We had a tasting group friend over for dinner last night to wish him well with next week's surgery, the last step after chemo and radiation to dispatch his cancer once and for all. Because he once opined to me that, of all wines, an Osoyoos Larose (01 vintage, apparently) was his favorite wine of all time (though that experience has since been eclipsed) and because a few weeks ago a 96 St. Emilion was his favorite (and a personal epiphany for him) at one of our tastings, I chose both an OL and a St. Emilion to serve with dinner last night.
02 Osoyoos Larose, British Columbia: We owned two of these and opened the other not quite a year ago to serve Canadian friends who knew of but had never tasted this wine. That bottle was awful: hard, motor-oily, fruitless, dead. No recognizable flaw but so far from resembling real wine, even a tired one, we had to wonder. Last night's bottle proves that the other one was indeed flawed as it was quite charming. Very obvious Bordeaux-like ambition but as one would be from a warm year, with loamy plum and black cherry fruit and tobacco notes on the mid-palate which carried through to a long finish.
1994 Pavie Macquin, St. Emilion: Though I think my guests preferred the Osoyoos for it's masculinity and fruit, this wine clearly had the edge on femininity and aroma. Generous floral, cherry nose with tea and leathery secondary development. Lean on the palate and a bit clipped on the finish but still rather nice.
