WTN: If I only had a Brane

[Jenise]

Had friends over last night to celebrate my friend Margot's birthday. She was deemed Margo without the 't' at birth, and had tried as a teenager to legally change it to Margaux. That somehow didn't work out and later she added the 't' instead, but anyway, all this is why I setttled on a French wine list for last night's dinner.

With steamed artichokes and a garlic-lemon-dill aioli out on the deck, we enjoyed:

2016 Mathilde Chapoutier Côtes de Provence Grand Ferrage rose
Purposefully held over two bottles from last summer and this bottle rewards the foresight. Now one shade closer to pale coral than pink with good depth.


With individual lobster shepherds pies (which I believe would be called a parmentier in France):

2016 Olivier Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc Les Sétilles
Lemon curd, apple and stoney minerality, this wine continues to delight (I bought a case and a half).


With pepper steak on charred romaine salad, two Margauxs and a northwest Margaux wannabe:

NV Ensemble Cellars Release Seven Walla Walla Valley
The winemaker here was a Microsoft original with scads of money and time, retired at like age 39. A Chateau Margaux mesmerized him and he started making wine in order to create his own version of Ms. M with local fruit and was immediately confounded by vintage variances. So his winery, making just this one wine, averaged down and achieved better complexity by rolling three consecutive vintages into each release! He closed the winery last year. This bottle was much better than the last bottle, which seemed tired. Violets, blackberry, huckleberry and a hint of smoke, medium-full body, silky tannins. Youthful and brooding, this wine is comfortably middle aged (unlike many WA reds, Ensembles age well); well-stored bottles should drink well for the next five years, no rush, and possibly longer. (On CT, others were predicting near demise.)

2003 Château du Tertre Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend
Jeff Leve panned this as showing too much age, but our bottle didn't show enough. It seemed young and underdeveloped for the vintage, especially compared to the spot-on '00 Brane-Cantenac it was paired with. Has both the acidity and tannins for further cellaring and in fact should get better.

2000 Château Brane-Cantenac Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend
B-C is the first Bordeaux I ever tasted, back when I was still not quite legal. Fun to revisit now that I know so much more. This bottle's at absolute peak: garnet color, mildly floral nose with leathery, sweet dark cherry fruit, cassis and graphite. Drink remaining bottles sooner than later.

[David M. Bueker]

The lower level 2000 BDX are finally getting to a good place.

The 2000 Brane is one of three 2000 Bordeaux that I bought at Costco, which was by far my biggest purchase before or since. I never even tried one of the three bottles, which was probably a mistake. It's interesting that it hasn't really appreciated, despite being a "vintage of the century". I see that I paid $42, which was almost certainly an excellent deal at the time. That's $61 in todays dollars, versus a current auction price of $95 according to Cellartracker. I feel like I have pretty inexpensive storage, about a buck per bottle per year. When you take 18 years of storage into account and the time value of money, that's break-even, basically. The story is pretty much the same with the d'Armailhac. Paid $26, $38 in todays dollars, and it sells for $65. The Carruades de Lafite, on the other hand, cost the same $26 but is now worth $285. I really don't know if I can drink it at that price. For whatever reason, I don't have any emotional attachment to Bordeaux.

[David M. Bueker]

Walt,

Unless you bought a case, and kept it in the OWC, you won't get anywhere near the $285.

Walt,

Unless you bought a case, and kept it in the OWC, you won't get anywhere near the $285.

Ooh, really? I didn't know that. I might have the receipt somewhere. I didn't get a wooden case, since I only bought three bottles times three wines. Obviously this was all pre-Kurniawan and the idea that someone would counterfeit a $25 of Bordeaux was not on my radar, at least. I don't ever really buy wines over about $100, Cellartracker says I've only bought 5 out of 2100 bottles at that level, and 26 bottles between $50-$100. So I would almost certainly be better off selling it, even at a greatly reduced price, especially since the consensus seems to be that the label is the best thing about the wine. Good to know, thanks.