A few nights ago, (August 12) we had the chance to just be wine guys for an evening, thanks to Clyde Beffa’s generosity with some gems from his cellar. It was a great pleasure to have the chance to enjoy the buffet at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, and taste an astonishing range of older wines from California and elsewhere. It was also great fun to just have a chance to be wine geeks, and to do so in an unreserved fashion.

There was a wonderful assortment of old zinfandels and cabernets from the old days in California. Some old friends were on the table, such as the 1974 Sutter Home Zinfandel. That was one wine I had personally consumed two cases of, purchased from the winery in about 1977, on my first trip to Napa. In those days, Joe Heitz was manning the tasting bar at his winery; and I bought a few bottles from him, on the same trip (after getting the hairy eyeball and getting carded, of course). The valley was far from being a tourist destination back then—a quiet, agricultural place for the most part. And European wines were the model for what winemakers were largely trying to do. The result was often wines of elegance and balance. Most everything we drank was 11-13 % alcohol. There were a couple of zins that started life a bit higher, but restraint was the watchword, rather than the exception. We did not have a single obviously corked bottle, nor any that had cracked up and fallen apart. Colors were generally remarkably solid.

As a result, we had a terrific assortment of wines. There were more than a few standouts for me. Below are some momentary impressions as I think about the tasting, hardly an exhaustive list, but these stuck in my tired head, for one reason or another:

1973 Beaulieu Vineyards Napa Valley Burgundy Fascinating red blend, with 17% mondeuse. Who knew? Still alive with a good color. Fascinating.

1974 Sutter Home Lovely, rich, ripe but long on the finish, a lovely old zin.

1974 Lafite-Rothschild Tiring badly, but still had nice character and a bit of elegance. Lafite character on the nose, at least.

1969 Haut-Brion Very linear and precise, but a fascinating bottle.

1980 Boeger Zin QEII commemorative bottling. Tiring badly, with prune-y quality. Alive, but not interesting.

1963 Charles Krug Robert Mondavi’s skill shows here. A bit primary, but lovely, classic old California cab. YES!

1960 BV Reserve Many loved this wine, for its silky, round, almost weightless character. I found it a bit past it, with a Port-like edge. Not my cuppa’.

1954 BV Reserve WOW! Perfect color, linear, but not edgy. Unmistakably California, unmistakably cabernet, unmistakably great, IMHO.

—Keith Wollenberg