for three hours whittled our way through about half of the menu (which is constantly changing with each new visit): a salad of braised goose; a plate of delicious cured meats; tuna confit; a delicious garbanzo dish with a smokey tomatoe sauce; an awesome dish of sauteed black trumpet mushrooms with a light cream sauce, yummy!; octopus and potatoe with loads of sea salt and smoked paprika; seared duck breast in a red wine reduction; grilled squab marinated in juniper and cinnamon; some nice sea bream served top braised turnips and a fish broth reduction; and finally a rich flan to cap the meal off. Woof!

To accompany the fantastic food we chewed our way through a young but delicious Vall Llach.

• 2001 Celler Vall Llach Priorat Vall Llach 94 Points

  Spain, Catalunya, Priorat

  Mmm, a dense, almost smoldering nose of mineral, cranberry, and leather. Just popped and poured without decanting, this was reticent and compact at first, but after three hours this really started to sing. The highlight was an amazing attack, as this sweeps across the palate with amazing depth, precision and minerality. The balance here is impeccable, and this is sneaky long with dusty tannins that you feel on your front teeth about a minute afte a sip. This still seems fairly closed and will likely be much better with a lot more decanting or a number of years. Lovely, lovely Priorato!

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Not a bad afternoon and evening of eating and drinking!