WTN: Jouguet and Grand Puy Lacoste

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner was pasta tossed in an herb and butter sauce, an idea I got from a Florida Jim post (thanks, Jim). A herbal Loire Cab Franc softened with a little age sounded like the perfect mate, and indeed it was: 2000 Charles Jouguet Varennes Les Clos. "Otto would love this," I thought with my first sniff. Youthful dark red color with rasberry-cranberry fruit, celery root and all those herbs. Loved how it changed with each forkful where a slightly different combination of herbs arrived. Especially interesting was any extra hit of rosemary, which brought out a pleasant pine resin quality in the wine. Very good, but I don't think the wine has a future.

Then a few nights back we chose a 1997 Grand Puy Lacoste. Wow, what a lovely wine--best yet of all the 97's I've had and good news after the last one I had about two years ago was quite asleep. Medium, not full, bodied, which only adds to the facets in the same way that being so thin made Fred Astaire a more riveting dancer. Covert, if you still have any, it's drinking superbly right now.

2000 Charles Jouguet Varennes Les Clos. Very good, but I don't think the wine has a future..

Sounds good, I have a 2000 Clos de la Dioterie I've been planning to open in the near future. In theory that should have more of a future than the VlC, but I'm not sure how much more and will open it anyway.

FWIW, the Joguet website claims the 2000 VlC will peak between 2010-2012.

Then a few nights back we chose a 1997 Grand Puy Lacoste. Wow, what a lovely wine--best yet of all the 97's I've had and good news after the last one I had about two years ago was quite asleep. Medium, not full, bodied, which only adds to the facets in the same way that being so thin made Fred Astaire a more riveting dancer. Covert, if you still have any, it's drinking superbly right now.

Drank my last bottle three weeks ago. I thought about you when I drank it and how you told me a couple of years ago that it was sleeping rather than over the hill. You were right. Lovely it was. It had special meaning to me, because it was the first wine of that massive shipment of '97s that I bought, which ushered in my Bordeau passion. I had umteen or more mixed cases sitting in my cellar after they arrived via UPS from a futures order spanning both Bordeau banks. Had to pick one to try. Lynn took a taste and declared it the best wine she had ever tasted; and she was so happy "I was right" in my big gamble. Of course a bunch of people would diss the idea of a '97 Bordeaux being the best wine anybody drank. But I loved it, too. When we opened our very last bottle at camp, I didn't remind her that it was at one time so special to her. She doesn't remember such things. She declared it wonderful and asked how many bottles we had left. When I told her that was it, she was sad but savored her half bottle allocation for three hours.

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, Jouget probably knows more about their wine than I do, but we found that the wine lacked persistence over the two hours or so we drank it, fading marginally and picking up more tannins. That, to me, usually says a wine's getting tired. But maybe its just going back to sleep? I have the 00 Diotere too, and based on the other bottle of that we had about 2 years ago, I wasn't planning on opening that until around 2010.

[Jenise]

Covert, nice story and I'm sorry you don't have more. You probably won't have luck finding more, because the reputation of the 97's is such that few would be holding them now. I'm a bit luckier as I tghink I have one more bottle. What's your opinion of it's life expectancy? I'm thinking it should hold here for another two-five years, and I don't need to rush. On the other hand, on the theory that "if you don't think it can get any better, it probably won't", which at my peril I have not always paid heed to, why wait?

Rahsaan, Jouget probably knows more about their wine than I do, but we found that the wine lacked persistence over the two hours or so we drank it, fading marginally and picking up more tannins. That, to me, usually says a wine's getting tired. But maybe its just going back to sleep? I have the 00 Diotere too, and based on the other bottle of that we had about 2 years ago, I wasn't planning on opening that until around 2010.

Well, who knows how Joguet generates their WebStuff. I can see your argument for the 00 Varennes. And thanks for the info on the Dioterie, maybe I will try to hold out as long as possible.

What's your opinion of it's life expectancy?

You know more about that than I do, as evidenced by your opinion a couple of years ago versus mine. I read that Parker lets wine stand open, maybe in a glass, for a few days to determine how much life it has by the way it fights off oxidation. The '97 GPL still smelled sweet in the glass the next day, so maybe it has more life. But objectively, I doubt it will get any better; however, my nostalgia about the vintage grows every year so that my requirements decline with growing love and acceptance, not unlike marriage.

I mentioned before that I recommended the wine in 2000 to a local wine store. They bought a couple of cases, but no one bought any, except for me once in a while out of a sense of guilt of having recommended that they purchase the wine. Now that I am out, I will probably buy a few bottles, without letting my wife know that I will have to come up with $56 per bottle; the store marked the bottle to market, which is a bit of a misnomer in this case.