Night of Burgundy: Part Three

La Paulee, the extravagant BYOB part of the evening was insane. I was sitting next to Cathleen Burke of Kobrand who brought a 1979 Jadot. Nice! Masculine and luscious. The funny thing is, she said she was having a hard time tasting wine, everything tasted metallic. It as going around, it seemed. After course #1, I got up to table hop, to see what I was missing elsewhere. I was missing plenty at the Meursault Perriers table where most of the heavy hitters were sitting, including Big Boy, in yellow kit scarf bowed about his neck, white pants, inspired by the spring weather perhaps? This man is the young collector Jay Mcinerney made infamous in his Billionaire Wino story in the defunct Men's Vogue. I headed towards the friendly group in the rear, where Claude sat across from the New York Times wine critic and a few importers I am friendly with. While tasting the 1958 Conterno, thank you Paolo, one of the sommelier's working the evening presented me with one collector's inventory for the night."Get a look at this," he said. Jaw drop moment? Oh yes. Where other people brought bottles, this one jetted in an inventory, about 80 bottles transported for the evening. I was trying to calculate their worth in my Pinot-addled head, $600,000, the sommelier informed me. With all of that old Krug and Domaine Romanee Conti and Ponsot, it sure was. Oh, don't feel sorry for me. I wasn't doing so badly. After all, courtesy of the generosity of others, I had some 1952 Romanee Conti in my my glass at the time. Not so shabby. But it wasn't all glorious but always fascinating; a 1919 Bollinger that was reeking of truffle oil and 1959 Bouchard Corton, which was so leathery I had to wonder if it contained a heavy dollop of illegal syrah. At the close of the night I was amongst those who thought it was important volunteer for the clean up crew---picking over the leftovers....... damn. too late! 26 Liger-Belair Gevrery, In Time! 1985 Ponsot in Magnum? Left overs? I was pretty much in wine heaven. Some hangovers are just worth it. ******