The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

There are carefully planned wine dinners, where every bottle has its place in the sequence and everything proceeds in a sensible order. And then there are evenings when all plans eventually give way to glorious chaos. This one began with a private recital in Atherton, followed by an extraordinary evening of wine among a group of serious wine lovers. There was no formal tasting lineup. Bottles were simply opened and shared, initially with something resembling a logical progression and later with increasingly little regard for appellation, vintage or conventional serving order. It gradually turned into something resembling a miniature Paulée . Champagne gave way to white Burgundy, then mature Burgundy, Rhône and California. But eventually bottles simply started materializing. A La Turque suddenly appeared. Then more Burgundy. Champagne returned. A 1900 Madeira entered the picture. An 1868 Armagnac followed. And just when the evening surely had to be over, the host produced a mystery whit...

Another spectacular, gastronomic, educational dinner at Scott & Kate’s, this time with Harumi and Rob, built around Northern Rhône legends and one very serious Champagne. The evening actually began in my cellar, staring at three Burgundy bottles and trying to decide what could possibly make sense after a lineup of young Chave, Jamet, and Allemand. Note: for Burgundy geeks, finishing a meal with red Burgundy and Époisses is almost always a defensible answer. My heart wanted to bring the 2010 Comtes Lafon Volnay Santenots du Milieu. I absolutely love that wine, and mature-ish Volnay from a great vintage often delivers more immediate pleasure than a same-age grand cru from Morey-St-Denis. But I suspected the group would want something more “serious,” and honestly, I was curious too. In the end, I decided to bring all three bottles, announce them to the group, and then serve just one blind. Then into the wine carrier everything went, color-matched with the shoes, naturally, and off to ...

I don’t feel the urge to write about every great meal anymore. It usually takes something that genuinely moves me — something that lingers well after the night ends. This dinner did that. The food, the wines, the people, and the ease with which it all came together made it one of those rare experiences. Long after the plates were cleared and the last glasses emptied, it was clear this was a night I’d remember for a very long time. I’ve been to a lot of great dinners over the years. Some were extravagant, some were historic, some were just plain fun. This one has to rank at or near the very top — not because it was planned to be legendary, but because it became legendary almost by accident. The caliber of the wines, the quality of the cooking, and how well the pairings actually worked pushed this into rare territory. And the best part is that none of it felt like a show-off. It was the right group, the right energy, and our familiar Domaine-du-Chevsky potluck format — where everyone br...