A night of mostly Bordeaux, with the bucket lister 89’ La Mission. I was pretty excited to get a look at this wine, though had no idea how young it would show. As it happened, I enjoyed the champagne and whites most of all together with the 66’ La Mission. Great night with So Cal boys John, Jeff, and finally got a chance to meet Paul Klevgard. One of the highlights turned out to be extensive WWII discussion.
90’ Dom Perignon
Shows excellent fresh fruit flavors with plenty of acidic freshness. Clearly still young, with very nice secondary complexities of light brioche, yeast, and hints of complex sweetness. Carries well through the mid palate before finishing gracefully with good resonance. Excellent showing, and an eye opener for me.
16’ Heitz-Lochardet Meursault Gruyaches
Bright lemon, citrus, good pure fruit with as much or more savory character than sweet. Oak supporting this very well, with a light to moderate touch, perhaps lending some approachability, as this wasn’t punishing to drink so young in the least. Shows excellent freshness and mineral impressions throughout. Paired excellently with scallops, and in a big spot after a 90’ Dom and before the red bdx. Everyone at the table seemed to want a refill.
66’ Chateau Haut Brion
Funky nose, mushroom, turned leaves, lead pencil. Mature, not exceptionally lively though sports nice freshness. Very even on the palate, plenty of freshness on top, fruit is mature, giving rise to some iodine, and feather lite heat. With time, the funk and heat did dissipate, leaving some faint soil and light red fruit. Bottle had a great fill, though thought this was slightly past peak and not quite up to its billing.
66’ La Mission Haut Brion
A bit more plum, black currant, and fruit concentration to this compared to the Haut Brion. Love the bold fruit and subtle mint freshness on the nose. Beautiful and full on the palate, dark plum fruit, slightly tart and sweet. Heady transition in to the back, so effortless.
Very graceful and persistent on the back. What a great bottle of la Mission supplied by Paul, who mentioned we got very lucky as other bottles have been fading recently.
89’ La Mission Haut Brion
Gobs of sweet dark plum fruit on the nose, though not too sweet, supplemented by very fine oak spice. Plenty of life and energy through the palate, tense acidity, sweet elegant dark fruit, fine spices. Some dark bitter chocolate through the finish. Wasn’t expecting this to show so young and with so much evolution still ahead. It does have a ways to go before it reaches its Zenith, though this bottle had quite the pristine cork. Decanted off its sediment for an hour, then enjoyed over 3-4 hours. Roughly the same service for all bdx on the night. Shorter decant for the two 66’
89’ Chateau Latour
Bold fruit on the nose, a bit sweet and a touch sweeter than la Mission. Good spice support, though quite the wall of assertive tannins say, “check back in a decade or two”.
76’ Chateau Palmer
Expectation frame everything. With no one expecting much from this, we were all pretty happy to see some pretty, concentrated dark red fruit with no real off notes. Not the greatest purity or complex spices, but an admirable showing.
2001 Chateau Rieussec
What a Sauternes. If only they all had this much clear and bright acidity to match the fruit, which in this case is coated in honey, dried apricot, and complex spices. While plenty viscous, it’s never heavy. Paired brilliantly of course, with Cuban Cohiba’s. Three of us were able to polish off a 750 after a big night of drinking. Made for a nice day after.