2000 Chateaux Monbousquet, St. Emillion Grand Cru

This was a wine that we sampled at Lola during a recent dinner. OK it was far more than sampled, as we enjoyed this wine througout its tableside evolution. I actually was looking for something a bit more mature, but steering me this way turned out to be a great call by the owner.

The wine started out with a bright red fruit character held up with rich earthy undertones. The strongest notes were of currant and blueberry, with a core of red clay. The finish was long and elegant, very typical bordeaux.

As we tasted our second course the wine was changing a bit. More vanilla came out along with some mushroomy elements. A bit less fruit, as one would expect, but still extraordinarly balanced. It was a surprisingly good pair with a foie gras dish.

With our entrees the wine was suprisingly refined. I was having a duck dish, which brought out a rich cranberry essence. My wife was dining on venison, and this brought out some more tea and heady spices.

The wine was truly excellent. It had enough complexity and balance to hang with almost anything we could put it up against. Highly recommended.

1996 Felsina Maestro Raro, Tuscany

I had this one at Charlie Palmer's Aureole in Las Vegas. Over all this wine was outstanding, and drunk quite a bit younger than it's 10 years. Big full flavors of truffle, leather and cassis. The balance was quite good and the finish was impressive and quite long. It developed a bit during the meal, but was never really fell off. I'd give it another 5 years with out concern, and it might even get a bit better. It was $140 on the list, but was actually quite worth the price. I'd love to find a couple of these for my home cellar.

Its also worth mentioning that the list at the restaurant was so big that it came delivered on a tablet PC. You can browse the list online here