Jud was our host and Karl our wine provider for the January poker game—which had as a theme “The Age of Consent”—which was meant to convey that the wines would be at least 16 years old (at least here in Massachusetts). It was a truly great tasting and a fun day of cards, as always. Just about every wine was at least excellent and some were really outstanding, but then again a lot of these were right in my personal wheelhouse.
We started out with one non-blind starter wine, which was really interesting.
2009 The Red Hook Winery Cabernet Franc Sargon Vineyard North Fork Long Island. This is a more or less white wine made with whole cluster press of under-ripe Cabernet Franc grapes from the Sargon Vineyard. It has a very interesting, light and floral nose of peach fuzz, orange blossom, star fruit, vanilla paste and soft spices. In the mouth, one can sort of sense that it was just recently bottled, but it nonetheless has a nice tangy quality to the airy peach, kiwi and floral elements. Though the finish is a bit curtailed right now, it is still a fragrant and fun wine to drink.
We then got into the main part of the tasting, with all wines served blind. We were told the grape in some instances and the appellation in others, and we knew the wines had to be from at least 1995 or earlier. So, we weren’t totally in the dark (though I might as well have been in some instances!).
1990 Kirchmayr Gruner Veltliner Solist Altenberg Weinviertel. This wine features a gently aged nose of lemon peel, bergamot, white peach, white pepper and a touch of wax. It has a little tickle left on the palate, but is otherwise mellow and soft-toned with its citrus, tropical fruit, and light mineral flavors. It is dry and turns increasingly austere on the finish. Karl declared it a poorer bottle than ones he has had in the past—lacking the racy quality he was expecting this to show.
1985 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses. This wine is immediately open on the nose, with all kinds of Old World goodness to offer in the form of rawhide leather, tobacco leaf, dusty dry earth, campfire ash, green pepper skin and wintergreen aromas. That expressiveness and character follow through onto the medium-weight palate, where it opens with some crunchy acidity but quickly amps it up to pull in cool flavors of dark cherry, cranberry, earth, granite, tobacco and green pepper. It can be a bit tart at moments, but the complex, earthy character is a real delight and I find myself liking this a lot.
1979 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Pauillac. There is just a beautiful nose to sniff and savor here in a wine of complex and mysterious aromas of soft leather, mint leaf, tobacco, red currants, cool earth and foresty undergrowth that are totally welcoming and inviting. Right from the start, it feels really well put together on the palate, as well—delivering regal red currant, cool earth and green pepper flavors supported by fine balancing acidity and plenty of structure still in place. It still shows good sinew and exhibits excellent length, with the tannins totally resolved and the texture nice and smooth. It is a delicious mature Pauillac in every way and is something I could sit and drink all day long. My #2 wine of the day.
1989 Chateau Beychevelle Saint Julien. I really enjoy the bouquet of this outstanding wine, which features aromas of iron ore, old cracked leather, moist soil, graphite, mushrooms, dark cherry and toasted orange peel. In the mouth, it has a pretty similar profile—with iron, leather, cool earth, dark cherry and persimmon flavors that are juicy and concentrated. What I really like about it, too, is that it exhibits impressive grip, strength of backbone and solid grounding to go with all the lovely flavors on display. It finishes clean and long and pulls the taster back for more of this impressive and delicious juice. By a whisker over the 1979 Pichon Lalande, this was my wine of the day.
1995 Chateau Clerc Milon Pauillac. This wine is much darker-looking in color than any that have come before it. It also has a rather brawnier sort of nose to it that smells of white pepper, nettles, scorched earth, ashes, pencil shavings and cherry cream. It comes across as a bit gamy in the mouth to start out—with a certain meatiness and leathery/tobacco character that over time gives way to black currant and blackberry fruit flavors accented by green pepper notes. It shows a lot of life and push through the mid-palate, but there are also abundant tannins here that coat the finish at this stage. In the end, I think it gives a very solid showing and I enjoy it a good deal, but it is easy to sense that it will become more fully resolved in another few years.
1995 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac. The 1995 Lynch Bages is plusher and certainly warmer on the nose than the Clerc Milon, with aromas of baked cherries, tomato plant, road tar and green cedar leading the way. Warm, slightly baked fruit comes through on the creamy-textured and pliant mid-palate, but the wine does turn a bit chewy toward the back of the palate. It has good grip and fine stuffing, and even though this bottle may be showing some signs of possible heat damage, I still enjoy drinking it and even find it a bit youthful at this stage. More pristine bottles probably ought to be held.
1991 Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon Museum Release Nagambie Lakes Cental Victoria. Even though we were told that this was a Cabernet Sauvignon, nobody guessed Australia as the source. I and a few others were leaning toward old-fashioned California Cabernet in the Monte Bello or Mondavi Reserve vein. In any event, it opens up with aromas of smoke and ash, black cherry and grilled pepper skin—slowly pulling in sweeter notes of chocolate paste and warmer fruit. It shows a bit more sweetness in the flavor profile, which features long, slinky and fine-tuned flavors of cherry, creosote and smoke supported by sneaky tannins hiding in the background. It finishes sinewy and strong. My initial impression is that this can go for a while yet, but I do have to say that a second glass later in the day showed less structure and scale, so maybe the better advice is to drink fairly soon.
1995 E. Guigal Hermitage. This smells a bit lighter and more lifted than most of the previous wines—featuring aromas of cherries, creamed raspberries, minerals and cedar. It is bright and tangy in the mouth, with fine spices, leather and a fresh, ticklish acidity to drive along the flavors of cherry and strawberry fruit. Over time, it does take on more and more tannin and the finish turns a bit astingent. But, really, for the most part this is finely-constructed, nice-tasting and a wine with interesting savory bits giving added character to bright red fruit.
1990 Paitin di Pasquero-Elia Barbaresco Sori Paitin. This wine is a bit musky-scented—featuring aromas of wilted rose petals, mushrooms, tea leaves and unsweetened chocolate. In the mouth, it is a tannic beast from start to finish. I find it to be exceedingly dry and leathery-textured, with the tannins just bruising the tongue. It is old-fashioned, rustic, and at times rather austere despite the solid core of abundant cherry fruit. This eventually is likely to provide some pleasure, but right now it just has so much acidity and tannin that I can’t really enjoy it.
1995 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904. Wow, this is a really fun wine to smell, jumping up out of the glass with a classic American oak profile full of dillweed, cedar closet and eucalyptus supporting full and rounded aromas of bright cherry and blueberry fruit, black pepper, earth and red beets. It is complex, layered and full of personality, but boy is it polarizing—with some of us really enjoying that obvious exuberance and others decidedly turned off by it. In the mouth, it continues that joie de vivre sort of profile, with all kinds of juicy cherry, blueberry and plum flavors accented by fine oak dust. It is medium-weighted and flows ever so smoothly, with a fair dollop of glycerin helping it along. I find it rather tasty, pleasantly fruity and just full of interesting dimensions.
1991 Chateau Musar Lebanon. Here we have a much lighter-colored wine to consider. Aromatically, it gives off lovely aromas of sweet pure cherry, soy, horse saddle, spicecake, fireplace ash and sous bois forest notes. In the mouth, it tastes of cherries accented by impressions of violets, tobacco, mint leaf, chocolate truffle and limestone. It displays a tight, nervy acidity that undercuts the creamy red fruit—giving it a lithe character that is not especially deep or concentrated but is interestingly faceted. It is an excellent wine, but I have to admit I was not thinking Musar, as this shows no real signs of the funk and leather I typically associate with the producer.
And in case that was not enough, we added in a few more after-hours goodies, courtesy of Jud and Tom.
1994 Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac. I think that this showed extremely well in spite of being pulled from a cold cellar and only afforded a short decant. I was actually glad that I was pretty far behind everyone else in my tasting, as I think it gave the wine a chance to get some more air and come up to temperature by the time I poured my glass. The nose is dark and finely polished, with black currants, black cherries, scorched earth, jalapeno pepper and gentle tobacco aromas in a classy and classic Pauillac package. It is cool, dark and earthy on the palate, where it also feels softly chewy and chalky at times. Although there is a fair dose of dry-edged tannin to contend with, the wine still shows off plenty of exuberant and masculine flavors of black currant and blackberry fruit, cooling menthol and classy earth tones. It has great vigor, but also fine control—drinking very well now but easily capable of further aging.
2007 Lewelling Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. In contrast, this wine seems full-blown and overly boisterous on the nose—with extremely sweet and slightly concocted aromas of purple and blue fruits, tons of barrel spices and a coating of rich cocoa powder. In the mouth, it is rich and raw and completely exhausting to taste after all of these other wines. Sure, it is loaded with all kinds of chocolate, mocha and rich fruit flavors, but it doesn’t seem well-balanced here in its youth and it is certainly far from showing any signs of elegance in this company and at this stage of its very early development. I will withhold judgment given my probable palate fatigue, the youth of the wine and its placement alongside these more Old World-styled wines, but I can’t say I’m real optimistic.
1990 Warre Porto Traditional Late Bottled Vintage. The nose here is a bit high-toned to me, with aromas of cherry syrup, figs, graham cracker and Christmas fruitcake. I think I was alone in this, but I find that it tastes too much of cherry cough syrup for my tastes, though I have to admit it does slowly grow on me as a nurse it. Still, not one of my favorites.
-Michael