Our regular group met this month at Kathy’s with the general theme of Red Bordeaux (second time in a week for me, but I am not complaining!). We dined on a number of great potluck entrees, sides, starters and desserts contributed by everybody and the wines were having a very good night in terms of their showing, so it was a winning combination. The red wines were all served blind, with some general semblance of serving order attempted by me without knowing all of the wines. I knew wines one and two (though not the order) and wines seven through nine, but the rest were pretty much random.
Starters:
N.V. Henriot Champagne Brut Souverain. This wine is moderately dark in color and when poured presents a very active and persistent bead. It offers up an extremely effusive bouquet that has lots of bread dough, lemon peel, green apple, chalk and graphite aromas in a big, sort of masculine package. It is very youthful and aggressive in the mouth, with a fullness of body countered by crisp acidity that gives the wine a lot of liveliness and push. It is large-framed and fairly mouth-filling with its flavors of lemon, pear and cool smoke, but at times it also seems a bit too straight-ahead with its blind ram-rod force. It could stand to take on more finesse and finery for my tastes.
2004 Deutz Champagne Blanc de Blancs. At first, this Champagne seems to have a lot of sulfur character on the nose, like the residue of a recently-struck match. That tends to lessen over time, with sharp aromas of flint, lime rind and white pepper taking more of a center stage as the aromas tickles the inside of the nose. In the mouth, it is on the lighter-bodied side, with a fine pin-point feel to it that is appropriate for the crisp flavors of lemon sourball, ginger peel, powdered minerality and other citrus elements. However, I think the wine needs some time to flesh out and find a more significant bottom note. I just don’t think this is ready at all at this point.
Flight One:
1970 Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Leognan. The bouquet of this wine is just beautiful and really brings home to me the glories that aged Bordeaux can deliver. It features delightful aromas of red currants, persimmon and dried red berry fruit riding atop darker and more bass-driven aromas of old hard leather, fireplace ashes, dusty earth and hickory. Over time, it just gets sexier and more appealing, as some Christmas fruit cake and dark cherry notes come in to provide some sweeter edges--all the while seeming to gain greater elegance of weight and finery as it goes along. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied and seems to aim more for elegance than extraction. A lot of the flavors are close to the surface and pretty, though there is some moderate concentration that seems more apparent as the meatier qualities riding below the fine red fruit flavors on top begin to emerge. There is a little nick of acidity still going here, but more than anything this is really smooth and resolved and easy-drinking, with no real tannins to worry about. The finish is perhaps a bit dried out at this point, but it leaves a persistent faded red flower perfume in the mouth that I find really enjoyable. This was my #3 wine of the night and the group’s second-place finisher.
1970 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou St. Julien. This wine is a bit richer-colored and cloudier in appearance than its flight-mate. Once again, the nose here is just delightful. Indeed, I could sniff this wine all night and be perfectly happy. It starts off by featuring beautiful savory bits of old bridle leather, hung tobacco barn, a tickle of jalapeno pepper and a touch of dry menthol on the nose. It seems to gain in depth and density over time, eventually pulling in classy red fruit aromas, as well as notes of old muddy baseballs, horsehair and dried orange peels to add to the complexity of the overall equation. In the mouth, this wine tastes sweeter and more fruit-driven than the Domaine de Chevalier, with a healthier overall demeanor and structure to it. I would also label this one medium-bodied, but it comes across as a bit thicker and more fully-flavored. While not quite as elegant, it still has plenty of that, as well. The mouthfeel is wonderfully cohesive and full of fuzzy personality driven by the richness of raspberry and black cherry fruit and the wine’s outstanding sense of balance. The finish is fleshy, with no hard edges and just enough crackle of acidity to give it a long lasting feel on the tongue. This is very nicely done and a real pleasure to drink. This was my wine of the night and the group’s #3.
Flight Two:
1982 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac. This wine is very dark in color compared to the wines of the first flight. It is darker in aromatic tone, as well. It gives off aromas redolent of fine earth, smoke, gravel, black currants, cassis, sliced green pepper, tobacco and dark leather that are complex and serious and show absolutely no signs of let-up. In the mouth, it is richly enveloping and nicely layered in both flavor and texture. It exhibits a lot of stuffing, but doesn’t show any jagged edges. It opens with dark red fruit, turns a bit drier and blacker-fruited in the middle and then finishes long with smoky overtones. It is a dark beauty with lovely depth that tastes great now but will have no trouble holding for a while. It was my runner-up wine of the night and was the group’s WOTN.
1999 Château Pavie Decesse St. Emilion. This wine has what might be described as more of a New World feel to it on the nose, with its meaty and overt aromas of black licorice, lots of sweet treacled black fruits, lava rocks and baked bricks. On the palate, though, I find it more appealing, with lots of black currant fruit and an interesting foresty undertone to it. It is perked-up and lively, with a wiry masculine presence. It shows a good deal of extraction of fruit, but nice tension as well between the dark fruit, bitter chocolate and earth flavors and the tightly-packaged acidic elements.
Flight Three:
1999 Château de Sales St. Emilion. Aromas of tangy red fruits, mossy earth and a ton of fireplace ash lead the way on the bouquet of this wine, followed later on by faint leather and steeped orange peel accents. In the mouth, the entry is smooth and glossy, with nice mixed black and red fruits that seem to turn a bit youthfully chewy toward the back of the palate at times. It has a cool acidic streak running through it, as well as some bitter chocolate and mineral notes. The tannins play more of a role here than in any wine up to this point, so they seem more noticeable and blocky. The mid-palate feels open-knit and could maybe use a few years to tighten up the laces a bit and find greater structure.
1986 Château Lynch-Bages Pauillac. This wine smells deep, dark and earthy, with lots of tar oil, incense, ash, bell pepper, tomato leaf and lava rock aromas that swirl and morph and freshen up quite a bit with air. In the mouth, it is rich and chewy and quite dense, with an impressive but somewhat overpowering intensity. It is taut and tannic and backwards, but sports outstanding acidic cut to offset the big black fruit and earthy flavors. It is black-toned in different ways all the way along the palate journey, finishing with a dry and earthy quality. Although the tannins prevent it from being ready to drink now, the intensity of stuffing, overall structure and cut bode extremely well for future drinking enjoyment 5 or 10 years down the road.
Flight Four:
1996 Château Cos d’Estournel St. Estephe. This one opens up just a bit musty and has us a little worried until it begins to blow off. Behind that are full-blown aromas of sweet black currant fruit, green pepper, bacon fat and leafy menthol that grow and become more darkly expressive the longer one stays with it. In the mouth, this is totally mouth-filling with cool dark fruit. It is rather muscular and youthful, yet shows fine construction and balance. Flavors of black currant, black bean, coffee and chocolate are carried along in a smooth-textured package, but do have significant but rounded tannins to contend with. As a result, perhaps, it finishes a touch chewy and chalky. Even so, this is clearly an excellent wine with a long future ahead of it.
Flight Five:
2001 Château Leoville Poyferre St. Julien. This wine presents a tightly-spun but gorgeously glossy bouquet of sexy blackberries, black currants, spice cake and funky earth that is quite youthful but fabulously engaging at this stage of its development. It hints at really nice future development, but is lovely right now, as well. In the mouth, it is stacked and packed, but also creamy and fleshy with a polished feel to the black and blue fruits crammed into its frame. It feels richly extracted with some Belgian chocolate undertones, but also features a great squirt of freshening acidity. The finish is a bit more matted in texture and shows a drier character, but also demonstrates a lot of class and easy length. Although the tannins are not much to worry about here, the wine still seems capable of aging without problem for a decade plus, and I’d be pretty psyched to have some of this in my cellar.
1999 Château Leoville Barton St. Julien. The nose here is on the cool and savory side—featuring aromas of leather, dirt mound, tobacco leaf and dark cherry. It starts out dark and reticent, but the longer one sniffs it, the more fruit-forward it becomes--with some sweetening of the fruit happening and an unusual but exotic sort of lychee accent starting to pop up from time to time. In the end, I sort of fell for the bouquet, even though I didn’t start out that way. In the mouth, however, this wine is very dry in texture and tone most of the time, with tough tannins and some chewy edges getting in the way of the dark fruit and black rock qualities the wine has to offer. It flows well enough but needs some time to give the tannins and texture a chance to soften.
Sweet wine:
2001 Château Rabaud-Promis Sauternes. This has a wide-open bouquet of dried apricots, caramel, pistachio nuts, dark orange blossoms, marmalade and botrytis spices. It is rather rich and viscous in the mouth, with an unctuous amount of body and could certainly stand to have more acidic cut or definition than it is showing right now. Still, the flavors of dark caramel, tangerine and apricot are enjoyably even-keeled, though not particularly lasting. Overall, the finish is somewhat abrupt, and the lack of acidity is disappointing after the promise of the bouquet.
-Michael