I am in my house in the South.

I have just received my new jet ski, so it was an occasion to celebrate that.

I invite two friends with my wife and we go to a small restaurant directly on a beach.

I think that to begin with Dom Pérignon would be a bad thing as our mouth is not prepared, so I order a Champagne Mumm Cordon Rouge.

After the week-end I spent with Moët & Chandon this champagne makes me a shock : no personality.

But slowly the Mumm broadens and becomes civilised. Not to jump to the ceiling, but drinkable.

The contrast is what I wanted : the Dom Pérignon 1998 shows immediately the huge difference. A loveable champagne. Not really drinkable at this age, but already very enjoyable. A very great length and a promising complexity.

I had brought with me Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1981, just opened when I arrived, so having only 1.5 hours of breathing, a fill in the neck, and immediately a sensual smell that I would never expect from a 1981.

There is a seriousness which belongs to Lafite, but a very deep structure, a joy of life, an expansion in the mouth that surprised me as I did not expect as much from that wine. One would have told me that it was a 1986, I would not have been too surprised.

On a fish (loup or bar in French), it was purely delicious.

Wanting to be nice, the owner of the place offered me a marc de provence.

Almost as ugly as the ugliest grappa. Something which, when you drink it, makes holes in your shoes’ soles.

A very enjoyable dinner, with a surprising Lafite 81.