A Pair of 1974s for a Belated Birthday Dinner

We pulled these two bottles to celebrate Jonathan’s birthday a week and a bit ago, but didn’t end up drinking them on schedule. I’m sure they benefitted from the extra week of standing up in the cellar and made a fine and delightful match with a meal of veal chops with red pearl onions and crimini mushrooms alongside fresh English peas (see the Epicurean forum for a link to some pictures).

  • 1974 Guasti Clemente Barolo Riserva - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (6/13/2021)
    Stood up for a week, opened at noon, decanted an hour before dinner. Not much sediment showing anywhere in the bottle. Served on the cool side in Grassl Cru glasses. Tremendous showing for this wine! Continued to improve with air, coming together. Nice clarity and excellent nose of earth and underbrush, roasted meats, black plums, leather and roses. Broad palate, with some VA at first (to be expected) which blew off nicely. The cool temp was best for this wine, but the additional air gave more depth and that dusty velvet thing that I associate with old Barolo. This was a real winner. About as good as a Barolo that was always good, but never great, can get. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The last bit was even good with some young robiola after dinner. I will give it another hour in the decanter next time. It’s so exciting when wines from which you don’t anticipate fireworks exceed expectations.
  • 1974 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/13/2021)
    This was a low fill, SOS bottle so expectations were restrained. Stood upright for a week, then decanted off considerable sediment about an hour before serving and served on the cool side, allowing to warm in the glass, in Riedel Vinum Bordeaux stems. Saturated garnet color, very little bricking at the rim. Pretty classic in structure and style, notes of dill pickle and eucalyptus on the nose, along with a generous amount of somewhat faded black fruit. Nice medium body and dense, silky mouthfeel. Jonathan noted the possible damage in lack of tension, balance and precision, and I thought there was too much eucalyptus - an element to which I am sensitive. With air, the fruit faded gradually and by the end of the 3 hours or so period of which we drank the bottle, it was getting a little fuzzy. No doubt it wasn’t a perfect example, and the next gear from a more sound example would have been nice to see, but it was still a fun and interesting bottle, though out performed on this occasion by the '74 Guasti Clemente Barolo Riserva drunk on the same evening.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Wonderful notes, Sarah.

Happy Birthday! Too bad the Mondavi was likely damaged, a prime 74 can still be a wowza.

Definitely, and we’ve had excellent bottles from this case. We have 7 left. You have to open the low fills at some point. We tend to give them a try when we don’t need it to show well - at home, just the two of us, plenty of back-ups.

happy bday to J. lori’s is 1974 and we’ve had a ton of great wines from piedmont and ca over the years. the produuttori riservas tend to show really well.

Happy Birthday to Jonathan.

Have had a lot of success with '74 Barolo. A very good year.

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Happy belated birthday to Jonathan! Too bad 1974 was such a bad year in Germany, but glad there are options elsewhere in the world!

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Nice duo Sarah. One winner and one decent/fun from a pair of 74’s is a great outcome.

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