These are the three Pinots I took to our BacchusBadBoys tasting last night:
1. Domaine de la Romanee-Conti AC: LaTache Grand Cru (13%; MeBaD; #5973 of 21,118 btls; Wilson Daniels/St.Helena) herve-Frederic Roch & A.deVillaine/Vosne-Romanee/France 1995: Med.dark color w/ some bricking; strong cedary/pencilly/Fr.oak strong PN/black cherry Burgundian/smokey very fragrant/perfumed graceful quite complex beautiful nose; quite tart/tangy some toasty/Fr.oak/smokey strong black cherry/PN/black cherry cola slight earthy/dustyOVslightly drying complex flavor w/ fairly strong tannins; very long/lingering black cherry finish that follows flavor; shows a slight bit of drying out on the palate but the hefty tannins suggests it needs more age. $nc (SS)
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2. BonnyDoon PinotNoir BethelHeightsVnyd/OR (12.9%) 1985: Med.color w/ some browning; rather earthy/musty/tired/old wine rather Burgundian/smokey/pencilly slight cherry/PN complex nose; lightly tart some Burgundian/smokey bit off-dry quite tangy/metallic little fruit flavor w/ light tangy/drying tannins; very long bit drying finish that mimics flavor; in remarkably good condition given its age but pretty much lost all of its fruit; not a really pleasurable wine & pretty faded and more of an intellectual pleasure than anything.
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3. Siduri PinotNoir Eddie'sLot/PisoniVnyd/SantaLuciaHighlands (15.1%; 4 brl slctn) 2008: Dark color w/ some bricking; very strong black cherry/PN some herbal/peppery strong toasty/pencilly/Siduri oak some complex fairly fragrant nose; lightly tart strong black cherry/PN/bit herbal strong toasty/pencilly/Siduri oak fairly complex flavor w/ light gentle tannins; very long black cherry/oaked finish that follows flavor; lost some fruit but no signs of drying out on the palate; a very good Siduri Pinot that's not going to get much better & has lost some of its fruit; speaks strongly of SLH Pinot & Siduri oak.
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More girndlspot from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. The LaTache was gifted to me on my 80'th BD by SteveSterbenz. No strings attached. But I wanted to taste it when he could join us, so invited him to last night's BBB tasting. It's been quite a few yrs since I've had a DRC wine. This wine was quite good but not as impressive as some DRC's I recall from the past.
The BonnyDoon was in remarkable condition for 40 yrs of age. But I thought it had pretty much lost all its fruit, a bit tired on the palate, and didn't offer up much pleasure to me. The other tasters liked it quite a bit more than me.
I was expecting the Siduri to be pretty much dead & gone. It was not and offered up some pleasure.
Tom