1998 Graves/Pessacs & dinner report

[Comte Flaneur]

I went up into the English countryside not far from the Welsh border on Saturday for a dinner with a very good friend who is quite a Bordeaux enthusiast. We has a good spread of wines:

DP 96 - very vibrant, grapey, youthful and pleasurable - a fine DP with a long life ahead of it
Petit Cheval 2000 - frankly prosaic and forgettable
Pavie Macquin 2007 - lovely not profound
Cheval Blanc 1999 - lots going on, graves-like in some respects, bright future...a wine to drink from 2016 on
Pape Clement 1998 - surprisingly soft and cuddly, very seductive, pleasurable
Ornellaia 1997 - good but...it doesn't really cut it against really good Bordeaux...comes across as too loose-knit
VCC 1998 - mistook this for a left bank, plenty going on, plenty to like

We had three Sauternes/Barsacs out of splits...Suduiraut 1997, Climens 2007 and Rieussec 2003..all gorgeous but the Rieussec got the envelope with the cheque/check in it.

My host was most generous. It was not a paradigm shifting experience but my interest centred on the Pape Clement because I have a case in storage. Somehow I imagined this would be a strapping long-lived wine with boat loads of tannins and extract...but no it was soft and cuddly, a real temptress...which suggested no reason to hold off.

I had earmarked this as a 2016/17 release for drinking until the late 2030s but I think I got that wrong. This is the first full on Magrez/Rolland Pape. I was surprised...and a little confused...because HB and Mish 98 are resolutely backward and curmudgeonly. Haut-Bailly is of course gorgeous bit not as easy as the Pape.

Thoughts appreciated re Pape 98 in particular, modern Papes in general and Graves/Pessacs 98s also in general. I suspect this is an easy sell. It trades at the same price here as Baron ten, an infinitely superior wine.

[JimHow]

Hmmm, my case of 98 Pape is whispering to me….

[AKR]

Quite the spread there. It seems to me that Pape Clement is a scarcer wine than Pichon Baron so if you wanted to experience it in the future, its worth the personal cellar spots. I'm not sure the precise case quants made but I'd ballpark it at maybe 3x?

[JimHow]

I paid $85 for a single bottle of the 2012 Pape Clement, rated 97 points by He Who Shall Remain Nameless.

The big question is whether I'm going to spring $199 for the 2010 Pichon Baron that is due in in May at MacArthur's. Right now I'm leaning against it, but I think the 2010 Pichon Baron may be "the greatest Pichon Baron ever!"

[DavidG]

Who Who Shall Rename Maneless?

I bought 6 of the 2012 Pape and 4 of the 2010 Baron. It had nothing to do with RP scores, and everything to do with the BWE (Buy Wine Enabling) Brethren.

[JimHow]

well done, DavidG. Very well done indeed.