TN: St Julien at Riverpark

Last night a nice group got together at Riverpark a blind tasting of wines from St. Julien. My train was late, so I scurried down to find myself the last to arrive. There was a blind white to start, some oak, pear fruit, good acids. II took a stab and got lucky with Jura Chardonnay. It’s the 2012 Domaine du Pelican Arbois Chardonnay apparently a partnership including d’Angerville, I like, but not appreciably better than the Tissot Empreinte which is half the price. B+/B
Restaurant did a nice job, good service. I enjoyed the charcuterie, fish tacos, and the rabbit (though when they said 1/2 a rabbit, I didn’t expect 1/2 a newborn)

On to the blind St Julien

Wine #1 : Elegant, soft, mature. B+

Wine #2- Quite barnyardy at first, very full-fruited, gets cleaner, pretty classic ripe vintage Medoc. A-

Wine #3- a bit sharp and lean at first, lots of acid, I liked a lot more with some time in glass. B+/A-

Wine #4 - funky, we discussed whether it was corked or just musty, cork became clearer. NR

Wine #5 - Herby/funky, good fruit, I thought the finish a bit drying, but liked more later. B+

Wine #6 - Ripest so far, a bit California-y, plump. B/B+

Wine #7- Barnyard, fruit opens way up, goes from middle of pack to one of my favorites on re-taste. A-

Wine #8 - weird, maderized, probably seen some heat. C-

Wine #9 - Brett/bandaid, a bit clipped, midbodied, better than #8 C+/B-

Wine #10- Ripe, soft without being flabby, very good A-/B+

Wine #11 Young, sweet, ripe. B+/A-

Before revealing we did 3/2/1 voting. I lost vote sheet, but #2 (first bottle of 90 LLC) won easily, with #10 (‘99 Poyferre) edging #7 (82 Gruaud) for 2nd. Most non-flawed wines got some votes.

Wine #1 1970 Leoville Las Cases

Wine #2 1990 Leoville Las Cases (Winner)

Wine #3 1986 Gruaud Larose

Wine #4 1966 Ducru-Beaucaillou

Wine #5 1990 Leoville Las Cases (4th place)

Wine #6 - 1990 Gruaud Larose

Wine #7 1982 Gruaud Larose (3rd place)

Wine #8 1975 Leoville Las Cases

Wine #9 1981 Ducru-Beaucaillou

Wine #10 1999 Leoville Poyferre (2nd place)

Wine #11 1961 Beychevelle

Fun night with a fun group. Not what I would have predicted, which is the fun of blind tasting

Grade disclaimer: I’m a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn’t drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

Great notes, lots of great wines. I love that the '61 seemed young.

I’ve only had the 90 LLC once (at Fabio’s, I think you were there too), and it was perplexing. Nothing special. Sounds like I need to give it another try.

I was there too, at Fabio’s, when we had the 1990 LLC.

Last night’s 1990 LLC was very good. I had both of the 1990 LLC bottles at my top 3 in last night’s blind tasting and the scores, as shown by Dale, was convincing.

While the '61 didn’t make it to the top 3, I thought it was an awesome wine and drank so young for 50+ years old. Other than both Ducrus sucking as well as the '75 LLC, we had some pretty damn fine wine!

So you had two bottles of the 90 LLC, one was WOTN and the other didn’t show. Now I’ve had this wine many times and found it to be very consistent, makes me wonder what went wrong with bottle #2.

Paul-

I think you may be being a bit harsh on Ducru, perhaps unintentionally. Stacking up a couple of old off vintages against '82s and '90s is hardly a fair match.

Steve, I think they were consistent. I even remarked while drinking the second bottle (#5) that it was similar to the first one (#2). I thought it was the same chateau but maybe different vintages. I know both bottles were not handled the same way. One was double-decanted or something and the other not or something like that. I don’t remember the details but maybe someone else can chime in.

paul. mine – the winning bottle-- was popped open just before i left the house for the restaurant. no decant. no double decant. i was under the impression that the only other bottle opened just before the dinner was the 70 LLC. whomever brought the other 90 LLC will know exactly what they did when. they’re up next …

You New Yorker’s and your decanting…

What gives?

Steve, the other '90 LLC was my #2 WOTN - and I thought it showed just fine (it was blind, so I had no idea it was mine). I’ve had extremely good luck double-decanting youngish Bordeaux early in the day and then putting back in my cold (50 degree) cellar. My bottles of '90 LLC have tended to drink young, but maybe they’ve reached a point where they don’t need air.

I wasn’t as big a fan of wine #10 ('99 LP). I thought it was, in fact, a little flabby. Interestingly, it didn’t score any votes from one half of the table, but got a bunch of votes from the other half. Perhaps as a result of two very different conversations?

Ben

Nah! We didn’t talk much at our end of the table.
Seriously, though, we talked quite a bit, but I don’t recall that we conversed much to influence our wine choices, although we sometime quipped about our differences in opinion over a few of the wines. I’m a fan of the 1999 LPoyferre and it was in my top 3, along with the 2 bottles of the 1990 LLCs.