Introduction

L to R: Richard, Sandy, Fred, Christianne, Jonathan, Bill, Paul, Gary, Keith

Our dear friend Jonathan Dinh has been out of the country for many months. He was back for a couple of weeks, and we expect to see more of him in the coming year than we did last year, but this gathering was our send off for him, before he headed to Europe for the next few weeks. Jonathan suggested we do French wines--Champagne, Bordeaux, Rhones and Sauternes--as he was looking for a break from a number of Burgundy-heavy dinners over the preceding 12 days.

Our Rhone flight easily outshown our mature Bordeaux flight. That may have been at least partly due to the 1986 vintage represented by two of our Bordeaux, and the still painfully tannic and tight nature of that vintage. Although it was a very highly rated vintage by Parker, I have never much enjoyed Bordeaux from that vintage, and the '86 Talbot was a typical example, where it seems doubtful there will be fruit or anything else of interest left if and when the tannins ever settle down. The '86 Leoville Las Cases, on the other hand, was one of the better '86s I've had, but nowhere near as balanced and enjoyable as LLC typically is for me due to the still unresolved tannins. The Bordeaux of the night was our Leoville Barton from the vintage I much prefer for drinking now--1985. Our '83 Gruaud Larose was also a lovely mature, balanced Bordeaux.

Our Rhone flight was a definite step up. I preferred the '95 d'Ampuis to the '92 Le Pavillon and '96 La Chapelle amongst our Northern Rhones, but they were all very good wines. The La Chapelle was tight and smoky, and showed the least well of our flight of five. The d'Ampuis is still quite youthful, and had the longest finish of the three. Of our two Chateauneuf du Papes, the '98 Autard La Cote Ronde was the red wine of the night--rich, complex and hedonistic. The '98 Pegau is also terrific, and quite youthful. I think I'm feeling the need of another one of our all CdP evenings.

As a final treat, we had the 1948 La Tour Blanche Sauternes. In 1855 La Tour Blanche was classed as a Premier Cru, placed by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce at the top of the category, just after Yquem. This was only the third quite mature La Tour Blanche I've tried (the others were '28 and '35), and this one showed the best of the three. Rich and balanced creme brulee and tangerine marmalade, this was a lovely end to our excellent meal and bounty of wines.

Lupa has very good food, and waives corkage for us, so this is a terrific place for a casual, relatively inexpensive wine dinner, and we've done several here. Our Roman regional dishes, served family style, included Scamorza ai Funghi (melted smoked mozzarella with mixed sauteed mushrooms); beef carpaccio with arugola, capers and shaved parmiggiano; Fettunta alla Fave (toasted bread smothered with garlic topped with fava beans and fresh caciotta cheese); Gnocchi al Cinghiale (with 5-hour braised wild boar); Lasagna alla Bolognese; Fettuccini Tartufate (with porcini, shitake and oyster mushrooms in a black truffle sauce); Anatra al Marsala (pan roasted duck breast in a marsala sauce, farro and grilled asparagus); and our favorite, the Saltimbocca alla Romana.

Flight 1 - Champagne starter (1 note)

Flight 2 - Bordeaux Flight (5 notes)

Flight 3 - Rhone Flight (5 notes)

Flight 4 - Sauternes (1 note)

Closing

Jonathan, Linda, Gary and Christianne