We opened two, one each at our two most recent dinners. The first one drew mixed reviews, I think in part because I didn’t shake all the sediment off the cork before standing it up (these were stored upside down, as library wines often are). I’d say you can tell that as an appellation level wine, it wasn’t supposed to last 40 years. Still a great experience to taste the first commercial ABC release if you get a sound bottle.
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Hard to believe there was any 1982 wine left. I tasted the '82 Chardonnay with Jim, Moke and Raj many moons ago. It was one of the last bottles.
These wines were made from a vineyard in Los Alamos where Jim and Adam made wine in an old dairy barn. They used old dairy tanks for fermentation. The grapes had been considered worthless, perhaps because of overcropping.Jim and Adam did the pruning themselves, as I recall, and the results were terrific. Then the vineyard was sold to Corbett Canyon and ABC had to move.
I forget what the clones were but there weren’t many good pinot clones in that area back then.
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It seemed like it was the 1982 Santa Barbara County Pinot specifically that had significant inventory left. If you look at the list in the original post, everything else was from the 90s and later.
Thanks for the additional details and backstory!
Jim was a hoarder.
He often didn’t trade in a car but kept it. His house looked like a used car lot.
You’d show up at his house and wonder who else was visiting.
Nobody.
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It should be added Mel, Jim’s cars weren’t just another car, they were exceptional model of high end Mercedes in most cases and amazing deals he finagled with pride and glee.
Using one of his special deals, his cross country treks with dear friend Tom Black form Nashville, were replete with one of kind wine tastings and dinners prepared by world renown chefs, most of whom were friends of Jims like Emeril Lagasse, Charlie Trotter, Roy Yamaguchi, Alice Waters, Gary Danko and Thomas Keller.
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My favorite Jim car story:Jim went to a wine charity auction where somebody was offering a Jaguar convertible. One of the people asked Jim to bid, just to get the action moving. Next thing you know, I am driving Jim to Monterey to pick up the car.
Nobody ever really drove the car, and finally Jim gave it away.
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That Jag auction lot was at the Central Coast Wine Classic held in Avila Beach many moons ago. { i have many of the auction catalogues, but am too lazy to look up what year that was, but it was in the 1990s}.
He would always get a table or 2 for the live auctions and our table became an auction lot in itself as we opened some of the best wines wines on the planet and shared pours with others who would venture over throughout the day.
Jim was notorious for holding his paddle up even after he had already reached the winning bid and often he paid a lot more as a result, but it was his heart that spoke up and the CCWC/ Archie McLaren benefited from it for over 30 years.
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I enjoyed the ABC Sanford and Benedict Reserve Chardonnay earlier this week.
It was allI could hope for. Golden in color, still quite alive…I got a good bottle.
And I’ve got one more.
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