Maude is a beautiful restaurant, just beautiful. Owner Chef Curtis Stone (who also owns the best butcher shop in Los Angeles at his other place Gwen) is both omnipresent (like all the best chefs in the worlds) and extremely talented (plus he looks like a supermodel!) — AND HE LOVES WINE. Hence, Maude is going to do four wine regions in 2018. From Jan to March is Spain. So we did an incredible night of Spanish wines, organized by the wonderful Mr. Green. Each course of the menu (printed below) was an Homage to a famous Spanish Chef. The food, vibe, room, entire experience was devine. Major props to our Somm Andre who did a fabulous job (sorry about all the broken glasses! — but it was a big night!!)
STANDOUT WINES: The 1954 and 1959 Ygay (Marques de Murrieta) were superlative — incredible sweetness, still somehow held together with completely, utterly resolved tannins. These wines exhibited some very deep secondary flavors. The 1962 and 1981 Vega Sicilia Unicos were textbook examples of these wines, with the 1962 being one of the best bottles of Unico I have ever experienced (thank you Mr. W!) — 1968 (which the family feels is their greatest wine) is no longer my favorite Unico — put it that way. The 1978 Tondonia was one of the best Lopez De Heredia I have ever had — in a blind tasting, one would probably mistake it for a 71 or 78 Burgundy — just amazing juice.
