Kevin Foley was in town this weekend, presenting us with an excuse for some Sunday night merriment at Blackfish, one of the true BYOB gems in the Philadelphia dining scene. The Chef knew we were bringing Cabs, so he developed a multi-course tasting that included some really excellent food, including a short rib ravioli with lobster butter, Wagyu Beef Tartare, a Beef Consomme’ starter soup that was intriguing in it’s complexity, some aged Wagyu Ribeye and corned beef tongue.
We checked out the following:
1964, 1991 and 1992 Ridge Monte Bello
1984 & 1988 Dominus
1987 and 2002 Montelena
The '64 Monte Bello was surprisingly vibrant - past peak, no doubt, but still quite interesting to drink. The star of the Monte Bello’s was the '91 - classic California Cabernet, with plenty of time ahead of it.
I think most of us preferred the '84 (which was the first “commercially”-released vintage of Dominus, although they did make an '83 as well), but one of the things that surprised in this flight was how differently the two wines presented. We had tried the '85 Dominus last Sunday as part of our EMH Black Cat tasting and that wine showed a little past peak, but this bottle of '84 was still in prime drinking shape. The '88 was marked by a soy note on the nose that was interesting, but I still found the '84 to be more powerful and focused in the glass.
The Montelena flight was definitely the youngest-showing of the wines - that 2002 was very impressive, but if you have it in the cellar, I would continue to defer opening for at least five years (the 2002 and the '64 Ridge were the only wines we ended up decanting). I liked the '87 as well, but ultimately think the 2002 will be the better wine.
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