A friend of ours had to move his wine cellar and called upon four of us for help in lugging all the bottles to a new location. Our reward was an opportunity to cherry-pick a few bottles from his stash to drink afterwards to ease the pain in our aching backs.
1996 Pol Roger Champagne Blanc de Chardonnay. There’s a lovely nose here of biscuits, ginger, yellow fruit, butterscotch and soft woody spices. On the palate, it’s starting to show some aged character, but it’s in a great in-between phase right now that I like a whole lot.
2000 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. This presents a very clean nose of green apple, pear, chalk, limestone and lemon. In the mouth, it’s clean and chalky, but generous with the white fleshy fruit. It’s pretty refined and seems to be in a good zone just now.
1999 Domaine de Marcoux Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This has a gently faded color to it, and puts forth a soft, sweet, floral bouquet of candied cherries, red flowers and kirsch. It’s warm, pliant and open-knit on the palate, with a kirsh, raspberry and caramel flavor profile and a surprisingly easy and tannin-free structure. Some folks really didn’t like it, but I enjoyed it even though I think it’s surprisingly far along.
2000 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. There’s a very faint hint of funk peeking out from time to time on the nose, but otherwise this is pretty clean with aromas of raspberry, cherry and spice. In the mouth, it fails to show much density or depth of fruit, and seems almost boring, really. I’ve tasted this several times over the last few years and always considered it an interestingly Burgundian-styled effort, but today it just seems like nothing particularly special.
2001 Château Cos d'Estournel St. Estèphe. This wine shows off an absolutely outstanding bouquet, featuring powerful notes of black fruit, pencil shavings, minerals, toasted bread and fine earth that really coat the nostrils and pull you right in. In the mouth, it’s still quite young, showing a strong streak of tannin and an enormous structural backbone. It has come a long way since the last time I tasted it in terms of being ready to drink, but it still needs another 5-10 years in my mind. Others disagreed and thought that this was ready to go right now. Sure, it’s really outstanding today, but I’m pretty confident that waiting a while longer is the right move.
2001 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Napa Valley. This wine, however, I thought was drinking just delightfully right now. There’s nothing not to like, with a nose of blackberry, black currant and blueberry fruit aromas accented by fine spice and oak accents that really work well with that profile. On the palate, it has solid drive, yielding tannins and a pliant structure to support the beautiful blue and purple fruit flavors that are singing right now. It’s certainly a fruitier, moderately sweeter take than the Cos, but this was the wine that I wanted to drink the most of on this particular day (and I did!). It’s in a really good spot right now.
-Michael