Met some friends for a glass or two of wine after work and we popped the following:
1989 Cos d’Estournel: Poured dark and young and opened up well with a bit of air into a classic, brawny, savory St. Estephe. Nose gives an expectedly aged dark fruit profile, with a brambly blackberry note, but it’s the rest of the nose and palate that give this character, with a bit of salinity and pit grilled meaty note. There is some nice acid and a hint of sweet pipe tobacco. Overall this is a very serious wine begging for a piece of red meat but is delightful on its own. Tannins are there supporting another decade plus of aging, but I’m not sure to what benefit. 93-94.
2018 Domain de la Vougeraie Clos Vougeot: A very Monty Python “And now for something completely different!” bottle to open, but it was fun having these side by side because they were so different. They rather highlighted each other because of it. I liked this quite a bit. The nose is exciting and very aromatic, giving a big pop of lavendar and raspberry and cherry with undertones of spices and, I admit, a hint of creamy oak though well integrated. The palate is fruit driven but with a pretty bright profile with raspberry and those lively red plums you use for a tart, not the deep black ones that make me think of cali cab. On the finish you pick up a hair more oak and not insubstantial tannins bolstering the fruit and cut. This will be a fun one to drink over the next 20 years, but it’s pretty fun now and our small group ripped through more of this than the Cos and in less time. 93-94 too, but different and color me interested in how this develops. Could be a serious winner in a decade.
1998 Jean Grivot Echezeaux - I had high hopes for this bottle, opened by folks at another table who offered a taste, but was disappointed as the wine showed a bit of a figgy faded fruit profile, sous bois, and baking spice, which all together I found uninspiring and a bit cloying, finishing with some grip. While I only had a couple of ounces of this, I wonder if this has seen perfect storage and if it has, what the cork looked like. It’s possible this was slightly oxidated and if not, it wasn’t a very lovely wine.
Conversation did turn to an interesting inquiry: Which producer makes America’s greatest white wines? I said that for my palate, I think it might be Walter Scott. Curious y’all’s take (yes, I’m from Texas, and y’all’s is a word).