2003 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir La Bauge Au-dessus
If you bought this one you’re in for a treat. After opening my one bottle last night I am deeply regretful no more remain at K&L.
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2001 Knox Alexander from magnum. This is prime right now, tannins almost fully resolved and a good mix of tertiary flavors with some solid fruit remaining. Forest floor, rose petals, spices, red fruit. Long finish, 13.5 alc in balance, good acidic lift. Elegant but deep.
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Something I did not really expect with the wines I’ve bought and worked through is that, while the Pinots have generally been good, the Chardonnays are absolutely unreal. Some of the top wines I’ve had, ever.
I do not have much experience with Burgundy due to modern pricing but if these are any indication I completely understand the traditional Pinot then Chard tasting order. These chards are much bigger wines than the Pinots, which are lithe by comparison.
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@JustinP I wholeheartedly agree with you. I bought a fair amount of Pinot from the library sale, but I ended up buying even more Chardonnay because every time I opened a bottle it blew my mind and I went back and bought more.
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Jim would love the praise his wines are getting now and he would be smiling about the appreciation for his Chards as he always prided himself on crafting superlatives ones that he always likened to white Burgundy as confirmed when his friend, Dominique Lafon, would visit, taste and agree.
The high level of acidity and less intervention has guaranteed longevity. His large bottle formats are even better in all of his wines, especially the Chards IMHO.
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2005 Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay.
Better than the prior note on CellarTracker - color is normal and no oxidation - but below grade for the K&L library Chardonnays I’ve tried. Some floral/peach on the nose, some mineral backbone and moderate acidity, and a finish that doesn’t totally vanish. But it’s fairly thin on the entry and midpalate and generally does not impress. This joins a 2005 Nuits Blanches as disappointing chard bottles from that year.
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Thank you for honest assessment. I think we can all go ga-ga at times with the Mind Behind mystique and the perfect provenance. Some bottles from this tranche will surely disappoint.
Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times in his career. But oh those home runs, right?
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I try to call them like I see them! I went back and bought a lot from this sale after my first couple bottles, and don’t regret the expense at all. Have had some bottles that didn’t wow me but only one so far that was flawed as opposed to simply not holding up for its age. And some have been genuinely top 5-10% bottles for me, most notably the 1997 Sanford and 2002 Nuits Blanches Chardonnays.
Edit: and for the record only a few bottles that have been tired.
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Justin, your 97 Sanford note is really urging me to open mine. I’m keeping my fingers crossed in anticipation, especially after my ox’d 10 BN
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1998 La Bouge d’A Cote, fine but not inspiring. Sound at 27 years with a darker gold color. No flaws but, eh, it’s not that good. Apricot and peach and some chalky minerality, bee and candle wax, some florals.
On the palate good strong acidity and spiced apple, waxy tones, not terrible or anything just not that great. Theres a real finish as well.
Again nothing wrong with it per se but seems like it is past its prime.
My streak of misses has ended with a delicious 2002 Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay. This is nutty, waxy aged Chardonnay goodness with strong attack, a dense midpalate, and a rich mouthfeel balanced by striking acidity. The finish is long. Between this and the Nuits Blanches of the same year, which was a notch better, it seems like 2002 was a good chard year.
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I tried a 1997 Au Bon Climat Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Chardonnay. It wasn’t quite “dump it down the sink” to me (though probably a decent percentage of people would have done that). But if it wasn’t dead, it was getting pretty close.
If you were being a wine geek and trying to appreciate it, it was probably more as it warmed up and as though you were drinking an old Lopez de Heredia or Musar white. Significantly oxidized, but not definitively ruined by that, more just really geeky and eccentric.
I could talk myself into finishing a couple glasses, many people would not.
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Well shoot, maybe I got lucky with mine. Sorry to hear it didn’t hold up. I’d say some of the bottles I’ve enjoyed have had some amount of LdH style nutty character but it was part of the whole, not the main event.
Obviously at this age different bottles may have diverged based on cork quality. And maybe this is just one of those things like reduction, Brett, etc. where people have a different threshold for character vs flaw.
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I opened my '97 S&B Chardonnay last weekend and it was in a beautiful spot. Definitely not dead. Plenty of grip and acid holding everything together. Ripe lemon and orchard fruits, spice, toasted nuts. Everything in check. Color was deep rich gold.
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So glad others had (what sound like) better bottles.
I have zero resentment or regret; 28 year old Chardonnay under cork is going to have some variation from one bottle to the next. And like I said, it was at least possible to find some interest in the bottle I had.
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I recently opened a 2010 Bien Nacido Pinot Noir from this lot and it was fantastic! Definitely not as old as some other wines in this thread so you would expect some more consistently good results but it was a real treat and welllllll worth the price of admission. Easily should have grabbed more
People have had worse luck with premox in European wines.
Something I noted long ago: French drank their grand crus ten years old; Americans; fifteen or twenty; English, really old.
They should sell some of these wines on the English market.
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K&L just added another case of the 1982 pinot noir: 1982 Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir (Winery Direct Library Release) - SKU 1790247
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And I bought the last bottle of that 1982 ABC Santa Barbara Pinot Noir about an hour ago.
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Has anyone opened a 1982 yet? I bought 3 bottles in the original sale and am hoping that at least one will show well.