The food was French bistro fare – I had a terrine followed by a confit de canard, a cheese plate and a crème caramel, so it didn’t get in the way of the wine conversation, while still being very good.
First up was an Alsatian:
2003 Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rotenberg – a little heat in this nose of honeyed fruit with good minerality. Slightly off dry and rich in the mouth with concentrated fruit and good persistence. When I looked at the bottle I was surprised to see 15.5% alcohol!
2000 Montes Alpha ‘M’ – I happen to have a couple of bottles of this in my cellar but it doesn’t seem to get very wide distribution, partially due, no doubt to its aggressive pricing. This was in the $85-100 range here when there was no other Chilean wine at half that. Dark wine, obviously cabernet based from the first sniff (80% CS 10% CF 5% M 5% PV) is a Bordeaux blend with significant remaining tannin, soft but very present. Lots of stuffing and a long slightly astringent finish. 18 months in French oak. Classy wine and a good choice for a ringer in an international cab or Bordeaux tasting. The companion piece is the Montes Folly, made from Syrah, also a very good wine.
1976 Backsberg Estate Wine – I should preface this by repeating that Albert’s cellar is very cool and therefore the wines last much longer in good shape than they will in ‘normal’ cellars. I’d hate to have someone run out and buy cases of a wine I mention in these notes expecting immortality from them. Light colour, red fruit in the nose, with possible hints of TCA, although I turned out not to be as it did go away after awhile. Identifiably cabernet based and with a medium length finish, drying out just a tad now.
1978 Ch. Tahbilk – this was always a modestly priced but well made cabernet from Victoria in Australia and the 150 year old winery continues to produce well crafter wines. They no longer use the ‘chateau’ just Tahbilk, and this one is cabernet. A warm toasty nose with mint developing with time and a good mouth feel to this one. Probably cost $10 or less when purchased.
1978 Taltarni Cabernet Sauvignon – another wine from the Victoria region (and one I have in the cellar but in the mid 90s vintages). Minty berry nose, darker colour, good stuffing and length. An unusual grenadine/pomegranate element developed in the nose. Intriguing.
1978 Grand Cru Vineyards Collector Series Cabernet Sauvignon, Golden Creek Ranch – I used to drop by this Sonoma winery in the early 1980s on my way back from sports car racing at Laguna Seca (I only have one bottle of dessert wine from that period in my cellar, also a 1978). The winery was near Glen Ellen, but this wine is Alexander Valley fruit. The tasting room back in the early 80s was a trailer and you had to honk or go search for someone to let you taste or buy. Sadly the name was bought and later used for cheap supermarket wines. This one was also dark with a menthol nose that allowed it to slide in among the Aussies undetected. Smooth fruit, lots of terminal acidity and decent length.
The next flight fooled almost everyone.
2002 Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir – this New Zealand Pinot showed medium colour, nose sweet cherry fruit in the nose and the same on palate, and had good length. Refined wine with excellent comportment.
2002 Robert Arnoux Vosne Romanee Les Chaumes – this premier cru Burgundy, on the other hand, showed a simpler sweetish nose, with some funkiness, medium weight and medium length.
2003 Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir – darker wine with a lovely spicy red fruit nose, sweet fruit in the mouth and a long clean finish. Very good.
Problem was that no one liked the Burgundy much and even though it did open up a bit after airing, ad even though the hard case Burg fans started to find all sorts of good things to say about it the minute they were given the identity of the wines, the fact remained that any objective taster found the Kiwi product more pleasant drinking! and no one had pegged the Burg as Burg – they mostly figured that the other two wines were Burgundies. Instructive tasting.
1961 Ch. Leoville Poyferre – this (as it turned out) was the bridge to the next flight. Browning edges, mellow slightly funky nose, decent fruit and a commendably long finish. Good showing for a producer that languished until the 1982 vintage (and it had some backsliding after that).
So this had been a lot of fun up until then and we would have been perfectly happy had it continued in the same vein. But it didn’t.
1959 Ch. Pichon Baron – followers of this winery will know that Baron tanked after the 1959 and produced mediocre wines until 1982. This wine was amazingly dark for what it was (not a 59 as they and they 61s still tend to have very good colour, but for a 59 Pichon Baron) going garnet/brown at the edges, and it showed some excellent ripe dark fruit in the nose, cassis and blackberry, as well as hints of VA. It was of good length and it developed a pleasant hint of cocoa in the nose with some air. Splendid showing.
1985 Ch. Mouton Rothschild – cedar, coffee and slight green notes in this nose, and in the mouth, soft and full of berry fruit and spice, mellow and with good length. A pleasure to drink. Ready now, at peak, but no rush (same caveat on cellar temperature though).
1983 Ch. Margaux – you can carry on silly arguments about whether the 1983 or 1982 Margaux is the better wine, but the fact remains that it is probably the wine of the vintage for 1983. Darker than the Mouton and with a very pure nose of cassis, vanilla and cedar. Lush in the mouth, a little tight at first but it smoothed out with air and showed a very lengthy sweet finish. Absolutely no rush on this – in my view it hasn’t yet peaked.
1970 Warres Port – vintage of the 300 year celebration of the producer. I pegged it as a 1970 because the colour was deeper than anything in the 60s yet the development was advanced. Medium red with strawberry and flowers in the nose, not too hot, and hints of red currant. Quite sweet, a bit hot, and mellow with a long finish. Best 70 Warres I’ve had in years, probably due to the cellar conditions.
Also best lunch I have had in many a year! Thanks to Albert for his generosity.
The picture shows some but not all of the bottles.
