With Grown-up Food, Drink Lighthearted Wine

The people at Victor Hugo’s understand wine well enough to treat it both seriously and with a sense of lightness.

The serious part of this wine list is the number of older wines (albeit a touch on the high-priced side) along with a carefully stocked cellar of California wines. The fun part is in seeing some unusual items that clearly indicate the folks here know their wine.

As an example, we find 1986 Bonny Doon Old Telegram, a deep, rich red wine made entirely from the Mourvedre grape.

Old Telegram is Bonny Doon wine maker Randall Grahm’s homage to Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe, a wine from France’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape area that is blended from a dozen different grape varieties. But it is about as dense a wine as one can get from the region.

At $28, the Bonny Doon wine is a good value. And to be sporting about this, Victor Hugo’s wine people have made certain the true wine aficionado can compare the two telegraphs side by side, including 1986 Vieux Telegraphe itself, at $30.

This 200-strong wine list also has such intriguing selections as 1971 Schloss Vollrads Spatlese ($45); 1985 Ceretto Barbaresco Asij ($32); 1980 Rubicon (a Francis Ford Coppola production from his Napa Valley estate), and another Bonny Doon red wine, Le Cigare Volant ($28).

Those whose palates aren’t quite as eclectic as this may choose from two-dozen sparkling wines (best value: Mumm Cuvee Napa, $27); a dozen white Burgundies (no good values, alas; white Burgundy has gone to the moon); and nearly four dozen California Chardonnays (best value: 1987 Silverado, from the Napa Valley estate of Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, $22).

The list of Bordeaux is impressive because older selections come from good past vintages--e.g., 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1985. Of the two-dozen Bordeaux, unfortunately, only three wines are under $50.

Best red wine value, after the Bonny Doon selections, is 1985 Chimney Rock Cabernet ($25), from the estate of Hack Wilson, co-owner of golf courses and the Good Earth restaurant chain.

Glassware here is attractive: graceful, long-stemmed and tulip-shaped. And service is friendly, fast and properly trained.

Oh, true, there were some minor bobbles, but nothing to fret over. The white wine we ordered was the 1986 Jadot Macon Villages, which would have been an excellent value at $18. The 1987 came. We kept it. Not as good, but it still works as an aperitif.

Also, the Jadot, which came too cold to appreciate, was just jammed it an into ice bucket by the waiter, who never even asked if we wanted one.

But overall, the wine program here is done with style and grace, and considering the location, not at all stuffy or excessively overpriced.