Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

An elite group of the local cadres gathered on Veterans Day (observed) to imbibe. We met at our convivial Cafe 15L, which is loud, but cooperates on corkage. A long table served the 8 of us well as we had many bottles. Some pictures are here https://photos.app.goo.gl/3kkdoMbdkWEQiQuW8

We started with 2009 Pierre Gimonnet [Champagne] which is very good, and felt a touch sweet to me. Maybe not bone dry or anything. Not sure if I've had any of their vintage examples. Very likable.

Then we segued into 4 platters of starters: truffle tater tots, fried balsamic Brussel sprouts, shrimp of some kind, and then an artichoke dip with chips. These paired up with

1975 Cos d'Estournel [St Estephe] smooth, mild, some mustiness, not dense like 80's efforts, with coaxing some cinnamon emerges.

1975 Leoville Poyferre [St Julien] I'm not sure I've ever had this vintage, probably not. Ferrous, iron notes on the nose. Pale red. Quite a bit denser than the Cos. Some roses, floral notes too. Richens as it opens. This grew on me over the night.

1991 Chappelet [Napa] a nose of some caramel, burnt sugar. European style cab. some sweat here too. Good density and richness. I like this producers wines from the 90's era. It is crazy how much 70's eras ones go for btw. BWE's might consider laying one down for a decade, or picking up an older one.

1995 Laurel Glen [Sonoma] This is another restrained cab, but from the next valley over. Their wines are ageworthy, and avoid the goopiness commercial efforts have. Lots of grip here, very classic. I didn't pick up any green notes that some people used to observe with L-G. I have not had anything from them for a long time, and had never tried the 95.

Now we segued into the first course, where I shared a roast beet salad with Mrs. AKR. This went with

1997 Caymus [Napa] This was the regular bottling, and had a very informative label. I'd never read a Caymus label before, but for this year they identify the growers vineyards and the AVA's they come from. That is gracious of the vintner. It's a big rich wine, quite different than the other Cali wines. It holds up very well, as I finished a glass the next day, and it was roughly the same. It's instructive to compare this to others, and I thought it had aged well.

1998 Beau Sejour Becot [St Emilion] Nice texture, smoother than the Caymus, has some oak and cream flavors. But also lots of menthol / mint type of notes. I didn't think there was much cab franc here though. I liked it better in its youth, personally.

Then our main courses arrived -- I had a middling meatloaf -- and we dived into the three young Bdx

2005 La Tour Haut Brion [Pessac Leognan] Smooth, dense in flavor, very rich, with a great bouquet of sandalwood. This is an excellent, very complete wine. Hard to find now.

2015 Marquis de Terme [Margaux] Another beautiful Margaux. These are drinking nicely right out of the gate. It's like getting a new car, and there's a sticker which says don't drive fast for the first 200 miles, but of course, that's impossible to obey... That's what these young Margaux are like -- too tasty to be patiently cellared. Boysenberry flavors shine here.

2015 Gloria [St Julien] Lots of oak, rich and fruity, youthful and popular. Either this or the 75's were first ones guzzled up, I think. Although a lot of the wines were totally consumed. The label is much less ornate than the old ones.

And lastly came dessert which was a medley of offerings. I tried a banana torte paired with

2007 Sigalas Rabaud [Sauternes] Very well chilled, and perhaps after all those dry wines, the flavors popped out more. Nutmeg notes, gold hued, honeyed almond flavors. Seemed to have verve, which a prior bottle had not shown.

1995 Quinta de Vesuvio [Porto] I'm not familiar with this shipper nor vintage. Very fruity and lots of cocoa flavors. By this time, tasting notes on the final wines were blurry. We have returned to Port drinking weather, so soon we'll have more of these, with chocolate desserts.

Great wines and a great time! I look forward to our next local get together, perhaps after the holiday season is over.

Arv,

Thanks for sharing your notes.

Eleven bottles for the 8 of you. Sounds like a pretty good program .

1975 was the opposite of an ugly duckling vintage... It needs to be placed in the market context, which was horrible at the time, and several poor vintages that preceded it. Therefore, everyone was psyched to hail 1975. Only it proved to be hard and ungracious in many instances.
I'm glad that your two bottles showed well, however.

All the best,
Alex R.

I have drunk some wonderful 1975 Bdx, but 1978 is my favorite vintage from the 1970s. It and 1979 are more consistent that either 1970 or 1975 in my experience.

Arv,
Thanks for organizing this. It was a nice evening. I look forward to doing it again!
Cheeers,
Lou

Another great wine dinner was had by all. Thanks to Arv for his comprehensive notes.

My wine of the night was the Leoville P. I was amazed how together this wine was from a very inconsistent vintage.

The CdE was good but some commented they felt the wine was mildly corked. I did not pick up the usual wet cardboard, but it did have a little funk to it.

The Laurel Glenn and the Chappelet were notable for their "bordeaux' like bearing.

I thought the Beau Sejour was a wonderful wine in and in a very good place now. It will be interesting to watch this evolve over the 10 years.

Marquis de Terme is not a wine that I have purchased in the past but I brought it because it seems to be a chateau on the upswing. As noted before, 2015 is an interesting vintage for its nature of balancing immediate consumption with long term aging. It is ripe, rich, and ready to be enjoyed because of the round tannins, yet has the potential to cellar. The same hold true for the Gloria. Neither of these 2015 disappointed and the comparison between new and old was instructive.

Arv always brings great stickies and the Sigalas was delicious. Though I must admitted after the flood of wines with dinner, I was past my prime. The port wonderful dried figs, dates and honey. A super evening.

Bill

I thought the most impressive wine was the LTHB.

A great example for their final swan song bottling, at least under their own name.

I guess it goes into La Mission now, or at least starting in 2006.

But there were lots of terrific wines.

Nice dinner for you guys. Very good choice of wines. I did not had any of these wines but it is clearly a good selection. La Tour HB is not seen often, as is Marquis de Terme and Beau-Séjour Bécot. They all seem excellent.

Not much experience with 1975, but you got some nice bottles from that vintage.

Sacramento BWE contingent is very active. Good for you guys.

Nic

Great event and a nice selection of wines.

My experience aligns with Stefan's on Bordeaux from the '70s.sounds like these two 75s did pretty darn well from a tough vintage.

I’ve had a few Laurel Glens over the years, including the 95, and find them on the Bordeaux-y side for Napa. I did find a bit of green in them, in a good/complex way, butdrank my last ones about 5 years ago.

Thanks for sharing. And welcome Lou to BWE.

Arv,

The official line at Domaine Dillon is that the former La Tour Haut Brion goes into the Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion i.e. La Mission's second wine.

It is always difficult to know where the truth lies when told such information...
Might not wine from the best plots of LTHB be rechristened La Mission?
The word from the horse's mouth is: no.

I regret the passing of LTHB and Laville Haut Brion, but understand this to the extent that even great wines are ultimately brands.
And having a lot more fine wine to sell under a single name is an advantage.

This reasoning is quite prévalent in Saint-Emilion too. Look at Quintus (L'Arrosée and Tertre Daugay) and Bélair Morange (Belair and La Magdelaine). Slowly, but surely, ownership of Bordeaux vineyards is becoming more concentrated. French inheritance taxes (what the English call "death duty") has an important role to play here.

All the best,
Alex R.

It is an iron law of land: its usage will flow to the best & highest value given time.

If the LMHB moniker can extract more market value from that land than the LTHB name, it happens.

And indeed our local group is gathering up some critical mass between Bill, myself, Gene, Lou, Tyler et al.

Ever so slightly though, getting corkage waived, seems anecdotally harder.

Tables are pretty full at most establishments, and money is sloshing around.

Even here, in what Bay Area friends call 'fly over country'.