Tasting Dinner

I'm still in the city, and it's OK, but I miss family and garden with increasing intensity each day. The other night I was invited to Kris and Ken's place for dinner, and Mary came straight from the airport to join us; she's back from France to gather her stuff before moving back there for good. Kris made a simple yet elegant dinner, and we had superlative wines to accompany each course.

First, his crab cakes- covered in roasted corn and served with a spicy mayonnaise. After beginning with a 2002 M. Grünhäuser Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett for an aperitif, we had a 2003 Colin-Deleger Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru "La Truffière" with the crab cakes. It was outstanding, with layers of fruit and minerals that intertwined hypnotically.

Next, a perfectly roasted chicken with potatoes and green beans. Archetypal, and super-traditional, but immaculately prepared. Mary opened the 1989 Camille Giroud Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru "Les Cazetiers" and though on its way out, it rallied after a few minutes open and gave us all of its remaining fruit and perufme.

With the cheese, we had the bottle of 1999 Ciacci Piccolomini Brunello I brought and decanted upon arriving. These guys being who they are, they immediately pegged it as a 1999 Brunello, but I didn't give it away. Mary remembered that she had stashed some Brunello in their fridge, so she dug out a bottle of 2001 The Ciacci Riserva to compare. 2001 was an epic vintage, and the contrast was amazing; mine was perfect, and absolutely at its drinkable best, while hers was super-concentrated and needs another 5-10 years to calm down a little. Best of all, it was a complete coincidence that she pulled it out, because I still hadn't told them what we were drinking. Wines are always best drunk with other wines, and with company like this.

The only sad note was the fact that the magnum of 1993 Giroud Vosne-Romanée Chaumes she brought back for me- a gift for John's wedding- shattered in her luggage. We were all pretty upset that such a thing of beauty had been lost.