Saul Cooperstein put together an amazing offline at APL in Hollywood, featuring steaks aged up to 403 days. That restaurant was incredible - the meat locker is insane and the food incredible.
The theme was ‘badass, aged, and red’ and it was an incredible spread. Amazingly, we didn’t have a bad wine in the bunch (other than the reconditioned Conterno, which I feel is not authentic as an old wine anyway so it doesn’t count), and considering the youngest was 1999 (by a long shot) that’s pretty incredible. I jotted down short notes on my iPhone, so I’ll go TomHill a bit here:
‘58 Conterno - amazing, still changing, meaty - structured after all these years, complex and interesting
‘64 Conterno (reconditioned) meh - madeirized yet some fresh fruit - odd
‘71 Torres - superfine dusty tannins, nice acidic backbone, milk chocolate & coffee nose, sweet red fruit, great, short finish
‘78 Gruaud Larose - Raw red meat, beautiful color, cassis, great space now, slight astringency
‘71 Sterling - slightly ripe-fruited/pruney, brilliant acidity and mouthfeel
‘73 Sterling - surprising nose - blue fruited? Bright nose, some mint, gorgeous color, bright and lively, wow, still tannic and structured
‘77 Mayacamas - ever so slightly corked, beautiful mouthfeel, fruit intact, finish short
‘82 Ducru - milk chocolate nose, red and black fruit - super complex nose, still fresh and young - tannic and structured, fantastic, slightly soft
‘90 Lagrange - classic dirty Bdx nose, rustic - more than any other wine - graphite, dark, rich soil,
‘77 Weinert - color looks almost new, peppermint patty nose (never wrote this as a note before), bright, fresh nose, beautiful mouthfeel, perfectly weighted, salty, falls apart quickly in the bottle/glass, though. Super interesting
‘99 Phelps Backus - so young, so fresh, almost too young in this group, after 2 hours, wow - huge nose, a little green/vegetal but also bright fruited and sparkly, lively palate, richer and opulent
Charlie has some wine and food photos to amaze…