Gathered with some friends last night for dinner and NBA playoff basketball.
The meal was a tasty combination of tri-tip steak, home-made refried beans, guacamole and sautéed onions. Oh, and wine.
2007 Vincent Dauvissat Vaillons 1er Chablis. Drinking wonderfully, we considered opening some cheese but just enjoyed the wine while preparing dinner and chatting. Sadly my only bottle of this, seemed to have more intensity than the Dauvissat Forests I’ve opened from the same vintage.
Formal TN: Very bright and intense nose of lemon and minerals, more citrus and minerals in the palate, very long tart finish, hint of salt, and great acid balance. In a fantastic place, excellent. 93.
1995 Chateau L’Eglise Clinet. Decanted for an hour and enjoyed this with the meal. Like many ‘95 right banks I’ve had, this is in a great place. Lots of red fruit on the nose and palate, but showing some earthiness and leather on the nose, and very soft silky tannins on the palate, with plenty of acid and length to hum with food. A delightful spicy, earthy, fruity complexity. Refined, but utterly gulpable, especially with the beef. 93-94. A big step up from the 1995 Clinet I opened recently.
After dinner we settled in to watch the game and had 2002 Dunn Howell Mountain for dessert 
. At the earlier edge of maturity for these, but still excellent. Bright beautiful nose of blueberry, cassis, and baking spice. Intense crunchy palate, mostly tart red fruit, but showing some nice peppery spice on the backend. A bit of tannin but nothing intrusive. I bet these will be good in 5, 10, or 20 years but also so very good now. 93.
A consistent bunch of tasty wines. The basketball was good, too. The Warriors came out a bit weak, with early entry of earthiness, sloppy defense, but enough energy to stay close. After some useful time decanting (I.e. half time) deeper flavors and complexity emerged to take the overall experience into the stratosphere. Strong flavors of Klay on the palette. Based on the total experience, I give the team a 96 rating for the game - excellent but quite shy of perfection.