Open Mike (sort of): 10 years on, open a 1997

What 1997s have you been tasting recently? If none, go ahead and open one! I often find that even wines meant for the long term are nice at 10 years and generally open and enjoyable.

WTN: Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Rosé 1997

Wheee! Nice fruit, nice mousse, nice acidity, nice minerality. Nice! (Sorry for the repetitive note). B-S rocks!

Musar Rouge 1997 is finished in Finland, but I managed to get the last 3 bottles of it. A friend was visiting and we decided to have a bit of wine. It took a whole 10 nanoseconds of persuading for me to open up one of the 1997s. I had on my first couple tastes thought of it as one of the best Musars. Then I started to notice a bit too much sur maturité which is why I hadn't bought any for long term storage.

And then this bottle came along. Despite not being decanted long enough (only four hours), it showed brilliantly. Red toned, tangy and echt-Musar. The palate is sweet and wild and long. I'm glad I have two more that I won't touch for a long time. This isn't as good as the 1999 or 1991, but was better than I remembered.


Pichon Lalande 1997

What a delight! A year that I haven't explored very much in Bx, but this was typical Lalande in its aromatics: a touch oaky from being too young, but this isn't the sort of oak that is disturbing. I know that Lalande doesn't use a great deal of Cab F, but in all Lalandes I've had, there is a very Cab F-like aura to the nose: which is perhaps why I love it so much. It has nice grip and fruit on the palate. It is showing very well right now if you don't mind a touch of oak. Personally, I would give it another five or so years.

La Mission Haut Brion 1997

Again: what a delight! This is as classic Graves as can be: earthy, leafy, more plush than the Médocs, but not really a right bank type either. It has nice structure and at present the oak is better integrated than in the Lalande. It is fully open and a delight to drink, but young. Also for this, I would give another five years more.

Joguet Clos du Chêne Vert 1997

I won't bore you with another note. I've drunk a couple cases of this. 'Nuff said?

Post scriptum: as reported in another thread:

Château de Fesles Bonnezeaux 1997 13%

Gold. Intensely botrytised nose - great fun to sniff but is so heavily rotten that it's hard to find any Chenin character underneath! The palate is plump and supremely sweet but has enough structure not to be cloying. A very nice drop, but I can't see the Chenin in it.

-O-

Good one Otto!! Another excuse to open another `97 LBV from Quinta da Noval. Will see what else I have around, maybe a Cimicki from Australia?

Otto
Great move (something 'open mike' Bob and I had discussed as well!).

I'm intrigued in particular at Bdx 97's as this vintage was treated as a short-term, not terribly interesting proposition, yet I've been impressed to date.

Of 97's I can think of, there's some Barolo, Ch. Cissac, a Musar and one or two others. Might sacrifice the Cissac at the weekend unless something else pops up on Cellartracker.

regards

Ian

Hi Ian...thought you would show up!!!! This one could go on forever, even surpassing my Malbec OM which is now 5 months a-going strong!!!

Here's a gigantic 1997 Merlot, Otto -- opened a month ago, excellent cellaring, but ...

1997 Behrens & Hitchcock Winery Merlot Napa Valley California. 13.5% alcohol. Dead. 1*.

I'll dust off a couple of other wines and revert.

Bob (aka Mr. Open Mike), I'm glad you're up to it. Mr. OM and Ian, I had no idea you two were scheming for a 10 YO OM also. Sorry for barging in!

Just another QPR wine that I don't think I've posted on.

WTN: Jeanneret Shiraz 1997 Clare Valley 13% c.11€

Tasted a couple times, last in Dec. 2006, fully blind of course! Dark core, but a bit of bricking on the edges. The nose is vegetal and has plenty of sous bois, but with a peppery and dung like component to the abundant fruit. The palate is big and sweetly fruity, but the structure is resolved - it isn't a grand vin but it is drinking superbly now. It isn't in the style of wine that I prefer to drink, but it is a success in its style. When I heard the price, I couldn't believe it. It punches well above its weight.

Bob Ross, thanks for the note! I hope you have better luck with the following. I haven't paid enough attention to American wines, because so few of interest are available to me. But wasn't 1997 supposed to be a great vintage in California, and a long lived one also? We have one 1997 available here: Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I posted about it a while back on eBob, and there was a discussion as to whether the 1997s are dying. The bottle I tried was superb (if you like the style). What about the experiences on this board - are the 1997s from California really dying ahead of time?

-O-

WTN: `97 Chateau de Malle (2eme Grand Cru Classe, Sauternes).

Here`s one I tased after Xmas at a Bordeaux tasting. 69% Semillon, 28% Sauv Blanc, 3% Muscadelle. A lighter style of sauterne but very elegant and liked the subtle tone. Funny enough, I found chocolate on the nose which is bizarre to me. One taster thought cocoa powder, and lots of it.
Nice apple and honey hints,medium acidity but hard to explain my thoughts at the time. Not one really for the cellar, but nice if one is looking for an intro to this style of wine.
Cost is $31 Cdn (split).

[Jenise]

Otto,

Nice topic.

Speaking of Musar, we opened another 97 Musar blanc two weeks ago. I took it to a dinner party in California to contrast with an 82 JJ Prum spatlese, both wines to be served with a classic German charcoute. I was delighted to be in the company of geeks who all knew Musar but had never tasted the white. Didn't like the bottle as much as the prior bottle I opened, and it admittedly was a bit short. Perhaps travel-affected, for it showed better in a retaste the next morning. I'll let my last bottle rest for another couple years.

Interesting report on the 97 LMHB. I'm going to a Bordeaux dinner tonight, and one of the pairings I considered taking was 90 and 97 LMHB. But worried that the 97 still might be a bit dumb (a year ago, that was the case) I finally decided against it. Had I seen your note about four hours ago, I might have been encouraged to go with it.

Another recent 97 was a Badia Coltibuono Sangioveto that my friend Henry brought to lunch. It was a rosy reddish brown, acid-driven wine that really only started to show well about two hours in. Until then, I worried that it was in fact a bit OTH and tired--I could see no sign of the supple young wine I remember in an 87 Sangioveto enjoyed in Tuscany in approximately 91 or 92.

1997 Hugel Jubilee Riesling drinking well. Ripe and flavorfull, probably not a long ager but nice now.

1997 Casa Emma Chianti Classico Reserva also big and ripe and drinking well now.

I'd love to. Sadly, my cellar contains 0 '97s.

I have some '98s. Call again next year!

I wrote about Noval........Another excuse to open another `97 LBV from Quinta da Noval.

Well, I have just had another chance to taste the `97 LBV which was from a later shipment (if that makes any difference). General consensus was that this LBV should be drunk up fast now. Tasted at the Portugal wine festival downtown this weekend. Only have 6 splits left!

Otto, Nice topic.
Speaking of Musar, we opened another 97 Musar blanc two weeks ago. I took it to a dinner party in California to contrast with an 82 JJ Prum spatlese, both wines to be served with a classic German charcoute. I was delighted to be in the company of geeks who all knew Musar but had never tasted the white. Didn't like the bottle as much as the prior bottle I opened, and it admittedly was a bit short. Perhaps travel-affected, for it showed better in a retaste the next morning. I'll let my last bottle rest for another couple years.

Interesting report on the 97 LMHB. I'm going to a Bordeaux dinner tonight, and one of the pairings I considered taking was 90 and 97 LMHB. But worried that the 97 still might be a bit dumb (a year ago, that was the case) I finally decided against it. Had I seen your note about four hours ago, I might have been encouraged to go with it.

Jenise, since Otto has not chimed in as of yet, I might offer that Musar white need decanting. Even decent vintages need hours and hours of decanting and particularly good vintages need 12 or more hours. If I was taking a Musar white somewhere I would decant and then put the wine back into the bottle for transportation. In my opinion the Musar whites need at least as much decanting as the reds.

I have a 1997 Domain de Chevalier (Rouge) that I will probably open Friday or Saturday.

I love the better 1997 Chiantis, with Panaretta, Monsanto Riserva and Farnatella all providing good drinking this year.

1997 represents 2% of my cellar, (a few bottles of Huet, a bottle of Fieuzal Blanc, Monprivato, and vintage port).

It's one of those vintages, with a few exceptions, that I'd rather just forget

Bandol AOC 1997 – Château Vannières – Alc. 13% - (EUR 23,75 for 2002). Estate’s red vines 75% Mourvèdre, 25% Grenache.

Reports for at least two years following the vintage declared that Mourvèdre was very successful in 1997 due to the fine Autumn and that, consequently, Bandol was an exception to the generally uninspiring results that year in the South of France; more recent reports have been far less favourable. On the strength of the early reports and the odd tasting I bought quite a few bottles of various Bandols and buried them in a bin under a lot of other bottles for earlier drinking. This is the first I have tried since their youth.

C: Fine deep red with no bricking.
N: On first sniff strong barnyard aromas but with about 30 minutes air dark fruit came up and integrated nicely with a residual wet leather notes.
P: Fully open by now and showing complex dark fruit aromas mixed with leather, muslin dust and tar with rose petal and faint provençal herb overtones. Generously mouth-filling with ripe structure, class and typically Bandol hints of austerity, but perhaps less of the last than in a more rigorous vintage. Ripely enjoyable and tending to support the earlier thesis of exceptional Mourvèdre in 1997 while showing some of the “easy” character of that vintage in most parts of France. 16.5/20.

Am I alone in finding Bandol a recognisable cousin of Barolo with a rather warmer and personality?

I wish I had read Joe Perry''s comment (or some other review) before my trip to K&L last month. The 1997 Domaine de Chevallier was so flat, so boring, so lacking in bordeaux-ness or fruit or any interest, I did not even bother to take it to dinner tonight. Glug glug glug down the drain. 10.5/20 No signs of corking (although I am not sensitive) or flaws, just flat out dull=past its time.

My impression of 1997 is almost exactly the opposite of that of Joe Perry, at least for the reds.

In spite of its indifferent reputation, particularly in Bordeaux and S. Rhône, I have found most of the bottles which I have from France and Italy at worst enjoyable and at best very seductive. It is not a rigorous vintage like its better regarded predecessor, 1996, but up to now it has given a lot more pleasure. My main concern is to drink the bottles I have before they turn downhill at a time when the 96s MAY be opening up.

On the other hand, I have a very disappointing assorted lot of 1997 whites from Domaine Weinbach. Except when very young, they were disappointingly bland but the last bottle opened of Riesling Schlossberg II showed signs of developing some welcome complexity.

It was a low acid vintage where conditions generally favoured reds.

A thread long dead sees new life - wow! The white '97 Musar is IME surprisingly open and ready to go with just a couple hours in the decanter (but still lasts for days once opened - if one has the will power not to drink it up).

I love Madiran, so I opened up my last bottle of Montus - from Brumont, I shall concentrate on Bouscassé from now on as I find Montus leaning more in the "modern" style.

Montus Madiran 1997 12,5% - the wild, brambly, herbal, bloody, meaty nature of the grape has been tamed down a little bit - it is still recognisable as Tannat, but it seems curiously soft! The palate has good grip, charming tangyness. The dry, savoury, herbal aftertaste is very charming. It is an enjoyable wine (even for my tastes), but I can't help thinking that the wine has been manipulated into being a softer, more "elegant" product than nature intended. I of course can't know if this is the case, since I am woefully ignorant of wine making practices.

I like this wine, but since Bouscassé is a little bit cheaper and has more character - a characterfulness that I like very much - I shall buy that instead.

-O-

Just acquired a 97 Guigal Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde. (Thanks to Bob H for rating the wine long distance!) Have not opened yet but I suspect it will not see the new year.

The last bottle of 1997 Angelica Zapata Malbec that I opened was drinking very well....