It was wildly historic and emphatically French. No, Napoléon didn’t return from the grave to ride again. Instead, a select group was invited to American-in-Paris Chase Bailey’s home to sample some of the very best French vintages of the 20th century. Chase, a film producer and tech executive, painter and sometimes expat, is famous in the wine world for his purchase, at a Napa Valley auction, of a six-liter 1992 Screaming Eagle bottle for $500,000. He shared that with about 100 of his friends for his 60th birthday.

This soirée was not as well attended but as excited: About 20 people gathered to taste a 1947 horizontal. On the bar: Petrus, Château Latour, Mouton Rothschild, Château Lafite Rothschild, Bouchard Pères et Fils Volnay, Chambertin Louis Rémé, La Mission Haut Brion and the permanently mind-blowing Cheval Blanc. It was, in a word, insane. There was applause, whistles and some dancing on the tables, but we weren’t done: A Petrus vertical followed: 1950, 1970, 1975, 1982 (astonishing!), 1990 and 1995. These gleaming soldiers were some of the best and brightest to come out of France since…well, forever. This was followed up with a group of about a dozen 1994 Napa champions, then to top it all off double magnums of Caymus, a champion Napa from 1982, a double magnum of Masseto, also 1982. 

 As if we needed more, some of us slipped down to Chase’s cave to pick out a few more to round out the evening. I’m sorry, I can’t remember anything after the Masseto.

 Chase’s favorite: the 1947 Château Cheval Blanc, a St Emilion whose vintage mythic. Think: Homer. It was featured in the film Sideways: The downtrodden and obsessed protagonist in a fit of depression takes his prized bottle to a hamburger joint and drinks it out of a styrofoam cup! Well, we had real glasses and this 60-plus year old Bordeaux was everything and more we’ve ever heard about it. The level was nearly perfect, the color ruby red, and the taste round and soft, berries and chocolate and coffee flavors. Even though the cork broke in half the wine was perfect. The 1947 Cheval Blanc, like most of the other wines we tasted on Thursday night, was rated by the experts : 100/100.

 The Petrus 1982 was my personal favorite. I’d never had this 100 percent merlot before and tasting them all from 1947 though 1995 was like celebrating my bar mitzvah at Playboy headquarters. At moments I felt I didn’t even want to drink it, but simply inhale. It’ll be tough to go back to my regular 7-euro bottle of “plonk.”

 Several experts showed up to participate full-throated in this historic tasting including the chipper and ever-enthusiastic wine hunter, Gerard Lynch (Cuvée Speciale, Paris) who won’t stop talking about the Petrus 1990. “I thought the ‘90 Petrus was the king,” says Gerard. “It merited to be chopped up by a credit card and inhaled thru the nose.” Romik Arconian of Crus.fr was very democratic in his assessement. “I loved everything. Everything! Everything!” Romik is still looking for his Métro. My contribution? Home-made baguette-style pizza (tomato, pesto and Bolognese with a variety of cheese toppings). Oh, yes, I also helped empty the bottles. Thank you, Mr. Bailey.

Photos: Jeff Greenfield