When Pride downed the Mission

[jal]

Served side by side at dinner with friends yesterday a 2000 Pride Reserve Cabernet and a 1999 La Mission Haut Brion. Very easy to tell which is which; the Pride is all tannic fruit with cassis, chocolate, and a very expressive nose of berries. The LMHB is shy and retiring; smooth and elegant but no match to the brute "in your face" power of its Napa younger competitor. After about an hour, the Pride tastes a bit monolithic to me, while the LMHB keeps opening up. But still everyone at the table (me included) prefers the Pride.

[JimHow]

Wow! A stunning upset in the first round!

[DavidG]

I don't find this surprising at all. The up front fruit of a California Cab will frequently overwhelm the more subtle complexity of a Bordeaux. Particularly if the Bdx is still too young to display its full complement of secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors. I'm reading future improvement into JAL's note on how the LMHB developed over time.

2000 was not a great year in California, but there were some really nice wines made. Funny, I was debating whether to open an '00 Pride or an '00 Araujo last night. Went with the Araujo, which was quite nice as well:

2000 Araujo Estate Eisele Vyd Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark red to rim. Cassis, cherry, bit of heat on the nose and some sweet floral notes. Medium body, ripe pure fruit, hint of veggies, finishes a little acidic with some dusty cocoa powder tannins. Excellent.

[dstgolf]

LMHB in another 5-10 years should be the hands down favourite. Not a huge fan of Pride. Find them a little too over the top ,at least in their youth and not to my taste. I've never experienced a Pride with age though.

Like your note on the Araujo David.

Danny

[DavidG]

I'll admit a soft spot for Pride, though I dropped off the list a few years ago. They seem to do well in "off" years, and great in "on" years, but you do have to like the style to enjoy them.

Agree that over the years the La Miss will keep getting better while the Pride will just keep holding on.

[Comte Flaneur]

From my experience some of the Calis do come out of the blocks pretty hard while the Bords tend to do opposite. As the tone of the thread suggests -and Jacques line about the Pride being monolithic - suggests that the Mish will gradually haul in its more exuberant sparring partner in rounds 3-6, and be well on top thereafter. One of my most disappointing wines recently was my lone bottle of J Phelps Insignia 1994, which had been sitting patiently and lonesome in its wooden box for 12 years. It had a great nose but it was monolithic and quite boring.

[Rieslingfan]

I age Pride wines for a long time. I'm still working on my '95s. I love how they drink with some age on them.