Oooh…. A well-aged Chateau Beaucastel! I’ve spent much more on many bottles, but I keep coming back to their CdP. It’s become quite hard to find in Chicago, but it’s always a favorite. A great friend of my father really provided my gateway to fine wine, and it all started with Chateauneuf du Pape. It’s a fantastic wine that will always hold a special place in my heart. The Perrin family makes excellent wines. JK
Vietti is always a solid choice from Piedmonte; really enjoy all their wines. this one is a bit young, but wanted to try it Image Unavailable, Please Login
We were friends with the Currado family, former owners of Vietti. They gave us these labels that we ended up framing. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Part of a tasting I was invited to tonight: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login A total once-in-a-lifetime JK
Good article by Asimov in yesterday's NYT weekly column. Loire Valley reds...an overlooked region of good wines, fairly priced.
For sure! I shop regularly with Hart Davis Hart, and last night was their annual Bordeaux tasting. Since they had been unable to host one for several years, they really went all out this time. 2009 and 2010 vintages of each: Cheval Blanc Cos d’Estournel Ducru Beaucaillou Gruaud Larose Haut-Brion Lafite Rothschild Latour Leoville Las Cases Léoville Poyferré La Misson Haut-Brion Lynch-Bages Margaux Montrose Mouton Palmer Pavie Pichon Baron Pichon Lalande Pontet Canet Smith Haut Lafitte Vieux Château Certan It was a fantastic event, and afford me to opportunity to do A/B comparisons in a way I likely never will again. JK
I’ll attempt to do a bit of justice to the opportunity. 2009 Lafite: Probably the most balanced bottle of wine in the tasting. It was very drinkable now, although I’m in no rush to open one of my own yet. It showed a youthful freshness of cherry and berries, but with a firm foundation of structure. 2010 Lafite: Tannins still much more front and center than the 2009. The 2010 needs more time in my opinion, but as the night progressed the bottle seemed to open up and wood notes and dark berry fruits came together. 2009 Latour: The earthy truffle notes jumped out at me, and it’s well integrated for being such a big wine. The typical Paulliac notes of graphite and cedar were evident, and it had a pleasantly long finish. 2010 Latour: This was a full-throttle bottle. Extremely intense and concentrated. I almost felt bad for drinking it this early (almost), but it certainly my pick of the group to age. Assuming I live long enough for it to reach its peak, it will likely be the best of the first five in 2010. It was pretty much a consistent theme across the bottles that the 2009s were softer than the 2010s. Oddly not with Lynch Bage though. The 2010 felt thinner than the 2009, but that could have been the bottle. I hope this helps, but I am far from an expert. JK
Thanks. I am certainly no expert either, but I was curious how these rare treats struck you. Sounds like an awesome night.
How was the Ducru? In some vintages can be almost Burgundy like in my opinion. I think I have one of two bottle somewhere. I know I drank the last 2000 about 5 years ago and it did not overwhelm. Thanks again for notes
Hi Keith, I agree. I think their wines can sometimes be challenging in the context of Bordeaux. The 2009 as well seemed to have more earth and floral notes than I would expect, but perhaps that the merlot. The 2010 seemed more punchy, and I think was the superior bottle of the two. That said the wines were nice, but nobody was blown away by them. I have a 1995 that needs to get opened as well. I’m not sure that my bottle is going to impress, but only one way to find out! JK
Tonight’s pick is not as chi-chi as the last batch, but a really nice bottle for the price. 2018 Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases. The second wine of Chateau Leoville Las Cases. Under $80 and still nice cherry and berry fruits with good structure. A little bit of leather comes through on a reasonably long finish. JK Image Unavailable, Please Login
Interesting, I've never seen that wine, your post led to some learning for me! LLC was always a fav of mine, but I stopped following Bordeaux at all after the 2005 vintage...Fwiw, back in the day, we always considered Clos du Marquis as LLC's second wine...although I guess its not technically since its from a different vineyard.] A quick google informed me that LLC started bottling this "true second wine" you posted in the 2007 vintage. Good idea that, especially if they are getting $80 a bottle for it! That would probably be a bottle I'd buy if I was still buying bordeaux.
I’m glad that my liver will not have died in vain. I find Bordeaux very interesting, and enjoy learning more about it. What caused you to walk away from Bordeaux? We drink some California cabs, but honestly I feel like I can find more value in bottles like this one than I can in the California aisle. I double-checked the price and it’s on sale for $59.99, choice of 2018 or 2019. JK
Several factors led to me drinking a tiny fraction of the wine I used to, and also not traveling/participating in high-end tastings, etc; - Not the wines! (still enjoy them) - I bought several hundred cases of 1989 - 2005 Bordeaux (concentrated around 1995 and 1996 medoc and graves, 1998 right bank and graves, 2000, 2001 right bank, 2003 (sigh), and 2005 primarily, but plenty from other vintages in there too). Given that I don't really enjoy Bordeaux aged less than 20 years - and in big vintages more like 40 years - I stopped buying with the 2005 vintage given my age at the time and cellar enough to last a lifetime. - I became really disappointed with the rate of flawed bottles. Not only when "out and about", but also when pulled from my cellar and friends' cellar where the bottles were bought EP and stored properly since...TCA is insidious and I'm very sensitive to it. Similarly, some friends and I were really into white burgundy, and the pre-ox fiasco was painful. Hot years sitting and baking on the docks in france was common too. And cellar funk in some wines (southern rhone) were often uncontrolled, resulting is stinky ruined bottles and funky interesting bottles from the same producer in the same year. Put simply, I grew very tired of pulling corks on expensive, intensively curated, and well-stored, wines that went straight down the drain. - I got into Burgundy and northern Rhone (where many wine roads lead) and focused my wine-time and buying there - Lifestyle switched from primarily traveling for food/wine and attending whatever events I could, to other types of travel and hobbies (used to go to NYC and Bern's down in FL several times a year for group tastings and events, and La Paulee and similar charity events here and there, so-called offlines with folks from the Squires/Parker board back in the day around the country) - Sadly my ability to drink and tolerate red wine substantially diminished as I aged. So...we don't drink much wine anymore of any sort. I sold 90% of my cellar back around 2015. Kept some older wines from birthday vintages for me and my family members, but even those are mostly drunk up at this point. I think I would have gotten out of EP buying regardless of the above due to the price inflation anyways. I still remember marveling that the 2000 first tranche first growths were $100! Crazy at the time. And the 2003's were $300! (crazy and stupid it turns out). I bought loads of DRC back when all of the bottlings (save RC) were $300-700 because some of those were worth it (La Tache is among my fav wines), but cannot imagine paying $1000+ and up for so many of the finer wines as the higher end stuff is priced today.
Very interesting, and I can appreciate your perspective. It still amazes me how much things have changed over the last 20 years. I recall the local store getting Petrus, and occasionally La Tache when both were in the $400-$600 range. I always think they can’t get any more expensive, and then suddenly, they do. JK
Tonight’s choice, 2019 Alter Ego de Palmer. Continuing my run of second wines, it is the second wine of Chateau Palmer. Slight majority of Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the balance is Petit Verdot. Obviously very young, but I think it has solid potential to age for a $75 bottle. Image Unavailable, Please Login JK
Some pics from our trip to Bordeaux Lafite, Mouton, Margaux and Petrus… Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
Yesterday and today's bottle (unfortunately we had to drive after dinner last night, so we saved half the bottle for this evening - the good news is that it was actually better after a one-day rest): Image Unavailable, Please Login
