Local TN's

[Roberto]

Last night I attended a dinner at a friend's home with a local group. Five attendees functioned as chefs, each cooking a dish for the group. We then voted for our favorites in an "Iron Chef" format. It was a fun theme and a nice way to pass the evening. We had some wine, too.

2005 Domaine Leflaive Mersault Sous le Dos D’Ane: This is a nice, dry, modern-styled white Burgundy that is quite drinkable. It has the Leflaive minerality and ripe but stiff fruit. The price point has been my issue with this bottling in the past. If it were $15 I would buy a bunch. It costs more, unfortunately.

1988 Krug: This Champagne, when sound, is young, tight and powerful. This bottle was advanced and pleasant but not what it should have been.

1975 Haut Brion : Again, this can be a very nice wine. This bottle was probably a little advanced, perhaps from storage but showed a nice, charming, feminine Haut Brion personality with the hot rocks, tobacco and cool fruit one would expect. Always a pleasure to drink HB.

1975 L’Evangile : My first time with this wine. This bottle was the snapshot of well-dressed lady a few years past her prime. Still, she had great verve and presence on the palate. The dark, black fruit of Pomerol was present bit yielded to the earth and underbrush elements that are always lurking with great Bordeaux. This is a wine I wish I had more time to work with over a dinner of Squab but it was a lot of fun to drink anyway.

1982 L’Evangile : Corked

1983 Pichon Lalande : This is one of my favorite PL’s for current drinking. I have had it blind best the ’82 . From Magnum this evening it could have given the ’82 PL a run for its money again. Dark, jammy, black fruit with plum and baking spice notes … the nose was somewhat shy on this bottle, no doubt from the Magnum format. As the wine opened it fattened in the middle and developed a rich, savory quality on the finish which I often associate with PL. This wine was less feminine than other vintages of PL but it was still young. The tannins are firm but ripe. This is drinking better from bottle so hold your Mags for another decade.

1996 Domaine Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles : Leflaive Pucelles is a premier cru site that often drinks like a Grand Cru. This bottle was hitting on all cylinders and I would have guessed Batard blind. Nose of mineral, roasted almonds and popcorn. The palate had great, fresh acidity with the Leflaive snap on the backend. A tremendous success for the vintage, this wine had no hints of oxidation and was almost too young. Still, the wine was endowed with balanced white fruit and went from strength to strength in the glass. Young white Burgundy really does not get much better than this.

1982 Giacossa Collina Rionda Barolo : This wine was folded-in on itself and not showing nearly as well as the Santo Stefano of the same year, according my neighbor who has had both wines recently. Regardless, to my palate this wine showed incredible promise with rich, balanced, almost lacy fruit and a long, classic Barolo finish. The nose is the only place this wine lost points as it was much more primary than I would have expected. Again, Giacosas are timeless. This bottle also had a tough act following it.

1982 Conterno Monfortino : Bam! Like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when the screen goes from black and white to technicolor. This is immediately everything one could ask for in wine. I was so taken by this that I found myself relaxing as I tasted it. Hard to describe other than reference standard. This would push a high 90’s score if I gave points. The nose offered tar, rose petals, cinnamon, butterscotch and maple syrup. The palate was concentrated, dense but still light enough to lift on the finish. A wine I did not want to finish. Easily the WOTN and my current WOTY at this point. Note to self: must buy more Monfortio!

1990 Vega Sicilia Unico: Young. Dominant new oak with a rich, lush character. I detected hints of tire rubber. This wine screams new world. The fruit is dense but not jammy and has a distinct chocolaty quality. I suspect this will be great in time.

1985 Joseph Drouhin Charmes Chambertin : A classy wine from a legendary vintage. This is a wine of balance that comes on slowly and builds. The nose is that of mature red Burgundy with notes of nutmeg, old library books and earth. The palate has mature dark-red fruit that is carried by acidity more than tannin. This wine is mature and drinking very well now. I am a fan of the Drouhin, understated style.

1994 Leroy Romanee St. Vivant: This wine was good but not great. I guess in the context of the vintage it could be called a success. My issue with the wine was that it tasted like component parts and not a final blend. The finish had a course, grainy quality.

1990 Jaboulet La Chapelle: Just a sip but dense, chewy and large-scaled. This wine seems to be aging in reverse. I hope to be around someday when this wine hits its plateau of maturity. Great stuff.

Roberto

[JimHow]

Geez, I pulled out a '96 Sociando that was corked....
Great stuff, Roberto.
Man, I'm so jealous of all you guys and all your nineteen eighties Bordeauxs.

[stefan]

That is a very interesting collection of wines, Bob. Most I haven't drunk, but I agree with what you say about the '83 Pichon Lalande. I also like '75 Haut-Brion, and it is too bad that your bottle of the '88 Krug was not what that outstanding Champagne can be.

I gave up buying '94 Burgundy after a few disappointments. Surely there are some good ones, but I got tired of looking for them.

stefan

[Roberto]

Jim, say the word and we will open some stuff together the next time you're in town.

Stefan, I remember opening a '94 La Tache with Whuzzup____ years ago and dumping half the bottle down the sink. '94 was a tough year for reds in Burgundy.

Roberto

[DavidG]

Wow, what a collection of wines!

Bummer about the Krug and L'Evangile - couple of shoulda-been-great bottles.

I agree with you on the La Chapelle. A bottle drunk in its youth was awesome, then it shut down hard and has stayed in a shell ever since. I'm always looking for someone else's notes on this to see when it might emerge.

Very interesting take on the Vega Sicilia - never had one but is "New World" a common perception? What about it was New Worldy?

[Roberto]

David,

Modern might be a better term. And that comes from what was, to my palate, a high degree of oak. It reminded me qualitatively of Roty's Charmes or perhaps a young Guigal La La. I don't doubt that the wine will evolve positively. Perhaps my note read more stridently than it should have. I liked the wine.

Roberto

[DavidG]

Thanks, Roberto. I don't necessarily attach as negative a connotation to "New World" as some do. I was just curious/trying to calibrate with you because you mentioned that the fruit was not jammy - jammy fruit being a hallmark of New Worldiness in my mind. The other thing that often gets a wine tagged as New World is early drinkability (horrors - did I just use a Bud Light marketing term?). Since VS holds their wines back for years prior to release, it seems a bit antithetical. Anyway, don't want to hijack this into a definition of New World vs Old World.

Have you had an '89 La Chapelle recently? That's another one for the ages, along with the '90. They seemed to really hit home runs two years in a row, but I don't think they've reached those heights since.

[Comte Flaneur]

Terrific notes Roberto

When I met Tom for the first time in October, with Alex and Blanquito, we drank the 1990 Monfortino and it too was a reference point for Barolo, though still adolescent. If it wasn't for the first growth 86s we drank the following night it too would have been my wine of the year in 2008. Problem is that is prohibitively expensive these days. Tom also brought a 1990 Giacosa Barolo - can't remeber which one which was outstanding too.

Vega Sicilia Unicos are incredible wines but difficult to fathom We drank the 1981 last year and it was as you described the 1990, but fstill righteningly backward.

[Roberto]

Comte,

I am by now means a Monfortino expert but I have had most of the "big" vintages including the '58, '61, '71 and '78. The '82 was right up there with them. Yes, I agree, the pricing for Monfortino is insane. Furthermore, sources tell me that this wine is one of the more commonly faked wines out there. I own very little and would rather buy this wine off a winelist so that I can send it back if it is not correct. I might add some to the cellar if the wine price correction continues.

I am looking forward to having the '90 Monfortino which I don't believe I've had yet. Perhaps Vega is one of those wines, like Gouges and Lafarge in Burgundy, that demand many years of aging to be properly judged.

Thanks for the feedback.

Roberto

[Claret]

1970 Unico is a great wine, as is 1981. It needs a lot of cellar time to peak.

The 1990 Jaboulet La Chapelle that was poured for me by Gerard Jaboulet at a trade tasting shortly after release was a black colored powerhouse that was similar in color and power to 1990 Montrose. I am in no hurry to open my lone bottle.

I am glad to hear that the 1996 Leflaive was in good shape. I had a very advanced but drinkable 1999 Ramonet Morgeot this week that was good for a 15 year old bottle, with the problem being that the bottle was only 10 years old. The bleached cork with the blueish-slate color on the bottom was the first sign of premox, which was further confirmed by the deep gold color. Drink now or it will surely die soon.

Too bad for the 1982 L’Evangile, as it is probably the best Pomerol that I have ever tasted.

[DavidG]

Too bad for the 1982 L’Evangile, as it is probably the best Pomerol that I have ever tasted.

SDR (I think) brought one of these to an offline last year and it was killer.

[Roberto]

Glenn, I agree with you regarding the '82 l'Evangile. CabFan brought one to the Village about 4 years ago and it showed very well.

Roberto