South FL BWE does a little Bdx, a little CdP

[DavidG]

I was in Ft. Lauderdale for a 1-day meeting this weekend, which gave me an opportunity to meet up with Stuart and Kathy and their friends Greg and Bryan for dinner. We ate at one of their favorite haunts, 3030 Ocean and it was easy to see why they like it - the food was great. We shared an interesting array of appetizers and some delicious fish dishes, but the wines were the real stars.

We started with 1996 Billecart Salmon Grande Cuvee - lighting was low so it was hard to assess colors but this appeared to be a light straw color. Nice nose which developed with some air time, great concentration and balance, but very young, this kept getting better the longer it was in he glass.

Then we went on to a couple of Bordeaux from the '70s:

1975 La Mission Haut Brion - dark red core, outstanding rich complex nose just streams out of the glass and envelops the taster. Dark fruits, cassis, tobacco, cedar, more tobacco, lit cigar, raw beef and iron, and that classic aged-Bordeaux sweet fruit - a wine you could just crawl into the glass with and smell it all night long. Full-bodied mouth coating complexity follows the nose, still a little tannin on the back palate with a long finish. This appears at peak, and has the power to stay there a long, long time. A magical wine and wine of the night.

1970 Palmer - also a dark red core, complex nose of cassis, very ripe dark fruits, a hint of cedar, and an interesting citric note that kicked the complexity up a notch, but overpowered by the intensity of the La Miss. Medium to full body, plenty of ripe sweet fruit, nice balance, and a smooth finish. This gets better with time in the glass, even though it had been opened and given the slow oxygenation treatment hours before. Outstanding

Then Greg opened a couple of Chateauneufs:

1989 Rayas Pignan - Pignan is not really a second wine of Rayas but from another (adjacent?) vineyard. Dark red core, great nose, very complex, but a totally different profile than the preceding Bordeaux. Very full-bodied with layers of rich, ripe aged and complex fruits, great balance, nice finish. I kept going back to this one, it was my #2 of the night.

2001 Domaine de Marcoux Vieilles Vignes - this was a backup replacement for a corked bottle of something older. Very dark wine, cassis, dark berries, and garrigue on the nose. Huge, mouth coating wine with layer after layer of ripe fruit, not much complexity yet but this has the raw materials to be really special in another 5-10 years. The fruit concentratiion in this had us chanting "It's a very fruity wine" to the Rick James' Superfreak. Lots of fun in the glass but will offer even more down the road.

A wonderful evening with good friends and once again, testimony to the generosity of BWEs.

[Nicklasss]

Nice notes David.

Having a dinner with SDR/Kathy and friends in Florida, is a really enjoyable experience. Please, trnasfer my my best regards to Greg and Brian.

Nic

[jal]

"It's a very fruity wine" to the Rick James' Superfreak. Lots of fun in the glass but will offer even more down the road.

only in Miami

[Chasse-Spleen]

Great notes. Sounds like a beautiful line-up. The LMHB and Palmer in particular. For some reason I'm always intrigued by these wines from the '70s. Then on to the super fruity and robust CNdPs. I had a fabulous Marcoux once, the 2000, which I'll never forget for it's incredibly flattering, lush drinkability.
-Chasse