Dinner with some nicely aged wines

[JCNorthway]

A few months back, my wine-tasting group had a discussion about the situation with the club's cellar. Basically we have enough ready-to-drink aged Bordeaux to last us for about 15 years of our annual dinner. One proposed solution was to arrange some dinners just for club members (the annual dinner allows guests) at local restaurants, where we could drink up some of our wines, and also see how they were developing.

The first of those dinners occurred this past Thursday at Everest in Chicago. It is a lovely French restaurant on the 40th floor of the stock exchange building downtown. The owner is French, and learned his skills at the Michelin 3-star restaurant Auberge du L'Ill in the Alsace region. We had a small private room that comfortably seated the 10 attendees at one round table. A good time was had by all while we enjoyed wonderful food and some interesting wines.

1996 Henri Mandois Cuvee Victor Mandois Brut- with passed hors d'oeuvres. These 4 bottles finished up the club's stash which worked well because there was not enough of it for a larger dinner. You could tell this had little age on it. Nice kind of nutty nose with still very prevalent but soft fruit flavors. This was drinking very well, although it would surely be enjoyable for a few more years.

1998 Latour Giraud Mersault Genevrieres - with carnarolo risotto, mitonnee of calamari, clams and celery. We served our last two bottles with this course and the person on my left was served from a different bottle than I. The noses on the two bottles were very different. Mine was really earthy and almost a but musty. There was just the faintest aroma that said "corked" to me, but it wasn't enough to make it undrinkable. The other bottle had a much fruitier nose with none of that heavy earthiness. And there was much more fruit on the palate. Clearly one of the bottles had experienced some damage over the years, so my focus was primarily on enjoying the food.

1990 Pousse d’Or Santenay Clos Tavannes - with roasted Maine lobster, braised cabbage, double smoked bacon and pinot noir jus. We drank this wine at one of our annual dinners about four years ago, and I thought then that it was starting to tire. So I was a little concerned – as were some others – about what would find in the two bottles that were served. To our pleasant surprise, this was lovely on this night, and it went really well with the lobster. The was some dark fruit on the nose, but it was soft and kind of wafting, making you almost have to coax it out of the glass. The flavor was richer and fuller that I expected, and certainly more than when we drank it several years ago. Based on its performance on this evening, I’d say it could easily rest for another five years.

1981 Pichon Lalande – with ballontine of boneless quail and sweetbread and wild forest mushrooms. This wine was one of the reasons we were concerned about our aging cellar. But we did not need to be concerned about this wine. Fully mature with exquisitely balanced fruit and structure, this wine was an absolute pleasure to drink. As someone at the table commented, “this is why we age Bordeaux wines.” Even though this wine was from a vintage that was not highly rated, it was a great wine when paired with the quail.

1981 Ducru Beaucaillou – with medallion of venison, wild huckleberries and cocoa nibs. Once again, here was a wine we were concerned about from an unheralded vintage. But it offered up considerable strength to pair very nicely with the venison. This was more concentrated and had more structure than the Pichon. Although it certainly was in its plateau of maturity, the bottles we drank this night will still be enjoyable in another 5-10 years. We had a back-up bottle of this just in case. But this wine was so enjoyable that we opened the backup bottle to ensure that we had red wine to get through the cheese course – local Midwest cheeses that were all quite good.

1975 La Tour Blance Sauternes, from magnum – with Sauternes poached Bartlett pear, caramel glacee and Sauternes coulis. This was a rather light Sauternes. But given our concern that it could be past its prime, it was quite a nice experience. It still was fresh, and rather light in color for a wine of its age. Some of the group thought it was a bit dilute. And without a doubt, it was not at all concentrated or viscous. However, it was quite easy to drink, and personally enjoyed it a lot.

So on a frigid Thursday night in Chicago, we gathered for a very civilized evening with wonderful food and surprisingly good wines. And in true BWE fashion, the toll for the evening was 15 bottles for 10 people. Life is good!
Jon

[Ramon_NYC]

I, too, enjoyed my bottle of the 1981 Ducru Beaucaillou, consumed in October of last year. My TN, also posted here:

1981 Ch. Ducru-Beeaucaillou, Saint-Julien
Earthy, leafy herb, leather and tobacco nose. A well-stored bottle showing good bursts of acidity, with some good slight green notes, mineral, and lean black fruit. This was good. B+

[tim]

Hmmm...1981, not a vintage from which you would expect much. It's great to see older Bordeaux performing from less-than-stellar years.

This may be a controversial statement, but I find that while California Cabs age well in good years, they do not perform well in mediocre years. Whereas I've found that Bordeaux often show off their uniqueness (and some would say their best) after aging from an average vintage.

[DavidG]

I've had a few nicely aged '81s that were really good - Gruaud Larose comes to mind - but they are all gone from the cellar.

Tim, I find that most California Cabs, even in good years, do not age in a way that approximates Bordeaux. A few do - Laurel Glen, Montelena, some years of Dominus - but most do not.