Some special wines here for certain. I see the trend is to Cali cabs and wonderful Bordeaux. I’m partial to Italian, call it National pride but I enjoy it all some of what I drank lately or just got in. The pandemic facilitated a cellar review.
Some great ones there. My cellar collection has leaned Italian for the last 4-5 years...although I have no bias when it comes to great wine!
Testing a theory I have... As I have built out my wine collection over the past few decades, it has certainly evolved with my palette. I won’t even speculate on how many bottles of wine I have consumed from around the world in the last 30 years...but it’s a lot. When I look at those that have been doing it longer than I have, I am always curious where their palettes end up converging. My anecdotal observation is that highly sophisticated, long term palettes seem to end on Burgundies and Barolos (I.e., closer to the Pinot style rather than the Cabernet/Bordeaux/super Tuscan style). This doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy other varietals, they just seem to prefer the old world burgundies and barolos. Given the relatively long shelf life and maturation window of those varietals, I shifted my buying behavior in anticipation of my palette eventually ending there. The goal is to be able to enjoy world class old world wines in their prime drinking window when I retire (yes, I am a planner). That doesn’t mean I have stopped buying great Bordeaux/Brunello/Super Tuscan/new world cabs and blends, just shifted the percentage. I would be interested in others’ views and observations on this theory.
My Dad was big into Burgundy, more so than Bordeaux, so my first real wine taste was Pinot. I agree that your tastes in wine evolve with age and a change in your taste profile. I used to enjoy Zin, in a big way, now I really can’t handle the robust spice. I still am a big Amarone fan though. Have a bit of Dal Forno I’m “working” through now
Still have more Bordeaux than Burgundy... this one emptied yesterday. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I've seen with my own and with countless other American winos over the years that *many but not all* wine roads lead to burgundy and barolo. With stops in Bordeaux and sometimes the Rhone and sometimes other Italian regions. My cellar was 100% calicab when it 100 bottles...but still had ~100 bottles of cali cab when it was 5000+ bottles in total. I built a fairly large collection/cellar with the same goal - the average "wait to drink time" of the entire cellar was over 20 years, perhaps near 30 years as it had loads of 2000, 2005 and 2009 Bordeaux which for me need 20-30 years in most cases). But I ended up selling the lot of it. Several reasons why; (1) I tired of the "Bad bottle" ratio, and (2) I stopped drinking much wine when I hit my late 40's (now I drink barely a bottle or two per month...whereas that was per night when I was building the cellar in my 30's).
I have no Bordeaux left in my cellar at all. Sold them off about 10 years ago. Used the proceeds to buy other wines
a couple of my Cali that I enjoy drinking, yeah they are young but who knows where I will be in 20 years..LOL Image Unavailable, Please Login
So the reason (flame suit on) is that I appreciate a Bordeaux but it is not my first choice of wine, BUT at that time, I was under the misconception that my cellar HAD to have 1st growth wine otherwise it was not a cellar. So I have access to wholesale pricing and bought 89 & 90 vintage pre-sell way back. So as the prices went up, I was approached by a well known wine shop in my area to see if I would be interested in selling. They were "mostly" intact (OWC) though I did pull some bottles and drink them. I gave them to sell at auction and got quite the return. With those funds I bought pretty much Italian, Dal Forno, Quintarelli, the requisite "aia" ending wines, Valentini, etc. I did get some California Pinot Noir & Cabernet & Chardonnay as my family/friends really enjoy them. I would not call myself a collector like some of the people here, who clearly have some tremendous wines & older vintages.
I’ve gone from Cali cab to young Bordeaux to older Bordeaux and older N Rhone. I hadn’t really “gotten” burgundy until I tried 2005 Perrot-Minot. 1997 Gaja sperrs was my first Barolo entree and I enjoy it, but still prefer older Bordeaux. I’m finding for the higher end wines you can get basically the top stuff for Bordeaux and Rhone at 1/3 the price of top burgundy (except some pomerol). I’m hard pressed to find burgundy that’s less than 2x the price of the equivalently enjoyable bordeaux and N Rhone.
I was at dinner last night with the president of an equipment OEM vendor who put my company through hell on a project last year. So he was picking up the tab and it was sort of a mutual understanding that this wasn't going to be cheap for him. We both had fish and the restaurant had a bottle of 2009 Clos St. Hune. I've never had it before and I'd never pay $500 for white wine but I figured why not. I was not by any means thrilled especially for such a celebrated producer, legendary really. The Riesling I posted a few posts back was much better in every way for 1/10 the cost.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Cannot find the Clos Beauregard anywhere.
New to the thread, but here's some bottles we've enjoyed lately.. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Been learning and enjoying some of the vintages.. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
How was the Cos D’Estournel? I have a couple bottles of the 2016 but think I’ll give it 5 more years.
I would agree it needs more time and a good idea to wait. That said, I did like it but found it too heavy, so waiting a bit more should/will mellow it out. I want to make sure I say this, I am no means an expert and really just learning and enjoying the "good stuff" as I get to taste them.
As stated no means an expert. I'm learning and enjoying as I go. I found it to be light in taste, nose was very good, which surprised me given its age, so was expecting it to be a bit heavier on taste. I did let it breath for a good amount, best I can describe is a flowery taste, it has a very distinct taste, not sure how else to say, by no means sweet but there's a sweetness to it that's very light on the palate, real smooth. The wine didn't linger much on the taste buds either, best for a charcuterie plate than full steak meal. Again, take what I post as a drinker rather than a "connoisseur". Also working off memory, we had that bottle a while ago.