Bordeaux dinner notes:
2001 Carbonnieux – great way to start with a white. Light colour, nose had a lot of citrus but also deeper floral notes, and in the mouth, well balanced and good length. No rush here.
1970 Gruaud Larose – a wine not well received by the critics, but I think they under rate it. This one was showing pale edges, a delightfully correct nose still with good fruit, some tannin and lots of acidity. It presented like a wine, maybe 10 year younger. It has finally come around – if you have them, time to open the. Rasoul – if you have another bottle let me know and I’ll pull a 1975 (which wasn’t yet ready when I last tried it.)
1986 Beychevelle – this was much too soft to readily identify itself as a 1986, even though many of the wine from that hitherto hard vintage have been showing signs of softening up recently. It had a bit of brett in the nose, which surprised me, and some cherry notes underneath that, and was nice and juicy in the mouth, with soft tannin, finishing a little short. Not a bad performance.
2005 Blackwood Lane Aliance – I don’t recall just where in the order we tasted this BC Bordeaux style wine (I keep my notes on interlopers on a separate page) but there was no way it came across as a Bordeaux. It showed a definite coconut sweet nose with American oak and some dill, and was sweet in the mouth, ripe, and not a bad showing for a local wine. 60% CS, 29% M, 11% CF
2000 Lanessan – this unassuming Medoc wasn’t showing much in the nose,. In the mouth the tannins were largely resolved but with time in the glass the fruit faded and the tannins became more evident. Not sure what is happening here, but I’ll try to remember to try one in a year or so. Looking at my own list I have 1995 that I should dig out ASAP and 1978 that should have been dug out a log time ago, alas.
1976 Grand Puy Lacoste – a hint of kiddie’s vinyl pool in the nose, but also good fruit, an elegant wine, very presentable, obviously at the end of life, but still kicking, which is more than I’d have given credit for before tasting it. Pleasant. I have drunk up almost all of my 1976s as they peakes some time ago.
1993 La Mission Haut Brion – I always bring old wines (most of the group has younger cellars than mine) so I decided to bring a young wine from a vintage I figured they wouldn’t be familiar with, nor be expecting. Cocoa in the nose, with vanilla and currant, sweet entry, dark fruit and good balance with largely resolved tannins and a decently long finish. No rush and better than I’d thought it might show.
1976 Lascombes – less interesting than the other ‘survivor’ 76, with a tomato nose, obviously fully mature although some remaining tannin, and not too much happening on palate. Pleasant in a forensic sort of way. I don’t recall tasting this in youth, so I don’t know what it was like with higher fruit levels. Still, too good to declare DOA.
1990 Gruaud Larose – still fairly youthful, with wet stones and dark fruit in the nose, and lots of chocolate, cedar and a soupcon of spearmint. More or less medium bodied, at least as far as the normally corpulent Gruaud goes, with a medium tannin, low acid profile that made it very tasty now. Perhaps hitting plateau with many years ahead.
1996 Doisy Vedrines – a discussion of whether this was a Sauternes or a Barsac ensued with myself and another person averring firmly that it was a Barsac, and the others waffling (we were right). Interesting wine, as beyond a whiff of botrytis, it had the profile of a lighter but very pleasant desert wine – some suggested (rather aptly, I thought) that it was like an Alsatian SGN wine. Light in colour and weight, it was smooth on the tongue and had good balance and length. Very pleasant to drink, if not quite what one expects, at least in the first instance, in a Barsac I quite liked this.
