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Everyone ready for flu season to be over? Some weeks are worse than others, and this last week sure felt like one of the worst of all time. It felt like an Atomic bomb hit all of the US simultaneously, and that everyone will be staying home a lot more these next few weeks. But is your glass half-empty or half-full? I try to keep my glass at least half-full, and I say the best part about staying home is getting to drink more of your wine! As far as fine and rare wine goes, it has been a great year, and drinking great wine is the best bet to make your year even greater, in case you forgot. Consider me here to remind you with a recap of another exhilarating evening of delicious and decadent wines.

Much better than an Atomic bomb is an Atomix bomb, with Atomix (pronounced like attaboy, I believe) being an exciting and relatively new restaurant in New York City. It is definitely an experience, and many of New York’s most sophisticated collectors gathered recently on one evening to experience the restaurant exclusively. The wines were even more exclusive.

We started with a superlative magnum of 1988 Salon which was pretty much perfect in every which way. It had a rich nose full of vanilla aromas that Big Boy quickly gave 98 points. It was long and scintillating with a nice sweetness and powdered goodness to it. This was rock star stuff with great acidity and still on the upswing. In the end, I agreed with Big Boy, which is always highly recommended (98M).!

The second Champagne was 1973 Dom Perignon. Big Boy was hating on it, but it was still good, perhaps a touch mature as many old bottles of Champagne are prone to be. There were cream soda flavors and a rich, dry finish. It was sadly served too warm (93).

We got into the white Burg zone with a 2007 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres. It was a bit yeasty for Coche, more waterfall and milk on the nose than the usual Coche kink. The palate was minty and long with lots of spice, some ginger kisses, but it was on the root vegetable side. This leaned out a bit with air, more the vintage than the wine (95).

The 1996 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres was buttery, honeyed and very gamey. It was rich and decadent but in a too flamboyant a fashion. There were tapioca flavors and a touch of nutmeg to this wild bottle. Some seaweed in a food course lifted it up, but I felt like this wasn’t a perfect bottle, perhaps a touch heat affected (94?).

The 1996 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne had a similar story. It was very tropical with super apricot and orange aromas. This was quite honeyed once again, but richer than the palate of the previous wine. Someone remarked that they ‘didn’t know if either of these wines were great.’ This was very tropical and coconutty with loads of rum and the butter. Either this vintage for Coche has turned the corner quickly, or we had a couple of outlier bottles (94?).

We changed gears with a bottle of 1985 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues Batard Montrachet. It had a smoky and toasty nose with rich yellow fruits, classic Leflaive. This was pretty exceptional with its great richness and balance. It still felt youthful and on the ascending side of its life. The palate was delicious was great floral components and a touch of game to its fruit. An outstanding bottle (96).

We kept the vertical going with a big, brawny and smoky 1999 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues Batard Montrachet. This was another great Leflaive BBM and a powerful, classic example of the 1999 vintage. It had terrific length and an earthy undertone that I was diggin’ (pun intended, waka waka). I was very impressed (97).

The 1996 Leflaive Bienvenues Batard Montrachet felt a touch ‘flat’ to the Curious Gourmet and maybe it had reached maturity, though it was not bad. A few people were saying that they had drank better bottles (93).

The red wines began with a bang thanks to a strong bottle of 1985 Rosseau Chambertin Clos de Beze. It was outstanding from the get-go, with great length and zip. It was still on the tight side and young for an ’85. It kept unfurling and lingering on the palate, with great cedar and a flash of fruit on the strawberry city side. This was an amazing wine still with a long way to go (98).

The ’85 parade continued with a 1985 Meo Camuzet Clos Vougeot. This was one smoky, sexy “JAYER” Clos Vougeot, I wrote, because I have long been under the impression that Jayer made all the Meo wines from 1985-1988. Meo later corrected me that he didn’t vinify all the wines, such as the Clos Vougeot. It sure tasted like he threw two cents in there! It was packed with sexy, purple fruits and lots of spice. This was rich, decadent and floral with a nice leathery spice and a saucy finish (95).

The 1985 Dujac Clos de la Roche had a melange of the full spectrum of fruits — black, red purple and blue. There was great forest floor and tree bark complexities, and fresh floral notes, a true cornucopia of outdoor goodness. This was deliciously stylish and good, flirting with a higher score (97+).

We moved on to a spectacular bottle of 1985 Ponsot Clos de la Roche. It was rich, decadent and super concentrated. This was a perfect bottle of this wine, and it was clearly nestled in the strike zone of Ponsot’s best vintages. It is an outer-worldly wine in the context of the 1985 vintage, a bit of a superhero amongst mere mortals, although we had two other superheroes in this flight already! There was a lot of boss to this sauce (98+).

A 1978 Dujac Gevrey Chambertin Aux Combottes quickly stole the show from the 1985 flight. This was a perfect example of a wine punching above its weight class. ‘Wow,’ started my notes. It was close to the Clos de la Roche with a sappy, sexy nose full of musk, along with great concentration, pitch and a leathery finish. There was not a lot of spitting once the reds came around, and the notes were getting sloppy. I wrote something about putting something to bed, in bed, I can’t quite tell, maybe I was referring to myself lol (97).

An exhilarating magnum of 1964 Cheval Blanc was next. This was a deep, dark and smoky wine with loads of fruit, make that black cassis and red currant. It was rich and decadent with a touch of coconut and black raspberry flavors. This was exotically good, that old Cheval kink on full display, especially after all those Burgundies. (97M).

There was an after party chez Wild Bill’s, and there were five wines that I remember, everything was 97 points for the rest of the night, you gotta problem with that? They were pretty damn fine wines, and I was in a pretty damn fine place!

This, too, shall pass. Be safe and pull a few more corks than usual this month, I promise it won’t hurt!