Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

marcs

I like the 86 Talbot (more nuance) just as much as the 82 (more power), though I’ve not had them side by side. The bottle I had at dinner a few months ago was more memorable and "better" to me than the 1986 Mouton Rothschild that I had at a BWE DC Saturday night I think in 2018. It's that...

marcs

I had it at least once and I think a couple of times in the last decade - once maybe about 3-4 years ago and once about 7-8 year ago, both tutored on behalf of Decanter by Herve Berland at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone - and especially on the first occasion it struck me as one of those ferocious...

marcs

1986 Talbot This is indeed a magnificent wine. I had another bottle (my second) a few months ago. It started out as just another good, interesting, dark-fruited 1980s left bank Bordeaux, seemed ready to drink on the pop and pour, then over the course of the dinner expanded and grew, adding layers o...

marcs

Like Joel, I don’t have a single bottle I would identify as my North Star in that way. Which doesn’t surprise me - I love to read but couldn’t identify a single favorite book, love movies but couldn’t narrow my favorite list smaller than maybe three to five, etc. I have fallen in love with many indi...

marcs

I tried probably 15 orange wines, and 1 was decent. I quit. This has been my experience, except I quit before 15. There’s a reason why after centuries of experience winemakers decided to make red wines with skin contact and white wines without. You can tell Jim is up in benighted Maine because if y...

marcs

Looking at some of the posts on Wineberserkers, which has some guys who really really know Burgundy, they seem to be under the impression that outside of Rousseau Chambertin can be a little tricky. They also seemed to think that Chambertin Clos de Beze is more reliable

marcs

I by the way got a full case at that $170/bottle price. First bottle of the case was the one I tasted and it was in perfect condition, I’m quite happy to have the rest

marcs

I’ve gone through phases where wine appreciation starts to feel more like wine negativity , where that dazzling sweet spot wine can attain grows narrower and narrower. It’s not a good mindset to end up in, even if it originates from the noblest passion, the urge, no, the need to understand, to anal...

marcs

lol... Marcus... what is your perfect wine? What is your desert island wine, a meteor is going to hit the earth, what are you going to uncork? Do you consider yourself a wine enthusiast , or perhaps a wine nitpicker, a mr negativity? If you love wine, what is your MUST HAVE wine? In all the years I...

marcs

William Kelley has said this was the last of the more rustic and old school vintages for Montrose - it was the last before wooden fermenting vats were replaced with stainless steel tanks - but I didn’t find it rustic at all. It had a lot of Cabernet snap and tension to it but I found it very elegant...

marcs

So, curious, how would this Savigny fare against at ~$50 Felettig Chambolle, say the 2019 VV? I think this is the kind of question another person cannot answer for you. Only you can say if you prefer Savigny to Chambolle. For me, I had some of the 2005 Pavelot Dominode and while I recognized it as ...

marcs

I had it about six months ago and posted a TN here (on my phone now so can’t drop in the link, but I posted it on July 10 2022 under the title of “some recent wines with a visitor from France”). As my TN indicated I thought it was an excellent wine - fresh, pure, crisp, elegant, and at the beginning...

marcs

Kari Lake not only defeated, but tossed into the dustbin of history. However I've gotta say, Liz Cheney is da Man! (even according to Josh Hawley apparently) She would make a great Speaker of the House under the current circumstances. All it would take is all the democrats and a few republicans to ...

marcs

Any heat on the 09 Calon, Nic? That’s my concern with some 09s. Does heat settle down with age? It sure didn’t with the 07 Chateauneuf. I’ve never found heat with any 2009 left bank. What I do find is a thick rich fruit expression that may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But I don’t think of it is a ...

marcs

I see people got in on the collectible fine wine sale…perhaps you guys are the reason my strategy of waiting for deeper discounts on the good stuff basically failed lol I’m perpetually short of champagne and whites so I did pick up 3*2015 Bereche Grand Cru Champagne for $133/bottle all in (including...

marcs

Great thoughts, Marcus. I think it was Stefan who long ago pointed out the general trade off between expressive aromatics vs palate power, and this certainly has been my experience. I think 02 vintage is the case in point — the bouquets are already just so delightful, expressive and detailed, and i...

marcs

A 1993 Haut Brion I had I think back in 2021 was absolutely stunning. It had an overall delicacy and transparency, and the nose had a complexity, that I’ve often found absent in “big” vintages

marcs

Ohhhh man - this may be one of the best values of this vintage in my opinion. I went fairly deep on LB in this vintage and couldn’t be happier. I swear, between Leoville Barton, Calon Segur, Meyney, etc. there was zero reason to spend more than $100/bottle for world class quality this vintage. Just...

marcs

I know Orl Bobby has been praising this vintage for sometime...sad to say I have only 4 bottles of this vintage...I'm just not buying much young bordeaux anymore I certainly understand…it’s going to be a struggle to drink my 77 bottles of this vintage as I plan to wait till my early 60s to start…lo...

marcs

I’ve mentioned this one before but it’s been a while: the best “off vintage” claret I’ve had, by far, was the terrific 1992 Talbot. It was being dumped in the mid-90’s for like $8 a pop, so my dad grabbed 3 cases and walked around with a big grin repeating “it’s Grand Cru!”. We drank reams of the s...

marcs

robert goulet wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:35 am I would love a tasting w/ strictly off vintages

That was pretty much Saturday night at this years BWE DC - all 2002 all the time!

The upcoming year will permit us to celebrate vintages like 1983, 1993, 2013, etc. 2024 will offer similar opportunities

marcs

I've given up on these lists. It's some combination of my memory decaying and drinking better and better wines each year. I can make a list but I find that wines I drank in the last quarter of the year are massively over-represented and it's not a coincidence. The truth is also that as I've honed in...

marcs

It's getting to be around that time of the year again and I always enjoy this exercise as it really helps me remember and relive some of the great experiences that I've had. They seem to be getting better and better every year as I meet more wine friends and have more great tastings and dinners. He...

marcs

Oh I forgot I also have 2*2014 Meyney!

Basically every BWE 2014 wine except the first growths I’ve got at least a few of

marcs

PghMike wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:44 pm 2x 2010 Conseillante @ $165 each
1x 2011 Suduirat 375 @ $30

More to come later today.....

Quite a bargain on the Conseillante! Congrats

marcs

I’m going to try to come but can’t confirm yet…

marcs

I actually think the 2014 LB was around $50-55 at release. Remember, this was a vintage where the Pichons were $90/bottle at release and Conseillante was too! Still regret not loading up even more than I did on some of the bargains available not just at release but for a few years afterwards. I did ...

marcs

I’d like to use the occasion of this thread to enumerate how many 2014s I have. It’s nothing like Jim’s 177 cases all purchased at $50/bottle except for the Mouton Rothschild which was free, but I’m still happy about it: 12*Ducru Beaucaillou 9*La Conseillante 9*Montrose 6*Pichon Baron 6*Pichon Lalan...

marcs

Never tried this, but I have four bottles of it buried among my six cases (!) of excellent assorted 2014s

Perhaps I’ll exempt it from my LB purge at least until I try it. Would it benefit from more aging?

marcs

More grim news on Sherry-Lehmann, sounds like gross mismanagement at best and outright fraud at worst: https://nypost.com/2022/12/15/sherry-lehmann-owners-in-nyc-drank-wines-while-clients-waited/ In one sense this article is grim in another sense it’s hilarious (especially if you’re not a customer ...

marcs

I guess Dave is right that rhetorically at least I was pot-stirring a bit here. But to get more serious -- I don't need wines to be "flashy" or "dramatic", especially not in the modern sense spoofulated-to-stand-out-at-a-tasting sense, which I can't stand. I think if you follow m...

marcs

I see an OWC case of the 2016 Montrose at auction currently for $166 + sales tax... This is a good price! I got 6*2016 Montrose plus 6* 2014 Montrose for $156/bottle all in from Acker, which wasn’t bad, but I think the implicit price for the 2016s is about equal to this depending on the tax I concu...

marcs

But Ian is never going to talk to me again after this thread. I'll show up in London and he'll tell me the wrong place to go, I'll end up at some pub in the middle of nowhere with a bag of wine and no one to drink it with. Maybe I should take it all back. Not worth it.

marcs

Pot stirring? Me? Never. It is actually true that I never say anything I don't believe. Somewhat to my own surprise, I have reached a point with Leoville Barton perhaps similar to where Jim was at with GPL, although less vociferous. I had a really bad bottle of 1999, followed by another really bad b...

marcs

Leoville Barton isn’t a “blow me away” kind of wine, but it is such an honestly classic Bordeaux, so reliably excellent, and such a good value that a picture of its label belongs in the dictionary under “Bordeaux.” It’s reliably…ok? Decent? Solid? And even then in some cases I’ve had mediocre bottl...

marcs

I’m going to agree wholeheartedly with Eric that I’ve never really been blown away by Leoville Barton (with the possible exception of one bottle of 2004), and I’ll go further to say that I’ve been underwhelmed many times. I’m willing to call it and say LB is overrated. From my perspective anyway. Ba...

marcs

Or how about - can we actually ship wines transatlantic to you in advance Ian? Or is the tax a killer?

marcs

How do you guys actually bring the wines? I mean, a six pack of wine in checked baggage seems…iffy…and it would be a lot to carry on

marcs

I think you can absolutely overdo the “great wine experience”. Too many bottles in a night and the experience can fade into a blur, and that’s even before taking the alcohol into consideration. The experience of a really good wine, and especially an aged one, is a quite subtle one and very dependent...

marcs

Wait, are these prices per 12 bottle case?

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