2012 CA Chard, '96 CA Cab, '66 Bordeaux

I had three amazing wines over the past few days, at 9, 25 and 55 years of age. All tasted young. For the first two, the youth was not surprising. For the last, it was mind-boggling.

I was able to do a business trip to New York, again using Crabtree’s Kittle House as my base. I hosted customers for two lunches and a dinner, then went to the home of friends for a dinner. Only my own wines at the lunches, but at the dinner I ordered two bottles from Crabtree’s incredible list.

The first bottle was complicated; I ordered 1990 Mount Eden Chardonnay for ~$90, but it was out of stock. Leo, the impeccable sommelier, brought three Chards for my consideration. A 1988 Mount Eden looked shot. A 1990 Chateau Woltner Napa Valley looked good, but I didn’t want Napa Valley. A 1992 Mount Eden looked fine, but was the Edna Valley bottling. Leo opened the 1988 and confirmed that it was dead. I settled on a young’un, a 2012 Varner Santa Cruz Mountain ‘Spring Ridge Vineyard - Bee Block’ Chardonnay ($110). This was a superb bottle. The color was light straw. The aromas feature flowers, lime, conifers and of course the honey from the bees (the wine is bone dry and zingy, but the honeyed flavors are there). The palate is sneaky; medium in body but expands in the mouth and gains weight through the very long finish. The flavors evolve and in the mid palate there is a tiny herbal hint to go with the conifer. This is great wine. Rated 94, with up to 3 points of improvement likely over the next 5 - 10 years. AFAIK they don’t do premox in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Next off the list was 1996 Thunder Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains ‘Bates Ranch’ ($150) - This was my first Bates Ranch Cab from this producer, but I’ve had a about dozen vintages from Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards and 3 or 4 from Ahlgren. I consider this the second greatest Cabernet vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, behind Mount Eden.
This was in many ways a fine wine, but flawed for me. It was really cool. As in cellar temp, freshness, relatively low alcohol, but mostly and objectionably the strong mint / eucalyptus aromas which I do not remember in any other Bates Ranch Cabernet. Everything else about this was better than fine. There were red currant and red raspberry aromas, the flavors incorporated these fruits as well as some earth balanced by minerality. I want and expect some hint of conifer in almost all Santa Cruz Mountain wines, regardless of varietal, but if there was any to this wine, it was hidden under the mint-o-lyptus. The wine is still pretty young, I would say approaching peak but with easily 10 more years to go. However I don’t expect the mint character to ever fade; it’s too strong. I drank my glass, my guests happily polished off the rest of the decanter. Not rated.
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I had dropped off a bottle a few days before my dinner with friends. I’ll tell you it was a 55 year old Bordeaux, not a Classified Growth. Those who can do arithmetic and have read my posts now know what’s coming:

1966 Chateau Lanessan - I bought this within the past few years, don’t remember where, know I wouldn’t have paid over $100. This was one of the best wines I’ve had this year and hands down the most shocking.
Popped, decanted and poured. The vintage, printed in red, had faded on the label. The level was about ½ inch below the neck. The cork, fully saturated, came out cleanly in two pieces. First whiff from the decanter was fresh. The color was a deep, healthy red with zero bricking.
The aromas were pure, classic Medoc, with red currant front and center. There was also strong minerality but zero earth and a touch of oak. The palate was, I swear, goddammit, fresh! Red fruit to the fore, but some strawberry, raspberry and even a hint of apple. Over time, a herbal hint developed. The texture was solid, maybe even a little burly, with tannins resolved and healthy, balanced acidity. Over time, the texture began to hollow out a little in the middle, but the wine remained amazingly fresh to the last drop. If served blind, I would have guessed 20 years. Rated 96.
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1996 Lanessan cork.jpg
Dan Kravitz

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Milan Maximovich who was winemaker at Thunder Mountain used to post a lot on eBob. Seemed like a good guy. This was his second vintage. Santa Cruz Winery Founder Milan Maximovich Dies | Wine Spectator

On Thunder Mtn…Milan used to show up at Hospice du Rhone. One year he poured his chardonnay’s at Villa Creek (the restaurant) after HdR concluded for the day. These were big whites. Milan was a very nice gentleman; I bought a few of his wines, mainly the chards, and he did some pinots as well. The Bates cab is probably his most prominent wine. Many people didn’t like his labels.