Notes from a lunch with Albert Givton in Vancouver – fascinating and informative as always!
The wines were served blind.
2003 Flora Springs Chardonnay Select Cuvee (Napa) – showing some colour, a full, sweet fruity nose, full bodied, smooth and fairly soft but with enough acidity to finish cleanly. It showed more oak in the nose with time in the glass. Attractive.
2003 Comte de Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre – lighter in colour and with an interesting almost grapefruit nose, lacking the oak of the previous wine. Soft, with low acid, it was pleasant but had less definition than I’d have liked. Had oak, which again made its presence known only after a bit of time, but of course much more restrained. Had it been better balanced I’d have liked it much more.
1975 Malartic Lagraviere – I have always been a good fan of this hard difficult vintage, which produced two kinds of wines, those with enough fruit to outlast the tannins and those without. Mature claret nose with slight warmth, surprisingly juicy entry, finishing with very little tannin left. Decent wine, and an amazing showing from this producer.
1975 Pape Clement – unfortunately this bottle was musty and probably corky, given that the fruit was so low. Lean and acidic. I’ve had this before and it was much better.
1975 Dom. de Chevalier – this wine was showing absolutely nothing in the nose, at least to me, but on palate was well balanced and mellow. That makes one hit, one miss and one in the middle for the vintage on that day.
1975 Chappelet Carbernet (Napa) – I love old style mature California cabernets so I was really enjoying this part of the tasting. An interesting sweetish nose but with a pronounced earthy component, the wine mature and well balanced, showing obvious age with a bit of soft tannin remaining and a persistent finish.
1980 Chappelet Cabernet Signature (Napa) – again, a sweet warm earth sort of nose, and an elegant wine with good flavour definition and excellent length.
1976 Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet – made from 100% cabernet in a drought year, I’m sure this one was a challenge to the wine maker. It was finished at 12.7% (so much for the modern theory that it needs to be nearly 15% to be ‘right’) An excellent strongly fruity nose, then lots of up front acidity, good concentration and good length. I have seen reviews that panned this wine. All I can say is that they didn’t taste this bottle!
1982 Gruaud Larose – anything less from Bordeaux might have gotten lost against the Monte Bello, but this stood its ground and made no excuses. Big dark wine with a ripe warm nose or plum and a bit of blood, and later quite a bit of cocoa, what I’d call a bright entry, welcoming you into the wine, and admirable concentration in the middle, still with lots of tannin. This is a real classic and it probably still needs time to peak (though this was from a notably cool cellar) and has many more years ahead.
1970 Jaboulet La Chapelle Hermitage – I love these wines, so was a little disappointed in the initial showing when you could see browning edges, a quite ripe nose, the wine still having some heat and tannin, but the fruit having dropped away. I held it in the glass for quiet awhile and kept going back to it. It finally started to open up and the bouquet became fascinating and wonderful, making you forget that it was short on fruit. This is nearing the end of its drinking life, but it isn’t gone yet! Tar and old fruit started coming out, and about three other things I couldn’t put a name to.
1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet – bottle #5213 (hand numbered), put in bottle in August of 1974 while they were getting ready to pick another monumental vintage. An interesting raised sort of nose with a slightly minty element, the only hint of what it might be, with alcohol, some fruit and showing very dry at the end. A peak at history in the glass.
1997 Ryslink Vlassky Sladke – a late harvest Riesling from Czechoslovakia, thus adding another country to my list as I don’t recall tasting another Czech wine. Medium straw colour, very sweet nose, and very sweet in the mouth, without much complexity, but decent acidity, well, lots of it actually, redeemed what could otherwise have been a cloying wine. Pretty interesting for a modestly priced wine. Czech it out some time....
Great tasting as usual and I spent most of it listening to the host and scribbling notes while others chatted. A real learning experience.
