Had a small gathering for a friend’s 40th birthday yesterday and drank some really interesting wines.
1990 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame (magnum) – corked. Damn!
1996 Krug Brut – Ah – a relief to immediately get to a decent wine. Showing some colour, showing a very good yeasty nose, and with decent length and complexity. I heard a couple of more negative comments on this, but I liked it.
1990 Roederer Cristal Brut – similar nose to the Krug, but fuller on palate with a nice juicy mouth feel and better length.
1974 Caymus Cabernet – the year of our host’s birth so you’ll see a few from this vintage. This was a magnum, and it was a year before they started up the Special Selection cuvee. Mahogany colour, intense nose of old woody fruit, improved in the glass. Finished a bit short.
1980 Caymus Special Selection – a tough vintage, this wine showed wetted stones and plum in the nose, as well as some capsicum, and a bit roasted. It was on the acidic side on palate and had no doubt been better a decade ago.
1974 Mount Eden Vineyards Cabernet – big dark woody Cal-Cab, very concentrated. Must have been a monster in early life. Not a fan of the style, but a well built wine.
1975 Ch. Leoville Las Cases – medium garnet colour, and a very decent nose, but on palate slightly elevated acidity, still some soft tannins and with fruit levels at the lower end of acceptability. I’ve had better bottles.
1986 Ch. Mouton Rothschild – a nice rich nose of fruit, mint and cassis. Drinking surprisingly well now, it has softened since the last time I tasted it. Very, very good showing but I think it still needs time and will improve. Not the absolute best bottle I’ve tasted.
1986 Ch. Cheval Blanc – a completely different presentation than the Mouton (of course). Much lighter colour and an elegant nose of cassis, plum and hints of cedar. Smooth and long, I expect this is now at peak.
1988 Daniel Rion Clos Vougeot – odd chemical nose. Dead.
1985 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle – Wow! Maybe my wine of the night (but see later). Good colour, an excellent slightly funky nose, with cocoa and smoky meat elements, tons of flavour concentration and black pepper showing up in the lengthy finish. Superb bottle.
1974 Borgogno Barbaresco – I thought there was some hope for this until I looked at ot – brown and turbid. A sniff and tentative taste confirmed the decease of the wine.
1974 Nipozzano Chianti Classico Reserva (Frescobaldi) – pale garnet colour, but a tasty full flavoured wine in great shape.
1975 Fontanafredda Barolo – I hadn’t expected much of this, but back then this producer was making serious long aging wines, and this one was ok, despite a bit of VA in the nose, the browning colour and fading early – there was still some flavour interest there.
1974 Mayacamas Cabernet – this was an amazing wine, and thankfully one that didn’t trumpet it’s origin with sweet oak. It was still dark red and had a great nose of mint, earth, mature fruit, a little mushroom and herbs – many facetted. Good balance and it was mouth watering and long. One of the best California Cabernets I’ve tasted (and I’ve experienced quite a lot of them). This wine was why I said that the La Chapelle just might be my favourite. Very hard to choose between them. It’s a good tasting when an 86 Mouton comes in third.
We finished with a sweet wine:
1974 Las Vignerons Catalans Rivesaltes Ambre Hors d’Age – amber brown, smooth and intense, this was made from Grenache Blanc and Maccabeu. It had apricots and almonds jostling on palate and perhaps some orange peel. Good way to finish up!
