My friend Brian had a fabulous wine-soaked dinner at his house the other night. His friend Chris from Washington brought in five high-end Bordeaux from the 1978 vintage, and the rest of us tried to play, well, not Catch-Up, but at least Let's Not Embarass Ourselves Too Much.

The food and fellowship were fabulous, and the wines were wonderful, some of the Bordeaux even better than that. There was only one semi-clunker in the group, which was part of the one of the evening's "lessons":

*The Haut Brion was about half-dead, and the folks at the dinner who have a lot more high-end Bordeaux experience than yours truly seemed not terribly surprised. Apparently that happens with this wine with some regularity. it paled next to the most modest of its neighbors, a Lascombes that Chris recently purchased for $40. "Despite the pedigree of that HB," Brian said, "that bottle on that night was not up to the quality of the value-priced Lascombes. Moral of the story: When popping corks, you never know what your going to get."

*The '78 Ducru Beaucaillou was very tasty but starting to show its age. The Pichon Longueville was excellent. The wine of the night was the Margaux, rich, leathery and full of life. Or, as Brian put it, "Ch. Margaux really is the bee's knees."

*We followed the French round with a 2000 Chateau Montelena cab, and it was a perfect segue to the new World, thanks to the wine's acidity and overall deliciousness.

*The night began with a vibrant FX Pichler gruner veltliner and two 2002 rieslings from Donnhoff, a Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Spatlese and a Niederhauser Hermannshole Spatlese. Both were right in the zone, and cemented Donnhoff's role as my favorite readily available riesling producer.

*I brought an '06 Aubert Lauren Vineyard chardonnay, and it was served during our appetizers with Lonny's 2005 Joseph Drouhin Puligny Montrachet. I took sips of both then and later, and while Aubert remains my favorite U.S. chard, its "woody" aspects were trumped by the Drouhin's purity of fruit.

*Finally, the day after was not nearly as painful as such a round of quaffing might imply. As Brian noted, "a night of 8-14% wines sure feels a lot better in the morning than the 14-18% big boys out in the market today."