A nice small group (6) met at Talia for a mostly Bordeaux dinner Tuesday. There was another table also doing aged Bordeaux, and a large group upstairs with a de Vogue dinner. There was some cross pollination as a few people from each group knew each other.
First round of appetizers included oysters with guanciale and bikini sandwich (jamon, serrano, and truffle butter).
2008 F. Cotat Monts Damnes Sancerre
Great showing, lemon and pineapple, hint of grass, aromatic pepper notes. Bright and long, holds up well for hours. A-
2016 Jouan Clos St Denis
Offtheme, a last minute replacement for the ‘78 Latour that appeared a bit off.
Lovely showing, bright red fruits with spice and minty herbs, but still an infant, I will hold off on my lone bottle for a while (10-15). Still B++ for drinking now
Onion/cheese/ham mini -pizzas
2006 Ch. d’Issan
Long, powerful, hard to believe this is a 2006. Structured, but elegant. B+/A-
2008 Ch. d’Issan
Black fruit, cocoa, plenty of tannic and acid structure, could use some time but tasty now. B+
1998 Vieux Chateau Certan
Excellent. I’m a 98 RB fan but don’t have this and wish I did. Powerful with black plum, mocha, and truffles, but also exudes elegance. A-
From the other table came 1983 Ch Haut Brion (I only smelled, nice but not as compelling as I’ve found in the past) and 1983 La Mission Haut Brion (an old favorite that was showing beautifully, lovely ferric/floral nose and deep cassis/plum fruit on palate accented with leather and tobacco. A-). Then the1962 Ch. Durfort Vivens , quite a surprise, a little weedy but with some fruit left and a tangy finish. B/B-
Blind red- minty herbs, plush red fruit, someone guessed 80s CalCab and sounded reasonable to me, though I thought maybe early 90s. Nope, whiffed! 1995 Tempier Cabassaou Bandol. B+
There was another round of food - prawn with a wedge salad with trout roe (I went back to Cotat) and tagliatelle with porcini and truffle butter
1982 Ch. L’Evangile
Yowsa, great showing of an old fave. Lush dark fruit, menthol, lovely balance, double decanted in afternoon and shows well for entire dinner. A-A/
Crispy polenta with mushrooms and smoked garlic cream
I had the mushroom rubbed picanha with cauliflower puree, king trumpet mushroom,& tiny sweet peppers plus we shared a Brussels sprouts gratin
We’d been doing really well, but the 1978s were not destined to show well this night.
1978 Ch L’ Evangile
A little thin, earthy, roasted meat, maybe slightly off. John said he had lovely bottle recently but this one had a rather spongy cork. Not terrible but not what we expected. B-
1978 Ch.Palmer
This had a really nice floral/lifted nose, but was a bit thin and a tad acrid on palate. Again, John brought one to my house a couple years ago, this can be a really nice bottle, this one is just lagging. B-
1978 Ch. Latour
Some thought this corked, but I found mustiness without TCA. Mark said a recent bottle from same box was delicious. This wasn’t! .NR
Oh well, not ending one would have hoped for, but we had plenty of good wines to revisit and I hope to run across sound bottles of the 1978s soon.
Oh, and one more taste, generously brought down by the Morrells host from upstairs
1993 Vogue Amoureuses Chambolle-Musigny 1er
Big, still some tannin, black cherry compote, cocoa, somewhat extracted. . I’m quite sure I would not have guessed Chambolle if blind. Power, but no elegance,
Fun night.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was the only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.