"How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post Reply
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

"How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

More than ever before, I adhere to my view that drinking a wine within the first ten to fifteen years following vintage often has its merits.

In this thread I will explain to you how you should drink a young wine….

Step One:

Select a young wine from your cellar. A 2002 Medoc will serve well for our purposes.
The wine should be cellar cool.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: How to drink a young wine….

Post by JimHow »

Step Two:

Pop and pour. Do not decant. If you are going to drink a wine young -- if you are going to drink a 2002 left banker -- you want the full experience. You want the tartness at the outset. You want to experience the tannins, maybe even have your mouth pucker a bit at the outset. This is not going to be some mellow, soft, decanted evening. It's going to sting a little. In a good way. It needs to be a little raw, like a spanking that goes just a little too hard….
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Step Three:

Now that the wine has been uncorked and the first sips taken, pour a healthy glass and give it a little air. Admire the deep, opaque purple. Take in the remnants of oak. I remember having a 1994 Mouton in Quebec City in about 1999. We had duck flambé. It was a beast. But we took big gulps of that inky black tannic monster. The same thing happened last May in Bordeaux, when we uncorked a 2010 La Tour Carnet with… FISH. The early gulps of the beast creates an initial slight intoxication that prepares you for the sweet pain to come….
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

The Brunello Paradox: A Case Study

I bought a bottle of 2010 Brunello Argiano when I saw Pappa Doc at Zachy's last month. PD told me to be careful, as that wine was really closed down. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I had already drunk three bottles of the wine, and loved every one of them. Loved them! The first time I ever had a Brunello Argiano was when Emil and I met up with that fellow Paul who used to hang out here -- he was from London, tremendous guy -- we had dinner at that restaurant where we ended up doing the NYC '03 event. So it would have been in 2002 at some point. He had picked up the latest vintage of Argiano at Sherry Lehman -- the 1997. Young. Big. A tannic monster. And it was heavenly, with the lamb and steak and whatever other hearty dishes we had that night. Yes, a 1997. The vintage that ended up sucking. In its youth, it was awesome to drink… when it was young….

Drink your Brunellos young, in the first ten years following vintage. Yes, they'll be tart at first. But they will open with dinner, and you will be happy with your decision.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Step Four:

DO NOT MATCH UP YOUR YOUNG WINE OR 2002L WITH AN OLDER VINTAGE.

If you do this, things will likely not come out well, either for the younger wine or the older wine. Drink the young wine on its own. Admire its sternness over a couple hours of dinner, on its own, with no distractions. Marcus experienced this phenomenon recently. The 2002s he brought to the Saturday night convention dinner from the Bassins Heist were lost among the dozens of other aged wines. He uncorked a 2002 Leoville Barton a few night later, however, and drank it on its own. The bottle showed the strengths of that classic vintage, the structure, the understatement, the class, the way they used to make them.

I absolutely LOVED Noah's recent note on that "Chinon-like" 2002 Malescot. He nailed it. He described the things about 2002L that may not be for everyone, but for someone like me they represent the greatness of Bordeaux. These traits would be more difficult to focus upon if it were served with one or two or three other bottles from the 1980s or some other more mature decade. Not that that makes 2002L any lesser in my mind than those older vintages… just more difficult to fully appreciate. (The 2002L vintage more than held its own up against the 2000s at a BWE convention in DC a few years back, in a Balboa-Creed "there ain't gonna be no rematch" split decision).

Enjoy your 2002Ls… Just don't match them up with older vintages during your dinner. Enjoy them for what they are: Classic, stern, "Chinon-like"… young.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

BAJA COAST, SPRING 2004: I was driving down the Baja back in 2004. Don't ask. I had smuggled a case of wine through Mexicali. On the Pacific coast, I had a dinner of about the freshest fish I have ever had. The match? A bottle of 2000 Leoville Barton that SteveH had scored for me in Boston at $50 each. It was spectacular, one of my top ten wine experiences ever. Overlooking the Pacific from the west coast of the Baja. Heaven. Another example of a big bold red Bordeaux matched with fish. Similar to…

BORDEAUX, MAY 2015: The BWE convention in historic downtown Bordeaux. We found this great little seafood restaurant. There were about 10 or 12 of us there. I was seated next to Danny and Howard. I told Howard, I'm going to order the wine. I ordered a 2010 La Tour Carnet with our fish. This was considered to be one of the best seafood restaurants by the Bordeaux locals. This was a wine that the restaurant had selected for its list. The La Tour Carnet is an opulent, Parker/Leve, slutty, bold, alcoholic, lipstick smudged all over her face kind of wine. Yet: It was a popular choice with the fish among most at the table. Jean Nicolas Maltais refused to drink red Bordeaux with fish. His loss.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Step Five:

This should be kind of obvious, but…
Drink your young Bordeaux/Brunello/2002L with a hearty dinner. With… FOOD!
Drink it with a main course that will stand up to the tannins: steak, lamb, etc.
By now, with the main course, you are slightly intoxicated.
Hopefully there is a lovely nubile across the table from you.
Sip your 2002 Cos/1994 Mouton/2000 Leoville Barton/2010 Brunello with gusto.
And enjoy life, because life is very precious!
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Step Six:

Don't over-analyze it, man!
Chill, babe!
Don't worry about what your buddies on Wine Berserkers, or BWE, or anywhere else think about it.
Just go with the flow!
Don't worry about whether you're drinking it too young.
Just enjoy the big up front ripe tannins.
Enjoy the… RIPE FRUIT!
The big secret…. Enjoy the big, alive, fresh, vital, crisp, RIPE FRUIT!
Enjoy youth! Enjoy the ride! Let yourself be spanked. Go with it. Don't over-analyze.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

NORTH END BOSTON, 1999: 1988 DAL FORNO ROMANO AMARONE

As many know, what I consider to be my greatest wine experience occurred at Saraceno restaurante in Boston in 1999, when a waiter from the old country named "Pete" brought us a bottle of 1988 Dal Forno Romano Amarone, a bottle that developed over the course of about three hours in a way that was pure magic. I have described the experience elsewhere, and won't repeat all the details here.

It was a wine that literally brought us to tears.

And it was a wine barely a decade old. A YOUNG wine. Not a great 1961, or '59, or something crazy from a Stuart dinner, or a 1879 or whatever it was that Francois brought from the year they commissioned the Statue of Liberty… all GREAT wines, all provided by incredibly generous people….

But in the end, my greatest wine experience ever was a decade-old 1988 Dal Forno Romano Amarane in the North End of Boston… a young wine… a wine I had the opportunity to drink at an older stage last summer with Tom in DC…. An epic wine, in both its youth and old age….
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Step Seven:

Drink your big bad tannic youthful Bordeaux/Brunello with a whoopee pie…
'Nuff said.
User avatar
JimHow
Posts: 20105
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:49 pm
Location: Lewiston, Maine, United States
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by JimHow »

Postscript:

In the mid-nineties, I started to discover Bordeaux wine. We drank wines in places like Montreal, Quebec, Boston, NYC, etc., that would be deemed crazy today: Margaux, DRC, Mouton, Haut Brion, etc., etc., etc.

There was one wine, early on, that caught my eye. Back at a time when I knew basically NOTHING about Bordeaux, or wine in general.

It was from 1989.
It was called Lynch Bages.

There was just something about it… at a time LONG before BWE, long before I knew anything about wine… that stood out to me. There was something very, very unusual about this wine. I knew it then, when I knew nothing.

The 1989 Lynch Bages….

I first drank it around 1996 or 1997… and I knew immediately it was something very, very special.

And I still feel that way, even more so, 20 years later.

And it was oh so young…

So… YOUNG!
User avatar
robertgoulet
Posts: 684
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 12:22 pm
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by robertgoulet »

I like some young Bordeaux very much so, but then you taste a wine like '82 Talbot and it unapologetically smacks ya punk ass around and declares "that's why you drink your Bordeaux with some age on it bitch!!" That's how I felt....I think that's why people chase that unicorn
User avatar
marcs
Posts: 1850
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:51 am
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by marcs »

Classic thread.

Older wines have a higher variance -- they are like Burgundy that way.

Re younger wines, I think Bordeaux go through a great youthful stage like 3 to 6 years from the vintage date. They are wonderful in that phase, just ignore the tannin and enjoy the fruit. But then -- and I know everyone will be astounded to hear this -- they sometimes shut down. Hard. Drinking a shut down wine is no fun. There is no joy to counterbalance the pain. And it makes you question your collecting hobby because you have 3 or 6 more bottles of this stuff, and what the fuck is it doing?

But you never can tell what a wine will show when. Somebody from Jadot, when I asked him about a wine's aging curve, said wine is like a person -- the cute fat little baby, the energetic youth, the surly adolescent, the mature adult, the wise old man, all have their charms and their flaws. (Except perhaps for the surly adolescent, see above). That speech sounded particularly good in a French accent.
User avatar
DavidG
Posts: 8280
Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:12 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by DavidG »

When Jim How pulls the cork on a 5-10 year old Bordeau, it doesn't have th balls to shut down.
User avatar
Nicklasss
Posts: 6384
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:25 pm
Contact:

Re: "How to drink a young wine," by Jim How….

Post by Nicklasss »

In my case I like young Bordeaux. But with the years, I think my favorite age is between 15-25 years old, for wines from excellent/great vintages. For medium/good vintage, normally 10-15 years old fit best for me.
JimHow wrote: The La Tour Carnet is an opulent, Parker/Leve, slutty, bold, alcoholic, lipstick smudged all over her face kind of wine. Yet: It was a popular choice with the fish among most at the table. Jean Nicolas Maltais refused to drink red Bordeaux with fish. His loss.
I can drink red Bordeaux with fish, but that specific Wednesday in Bordeaux, after tasting 60-75 red Bordeaux from Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon, i thought a white would do me some good. But if no obligation or if no special match planned (fish with sauce or spices that must be match with red), i normally drink white wine with fish.

I know some don't have a natural attraction for white wines (Jim you're probably in that case), but personnally I like white wine, and little Entre-Deux-Mers or white Graves without too much oak, are very satisfying to me.

Nic
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot] and 10 guests