Some seriously great old bottles from California

One of the most enjoyable and interesting dinners so far this year took place in March during a weekend spent with Hugh and Judy Johnson in the company of Steven and Bella Spurrier. Hugh had threatened to bring out some relics from his cellar in the country whose performance was far from guaranteed. 

 

 

During lunch he kept hopping down to the cellar for more and stranger bottles, after two fine 1971 Germans, a Maximin Grunhaüser Abstberg Auslese which was drying out a bit and a wonderfully rich, creamy Bürklin Wolf Forster Freundstück Auslese that...