1961 Latour. Definitely worth the hype x 100
The first time I tasted the wine was 25 years ago at a Latour vertical with wines brought by the chateau. The wine was served at the end of a 3+ hour tasting of Latour and Les Forts. People and palates were exhausred by then, and the rest of my table had left, leaving me with the bottle, which I spent 45 minutes with and brought the rest of the bottle home. Best wine of my life.
The second bottle was good, too
I had a 10 year old Grange that a buddy bought and had perfect storage. BlackBerry syrup meets too much American oak. He tried to like it but it was a loser.
My first installment of this was DRC. My brother said some guy at work was a wine guy and asked if I had any Domaine da la Romanee something. I said “No, but that’s THE STUFF”. My first auction purchase was a bottle of the 1990 Romanee St. Vivant that we shared with him …I think it was for his 40th birthday but time tarnishes the details. I think I bid it up to $220 to win. Worth it.
For the established estates, I seek to understand what it is that makes them THE STUFF for enough people. Most of the time, I think I figure it out, even if I don’t personally feel the value is compelling. The one huge exception is Petrus. I’ve had '75, '90, and a few other middling vintages with some maturity. I leave with a feeling that I’ve totally missed the point. Nice wine. Not at all transcendental to my palate.
I have never paid for the Petrus. Thanks, friends.
fred
Would have to agree, but would make it closer to the Ivory soap purity level.
SQN.
Absolutely not.
I have a friend that occasionally opens a SQN when I’m over. Utterly mystifying to me how these wines command the prices they do.
Three that lived up:
1982 La Mission HB
1990 Conterno Francia
1989 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo
Cheers,
Doug
Wines that lived up to expectations:
2002 Truchot Clos de la Roche
1990 Trimbach CFE VT
1970 Chateau Petrus
1971 Ridge York Creek Petite Sirah
1989 Dönnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshohle Auslese
1998 J. J. Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Eiswein
And many more…
Had the 2012 twice. This first time it was brilliant (but still not worth the $), the second time if was a $60 Napa Cab.
I learned early on those are pretty unimpressive too young, at least from the vintages I tried. At 10 years out they’ve been waxy and not very expressive. At 20 years they’re starting to strut. i’d be more comfortable not wasting the effort opening one before 25 years.
Fell in love with the 1994 Dominus when I tasted it on release in 1997. 99 point Wine Advocate. I purchased a 6-pack with my retail wine employee discount thinking that would “hold me” for a few years. Silly assumption. Drank the entire six in about a year. Lucky enough to drink on multiple occasions over the intervening 25 years. A year ago traded my boss five $50 Napa Cabs for his last remaining bottle of 1994. Took it along for great Chicago Steak and paid the corkage. Immediately went home and bid for a 6-pack at auction on WineBid. Ended up paying around $400 a bottle all/in for the case in OWC. The Rolling Stones played Soldier Field last summer. Splurged for four tickets and steak again at RPM…On that particular evening the '94 Dominus completely overshadowed an awesome '96 Mouton. I’ve got three bottles left and looking for backups at auction. Does the wine deserve it’s Robert Parker 99 rating? It is the closest thing to perfection that I’ve tasted in 30 plus years of selling, collecting, and drinking. On the other hand I’ve got a vertical of Quilceda Creek Cabernet going back to 2003…at least 3 or 4 were 100 point Parker scoring wines. None of them come close to giving me the same pleasure I get every frigging time I pull the cork on another '94 Dominus. I’m looking for more…and hope you all aren’t bidding against me.
I’ve had at least a handful of bottles that were all that and more. Worth the price? Impossible to say because one man’s extravagance is another’s daily drinker. But bottles that outshone very high expectations … I’m trying to think of interesting stories but ultimately I’ve had many special bottles shared with friends that shone brightly.
Schäfer-Fröhlich Felseneck GG always lives up to the hype in my opinion. Had several vintages of it: 2007 and forward. Always a great wine. 2011 my favourite but hoping the 2015 will surpass it in a few years.
A former partner of mine from Miami - heart of gold, good friend that passed away last year - was a Schrader fanatic. Always raved about them, with me poo-pooing them and raving about French wines. So he proposed a little pre-cocktail hour tasting at one of our firm retreats. He brought two of the 100-point Schrader from the 2007 vintage, I cannot recall which bottles, just recall him saying “double hundos”. He also brought some back-up, a couple younger associates that worked for him, so I knew I had to pack some heat. And what else packs more heat than 2007 Chateauneuf, right? So I brought the 2007 Janasse VV and the Usseglio Mon Aieul, which I think got 99s or 100s, I cannot recall, but was relevant for this tasting. I also brought a Beaucastel so I could nerd out on them about traditional winemaking. Blah Blah. I hated the Schraders, total blocks of wood, especially at that early release stage (this was like 2009/10). The group flipped over the Janasse VV and the Usseglio. Including him. They liked the Schrader as well. I pretty much only liked the Beaucastel. The best part was, more people showed up, more bottles got poured, we all had the best time, lit up by the time the “business function” started!
1989 Haut Brion. Yep, worth the hype.
There are a few that stand out in my mind
Guigal La La’s: I think it was sometime around 2014 or maybe 2015 when I got to try a 2000 La La. It was all oak and extraction. Not my style, and really disappointing given the hype.
Domaine Serene: Back around 2005 they used to run full page adds in Wine Spectator about how they beat DRC in a blind taste tests. I went to the winery, I even bought a few bottles. All I can say is that over time I started to feel like they were to Oregon Pinot as Caymus is to Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. So, was the hype worth it…absolutely not.
Scarecrow: It was exactly what I expected it to be…but there is no way it was worth the price.
Keller G-Max: Hell yes…
1st Growth Bordeaux: Not in my mind. I’ve not had all 5 but of those that I have had, they’re on par with other aged bottles of Bordeaux. The bottles I’ve had have all been from the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s and it has not been extensive, but maybe 18-24 bottles over the last two decades.
Bottle variance is such a massive issue. Over a period of 6 months I’ve had 2 bottles of Phelps insignia. 100 point Parker wine. The first occasion I thought it to be one of the greatest wines I ever had. The second time I wasn’t as impressed. Now the bar was set amazingly high as were my expectations, but I feel bottle variation or maybe storage were the reasons for the second being not as much of a thrill.
1992 La Jota 11th anniversary !!
98 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The just-released 1992s from La Jota are stunning. The 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon 11th Anniversary Release (the only Cabernet aged in 100% new oak) is a spectacular wine, among the greatest Cabernet Sauvignons I have recently tasted. The superb nose explodes from the glass, offering a decadent level of sweet black fruits, flowers, vanilla, and spice. Full-bodied, sweeter, more expansive and chewy than the other cuvees, this lavishly rich, beautifully balanced, pure Cabernet Sauvignon can be drunk early in its life, but it promises to last for 20-25 years. It is a tour de force in winemaking! La Jota’s twenty acres of vineyards situated high up on Howell Mountain behind the small village of Angwin has consistently proven to be a superb source for red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. (RP) (12/1994)
Haven’t come close to living up to the hype:
'96 Salon
several vintages of Grange (undrinkable; yes, I mean it)
any Quilceda Creek (maybe the hype was all from 1 person, though)
'08 Cristal (I know I’m in the minority here, and maybe with time it will)
many others that were probably just opened at awkward stages of development
Have totally lived up to the hype:
Clos Rougeard (not worth current pricing to me, but clearly best of class, and better than almost all others by a huge margin)
'96 Taittinger Comtes (oh my god)
'96 and '08 Sir Winston Churchill (but '96 seemed to lose its luster over the years, and it should still be young)
Keller (sadly won’t pay aftermarket pricing and no longer have a connection for regular retail markup pricing)
old red Burgundy, just in general (not all great, but so many performing above expectations when well chosen, and I’m not talking trophies)
Cerbaiona Brunello (sadly found out too late)
Poggio di Sotto Brunello (not too late!)
probably many others that I’m not thinking of at the moment
Keep doing this at firm retreats. When my original firm merged for the first time, at the first partner retreat a few of us decided to do a wine tasting of wine lovers away from everyone else with about 1/2 people from my old firm and 1/2 from the firm we were merging with as a way to get to know each other. The first year we just had about 10-12 people there. It was a bit hit and a bunch of other people were upset that they were not invited. We ended up doing such a wine tasting every year at the partner retreat and it was the highlight of each retreat. Over time, we had more people included but we kept it mostly as wine lovers. We would have a theme each year and each participant had to bring a bottle.
One year, we did a blind tasting of Chardonnays (French and California). The consensus favorite was one of the less expensive wines - a Drouhin village level Chablis (I had it as one of my favorites but not #1). I picked out all the wines as either French or California correctly except that I got a Williams-Seylem Chardonnay wrong.
Another year we had a theme of Burgundy and one partner brought a first growth Bordeaux. Nobody complained.
It was a great way to get to know a lot of people from other offices and a lot of fun. With your firm recently having merged, you might think of expanding this and using it as a way to meet new people.