Good Friday tasting notes:
2006 ‘Le G’ de Ch. Guiraud – a dry white made by a Sauternes house, this one with no Botrytis aromas at all. Lemon and grass nose, clean crisp acidity. At peak now.
2002 Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits – lovely smoky nose, smooth and almost luscious on palate with good length and fruit and crisp finish. A real rarity – from one of the 60 cases of white made each year by DRC and sold to support the monks at Romanee St Vivante.
2000 Triacca Sforzato San Domenico – a nebbiolo based wine (called Chiavennasca locally), this was fairly light in colour (not unusual with wines from Valtellina, looked and smelled mature with leathery notes and some plum, ready to drink. Unusual wine.
1991 Sassicaia – I’d not held out a lot of hope on this one, my only bottle and a minor vintage, but it turned out to be amazingly good. The nose was especially nice, a mature cabernet base with a hint of cassis, and the wine showed well in the mouth, if a tad lean and acidic, it was also elegant. Not bad at all!
1970 Ch. Montlabert – this St. Emilion was a nice garnet colour, and was quite mature with notes of caramel in the nose, and resolved tannin. Fairly dry with slightly high acidity, it was holding its own.
1997 Ch. Montrose – an off vintage but a good wine. An old slightly leathery complex nose, colour good but showing paler at the edges, smooth with good stuffing, drinking well right now – don’t hold.
1998 Griffin Creek Merlot Syrah – a southern Oregon wine (Rogue Valley) – merlot with just 3% syrah added for nose and backbone. Warm sweet stewy nose, but better on palate with good finish. Interesting wine I’ve not encountered before.
1997 JL Chave St. Joseph – I pulled this wine because in a recent syrah event we’d had a less than pristine Offerus, the blended version. This one showed quite well, with an initial metallic tang that quickly passed, followed by lots of berry fruit . Balanced and showing a hint of sweetness on palate, it was mature and finished well. Drink now.
1998 Ch. Ferraud – this St. Emilion is unknown to me which I’m quite OK with as it showed a simple fruit nose, undifferentiated, hollow uninteresting middle and continued true to this form through the short finish. One to be avoided and nothing much that gave us any indication it might have been a Bordeaux.
1984 Caymus Special Selection – warm almost spirity slightly stewed nose with mellow fruit and vanilla, smooth with good acidity, perhaps a tad one dimensional, but interesting nonetheless. Probably would have been better 5 years ago.
2000 Penfolds Bin 389 – rather nice to see this as I have a case stashed (somewhere…). Warm fruit, a hint of mint in the nose, with currant and anise, smoothing out nicely on palate, though many years ahead of it.
1997 BR Cohn Olive Hill Cabernet – Good colour, sweet nose, obviously cabernet, lots of sweet fruit in the mouth, not complex and finishing with only medium length. Not as good as it could be, I thought.
All in all this was a pretty darned pleasant holiday luncheon!
Excellent 389--minty nose with good cabernet attributes and structure. I hope my 96's are as good as this.