There’s a downside to a multi-course dinner where the wine is flowing in abundance: it can get tiring. Many a wine-driven evening, whether among friends or professional colleagues, goes from perky, energetic greetings to the tipsy-driven, over-amped, delusionally brilliant conversational phase to the more muted, philosophical turn to the groggy, lethargic finale. Two factors can wake the senses in the late innings: great food with unexpected elements and scintillating dinner companions.

Both were in abundance at a dinner I attended in mid-April at The Modern in New York City. It was to celebrate St. Supéry’s 20th anniversary in Napa Valley, and to informally announce Michaela Rodeno’s stepping down as the winery’s first and only CEO. With Rodeno and chairman Robert Skalli as the hosts, conversation never flagged. And the wines, from the heart of Rutherford, which is arguably the heart of Napa Valley, were uniformly excellent.

Two 2008 Sauvignon Blancs were served to accompany the chilled Maine lobster salad. Two white Bordeaux blends of Sauv Blanc-Sémillon (St. Supéry’s 2007 Virtu and a 1996 White Meritage) accompanied the unusual foie gras course. All four wines shone, with grapefruit and lime flavors and tingly acidity, but the Sémillon in the blends brought a rounder, fatter mouthfeel and a fig-like flavor to the table—the blends played beautifully with the foie gras, which had a fruit-spicy accent to that elegant slab of fat: Executive Chef Gabriel Kreuther poached the foie gras in Gewürztraminer at very low heat for ten minutes, and finished the dish with a rhubarb reduction.

Then came a cascade of reds to accompany the duck, lamb chop and cheese courses: A 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, a 1996 Red Meritage, a ’97 Cab from the winery’s Dollarhide vineyard and two more Cabs from the 1989 vintage, uncorked to celebrate the 20th anniversary. St. Supéry has pulled off the nimble trick of creating food wines (they don’t overpower) that are also ageable: the ’89s were a revelation, their tannins melted to silken consistency, allowing the powerful flavors of plum, cherry, cassis, cedar, coffee and earth flavors to take center stage.

I have to save a word or two for the cheese course concocted by Chef  Kreuther and Pastry Chef Marc Aumont. Millefeuille is generally associated with the dessert course; it’s at least two sheets, sometimes more, of puff pastry with layers of custard, whipped cream, puree, nuts etc. in between. But it can also handle cheese as long as the cheese is light enough, and this was genius: it was Roquefort lightened with a little Boursin so the cheese was creamy but not dense and the astringency was reduced, allowing the black truffles which were embedded in the top layer of pastry to resonate. Washed down with an earthy 20-year-old Napa Cab, it was sublime.

Happy anniversary to St. Supéry. Congratulations to the staff of The Modern. And kudos to my dinner companions. We were all brilliant, yes?

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