Petit Louis Bistro

Petit Louis,

4800 Roland Ave,

Baltimore, MD 21210 tel

(410) 366-9393

February 2010

This informal lunch with Robert Parker was a great way to spend an afternoon during what turned out to be a brutal winter for the Northeastern United States replete with multiple record-breaking snowstorms. Petit Louis, part of the empire of Baltimore restaurateurs Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman, serves up classic bistro fare in an informal and relaxed setting. The food was delicious, and a perfect foil for a number of breathtaking wines.

We started with Lafon’s 1985 Meursault Charmes. This was an especially ripe, almost tropical Charmes full of exotic fruit, honey and flowers that flowed through to a lush, oily finish. Readers still holding on to their bottles will want to drink this sooner rather than later, as the 1985 Charmes is fully mature, if not slightly past peak.

A bottle of Bruno Giacosa’s 1989 Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva, from my cellar, was pretty, but not as magical as it can be. Perhaps disturbed by the trip down from New York, the wine showed gorgeous layers of fruit and fine, silky tannins, but not the explosive concentration of the finest examples. The 1990 Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva, from Bob’s cellar, had been opened for a few hours, and it was spectacular. Rich, powerful and impressively endowed, the 1990 Santo Stefano Riserva was utterly spectacular in its length and round, enveloping personality. What a bottle! The 1989 Barolo Riserva Collina Rionda, also from Bob’s cellar, was off the charts. Sweet, perfumed and impeccably elegant, the aristocratic 1989 Collina Rionda showed why it is considered one of the greatest Barolos ever made. I think the two us drank the whole bottle over several hours, which was a real treat, to say the least. This was a particularly youthful, virile example of the 1989 Rionda. Roberto Voerzio’s 2000 Barolo Cerequio, from my cellar, more than held its own with the Giacosas, which is the highest compliment I can pay it. I have always adored this Barolo and was thrilled to see it show so well. The tell-tale Cerequio berries, flowers, spices and minerals came through in grand style. The oak, while slightly present, was impeccably balanced. This, too, was a great, great bottle. With that, it was time to get back on the train to New York, but the memory of these fabulous wines was more than enough to last a lifetime. 

Food:

Frisée Salad, Poached Egg, Lardons, Blue Cheese

Roasted Chicken with French Fries 

Wine:

1985	Comtes Lafon Meursault Charmes	89
1989	Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano	94
1990	Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano	97
1989	Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Collina Rionda	100
2000	Roberto Voerzio Barolo Cerequio

Photo and Credit: Petit Louis Bistro, Baltimore

 --Antonio Galloni