One Night, Two 2002s, One from Napa, One from Bordeaux

WINE TALK
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One night. Two 2002s. One from Napa. One from Bordeaux. Identically priced at $159 on a relatively pricey restaurant wine list. Of course, not too much should be read into this head-to-head tasting. Comparing a vintage from two different wine regions is an imperfect comparison at best.

  • 2002 Corison Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley (1/30/2010)
    Full bodied and lavishly flavored as expected from the 02 Napa vintage, but beyond just a big boy party wine, Cathy Corison has crafted a wine that causes pause for thought as well. Aromas of a bowl of berries burst from the glass but those flavors are well in balance on the palate accompanied by black cherry, dark chocolate, and cinnamon with secondaries of clove and mellow sweet oak. It’s a little early for this wine: it’s lovely now with and hour of air, but will be awesome in 2012 and wonderful for years to come. (92 pts.)
  • 2002 Alter Ego de Palmer - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (1/30/2010)
    Reticent nose. Soft and refined flavors, but lacks distinction. Currant, tobacco, cedar closet, black olive and a touch of stemmy greenness. Medium finish. Very good wine that doesn’t quite eek out excellence. Drink now though 2012 because I think it’s drying out. (88 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Interesting in how much your local restaurant marks up their wines - wow.

On the wines themselves, it seems that the Corison gets the advantage because it’s ‘first quality fruit’ for that winery, whereas the Alter Ego is second quality fruit (rather than rejected first label barrels as a true ‘second label’ would be) - price on that is based almost solely on the name Palmer, that’s it.

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The restaurant was at the Cliff Lodge, Snowbird, UT.

I’m assuming that Corison’s Napa Cab also uses fruit that isn’t used in her Kronos Vineyard bottling.