Hart Davis Hart did one of their first (?) larger tastings in Los Angeles and the theme was 95/96 Bordeaux. The venue was at the beautiful Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills and as always with HDH everything was top notch.
I know I’m not known as a Bordeaux drinker on the boards, but back in the early days of drinking wine (all 8 years ago) I did drink my fair share of Bordeaux. It’s certainly taken a back seat to Burgundy and this collection of wines is probably more Bordeaux than I’ve had collectively in the last 4 years. It was nice being invited to the tasting (did not pay, so if you want to take the notes with a grain of salt, go for it).
Latour really stood out to me in both vintages. Really well put together wine, fantastic structure, great fruit, will go for awhile. The Margaux were also nice. Most disappointing was Lafite. Both vintages were not that great to me. Still waiting for that one badass bottle of Lafite, feel like I’m letting all my Chinese people down.
I didn’t have a preference between 95/96 in general. Some 95 were better than other 96 and vice versa. Any notes missing were most likely because the wines were way too young and tannic and I just didn’t put it down in notes or… I just didn’t get to it. I did not taste the Grand Puy, Gruaud Larose, Calon Segur. Too many wines, too little time as they say.
We had the following chateaux
Château Angelus
Château Calon-Segur
Château Cheval Blanc
Château Cos d’Estournel
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste
Château Gruaud Larose
Château Haut-Brion
Château La Conseillante
Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Château Lafite Rothschild
Château Latour
Château Leoville-Las-Cases
Château Lynch-Bages
Château Margaux
Château Montrose
Château Mouton Rothschild
Château Palmer
Château Pichon-Longueville, Baron
Château Pichon-Longueville, Lalande
- 1995 Château Angélus - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (11/20/2014)
boy oh boy is this a dense monster of a wine. Tons of textured dark fruit and olives but thick and structured and the flavors just bracket your palate. Really looking forward to where this wine is going to go. - 1995 Château Cheval Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (11/20/2014)
really soft round fruit on the palate, easy drinking, open for business. Really surprised how well it showed as there’s plenty of weight to go with that fruit. Very nice wine. - 1995 Château Cos d’Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (11/20/2014)
bad ass wine, really drinking well. Cool sweet fruit, perfectly integrated herbal spice with a hint of earth on the back end. Acidity well integrated and just seamless down the palate. - 1995 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/20/2014)
beast of a wine right now, big structured full of tannic grip but underneath it all you can feel the palate really looking to release. Has very nice potential to go the distance. - 1995 Château Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (11/20/2014)
had high hopes as I’m a big fan of Haut Brion, but it just seemed lacking in structure or any type of fruit and mostly just a burly tannic bottle. Had at least 3 hours of air time and double decanted. - 1995 Château La Mission Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (11/20/2014)
tasted and smelled like chalky flinstone vitamins. no thanks - 1995 Château Lafite Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
A bit pruny on the palate, what was really weird was that the wine tasted and smelled like weed. 2nd bottle was pretty similar. Weed and fruit, yum? - 1995 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
WOTN for me. Pretty round red ripe fruit, soft texture with a bunch of depth and concentration of flavor. A touch of sourness from the acidity on the finish but it resolved after a couple of hours. Tannins are still obvious but not intruding, enough to give the wine a bit more structure. - 1995 Château Léoville Las Cases - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/20/2014)
A bit more backwards than the 96 was, dark, tannic, full of leather and grip. Really could use some time to open up, came to it after a double decant and being open for 3 hours. - 1995 Château Margaux - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (11/20/2014)
loads of dirt and bright sweet fruit. Super clean and precise on the palate and still very primary. Really giving a lot on the palate. Delicious. - 1995 Château Mouton Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
Real pretty nose of truffles and spice. Palate is a bit young but it has this fresh mint to it with loads of graphite. As the night went on the texture started to soften and it started to open up with a rich more full bodied fruit. Very nice wine. - 1995 Château Palmer - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (11/20/2014)
a little bit of stewed meaty fruit with a weird metallic taste running through the back end, pretty simple wine - 1995 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
wine was pretty bleh, showing a bit more oak than anything else at the moment, nothing like the more giving 96 - 1996 Château Angélus - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (11/20/2014)
eh~ prominent chalky texture with loads of dark chocolate and leather but not enough fruit to take it away from chewing on sweet horse saddle or something. - 1996 Château Cheval Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (11/20/2014)
Something was weird on the palate for me, it tasted like I was chewing on slate. There was this weird chalky texture and a minerally flavor without the lush fruit from the 95. - 1996 Château Cos d’Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (11/20/2014)
the initial attack on the mid palate hits you with a fistful of red cherry fruit but then it drops off and there’s a drying cigar flavor on the finish that turns a bit green and shrill. - 1996 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/20/2014)
tastes like wonderfully aged california cab, soft velvety textures, opulent silky fruit, full bodied and rich. Quite nice and open for business. - 1996 Château Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (11/20/2014)
killed in comparison to the 95, clean, minty, pure. Dry extract and subdued fruit. A young wine but waiting to really come out of its shell. Hold but it’ll be tasty! - 1996 Château La Mission Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (11/20/2014)
nice, but simple. fruit giving in to more of that earthy flavor. tannins resolved, it was decent, but just not much to go on. - 1996 Château Lafite Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
cheese/mushroom/dirty earth/muddled red fruit. ew? - 1996 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
full extracted flavors on the palate with copious amounts of fruit. Out of the 95/96 first growths this night, the latours took the trophy home. - 1996 Château Léoville Las Cases - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/20/2014)
Really well done wine, heavily concentrated dark fruit, bracketed by all that growing secondary flavors of leather/spice, the acid is in place. Definitely one of the most balanced wines of the night. One of the WOTNs for me. - 1996 Château Lynch-Bages - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
really full bodied savory red fruit on the palate with a nice component of tobacco and spice. Drinking nicely. - 1996 Château Margaux - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (11/20/2014)
Tons of cherry creme on the nose, bright exciting fruit on the palate, softer less tannic than the 95 but showing a bit more rusticity on the finish with an earthier tone, but still very pure fruit, very nice wine - 1996 Château Mouton Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
giant loads of dirt covered cherry on the palate and coffee and cigar on the nose. My only issue with the wine is that it wasn’t particularly expansive on the palate. It hit a bit thin. - 1996 Château Palmer - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (11/20/2014)
amped up levels of leather and olive on the palate with a buttload of acidity. THe only issue is that the fruit doesn’t outweigh that green olive flavor which is a bit too prominent. It becomes almost unappetizing . - 1996 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
Really enjoyed this wine, it was brimming was potential but had tons of dark fruit, nice texture and solid structure with plenty of acidity and balance. It’s still filling out its frame and has a ton going for it - 1996 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (11/20/2014)
soft pretty round wine, loads and loads of strawberry fruit on the palate with a nice tannic backbone
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To answer john’s other questions. Food was good, lamb chops were great , so were the short rib sliders. It was pretty packed inside for the first two hours.![[bow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/3/34fe6dfbb5b9ca18529c11cea0b49f72cb1f17d5.gif "bow"){kind=small}