Booze

We went to dinner last night at Dr. Mark's. He grilled up some delicious steaks that we wolfed down along with mashed potatoes, salad, and asparagus with hollandaise. That was followed by ultra-rich brownies which must have contained about 15,000 calories apiece. They were delicious.

I brought over a couple of bottles of 1989 Niebaum-Coppola Rubicon. We had trouble with both of the corks being brittle, but the wine was fine. I think it may be slightly past its prime at this point, but everyone seemed to like it. Not surprisingly it matched up well with the steaks. I thought the flavors tended toward tobacco, leather, and dark cassis in a tight and narrow range. The wine didn't open up much, and the two bottles were consistent.

Mark opened up a bottle of 1998 Silver Oak, Alexander Valley. We drank this with and after dessert. I thought it was outstanding. It was very rich and full with flavors of deep grapes, chocolate, and a little vanilla. It was a surprisingly perfect complement to the brownies, and worked well as a dessert in and of itself. It has been too long since I enjoyed some Silver Oak. It's a shame that it became so popular and the price just sky-rocketed. I still have one or perhaps two bottles of the 1990 in my cellar. I am sure it will be a beautiful occasion when I open and drink those.

After we polished off the wine, we moved on to beer and liquor for the game of darts. I tasted what was hands-down the best rum I have ever had. I believe it was simply called Anguilla XO. It was ultra-smooth, and I cringed when the girls mixed theirs with cola. It was way too nice to dilute with anything other than perhaps a single ice cube. The flavors of vanilla, molasses, and cola blended beautifully and the rum seemed to soothe my throat as it went down with nary a bite.

Jonathan 9/25/2004 12:44:00 PM