I had Xmas eve dinner with good friends last night, along with various of their family members. Here were the main wines we had with food; notes from memory:
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2003 La Tour Blanche Sauternes. I was told we were going to have fois gras, so I offered to bring a Sauternes. By the way, I was told last night that if you order torchon of fois gras, that somehow gets you past the ban in CA on the sale of fois gras. Hmmmm. Anyway, the fois gras torchon was sliced into thin rounds, with a little fleur de sel and little rectangles of jellied fruit (apricot and pear, as I recall). So the La Tour Blanche was served with the fois gras torchon, and it was a real hit. The LTB is a very forward, tropical dessert wine with the usual players of coconut, pineapple, vanilla, and ripe citrus notes. The 03 vintage of the LTB has been drinking well since release, and this bottle was similar to other bottles. While it hasn’t yet developed much bottle age (even in 375’s), it’s just flat-out delicious and a perfect match with the torchon. Both the fois gras and the LTB got hoovered quickly.
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1988 Pichon Baron. I’ve been going back and opening various 88’s recently, such as the Lynch Bages. This was the first 88 Pichon Baron I’ve opened in a long time, and this was from a stash I bought on futures; perfect fill. It has all of the usual elements–cedar box, tobacco, a bit of lead pencil, blackberries, yadda, yadda, yadda. Although not quite as full-bodied as the 88 Lynch from the other week, it’s still a smooth mature-ish Bordeaux. A very nice pairing with the rack of lamb.
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1994 Montelena Estate Cabernet. I helped the hosts pick out a couple of other bottles to go with the lamb, and this was the first one. All the dinner reds were decanted for at least 30-45 minutes before we tasted them. This particular bottle wasn’t very generous; it seemed somewhat muted and slightly tart in comparison to the Pichon Baron. Perhaps it’s in a closed down phase. Also, I don’t think the hosts bought the bottle on release, so I’m not sure of the provenance. Anyway, this particular bottle didn’t show the richness or complexity I was expecting.
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2002 Silver Oak Napa Cabernet. By contrast, the 02 Silver Oak Napa was drinking extremely well–rich and round, with no sharp edges. This was a very crowd-pleasing style of Cabernet, and pretty much everything was well-integrated with bottle age. Now, the American oak is still very obvious, and the somewhat dilly/resiny notes of the American oak might put off some wine geeks. But with last night’s crowd, the wine was a hit.
Bruce