I invited 14 wine friends over for a 3 flight, horizontal wine tasting. The themes were ’96 Bordeaux (Medoc), ’98 Bordeaux (Right Bank) and a mix of ’99 Washington Cabs and ’01 California Cabs. Each flight had 6 wines. The wines were bagged and randomly numbered within each flight. We spent about 30 minutes on each flight, chatted about them, voted on favorites and second favorites, tallied the results and then revealed the wines. Here are the results:
We started with some Pol Roger Champagne (NV). If it’s good enough for Winston, than it is good enough for me.
’96 Bordeaux – Medoc (in order of composite group scoring)
- Montelena Cabernet (Ringer)
- Cos d’Estournel
- Ducru-Beaucaillou
- Montrose
- (tie) Calon Segur and Pichon Lalande
Comments: Okay, if you are going to get super picky and technical, Montelena isn’t a Bordeaux. But for those who know me, slipping in a ringer is something I usually can’t resist. It did stand out as the spiciest and ripest of the wines with no hint of brett. Funny, on one hand, the ’96 Cal Cabs generally can’t hold a candle to the ‘95s, but I’ve usually enjoyed them much more than the ‘97s which, overall, haven’t aged worth a damn (’97 was a comically over-rated vintage, in my opinion.) And that can’t be said of the other wines. Hmmm, since this was a French flight, maybe I should talk about them. The Ducru showed the most brett (not a surprise), but it seemed fairly well integrated into what was a very French and very interesting bottle of wine. A whole lot of cedar on both this and the Cos. I’ve always loved the ’96 Cos and have opened a stupid number of these over the years. It makes me smile. This is the first bottle in my experience that has begun to taste at its peak. Or maybe even peaking slightly over to the downhill side. But only a tiny bit. I’ve got about 8 of these left and will be drinking them up over the next couple of years. And the Montrose, Calon and Pichon Lalande all were funky, fading and not so much fun. The Pichon was especially disappointing. I also opened a Pichon Baron but it was the poster child for corked.
’98 Bordeaux - Right Bank (in order of composite group scoring)
- Angelus
- La Dominique
- Tertre Roteboeuf
- Troplong Mondot
- (tie) Bon Pasteur and Pavie
Comments: This was a yummy flight. What a shock that the Angelus came out on top. Not. ’98 Right Bank Bordeaux have always been pleasers, at least for me. These things rocked upon release and are still delivering. They’ve never really shut down and gotten dumb either (sniff, I love Merlot!). The La Dominique was the value wine of the night. I opened one of these a year ago and was so wowed I tracked down a half case and we’ve polished those off over the last year. The Tetra Roteboeuf was the wine that changed the most over the course of the tasting. Started out rather reticent and funky, but with 20 to 30 minutes in the glass, the funk blew off and the fruit really opened up. In fact, I’m drinking it and the Troplong Mondot the next day as I type this. Top to bottom, pretty wines, still lots of fruit and a polish and balance that I’ve always appreciated from this vintage (in those specific Right Bank communes.)
’99 Washington Cabernet/’01 Cal. Cab. (in order of composite group scoring)
I. ’01 Mondavi Reserve
2. ’01 Pavie (ringer)
3. ’99 Matthew’s Cellars Elerding Cabernet
4. ’99 Leonetti
5. ’99 Woodward Canyon
6. ’01 Montelena
Comments: So, I had to sneak the ’01 Pavie into this flight because many years ago I was at a tasting of the top end ’01 Cal Cabs (Screagle, Harlan, Colgin, blah, blah, blah) and an ’01 Pavie was the Bordeaux ringer. And it blew the Cal Cabs away. Not even a fair fight. And it would have done it again if not for that little cult garage wine known as Mondavi. I know, who would have predicted this. In my scoring, I rated the Pavie just ahead of the Mondavi, but the crowd really like the extracted and surprising complexity of the Mondavi. The Matthew’s Cellars held its own quite nicely. Before I revealed the wines, I mentioned that there was a Leonetti in the mix. Everyone looked at me and basically said, “No way. None of these wines are exploding with dill pickle!” The Woodward Canyon was almost Port like. A bit reductive, huge fruit and was extremely polarizing. And the Montelena was just plain shut down in my opinion.
Finishing Wines: ’99 Guigal Luminescence Condrieu, ’99 Matthew’s Cellars Late Harvest Riesling, NV Rare Wine Co. Jefferson Maderia
Comments: The only thing more idiotic than hanging onto old dry Viognier is holding onto old sweet Viognier. Gag city. Chateau Ipecac. The Matthew’s dessert wine was still alive and kicking, but with none of the complexity of an older German Riesling. And the Rare Wine Jefferson bottling that just came out was a bit underwhelming. I really like their New York (Malmsey) and Boston (Boal) bottles. This one, eh.
Fun evening. Made a white bean and leg of lamb stew, a savory asparagus bread pudding, a chicken liver pate, friends brought a rockin’ cheese tray, a big spinach and citrus salad, the lovely Mrs. Wine Bozo made many yummy swing things. Not too old for this yet, thank goodness.
Best,
David