Got together with 6 friends for a nice DRC dinner. Most of the wines were taken to the restaurant, others unfortunately were not. Wines were decanted just as dinner was starting so they saw modest air initially, but dinner took about 4hrs so we got to see the wines evolve in the glass.
Started with 1983 Salon with starters of seared scallops and lobster. I had high hopes when the bottle was opened as it had high carbonation, dark hay color and a hazlenut nose. On the palate it was pleasant but starting to sherry and some dark mushroom component. While it was drinkable it wasn’t particularly tasty-mildly interesting, but I was only good for 1/2 glass.
Moved on to 1992 Dom Jean Chartron Trebuchet Chevalier-Montrachet ‘clos de chevaliers’. Wine was initially a bit too cool-light lemon color, good weight, as the wine warmed up a bit it was fresh with sea salt and a nice light butterscotch edge. I kept a bit all evening and I thought it was delicious. Nice to drink an older white burg without a hint of premox.
1st flight: 1972 Romanee St. Vivant and 2001 Romanee St. Vivant-paired with seared king salmon with morel & trumpet mushrooms and sweat pea&serrano ham risotto. Struggled with the original pairings a bit but thought despite the age contrast made the most sense. The 72 poured a pink frosting cake color, nose of crushed strawberrys, truffles, clove and a bit of tar. The wine was on the high acid side-at any other table it would have been much better. As it was it was interesting-easy to drink but it had seen it’s better days. This wine was transported just before dinner and I don’t think it had been standing up long-throughout the evening sediment would collect in your glass; it was interesting to watch the color shift from clearly pink to an almost cola color with the extended air. I think this would have shown better had it been handled properly. The 2001 RSV was quite a contrast-bright garnet color, asian 5spice nose with a nice stone minerality to it. A delicious wine now, but still too primary-I was afraid that this would be too tight, but it wasn’t. If I owned this I’d put it away for at least 15yrs.
2nd flight:1985 Echezeax & 1985 Richebourg-paired with roasted duck breast with swiss chard and sweet corn puree. Now we are talking-both 85’s seemed soo young, served blind I would have guessed about 10yrs younger. The Echz was just starting to lighten at the edges, without any signs of bricking-dark fruits dominated the nose, great mid palate and probably a 45sec finish. An exceptional wine-I’ve had this a few times before and this was the best showing to date. The 85 Richebourg had a nose of wild rasberries, on the palate it was YOUNG with considerable grip-on this night the consensus was the Echz was clearly better for current drinking. I wouldn’t be in a rush to drink either.
3rd flight: 1983 La Tache & 1987 La Tache-paired with prime filet topped with seared foie gras. I was a little nervous of this flight since neither are particuarly strong vintages-but how bad can la tache be?? These wines were a bit polarizing, I much preffered the 87 while several others thought I had gotten my glasses confused. The 87 was initially tight on the nose and seemingly out of balance with again too much acidity. After about 45-1.5hrs it changed dramatically while it was still on the higher acid side (but I like em that way’) it had taken on nice weight and polish. The edges were gone but still had substancial structure and spice. I found the 83 to have a slightly overpowering balsam component and it never seemed to come together for me.
to finish we were set for a 77 Dow’s port-but it was horribly corked Easily the most corked port I’ve ever come across-it wasn’t even worth pouring. We ended with a sweet wine from the loire which was nice but unremarkable.
Over all it was a great way to spend the evening, I’m hoping to make it an annual affair. Unfortunately with these dinners the concept of qpr often comes up. For me I was overall pleased with the performance of the wines-as a whole they performed better than I had expected, but not as high as I hoped (if that makes sense) Basically I had hoped for higher highs, and expected lower lows. All in all I think 99.999% of people are drinking their wines faaaar too young, I admit I’m unfortunately often with the majority but that has changed over the past few years do to the average age of my cellar.
cheers’
-paul