Some Wine at Home and Abroad

I certainly would not drink the jewel that Haut-Brion is with any Italian food...it would be difficult to match with italian food so great care is required here! Also it needs to be aired for at least an hour in a carafe, so is not well adapted to be drunk in a restaurant.
But I am french, and Haut-Brion is a kind of National Treasure (and "La Mission Haut-Brion" is not bad either...)

Rgds

 

Wow. The online reviews of Chateau Haut-Brion 1989 read sort of like reviews of Michael Jordan's basketball skills, ranging from ecstatic to orgasmic.
nerofer - what would you pair such an awesome wine with?
T

 

Hi Tom,

It is indeed an exceptional wine, a prodigy and a legend, and attested by written comments since the 16th century...a giant of a wine, really.
(and unfortunately, out of reach of most wallets these days; thirty years ago, it was different, you could still buy a bottle and open it without asking yourself: "my God, what have I done?")

Like most Graves/ Pessac-Leognan, it matches very well the french south/west cuisine: magret de canard (duck), dishes with mushrooms like truffes (truffles) and Cèpes (Cep or Boletus Edulis), lamb, beef tenderloin...
Some people I know even drink it with Salade Landaise, which may seem a bit risky as it is very difficult to match any wine with salad.

I know it works well with the local south-west cuisine, which is rather rich, but the last two times I drank a bottle, I had something very simple with it: rib of beef and extra fine french green beans. To me, the simplicity of that food underlined that magnificent wine.

Its cousin "La Mission Haut-Brion" is also worth every penny. Both "Chateau Haut-Brion" and "Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion" have exceptionnal ability to age.

The "second wine" of "Chateau Haut-Brion" ("second wine" is a wine made with the same grapes than the "first growth", but "leftovers" considered not good enough for the first growth) was "Bahans Haut-Brion" (it changed name recently), which is an interesting wine in itself and at about 150 dollars the bottle for the 1998 for instance, provides some hindsight of the richness of its master for an "acceptable" price.


Rgds

 

As always, thank you, good sir, for sharing your considerable knowledge of fine wines!
T

 

The 89 H-B is a fantastic wine and if it has been stored properly is in its prime drinking window. This wines has the distinctive cedar/leather notes of H-B. It cries out for Duck or lamb.

 

I was hoping you would chime in...
in a nutshell: what a pity H-B has become so expensive.
To think that I was able to buy two bottles of 1985 at "l'intendant" in Bordeaux (in 1989 if my memory etc...) FOR A GIFT (yes...).
That was before the Chinese entered the equation.
Pity, pity...(even "l'Angelus" is slowly getting out of my reach these days...)

Rgds

 

mon cher ami nerofer, tout a fait d'accord!

Soon after I returned from a year of graduate law studies 1960-61 at the Faculte de Droit de Paris, thanks to advice of a friend and colleague, Me. Pierre Marcilhacy, a ce moment-la, Senateur de la Charente, concerning the 1961 recolte in Bordeaux, I acquired a half case of the 1961 Haut Brion, one of Pierre's favorites. By a good margin the most exquisite vin rouge que j'a jamais bu. National Treasure indeed! Also a half case of the '61 Ch Margaux, '61 Ausone, two cases each of 61 Ducru Beaucaillou and '61 Pichon Longueville C'tesse Lalande. Made many people very happy during many years!

 

Keith, a wine connoisseur from Raleigh, you absolutely must know my closest friend, Jack Hunter (John V. Hunter III), who signs all correspondence: Chasseur.

 

Well, that was a good friendly advice indeed, as you know 1961 turned out to be a truly exceptional vintage. Some friends like to remind me that I was born in 1960, one of the worst, if not THE worst vintage of the XXth century for Bordeaux.
Haut-Brion is truly special. And with Margaux and Ausone, what a trio. "Peste!" as Alexandre Dumas would have said. "Pichon-Comtesse" as we use to say, very good choice also.

Rgds

 

I made some notes about the 89 and I will look them up. I also had two bottles of the 86 drank one about 4 years ago and gave the other to a charity auction. The 86 was fading at that point with amber at the edges and a shorter finished than I would have liked as I recall. And yes, nerofer, it is a pity. I remember drinking the 75 at Chateau D'Artigny (Montbazon) in the late 80s and even in a fancy joint like that the wine's price was within reach; not any more. And to correct the record, I have no wine credentials, qualifications or aspirations, I just like to drink it.

 

Well, it underlines what we were discussing a few months back: when it is time, it is time. Any wine has a bracket of years during which it is optimal, and it not only should be opened, but MUST be opened if you intend to drink it.
As a true wine lover, you made the right decision when drinking the 1986; most people nowadays would have kept the bottle, being frozen by the label.

The situation with prices reminds me of one of the most sound advice I ever has been given regarding wine, about 35 years ago, and that I should have followed strictly:
For your favorite "first growth" (premier Grand Cru Classé) always buy TWO cases in "primeur" (or two half cases) each year.
The first one is for you to age and drink in its time; the second one is to be sold six or seven years later, to pay for two other cases of the same wine that year.
Therefore, you have to put money in the operation for the first six or seven years; after that, by selling the "second" case each year, normally it works without you having to put much cash in the operation.

But these days you have to ask them to agree for listing your name on a "waiting list" to buy the Premiers Grand Crus Classés in "Primeur"...

Rgds

 

I took a quick look on winesearcher and the 89 HB is about $1,000 bottle retail now. I did find a few notes on the 89 I drank in 2009. The wine was opened for 90 minutes but nor decanted. It had a powerful black color and the distinctive cedar notes when first opened. The fruit and structure (tannins) were still in very nice balance and the wine was perfectly sound. Again IIRC HB has about 1/3 cab franc in the mix and back then the wine stayed a long time in new oak for the most part (I could look this stuff up I guess) but the cab frank really binds the merlot and Cab sauv. My notes say the finish on this wine lasted about two minutes. I noticed kind of a leather and then again the cigar box or cedar flavors. It was a remarkable wine. We drank it will a beef wellington my wife made on Xmas eve 2009.

 

Typical H-B flavors, H-B is always very consistent from year to year, even if of course some vintages are better...don't get me wrong, I have only opened less than ten bottles in my life, and most a long time ago, when it didn't make a hole in my wallet.
ever tasted "La Mission Haut-Brion", Keith? A very interesting wine also.

This morning, the 2010 (admittedly, a great year) was about 1300 € per bottle for "Haut-Brion", and 850 € for "La Mission Haut-Brion"...

I have been told when I was koung that leaving the wine open doesn't air it much as the surface for exchange is very small, so I usually decant.

Rgds

 

+1

absolutely; d'ailleurs, the acte of decanting provides initial and additional aeration.

I'm developing a serious thirst

 

Well, I would not like to look like a pedantic prick, but…
An old wine like the H-B we were discussing should be aired in a different “carafe” than a young wine, because it should not be submitted to too much air at a time, so the carafe for an "old gentleman" like this should have a smaller diameter.

And by the way, we had 103 F yesterday in Paris (official temperature at Parc Montsouris when the official measures are done was 39,5° Celsius). Hottest July 1st in Paris since 1947.
So serious thirst yes, but beer is de rigueur…not wine.

Rgds

 

Yes Nerofer. I agree. Some think any air is bad for any wine at any time. I decided not to decant the 89 H-B but I don't think it would have harmed it to do so.
My wife and I were in Bordeaux in the summer of 1982 and it was hot...and we all know how that vintage turned out. "Stressed vines, great wines"
I have not been reading weather reports...did bordeaux and burgundy have a good spring for flowering and set?

 

Haut Brion is a good wine ... I'm more Paulliac ...

the far east has driven prices way too high for the quality you get. the other problem is the shipping of delicate wine so far - who knows the conditions it was in ... hot etc...

As for decanting - I would reccomend that you filter it just before drinking- I would not aeriate the wine. depending on how it was stored you will get some sediment - hopefully its not been stirred up.

it is worth the old fashioned show of using a candle and funnel.... to decant.

A votre sante!

as for food - classic wine = classic food gotta go French, and or good roast with mushrooms and earthy vegitables.

 

Yes Keith, bordeaux and burgundy did indeed have had a very good spring for flowering and set.

The main question nowadays is the influence of the heat wave we are experiencing now on the grapes.

Nothing like the weather in NC, of course, but Bordeaux had 40°c (105 f) on Tuesday, and will be under hot weather (every day above 33°) for at least two weeks. This is not unusual, but slightly early: it should normally occur a month later. In Bordeaux, optimists say that the winter conditions + a dry spring, not too hot, + an early heat wave are exactly the same conditions that in…1961; cynics say that this kind of claim is only to justify another increase in the “primeur” prices. But of course you know that the key is actually August and September, and especially no hailstorms just before the grapes are collected.

Burgundy is now (today, Friday) under the spike of the heat wave, with fears of hailstorms. Spring has been dry and rather hot, but many think that the difference in temperatures between night and day was not optimal, perhaps a bit too large. The plants themselves have been under stress during the last three years (hail) so the grapes are perhaps not at their very best.

Rgds

 

what did you eat wine the wines. Did you have both wines at the same meal?