I had dinner with Michel Rolland last Friday night. At least that’s the way I’m telling it. The Wine House put on a dinner with the world’s best known wine consultant and a handful of guests (three tables of eight, $135 per) in the small private dining room, just over the store. I saw an opening at his table and pounced like a tiger on the seat just once removed on his right. To my right was a couple who knew nothing about wine, just happened into this and had no idea they were dining with the equivalent of Phil Jackson or Stephen Spielberg. When I sat down, the guy pointed at the tasting menu and asked if we were really going to drink 14 wines. Yes, yahoo, that’s what we do.

The great man had a few bon mots, but was pretty much in a rote sales mode. He said that when he got started consulting his advice was “Ripe, ripe, ripe!” Thirty years later, with all the advances in technology and winemaking, his advice is “Ripe, ripe, ripe!” In answer to some who criticize his wine style as overripe, he made a great golf analogy: when you have a long put, sometimes you have to overshoot to get a chance of getting it in the hole.

He spoke at the table a bit about going to China and making wine in India (his wife Dany allowed that the most recent vintage was “not so terrible”).

The list:
2004 Remhoogte Estate, Stellenbosch
2003 Remhoogte Bonne Nouvelle, Stellenbosch
2004 Val de Flores, Malbec, Mendoza
2003 Yacochuya, Malbec
2003 Campo Eliseo, Tinta de Toro
2005 La Grande Clotte, Bordeaux Blanc

2004 & 2005 Bordeaux
Rolland-Maillet, St. Emilion
Fontenil, Fronsac
Bertineau St. Vincent, Lalande de Pomerol
Le Bon Pasteur, Pomerol