TN: Party like it's 1999 ('99 Bdx at Public)

WINE TALK
1

Matt organized a horizontal of 1999 Bordeaux last night at Public restaurant, a bustling place on Elizabeth St in “Nolita.” A nice group of regulars gathered, plus former regular David had come in from London for the Zachys auction. Guys were quite gracious when I couldn’t find either of the 2 Montroses I had listed in CT, I substituted a LynchBages.

Decent stems, friendly service. The food wasn’t the most Bordeaux-friendly, but we found some compromises, and the food quality was pretty good.

Starter was the 1999 Monbousquet Blanc. I’m not generally a fan of Bdx blanc outside of Graves, and this did nothing to change my mind. A bit flat and low acid, fairly advanced, a little weird green oak note. C

Ben had a mystery wine. Solid red fruit, good acids, minty/menthol nose. Quite fresh, resolved tannins, very tasty. 1977 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve B+/A-

Pomerol Flight
1999 Clos L’Eglise - red fruit, coffee, I like the nose on this, but the palate has some rather hard tannins. B/B-

1999 Trotanoy - very cool at first, not much nose and high acids. As it warmed it filled out a bit, some redcurrant fruit, but pretty austere. Maybe it needs time, but I’m not a fan. B-


My starter was a ballantine of quail, foie gras, and pistachio, with a little beet side, my dish of the night

St Emilion Flight
1999 Pavie Macquin
sweet black fruit, coffee, mocha, could use a bit more depth and length. OK, but I’m just as happy this is my last bottle. B/B+

1999 Pavie Decesse
Ripe, charred oak notes, spice, a bit too aggressively styled for my tastes. B-

We had a small dish of venison on a cilantro falafel , I liked the falafel more than the meat’

Northern Medoc
1999 Leoville Poyferre
Soft, ripe, black fruit and espresso. I’d call this totally mature, solid fairly modern Bordeaux, my favorite so far (which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement). B+

1999 Lynch Bages
Warm, soft, minty. Pleasant enough, but could defintely use a bit more oomph. B

1999 Grand Puy Lacoste
This didn’t leave much of an impression, a somewhat flat and uninspired claret. Cassis fruit, a bit short. B-

My main course was lamb, a nice slice of loin, with polenta and some rather off tasting veggies (said saffron, but tasted vinegared). I had eyed the snail and oxtail ravioli, but the pickled shiitakes scared me off.

Margaux Flight

1999 Palmer
This had been my favorite '99 before this night. This was very good, though maybe a bit closed compared to release, showing more structure than flesh. Still, a wine of power and finesse, very tasty. A-/B+

1999 Margaux
Lovely fragrant nose, elegant but with power, dark ripe fruit, very young. A-

Final Flight
1999 Pichon Lalande
Fruit is subdued, some stemmy/herby notes, thin. Closed or off bottle? B-/C+

1999 Mouton-Rothschild
Some divided opinions, I felt it was a typical Mouton- a good second-growth. :slight_smile:
Meaty, fleshy. B+/A-

1999 La Mission Haut Brion
Nice fruit, good length, harder tannins than most of the wines. This might be worth cellaring. B+

We finished with the 1999 Rieussec. Honey, apricots, with a strong citrus center. More acidity than I expected from a '99, quite a nice way to finish. B+

So overall a bit of a disappointment, I had hoped for a bit more for some of the midlevel wines. The two Margaux AC wines were easily my favorites (and the Mondavi!). I don’t think anyone left to rush to buy more '99s. Still, fun and educational night.

Grade disclaimer: I’m a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn’t drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

2

Loved the Margaux. If it wasn’t for the Margaux then the Mondavi would have been my WOTN. Palmer was pretty good too.

I always thought modern red Monbousquets were made in a chem lab. Now that I’ve tasted a white I’m sure of it. Yuck!

3

Dale - can I ask a bit more on the Pavie Decesse? Your notes aren’t that glowing, obviously, but do you think it is in an odd stage, still developing, or just bad?

4

Todd, I don’t think it’s so much a stage as a style that doesn’t appeal to me much. I’m not really oakaphobic, but that charred note that Monbousquet gets is here. If that doesn’t bother you, it would rate much higher.

5

I liked the '98 Pavie Decesse on release. Although oak driven it had the fruit to make it work. '99 is heavy on the oak but unlike '98 doesn’t have the fruit to support all the wood. I think Dale’s B- was generous.

6

I tried the Margaux on release and loved it. Never got around to buying any though. Now you make me wish I had.

7

Dale,

I’ve tried all the wines you mentioned except the forst 4 (i.e., '99 Monbousquet Blanc, '77 Mondavi Cab Reserve, '99 Trotanoy and '99 Clos L’Eglise). Honestly, it is almost frightening how all your tasting notes on the wines I’ve already had are so very similar to mine. Looks to me like our palates are similar. This could only mean that you have excellent taste!

Best,

N

8

Dale and Paul –

Interesting, and not too surprising. I keep harboring hopes for my 99 Medocs… and I keep being disappointed. When they were released, I thought they might have some potential to develop into decent (not great) classic clarets, but the tannins seem to have stayed hard and prominent. I can’t help wondering if this isn’t in part the result of reverse osmosis, which really came into vogue in that period.

As for the Right Bank, I tasted a couple dozen 99 St. Emilions there in 2001 and they were lousy across the board, so I’m not surprised that they haven’t turned out very well.

9

Dale, thanks for the notes. A great night.

The Mondavi was surprisingly robust and showing very well for an older wine.
The Monbousequet was nothing to write home about - as, in fact, were a fair number of the wines.
I thought the Margaux was singing, and the Palmer a close second. The Mouton surprised me, showing very well with perhaps more power than I would have expected. The Leoville Poyferre won the value of the night award. And the Lynch had that lovely purity that decent Lynchs do - quite nice.
The Rieussec wasn’t exciting but, hey, stickies are (usually) always a delight.

10

The Mondavis from the 70s are fantastic. I’ve had a couple over the past year thanks to (the good, NY/NJ) Jay Miller. They’re so silky, yet still fresh. (Paul – Remember that one Jay brought to Keith and Tamar’s BBQ this summer?)

11

By coincidence (or not), the Mondavi that I brought actually came from Jay Miller (of the Jersey Millers).

-Ben

12

Huh? I’m confused.

13

Apparently Ben bought or traded for the Mondavi from Jay (Happy Lenin/Don’t Give No Points/Nicest Geek in NY/Good/Never Tasted Sierra Carche/The One We Like/Fruit is Not Neccesarily a Flaw) Miller.
Did I leave a sobriquet out?

14

99 Palmer should be a good one for years.

15

I too have been quite disappointed with the 1999s I have had recently: Lynch Bages, Pichon Baron, d’Issan, even Palmer. But then I finished some lesser wines also from 1999: Moulin St Georges and Lafleur de Bouard and they were doing very nicely. Most of these wines were quite nice in their youth but are now a bit thin and shallow. I have some Pavie saved too, but not hoping for much now.

16

Oh, that guy!

17

Dan, Margaux too.

John, I remember. I think it was a mag of 78 or 79.

18

Overall I think I liked these wines better than most folks around the table. I found them generally to be open and easy to drink, but a bit heavy and a little tiring by the end of the evening. The Margaux was the clear winner and the Palmer was excellent too. The Leoville Poyferre was a surprising treat as well.

The restaurant was very good, if a bit loud for our purposes. The food was very good and although there were a lot of flavors that I feared would clash with the wine, in the end I found it not to be the case. The service was very good and they treated us really well, we reciprocated by sharing our wines with the staff and after the rest of the party had gone home, Brian and I poured samples for the waitress and somillier and sat around discussing the region, wines, and vintage. (Full disclosure: the restaurant manager is a friend of mine and was kind enough to hook us up with the “special” treatment and a no-corkage deal).

I didn’t take notes on the Mobousquet blanc, as I believe it was flawed. I remember as I sat down (a little late) and the first drop hit my mouth I actually said “this is wonderful”. As the wine sat a few seconds on my toungue I said “hey, what’s wrong with this?” Guess I was just excited to drink some wine!


1977 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
Served blind. Mature but without a ton of structure. Some sweet notes, some sap/syrup. A bit of acid. Warm, herbal. Has a lot of life ahead, but drinking well. Very nice, but I didn’t love this as much as many around the table seemed to.
B+


1999 Château Trotanoy - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Juicy, bright with acidic tannins and some slight coffee. Not closed, but not exactly ready to drink either. Light on it’s feet. I found this to be a beautiful wine, delicate and restrained and I believe it will mature very nicely.
B++


1999 Clos l’Église (Pomerol) - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Deep, dark, smooth with fairly heavy weight. Soy, oily. Dense and ready to drink but a bit flabby.
B+

1999 Château Pavie Decesse - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Full purple flavored with bright long finishing tannins and excellent concentration. Lots of espresso, glycerine. Strong with years of life ahead.
B++

1999 Château Pavie Macquin - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
A bit closed with tight herbal tannins and dense concentrated fruit. Short and loose finish.
B/B+


1999 Château Lynch-Bages - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Smooth, silky, somewhat sweet and soft. Bright with herb and some coffee.
B/B+

1999 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Not a lot of concentration but nice herbal quality. Thick fruit but a bit flabby. Pleasant enough but short and unremarkable. A disappointment.
B/B-

1999 Château Léoville Poyferré - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Dense and ready to drink with some aging potential. Concentrated and thick with mint and herb. The flavor profile reminded me of the 1996 vintage with good muscular fruit but not overly done. I really liked this.
A–


1999 Château Palmer - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Wonderful. Well balanced with fine tannins, dense sweet herb and coffee. Very complex with a long finish. Still drinking young, but very enjoyable.
A

1999 Château Margaux - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Smooth with a long long finish. Coffee, sap, dense and oily (in a good way). Very concentrated. Excellent.
A/A+


1999 Château La Mission Haut-Brion - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Smooth and silky with an acidic edge and a long finish. Bright, high toned with sweet tannins. B++

1999 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Sweet baking spices. Bright, open, med-light weight. Clove and candied fruit. Too sweet, this reminds me of some of the sweeter vintages of the early 00’s as Bordeaux lunged toward a more modern style. Lacks concentration, complexity.
B/B-

1999 Château Mouton Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Some baking spices and good bright fruit. A bit of coffe with a long finish. Although a little on the sweet side, a very nice wine. My #4 of the evening.
A–


1999 Château Rieussec - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Strong, bright, outgoing. Drinking well but young and has many years ahead of it. A bit candied. Not the greatest vintage, but very very good.
B++


Here were the votes for WOTN:
Margaux 25
Palmer 16
Mouton 9
Leoville Poyferre 4

A few people mentioned that they would have voted for the Mondavi if it were eligible, but I would not have.

Thanks to everyone for coming and bringing their wine. Looking forward to the next one!