The 305th wine-dinners dinner is held at the Astrance restaurant with chef Pascal Barbot. We are twelve and it is certainly one of the most cosmopolitan of my dinners: there are two Hungarians whom I had met at the recent dinner at the restaurant Comme chez Soi in Brussels, two Spaniards including a winemaker, a Dutch also a winemaker in Champagne, a French person living in Mexico who came with his two children and three regulars. Half of the table is made up of new participants at my dinners.

I arrive very early at the restaurant because I will receive around 4pm the two Spanish guests who wish to let me taste wines from their vineyard. When I say hello to Pascal Barbot, he is all joyful because he was able to find an old Brane-Cantenac that will serve as a red mullet sauce to create a beautiful agreement with the Petrus 1976 and the Brane-Cantenac 1978.

While waiting for my Spanish friends, I open the bottles. The sommelier Lucas Hubert brought me the bottles he had put on their feet last night and the color of La Tâche 1966 seems like a rosé wine. Would the wine be depigmented? I don’t see any deposit. This color remains an enigma.

As always, there are wines whose stoppers come in torn pieces, which is generally caused by necks that are not cylindrical and whose pinching prevents the ascent. This will be the case for the Carbonnieux Blanc 1947 cork and especially for the wine of Cyprus 1870.

Luis and Emmanuel came with three bottles of wine, an Alto Alberche 2023 from Domaine Dexaïe de la Sierra de Gredos and two great wines La Camilleja Domaine Dexaïe 2021 and 2023. These wines from the Sierra de Gredos are growing at an altitude of 1200 meters. The wine is based on Grenache with sometimes centenary vines. If the Alto Alberche 2023 is simple but pleasant, both La Camilleja are really big and rich, with a beautiful nobility. This wine enjoys a good reputation and I am happy to have tasted these two vintages.

To thank my friends, I had brought a 1973 Champagne Canard Duchêne of which there was one unopened bottle left from the three that I had brought to the academy of ancient wines. This champagne is round and charming, tasty and full of pleasure.

The dinner composed by Pascal Barbot for my wines is thus written: gougères au comté, gribiche tiles with radishes, Pata Negra ham / some shellfish, raw and cooked/ Koshihikari rice, marinated juice / scallops, warm oysters and Kombu butter / steamed rouget butter and red butter / grilled hare grated, onion fondue / hare compote according to the recipe of Senator Couteau / Charcoal mushrooms and melted with comté/ natural stilton/ mango/ financial with rose.

The guests arrive and we start with a Champagne Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle 60s or 70s. It is of a beautiful maturity and noble, but it is especially the roundness and softness that make it very pleasant. With Spanish ham, the pairing is gourmet.

From the first sip of the 1982 Salon Champagne, we know that we are in the presence of an immense champagne. We rub shoulders with the perfection of champagne. What nobility! What greatness! With the oyster, champagne is excited. It is lively. With a clam topped with an acidic sauce, it is also excited. We swim in happiness.

Normally the 1982 Salon should have accompanied the divine rice which is a success of Pascal Barbot, but we were greedy and the rice accompanies the Château Carbonnieux Graves Blanc 1947 which one might think that the nose is corked but this is not the case. This perfume hinders a bit to appreciate at best the very interesting, fluid and pleasant Graves from 1947.

On the contrary, the Bâtard-Montrachet Antonin Rodet 1989 is rich and generous. I believe I have never tasted such succulent and delicate scallops as those prepared by Pascal Barbot this evening. The texture is divine and moves me, and the solid Bâtard highlighted the dishes showing a wealth that brings happiness.

The red mullet is also masterfully treated with a Brane-Cantenac wine sauce. The Château Brane-Cantenac Pauillac 1978 is an accomplished wine, very dense, but it is a little erased by the complexity and refined richness of the Pétrus Pomerol 1976. What a great truffle-flavored wine highlighted by this fish that is my ‘caprice” : every time I put a Petrus in a dinner, I like it to be accompanied by a red mullet and a red wine sauce. We have the proof.

In the menu, it was planned that the two Bourgognes would be served together, but I prefer that the Musigny Vieilles Vignes Domaine Georges de Vogüé 1985 be alone to add the hare râble. This racy and glorious wine is of a rare youth. We are in the presence of a very great long, rich, and subtle Burgundy. It leaves a very convincing impression on the palate. The highly veniform character of the hare highlights it.

The hare compote is served for La Tâche Domaine de la Romanée Conti 1966 which has completely lost the rosé color of the moment of the opening. The wine has a beautiful dark color and its scent is that of a rich and powerful wine. This 1966 is of a perfect personality and we are all under the charm of this wine. What happiness!

Next to him on the same dish there is the Châteauneuf du Pape Réserve des Chartes Léopold Ranc 1947. If he were alone, we would feast on his incredible balance and charm. But unlike Josephine Baker, we cannot have two loves on this dish.

I had asked Pascal Barbot not to plan for a county that is too often chosen to marry a yellow wine from the Jura. His dish with mushrooms happily accompanies a relatively little powerful but pleasant and very accessible Château Chalon Joseph Tissot 1947.

We will now drink three wines that if they were rated at school, would have 20 out of 20 or if they were rated by wine experts, would have 100 out of 100.

The Château de Fargues Lur-Saluces 1989 is the ideal and perfect Sauternes of this period, a total achievement for its age. Alexandre de Lur Saluces was very proud of this 1989 Fargues that I have drunk several times with him.

The Château Guiraud Sauternes 1893 is equipped with an original stopper. The year can be clearly read on the cap, which is not frequent for very old corks and the capsule bears the name Guiraud which is very readable. The bottle has no label and a thick layer of black dust was removed when I had to open the wine, so that Lucas would not have black hands at the time of serving this wine.

To situate this 1893, it turns out that I had the chance to drink 106 vintages of Yquem and that I consider Yquem 1893, drunk several times, as the archetypal Yquem. It summarizes and synthesizes everything that Yquem can offer. I find in this Guiraud 1893 a particular perfection. This wine offers wealth and grace, with infinite finesse. It is sweet but lively. It is the perfection of the multifaceted Sauternes.

At the opening, the Vin de Chypre 1870 was the one with the most complex fragrance possible. I made Emmanuel, the Spanish winemaker feel it so that he smells an absolutely complex perfume, mixing acidity and sweetness. I am naturally in love with these sweet wines so powerful.

The atmosphere at our table was particularly cheerful. Jokes and laughter were flowing but in front of the wine, we were serious.

There are so many great wines that we have very different votes. All the wines of the meal had at least one vote, which is remarkable since we drank thirteen wines.

Five wines were nominated first. The Salon 1982 and La Tâche 1966 each had four first-prize votes. The wine of Cyprus 1870 had two first-place votes. Le Bâtard-Montrachet 1989 and the Guiraud 1893 had a first vote and what is paradoxical, it is that the Guiraud, despite only one first vote finishes first in front of those who had four first votes, because he had six second votes.

The ranking of the entire table is: 1 – Château Guiraud Sauternes 1893, 2 – La Tâche Domaine de la Romanée Conti 1966, 3 – Champagne Salon 1982, 4 – Vin de Chypre 1870, 5 – Bâtard-Montrachet Antonin Rodet 1989, 6 – Musigny Vieilles Vignes Domaine Georges de Vogüé 1985.

My ranking is: 1 – La Tâche Domaine de la Romanée Conti 1966, 2 – Château Guiraud Sauternes 1893, 3 – Champagne Salon 1982, 4 – Vin de Chypre 1870, 5 – Bâtard-Montrachet Antonin Rodet 1989, 6 – Château de Fargues Lur-Saluces 1989.

Pascal Barbot often came to comment on the dishes. He achieved tonight a quality and subtlety that make me think he is at the level of a three-star chef. The cooking of scallops, rice, mullet are at the top of what I have been able to taste in my culinary experiments. He lives these gastronomic moments with passion.

All this evening, by the cosmopolitan side of the table, its good mood, the cuisine and exceptional wines, makes this 305th dinner one of the most exciting that I have created.