Wines for Crab and Steak

With my vegetarian wife away for nearly a week and the kids over at friends for a movie and pizza night, I took the unusual opportunity to dine alone. Why not eat and drink well? One the menu, dungeness crab, T-bone steak, salad and a baguette, and an old copy of The Big Lebowski. Hold the Caucasians.

With the crab, a big glass of the 2002 Drouhin Chablis Premier Cru. It's pale gold with a striking aroma of terroir and variety. Lots of seashells and chalk along with lemon and apple fruit, lightly honied with age but still fresh and bright. In the mouth it's minerally with lemon and honey flavors, austere minerals and a long, dry finish that scream Chablis and chardonnay. Perfect with crab. Let's hope it holds up in the fridge because I left most of the bottle for later.

After an interval with salad and sparkling water, the main course of rare T-bone, warmed bread and Lebowski, paired with 2000 Ch. D'Oupia Minervois Les Barons. This higher end cuvee, all of $10 on discount, is barrique aged. Typically dark, only slightly maturing color. Plummy, peppery and toasty aromas, with a (believe it or not) pleasing sense of decomposing fruit and vegetable matter. The flavors follow, with slightly drying wood tannins on the finish, nothing the steak couldn't manage. This was good enough to drink through dessert of a chocolate brownie and the uncanny humor of Lebowski, man.