Oh-Kay…at the recent UGC tasting, IIRC I tried the Clinet, Clos Fourtet, Leoville Poyferre, Pontet Canet, and Smith Haut Lafitte among others. While the Clinet was at the top of the heap that night, I would not have considered any of those five wines to be 100 point/“perfect” wines. Clearly I was tasting something very, very different…
In your example, if it gets 97 points instead of 100 you may have just discovered you overpaid for PC when the score comes out. If you hadn’t bought, you could have gone about using your money to buy other things (like other wine the price of which you expect to rise in the future) and wait to purchase the PC in the future for the 2/29/2012 price or less. There is tons of it and the price will likely drop, especially considering the amount of 97+ pt. 2009 BDX wines that were cheaper.
Consider the alternative, you decided not to buy the PC on 2/29/2012 with the thought it was overpriced and will drop after the scores come out. You use that money to buy other wine or something else that you want and expect to buy it when it’s cheaper. ruh-roh…on 3/1 it gets 100 points. By not buying on 2/29 you just cost yourself a bunch of money…or you go without.
These scores are nothing new. I bought the 2009 Pontet Canet en primeur. He had rated it 98-100. I bought a few at $149 and quickly watched it jump to $199 in a few weeks. I was going to say I don’t see this 5th growth going to 300+ per bottle. But I just checked KL and they just sold out the rest of their 2009 PC after pretty much zero movement over the past several months. It’s already starting…
Bad move to buy at this point especially with 2010 also sitting at 97-100 for $179 IMO but then again, what the hell do I know. Guess I don’t get to drink this wine either and I’ll be forced to flip this also…
Don’t scoff. I had no trouble flipping my 100 point Quilceda Creeks at Premier Cru. When I offered them my 99 pointer (after tasting a QC at a dinner and deciding that it really was not my style of wine), no interest whatsover…
I tasted both wines at UGC Chicago, and, while both were very good (I think I even ordered Clos Fourtet, as I often like the wine), I don’t think either would crack my “top 1000 wines of my life so far” list, much less vie for perfection. That said, I have not had them from large format with raw fish, so I could be wrong.
+1. I really liked all those wines, and even purchased a few for sale after tasting at UGC Chicago, but perfect? Perfect means something almost otherworldly, and these wines, while great, did not hit those heights.
Which, it seems to me, has to be a mark in Parker’s favor. For all the criticism heaped upon him (much of it self-inflicted, it has to be said), he has worked, successfully, to diversify the voices heard at TWA. I find that refreshing. I will also say that my hit rate for bdx wines that both enjoy is nearly 100%. In the recent issue, for example, I have great confidence in the Domaine de Chevalier, about which both were enthusiastic.