Neil Pike is quite keen on drinking older Bordeaux and invited a few of us up to Polish Hill River to crack a few luncheon clarets and throw a couple of steaks on the barbie. We headed up to a delightful grape pickers cottage in the middle of the vineyard that had no windows and a light zephyr blew an icy wind that made our luncheon venue cold as a witch’s tit. We stoked the fire up with some vine cuttings and opened a few warming reds (after a fizz and a white).
We kicked off with a 1998 Dom Perignon that was just about in the perfect place for mine. It had some tart tatin flavours and plenty of baker’s yeast action. There was a hint of toasty development and it was full, rich and creamy with good length of flavour. I had landed a couple of pallets from Burgundy the night before and wanted to test out my bottle shock theory and cracked a 2012 Thomas Morey Chassagne-Montrachet ‘Embrazees’ 1er Cru. Boy was this bottle shocked to have been opened so soon after landing. It was generous and open knit with pristine orchard fruit aromas and flavours and excellent underlying minerality. The finish was punctuated by a big puff of chalk.
I deviated from the Bordeaux theme a little bit and served a 1949 Dupard Aine Gevrey-Chambertin as the first red. It was a beautiful bottle of wine with complex aromatics of leather, brown spices, smoked meats and pine needle sap. It was generous and full in the mouth with sweet vinous flavour and just a hint of coffee like oxidation. The finish was fresh with some stemsy grip. I opened a 1980 Chateau Mouton Rothschild several hours earlier where it looked fresh but a little skinny. I gave it a double decant and when we poured it out to drink it was looking good. There was a touch of capsicum to the aroma along with notes of cedar and freshly shaved lead pencil. It was lively in the mouth and still quite compact with red berry fruit and some earthy nuance. A 1942 Chateau Latour was perhaps the wine of the day, it was so complete. It had a fresh nose of black earth, cedar, graphite and sweet meat. In the mouth it was full of umami goodness, playing in that perfect place between sweet and savoury. It was full and round with a silky texture, beautiful balance and some floral perfume and whilst it was by no means heavy, still had structural elements that gave the wine some heft. I have had four bottles now of the 1943 Chateau Calon-Segur from the same case and each has been terrific, this one was no exception. It too was a wine of exquisite balance and quite complete. It had a complex nose of leather, tar, earth, cigar box, sweet meats and compost. It was sweet and full in the mouth with supple tannins and a sensual texture. The structural elements are just starting to fade but the wine still has good posture and freshness. A 1982 Chateau Montrose was very good but looked a little out of place in this line-up. It was generous, flashy, sweet and lush. Still loaded with sweet meats and ripe cassis fruit and underpinned by some baked earth. Tannins are round and gentle and length is impressive.
David O’Leary and Nick Walker brought along their first Shiraz that they made under the O’Leary Walker label and we had a squiz at the 2000. It was drinking well with a smoky nose coupled with some vanilla, leather and berry fruit. It was relatively soft and gentle in the mouth with round tannins and gentle acidity. ‘Auctioneer to the stars’ and part owner of Crabtree Wines Colin Gaetjens decided to test out my bottle shock theory again and pulled the cork out of a 2010 Domaine Lucien Jacob Savigny-Vergelesses 1er Cru that had arrived the day before with the Thomas Morey. It was bright and juicy with delicious red berry fruit and plenty of flora. It was fine in the mouth with loads of minerality on the back-end.
Fortunately it got too cold and we had to go home otherwise we’d probably still be there out in the middle of the vineyard. A great lunch!
Cheers
Jeremy