A few wines that have aged well

Well, after lots of emails from friends about posting here, I am finally here.

This past Saturday I had the good fortune to drink some superb wines with some friends and acquaintances made over the years at the other board.

1949 Chateau de La Tour Clos de Vougeot was the first serious wine poured of the night and it was a show-stopper. Perfect balance and mouthfeel. Superb wine!

1959 Domaine Simonot Echezeaux is a domaine I never heard of and that is a shame. Another burg of outstanding quality with tannins still not fully resolved. Hard to believe this will continue to be pleasurable for many years.

1955 DRC Romanee Conti had a very low fill. Nose is extraordinary but doesn’t quite reach the same heights on the palate.

1953 Chateau Canon from magnum was an eyeopener. I haven’t been impressed with much that I’ve tasted since 1982 but this is stellar. Plush, ripe fruit with good structure. I bet I convert non-bordeaux lovers with this one.

1948 Chateau Latour is drinking like a 20 year wine. More depth and complexity than the Canon but also more austere.

I also got to taste my first and maybe my last 100 year wine. This was the 1909 Chateau Margaux. Very fun to taste this one but unfortunately it was somewhat dried out and I was told there are better bottles.

This is less than half of what was drunk but since I didn’t take notes I will leave it to these few that left the biggest impression on me.

Welcome aboard Paul! It’s about fracking time too…

Nice notes, sounds like you guys had a lot of fun.

Welcome, Paul! Glad your friends dragged you to hang with us for a bit!

Way to jump in with a killer first post, btw.

How low was the fill on the DRC - low shoulder?

1909 Margaux - how in the world was this bottle procured, anyway? Do you know if the owner bought it from somewhere, or has been holding it for many, many years (obviously not since release unless it was passed down)? Must be fun to drink anything that old if it is at ALL drinkable.

'48 Latour - awesome. Imagine how much life it must still have left in it!

I agree with a killer first post!

And a 1909? Wow. Even if it was a ‘poor’ showing, must have been an incredibly fun experience!

had the 1966 Canon two years ago in LA and thought it showed very well among a line-up of older and younger Cheval Blanc and Ausone. thx for reminding me.

Todd, this looks like a good group here!

The DRC was low shoulder like 5 cm. The dinner was at Berns. All their wines are impeccably stored as you probably know. The fill on the Margaux was great. I assume there is a ton of bottle variation on wines that old. Very fun to try.

If it was 5cm, then that’s really not that low for a '55.

Damn, I had my eye on that Clos Vougeot on our last trip but we were talked out of it. Next time!!

The '55 RC would have been made from pretty young vines so maybe that’s why it disappointed.

Keith,

'52 RC is Killer, so it’s not a vine age issue, it’s more that the vintage is irregular and what DRC produced. Based on the '55 DRC’s I’ve had (only a handful, not that large a sample to say definitively) which have all been mediocre, they’re just not great wines.

Paul,

Canon is a shell of what it once was. I’ve had a number of great Canons from teens and twenties.

As far as your last 100 year old wine, just don’t piss me off and I’m sure you’ll drink another one.

Ray,

Great notes Paul. Have had the '53 Canon from 750ml at least three times and it has always been stunning. Great wine. Good to hear about the '48 Latour, as I still have a couple of bottles to crack. 1909 Margaux…last time I tasted it was next to 1909 Latour and Latour was a notch above it. Still hanging tough. Two bottles of Margaux 1909 are still stashed somewhere in my cellar with no labels so we’ll have to re-visit.

Paul,
Great notes.
It is always good to see you and share a glass.

John Gilman gave a huge thumbs up to the 2005 Canon. Maybe the slump is ending. I haven’t tried it on account of the still-silly price. The only recent Canon I’ve had was the very disappointing 1995. We did the '47 Canon on our last Bern’s trip, but it wasn’t nearly as much of a wow for us as the '53 for Paul. The Bern’s cellar was going against it as it didn’t show very mature, and it also suffered from “Bordeaux after Burgundy” syndrome.

Hey…don’t drink all the gems!

Well, there are a few bad apples! [thank_you.gif]


Good to see you here, Paul.

I’ve always found that the '85 is a rather tasty quaff.

Paul, great to see you here! Still hope to connect at Rosine’s someday. Thanks for the history trip.

Jason

Thanks for finally coming over Paul. You have made a less than stellar day here a smidge more tolerable.
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jeff, fully agreed on the 85, had it earlier this year and it was beautiful after and am very glad I have another