A few weeks ago the Dorks gathered to investigate Bordeaux blends. The host, Warren, planned to open 6 or 7 bottles himself and so asked others to not bring more than one per person. So restricted, I went big on my offering and brought the uncontested WOTN:
2003 Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend
Decanted off the sediment at home for two hours, then re-bottled for transport and re-decanted at Warren's where it sat open for about three hours before service. Wow. Complex, heady nose of flowers, spice and fruit all at once, some cedar, some graphite, some violets, some black currants, some powdered sugar donut...velvet power, really some of just about everything good that can be found in a 20 year old Bordeaux and not showing like a hot vintage at all. Just lovely.
Some of the other participants paid no heed to the requested limitation. Among the 30 or so bottles that showed up, there were some gems but comparatively more "just eh's".
Among the notables (that I got around to anyway) were a '96 Chateau St. Jean. It was very fine, as was a stunning '90 Seven Hills Walla Walla Valley cabernet. That's just not a winery name that comes up when people talk about ageable Washington wines, but I remember the owner of the vineyard/winery, Scott Windrow I believe his name was, from the earliest days of the Compuserve era of wine internet, and I was proud on his behalf.
An 85 Clos Rene from Pomerol, a winery none of us ever heard of, was lovely with vibrant red fruit and cedary earth tones.
Many wines were divisive. Warren praised an '05 Osoyoos Larose from B.C. for being the most Bordelaise of the non-Bordeaux wines but I just thought it was dry and parched with little to show for the 20 year wait. And I didn't hate the '14 Cos d'Estournel he did, though yeah this modern bottle isn't what I remember loving about this property. A 2015 My Favorite Neighbor cabernet from Paso had many of us scratching our heads because it was actually pleasantly balanced and not IYF alcoholic like most from that area. I'm not ready to rethink my ban on Paso wines but this is the second wine I've had from that property since December, and I was similarly impressed with the first one too.
And then there was the 2015 Chateau Basdoulet St. Emilion Grand Cru that someone picked up at Grocery Outlet for $8. Not an amazeball, but it handily won the "If You Only Have Eight Dollars to Spend" award. A 2022 Solar Fortun from Baja got points for being fresh and floral and interesting where so many usual suspects failed to be interesting or even pleasant, like a possibly-cooked '99 La Mission Haut Brion and a ponderously brutish '98 Peter Michael Les Pavots.