Magnum birthday

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It's the Specialist's birthday, and this year she decided to do a bigger gathering.  After taking the number of guests into consideration, she realized that single bottles would never be enough to go around... and issued the order for us all to bring magnums to dinner.  Now this was gonna be fun!

She's always been a big fan of Sup 1, and it's easy to make arrangements to get a little special treatment when you're friendly with the bosses.  Apparently they took on an extra dishwasher tonight just so they could handle our wine glasses... if the manager is to be believed.

The Specialist gave BFF and I a ride to the restaurant, and we arrived well before anyone else... and I never expected anyone to be on time for a 7pm dinner in a (slightly) off location on a school night.  Well, it gave the staff a little time to prep the wines and glasses.

One of us was real hungry and didn't wanna get buzzed drinking bubbly on an empty stomach, so he asked for some toast... and we got this cream of mushroom to go along.  Turned out to be pretty damn good, even though I was wondering if it came out of a can of Campbell's...

Grilled ox tongue

Cuttlefish, seaweed and sea urchin roll - always very good.

Yellowtail

Flounder wing (縁側)

Octopus carpaccio - always fun to eat the crunchy suckers.

Flounder wing and caviar sushi

Minced toro, sea urchin and caviar sushi

My daily ration of veggies...

Pretty decent grilled chicken, but why was there bacon?

The beef brisket was very yummy.

Lobster linguine - YUM!

Roast suckling pig - de rigueur here.  Just look at that crackling.

Duck confit casserole rice - important to always finish with this dish.  Actually, I don't need anything else.  Just gimme this.

But as delish as the food was, most of us really only care about the wines tonight.

1997 Salon en magnum - nice and big nose of heavy toast, caramelized, ripe on the palate but acidic on the finish.

2000 Laville Haut-Brion en magnum - a little toasty, flinty, a little nutty with lemon citrus.

1993 Mouton-Rothschild en magnum - savory like soy sauce, smoky and cigar notes.  Classic Pauillac.

1993 Harlan Estate from magnum - smoky, mineral, ripe on the nose.  A little sweet on the palate.  Very nice.

2003 Mouton-Rothschild en magnum - a little blood, mineral, iron rust on the nose.  Sweet on the palate, still concentrated and tannic.

1990 Lafite-Rothschild en magnum - fragrant nose with minty, smoky and a little lead pencil notes.  Very classic and nice.

1982 Pichon-Lalande en magnum - smoky, green pepper and dried herb notes.  Drinking nicely.

A very nice evening... I'm glad we didn't open that last magnum of Yquem... HIC!