My national sales meeting was more harried than usual for reasons of logistic turmoil (I will do a separate post), but as always we had OPW (other people’s wine). More notes to follow, these are from Saturday dinner at Mark’s Duck House in Falls Church, VA. This excellent BYOB was a favorite of Robert Parker. While ownership may have changed (there’s more Vietnamese on the menu than I remembered), quality if anything has gone up. Carry-out Peking Ducks required beheading and a lot of butchery the next day, well worth it.
2005 Francois Gay Savigny 1er Cru ‘Serpentieres’ from 1.5L - About an inch of ullage. Cork came out clean. Pop and pour. I don’t remember provenance, but it probably was bought ~5+ years ago from a reputable internet retailer.
Color shows a surprising amount of brown. The aromas are open, pleasantly earthy with very ripe red cherry fruit, showing more maturity and something a little stewed. The palate is similar, with the wine having a very ripe flavor profile, some nice breadth and a solid, pleasant texture. Still, this tastes far older than 13 years, especially from magnum. I would have guessed at least twice the age, with secondary notes beginning to fade to tertiary. Rated 84 on opening, it went downhill pretty quickly, after half an hour I abandoned it, as did most but not all of my guests. I don’t know if there was heat damage, but I’ve liked this producer a lot better with other bottles.
2001 Clark Claudon Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Estate form 3.0L - Wax capsule well designed to come off and allow access to the cork. One inch of ullage. Cork came out clean. Pop and pour. Purchased at auction about 5 years ago.
Dark pure ruby color with no hint of browning. Aromas are strikingly Bordelais, with some real sense of graphite, under strong notes of black currant with hints of black plum, as if there was some Merlot in there (I don’t know). The palate is excellent, with a reprise of the black currant, now also with some red currant, the plums in the background, tasting more like pure Cabernet. Still, there is the finesse and breadth I associate more with fine Medoc, maybe St. Julien, than usually with Napa. At the finish there is a reprise of the plums. For Napa Cabernet, this is very subtle, with both layers and breadth. It lacks the intensity of the greatest wines, and from 3L is closer to maturity than I would have guessed, but is an truly excellent example of Old World finesse in a New World package. Rated 94.5, probably fully mature in bottle.
Dan Kravitz