Last Saturday nine of us had dinner at La Mangeoire in mid-town Manhattan to drink some Bordeaux super seconds.
We kicked off with Dom Perignon 2005. Even though this is young it is already delicious and an outstanding DP. In the first flight we had 78 Ducru Beaucaillou pitted a 1977 100% Cabernet Sauvignon ringer. The Ducru was corked - not badly so but corked all the same. Argh...not again! I have had really rotten luck with this wine. The 1977 turned out to be a Torres Gran Coronas Reserva, which was hanging on well...but there was much better to come.
In fact the next flight was immense. The 1978 Leoville-Lascases was a beauty, and nicely resolved classic LLC. But it wasn't quite as dazzling as the bottle we had a few weeks ago, which romped home in the RSJ St-Julien tasting, and it was slightly outshone in my opinion by two Pichon Lalandes - the 1978 and the 1988. It was difficult to choose between these sublime Comtessas. The LLC was more restrained, while these were sexy and exuberant, in the context of wines with only 12.5% ABV.
The third flight was dubbed the 'killer flight' pitting the 1989 Cos D'Estournel against the 1990 Pichon Baron and the 1990 LLC. The two 1990s had more power and exuberance than the 89 Cos which was a little more subdued by comparison, and much more evolved than the last two I have tried. The Baron had a notably thick texture, and surprisingly what seemed like some unintegrated vanilla oak. It could use a bit more time, but was full bodied and voluptuous. The 90 LLC was the most complete and impressive wine of the flight and is uncharacteristically extroverted for a LLC, which virtually everyone loved. I personally prefer the more classic style of LLC, but this was clearly the wine of the flight for virtually everyone.
In the next flight 1996 Palmer was pitted against 2003 Ducru and a mystery wine. The Palmer was quite introverted and was difficult to analyse in a noisy environment (doors open and sirens blaring down Second Avenue). The Ducru was nicely open for business and showed very well indeed. I guessed the mystery wine was a early 2000s Leoville-Poyferre because it tasted modern and glossy. I was surprised for it to be revealed as 2003 Montrose, a wine I loved the last time I had it. This one was good but seemed to lack a bit of stuffing surprisingly and I preferred the Ducru. The Palmer rather got lost in the melee, but was a brooding wine with a fine texture.
The final flight pitted the 1995 and 2002 LLC. I expected the former to be closed for business and for the latter to outshine it. If anything the 1995 outshone the 2002. But both were really outstanding. As someone who owns a case of the 1995 this was most encouraging because it is developing into a really superb wine. It is still young, of course, but its class and density reminded me of the Cappellano on Friday night.
The 2009 Rieussec ably rounded off the night. The 1990 LLC was comfortably voted the wine of the night and I can't remember what came next, but I do remember the 1995 LLC doing well. My two wines of the night were the two Comtessas, but there were a lot of strong contenders. Four of us came back to our hotel where we drank an excellent but still youthful 2001 Cos D'Estournel.