We open with a Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyard Chardonnay from California. The wine was poured by the time I arrived a little late, and the bottle never got passed my way so I managed to get out of there without knowing the vintage. But it was young and big, like 2012 young and big. Extracted yellow color, almost Meursault-ish on the nose. Lush and full.
Bob and I immediately throw our pink into the ring. Initial swampy nose disguised both grape and origins, but the boys honed in on France and after ruling out Bandol, the rest of Provence and Bordeaux, settled on Burgundy and, of course, Marsannay. Prim on flavor, with time in glass it's eventually kind of nice but just that and certainly not $30 nice. I bought it out of curiosity because Burgundy roses are rare and it was the only Burgundy rose I've ever seen not a Bruno Clair. 2012 Domaine Joseph Roty Bourgogne Rosé Marsannay Pinot Noir
So Jim has this red wine he insists we drink first. Already decanted, it has strong reddish purple color and a great mature Bordeaux nose. We have to rule out the 80's before backing into the 70's, and '77 is just about the last vintage named. Tasty, tannins mostly resolved; nose goes on forever. Finish is a little clipped but this wine's very much alive and enjoyable. Jim explains this was a cellar orphan he'd presumed dead for years but recently discovered positive notes regarding on CellarTracker so he brought it but is taking no chances on it falling apart fast. It doesn't. 1977 Château Léoville Las Cases St. Julien. Original price tag still on bottle: $17 Canadian.
A clamor of conversation now erupts in which virtually everyone but Bill volunteers to go next, resulting in Alvin serving his wine (undecanted). Light taupe-y color with an orange hue and mildly cloudy, it has a prominent lilac aroma, some murkish tea notes followed by, oddly, a bit of eucalyptus. But one really had to work to find those, as it was a very acid-dominated pinot. We're all surprised when it turns out to be 90's young, let alone a '99. Undaunted, it's owner speaks admiringly of acquiring more bottles (he drug this home from New York not long ago), but Bill, who I am next to, and I privately agree that for us it's best days are long past. 1999 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvée DD Sonoma County
At this point another scramble ensues because Drew and I desperately want to pour our wines next and so, actually, does Coop, but he senses a deeper insistence from Drew and I so he withdraws and, eventually, so do I with the caveat that I really really must go next. Drew pours a wine of flawless dark red youthful color and clarity. With relief we smell real fruit: dark cherries, minerals and a tough of rosemary. It's bright, en pointe Burgundy. Drinks like a 1er Cru but turns out to be less, even less than a village wine--but it's Leroy. A 1999 Domaine Leroy Bourgogne.
The bottle I was going to pour next? Also 1999 Domaine Leroy Bourgogne.
How funny that in the 12 years I've been attending these lunches, this is the first time Madame Lalou makes an appearance and two of us bring it? Thankfully, my bottle hasn't been opened yet so I retrieve it from the queue to show everyone why I put up such a fight. Alvin generously offers me his back-up but I decline as this day, I actually did have a back-up. I pull it from the case and prep it: ready or not, here it comes.
Rich fruit and earth, mushrooms and spice dominate. Generous on nose and palate, so clearly ready for prime time even though we just PnP'd. Immediately identifiable as a GC from the early 2000's, and then it was just a matter of time before the property was ID'd. Coop groans that he has to follow this. This is the first 04 Burgundy I've opened (or even drunk), so I'm pretty happy--this one's very ready. 2004 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Echezaux.
Another of the day's wild coincidences: the back-up bottle Alvin offered me was also a 2004 Grand Cru.
Now we get Coop's wine. Light color with an ethereally aromatic nose of roses and Oregon rain forest. Raw mushrooms and thyme on the palate. Less about power than emotion, the acidity has cool vintage written all over it and it's not a surprise when it turns out to be a 2011 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir Le Puits Sec from the Eola - Amity Hills[/b] Great showing.
Poor Geo, stuck at the end of this ten top, is clearly unhappy that his wine doesn't come out before now, but all things considered it's nothing short of perfect that his 20 year old cool-climate Oregon pinot follows a much younger wine from the most recent similar vintage. Because he's brought us a 1995 Ici/La-Bas Pinot Noir Les Révélés Montinore. A much frowned-upon vintage by fans of the lush vintages that preceded it, particularly 94, I remember wine tourists coming back from Oregon at the time bemoaning the horrible 95's. I recall, myself, buying just one, the '95 Brick House. Anyway, 20 years out, those wines are gone and this one's rocking. Beautifully mature but not the least decrepit with light raspberry fruit, potpourri, mushrooms and a touch of sandalwood incense. Lovely. (Btw, Ici/La-Bas was a Jim Clendenen label, but I don't think it lasted long.)
Finally we're ready for Bill's wine. It's easily identifiable as both cabernet and California, but it was a little harder to ID the vintage. We went to the 90's first, then big vintages like 87 and 86, which this showed well enough to be. Deep purple-black color with mature cabernet notes, it's the 1983 Kenwood Cabernet Sauvignon Jack London Vineyard Sonoma Valley. Had the classic rusticity of the Jack London smoothed into elegance by time. Did they even guess at the time that these would hold up for 32 years? Dunno, but lucky us that Bill did. NICE.
So Jim decides that we don't have enough wine and out comes his backup bottle. It has a gentle Bordeaux nose full of dark red fruit, tobacco and just a touch of leather. At peak for current drinking, it's a 2004 Château La Tour Figeac St. Émilion.