TN: 10 Cantenac Brown, 07 Clerico, 16 William and Mary

MChang · August 25, 2019, 9:28am

2010 Cantenac Brown

Drinking fantastically. Leather and cassis and profoundly smooth.

2007 Clerico Mentin

1 hr decant. At peak. Beautiful aromatics. Full bodied. Nice finish.

2016 William and Mary CS
1 hour decant. Beautiful. Inky and luscious. Not overly complex at this point but otherwise a perfect cab with the wagyu tomahawk.

Brandon_R · August 27, 2019, 8:07pm

Michael, you really did yourself a disservice by not following that William & Mary over the course of a week+.

Joking aside, nice succinct notes. Gotta love it when you at 1,000!

Neal.Mollen · August 27, 2019, 8:57pm

Kinda surprised but happy to see the 10 CB performing so well. Thanks for the note

Joshua_Kates · August 27, 2019, 9:33pm

Thanks for the note on the Clerico, Michael,

Galloni raved about it at the time. I grabbed a couple at the time and I haven’t opened any, but subsequently began to have some doubts. Good to know it might be worth pulling and popping some time soon.

Greg_Mitrakas · August 28, 2019, 1:19am

Glad your CMG showed well. I have entirely too many of these from 96 to 01 in my cellar, purchased on basis of scores, and IMO ive yet to see how those vintages have earned the scores they achieved.

Chris_Sargent · August 28, 2019, 5:55am

Good to hear about the Clerico! Opening one tomorrow night to pair with some Ancho braised short ribs.

MChang · August 28, 2019, 11:24am

The CB showed fantastically. We popped and poured it.

I was with a group of guys who were mostly into Napa cabs and while they loved the w&m a few liked the cb most and several preferred the MG.

We also had an 06 dom which was beautiful.

All of this was at Mastro’s Ocean Club LV which had reasonable corkage of $35/btl.

John_Kight · August 28, 2019, 1:09pm

2007 is a weird vintage in Barolo…Difficult to gauge whether it’s a “drink now” vintage, simply too hot/ripe across the board, or whether there is actually some surprising balance of fruit and freshness/acidity that may allow these to do well with time. I’ve found the 2004/2005 Clericos (Ciabot Mentin and even more so, the Pajana) to be drinking well now, and some have even seemed fully mature…a bit surprising. I haven’t checked in on the '07s, but I remember the Clerico team expressing some genuine optimism about the wine’s long-term prospects, thinking people would be confused by the fruit into thinking it was an early drinker.

MChang · August 28, 2019, 4:19pm

I just don’t know what the typical aging curve for modernist Barolo is; the tannins were smooth and integrated and there were still lovely aromatics; my guess is that it could improve but not sure by how much. One bottle left.

Joshua_Kates · August 30, 2019, 12:24am

Thanks for the note on the Clerico, Michael,

Galloni raved about it at the time. I grabbed a couple at the time and I haven’t opened any, but subsequently began to have some doubts. Good to know it might be worth pulling and popping some time soon.

2007 is a weird vintage in Barolo…Difficult to gauge whether it’s a “drink now” vintage, simply too hot/ripe across the board, or whether there is actually some surprising balance of fruit and freshness/acidity that may allow these to do well with time. I’ve found the 2004/2005 Clericos (Ciabot Mentin and even more so, the Pajana) to be drinking well now, and some have even seemed fully mature…a bit surprising. I haven’t checked in on the '07s, but I remember the Clerico team expressing some genuine optimism about the wine’s long-term prospects, thinking people would be confused by the fruit into thinking it was an early drinker.

Well, I have some of the '05 also, though it is the Mentin, so it sounds like I should get to some of that–later on in the year; I don’t drink much Barolo when it’s warm outside.