Washington can get low-key in August: Congress goes home; a lot of people flee the heat. It is a good time to hang around and catch up with friends who are still here – or coming back from vacation homes for short mid-week stints in the office.
Last week I had dinner with someone I think of as one of the ultimate Washington power brokers. He had just come in from Nantucket for a few days. He leads a pack that plays a very particular role in this city. I always have a hard time explaining the craft to foreigners. Lobbyists wield power by association. The best are tactical geniuses who can make even a sclerotic political system get things done.
We each brought what you could call a power wine to the Occidental Grill to have with steaks. We talked about Obama, Snowden, trade deals, Hillary, China, etc. Those are just the kind of things you start off talking about here, even in your spare time. It’s normal, if a little appalling. Then we talked about wine, and finally, glass by glass, moved seamlessly to the real business we wanted to discuss.
Power wine number one was Il Palazzone Brunello Riserva 2004 – a power trifecta. It’s a rich, refined, almost full-bodied wine, with lots of fruit and probably not halfway through its life. This was one of the best I have had from this estate. Il Palazzone is owned by Dick Parsons, the former chairman of Citibank and CEO of Time Warner, whose creative power is now even better directed. And there is a power enologist behind the wine, Paolo Vagaggini, one of the great sangiovese winemakers and a towering presence in Montalcino.
Power wine number two (guess who brought this one) was Linden’s 2008 Hardscrabble Red. Power comes in many forms: It can be about grace, sophistication, and balance – which was the case with this beautiful medium-to-full Meritage with lots of cherry and blackberry notes, a little cedar, bright acidity and sort of dusty tannins. This mostly-cabernet sauvignon wine is a great example of the sort of age-worthy Virginia red I go out of my way for. Jim Law, who owns Linden, is the state’s power winemaker, no question…even if the term seems incongruous for such a thoughtful, self-effacing and patient guy. He has been making wine in the state for over 30 years, and is as terroir-focused as any winemaker I’ve met.
Great wine and conversation, surrounded by hundreds of signed and aging pictures of Occidental’s former power clients like Douglas MacArthur, Franklin Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Calvin Coolidge, and Robert Frost. Sic transit gloria mundi. But what a great evening.
William McIlhenny is assocoaite publisher of JamesSuckling.com. He is an international policy expert based in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. As an American diplomat, he worked at the White House, State Department, and at U.S. embassies in Europe and Latin America.
