Les aventures Parisiennes

[Comte Flaneur]

I partook in two wine dinners in Paris this week, one informal with our old (younger than me) mucker Tim McCracken on Wednesday night, and a more formal one organised by the François Audouze last night - ‘Les academies de vins anciens.’

The Audouze dinner has been in the diary for some time but my attendance was touch and go given my hectic schedule, but in the end the lure of Paris in the blue skies and sunshine of mid-May was too enticing to turn down.

On Wednesday we opened several bottles but only finished one, not that they were sub standard. Just that Tim and I are disciplinarians. We started with an interesting Bereche champagne, Reflet D’Antan. It was young and lively with a pink-tinged colour. I think we drank it a little too cold because in the label it said serve at 10C. We only had a glass each before it was corked up.

Our first red was a Louis Latour Beaune 1966, which had a purity and translucence of colour which pointed to it be very much alive and interesting, even if it was in what I would describe as a ‘post-tertiary’ phase, where the fruit had exited the stage some time ago, but still with plenty of interest.

Next up was the piece of resistance which I guessed as a Pauillac from the 1966, 1970 or 1975 vintage, possibly Latour. It turned out to be Pichon Baron 1959. The bottle was in fabulous condition, and the wine had a timeless and regal quality about it even though it too was tertiary/post-tertiary.

We opened up a Tignanello 1985, which again was quite oxidative initially but this started to blow off eventually. It was somewhat between my first (disappointing) and second (sensational) bottles. We only had a glass each before it was resealed.

Last but not least Coutet 1975. What a wine! Reasonably evolved colour but superb poise, freshness and cut.


At the Audouze dinner there were four tables of ten, each with 14 wines. Before we sat down we sampled eight different champagnes from François’s cellar. There were one or two good ones, but only one that I recognised. I have copied in a picture of the line up.

The highlights on our table were

#2: Meursault Genevrieres Louis Latour 1969 - courtesy Tim, this started off with an oxidative note in the glass which blew off, and the wine went from strength to strength. Fresh, lively with lovely buttery Meursault signature and so youthful. Another superb 50 year old white burgundy, but it did not quite match the Corton Charlemagne 1970 we had with Jim and Danny.

#7: Chateau Talbot 1966 - beautifully poised and resolved red fruited wine with balsamic, cedar, cigar box and ashtray. A sublime expression of St-Julien. This was notably better than the Pichon Baron the previous night, good though that was. Just wonderful. Sigh..

#8: Chateau Latour 1950 - also courtesy Tim, it had quite a muted nose but a sensationally lush mid palate and fine finish. It did fade slightly after an hour in the glass, so if you have any of this it needs drinking (the first time I ever remember saying that about Latour). A noble wine ... we thought it just edged out the Talbot (I wonder if I would have said that if these were served blind?). But a genuinely thrilling Latour. I suspect this is a ‘good’ vintage of Latour, which happens to be 68 years old, and will easily surpass the biblical three score and ten. I suspect wines like the 1996 will last 100 years.

#11: Prunotto Barolo Riserva 1967 - my lone contribution and last bottle of a batch purchased from Chambers Street Wines in Lower Manhattan. This was a great bottle despite being served right after a blockbuster 1959 Amarone. It had a bright translucent hue, light on its feet with glorious notes of rose, rosewood and herbs/gardenia. Perfectly resolved and ever so nuanced mature Barolo. I was ever so sad to see this treasure depart.

#12: Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey 1959 - extraordinarily unevolved colour - you would guess this is only 10-15 years old - much lighter than the Coutet 1975 the previous night, lively and brilliant Sauternes.

Wine 10 was a 1959 Bertani Amarone and wine 13 was a 1959 Sherry (see photo)which made me think of Simon G who served us something similar at the Medlar a while ago. It had the texture of Duckhams motor oil and permanently stained any piece of glassware it came into contact with.

We went through a barren patch with wines 3-6 and when we were offered a taste of Pichon Baron 1986 it tasted so young and fruity and frankly so much nicer than those half-dead wines. But the idea of the evening was ‘not to judge but taste and compare’ old wines in context so that the younger wines would be the exception, not the older ones.

At the end we got a small taste of François’s Cheval Blanc 1955 which was absolutely sensational and eclipsed the Latour 1950. But it was only a very small taste, so it didn’t really count.

The other wine I got to taste twice from another table with two decent pours was listed as a 1982 Cornas. It was magnificent mature Cornas. It turned out to be Clape. The first time I have tasted a fully mature example. If this is anything to go by it will be worth the wait.

Thank you to Tim and François for laying on two memorial evenings. Paris under the spring sunshine but chill mornings is very special indeed. The City was resplendent.

Take it away Frank I love Paris.

https://youtu.be/WF_yN1R2b5M

[Comte Flaneur]

Lots of luvverly photos to enjoy

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YZOdmyHCwHKbJhZd2

[Comte Flaneur]

And here is Francois’s write up en Francais - how does he do it? Fabulous evening thank you François and a privilege to attend.

http://www.academiedesvinsanciens.org/3 ... ant-maceo/

[JimHow]

You da man, Ian, I hope to get to France again this year as part of the JimHow 60th birthday extravaganza tour.
I was invited to London first week of June for the opening of my friend Elizabeth Strout's play "My Name Is Lucy Barton" at The Bridge Theater but I have a big argument coming before the Maine Supreme Court.

[stefan]

Sounds like another wonderful dinner. It is always fun to get together with Tim and/or François.

These days no one thinks much of Louis Latour, but his wines from the 1960s were generally very good.

1975 Coutet also was excellent when it was much younger. Climens is typically richer and more Sauternes like than Coutet, but I love the way Coutet proclaims itself Barsac.

[tim]

It was great having Ian over for a couple days, and it was also a chance to dig into some cellar items that might otherwise suffer from travel shock. Just finished the Tig last night, and while it still had some oxidative notes, it was a perfect companion to a bit of pasta.

The wine for Wednesday was clearly the 59 Pichon Baron. It did remind me a lot of Latour, and I found it to be better than the 1950 Latour the next evening. Simply fantastic. The Coutet seemed too evolved for me for a 75, a color that resembled something about 30 years older. It was nonetheless delicious, and a completely different animal to a younger sticky.

Onto the Academie des Vins Anciens. Francois gave a little speech in French at the beginning, someone asked him how he first got into wine. He told a story of how at around age 27 he purchased a house that had a wine cellar in it. It was then when he was opening some of those wines that he had his epiphany. He also talked a little about his first old wine experience (I believe it was a Sauternes from the 1930's, but don't remember exact details) and how he started WineDinners in 2000. I hadn't realized that his visit to New York was at the beginning of his Wine Dinners journey. Then he talked about the beginning of the Academie, which was the dinner we attended. He was with a friend who told him about an old wine that the friend owned. Francois asked when he would open it, and the friend said he couldn't open it because he had no one to share it with that had an affection for older wines. That was when Francois had the idea for the Academie, and opportunity for people to bring their old wines from their cellar and open them with like-minded people. Very much in the spirit of BWE.

We started with the Champagne, I tasted two or three of the bottles but didn't get any of the older ones. As we were 40 people in the room, it was quite packed. For the wines at our table, the standout for me was the 1966 Talbot. This was a gorgeous example of aged Bordeaux in a perfect place. I love 1966's, and there are so many of them still on the market due to the abundance of the vintage that it becomes a no-brainer to seek them out. The 1950 Latour was an excellent wine of first growth quality in a good but not great year.

All in all a fantastic two evenings and very grateful to Ian for making the trip over to this side of the pond!

[SF Ed]

Sounds like some fun old wine. I don't have enough folks to drink my really old wine with (and why I opened a bunch at the Wednesday night opener at my place at BWE 17).

Tim and Ian are both great BWEers and I highly recommend drinking wine with them whenever possible.

SF Ed