Mary came by, and her friend Camille, so I threw something together based on what we had in the fridge. Thus more grilled chicken, with a similar molasses/tamarind/cider vinegar based sauce, and polenta with parmesan, lemon thyme, and truffle salt, and grilled summer squash and onion.
We began with De Meric Champagne, which had a strange Sherry/almost corked thing going on, so we moved on to a 2004 Wagner Stempel Riesling which was very nice, but we quickly abandoned it once the food was ready for the 1997 Laurent Gevrey-Chambertin “Les Cazetiers” followed by Mary’s fabulous, velvety 1984 Stag’s Leap Cabernet. Now I’ve had the Laurent a couple of times recently, and it’s good, and funky, but light on fruit and a bit unbalanced. Comparing it to such a rich, old, and beautiful wine as the Stag’s Leap wasn’t fair, but it sure was fun. After the meal, the Champagne was toasty and beautiful, and the remaining Riesling was a perfect dessert- so good that we forgot about the figs in the fridge.
