Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

1970 was an excellent vintage for La Lagune. Glad you got a well kept bottle, Patrick.

By the way, the 2015 Chateau Raymond Lafon is fabulous. I guess Rollan is not consulting there.

Nic

stefan wrote:1970 was an excellent vintage for La Lagune. Glad you got a well kept bottle, Patrick.

Yes indeed. Based on that bottle, I’d put the 1970 LL up there with the 78, 82, 85 and 89 as my favorites.

2011 Vaurenard Quintessence Beaujolais supérieur : excellent for a 9 years old Beaujolais. Fruity, grainy, earthy.

2019 Chateau la Martinette Rollier rosé Côtes de Provence : good mix of 5 grapes. Dry but fruity, that steely onion peel feeling. Was very good.

2018 Chateau Vannières Bandol white: it is not everyday you drink a 95 % clairette wine! Tropical pinneaple, pear, flowers, rich.

2018 chablis Patrick Piuze: rich fruit Chablis, but still having those minerals, and only 12 % alcohol. Not the more Chablis style, but quite good.

2017 Berthenet Montagny 1er Cru : excellent. A bit like the Chablis, but more in line with what to expect from Montagny. Pears, green lemon, minerals, half rich chardonnay. A third bottle in not so long. Extremely good.

Nic

2011 Domaine Barat Vaillons, drunk over two days with delicious crab cakes a la Lucy.
This classically styled Chablis from a producer I did not know impresses me with its fresh limestone infused fruit. It blossomed with a day in the fridge, gaining floral notes and a deeper taste. I think it is unoaked, and it has no trace of oxidation. Current releases are only $30, so I will buy when I again come across this wine.

Tonight 1986 Meyney. Nice old Bordeaux with fruit starting to fade a bit but quite smooth with enough acidity to hold up to pasta with tomato/vegetable sauce and sausages.

Others recently, very rich 2016 Clos Sixte Lirac and good as usual 2015 Ridge Geyserville. Recent whites 2014 and 2016 von Shubert Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg Kabinett - probably a better time to be drinking the 2014 rather than 2016.

Chris Bublitz

With roast chicken and salad we opened a 2013 Chateau Musar; I used to love this estate even though I was bitten badly with bad bottles made in the 80s and 90s. This one is not bad just disjointed. Some sips are tart, others acidic, some sweet, always tannic. All the fruit is on the front, no mid and short finish, this may need time to find some kind of balance but for now, it is not very enjoyable. 88

2018 Jaboulet Parallele 45 Côtes du Rhône: nice complex nose, very well Rhônish. Mouth is dissapointing, being big, fat, missing freshness. Feel "industrial" a bit to me.

2015 Chateau la Rode, Castillon: medium body wine, very correct. Good mixture of light red berries, blackberries and vegetal stuff. Not very powerful, easy to drink, maybe a bit too dry on the final.

2010 Salica Salentino Torimo Causimo riserva: with simple garlic and olive oil pasta, was quite good. Inexpensive, good complexity and rusticity, but very good assembly of red berris, cherries, black licorice, red pepper and light vegetals. Good freshness, alcohol just slightly noticeable. An example for all producers of inexpensive wine.

Nic

2001 L'Arrosee with tri-tip, baked potato, and green beans. This modern styled St Emilion has good balance. The tarred black cherries are singed but pleasant to taste.

Tonight, 1985 Gruaud Larose, an old favorite - drank many bottles of this wine over the last 30 years. Probably my final bottle. Very smooth but somewhat past peak. Always loved 1985 Bordeaux because most of them drank well young and didn’t close down but today their younger brothers (1986) are starting to pass them by. Cork broke in half on the way out and part of the remainder started to crumble. Did manage to get it all out without any dropping into the wine. Nice wine but on its last legs.

Chris Bublitz

With a little air, this 1985 Gruaud sure has opened up nicely. Love the aroma and acidity to balance the remaining fruit and funk. Gruaud Larose was so wonderful in 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986. Along with Pichon Lalande my favorite wine in that time frame.

Chris Bublitz

Tonight I am drinking 2014 Ridge Lytton Springs (69% Zinfandel, 18% Petite Syrah, 11% Carignane, 2% Mouvedre). It is good with my Margherita pizza and should mature into a complex wine that will complement stews. It is masculine without being boorish.

Chateau Fonreaud 2016:
Beautiful expresso and toffee on the nose. Soft, balanced tannins, medium bodied. Great value.

stefan wrote:2001 L'Arrosee with tri-tip, baked potato, and green beans. This modern styled St Emilion has good balance. The tarred black cherries are singed but pleasant to taste.

I don't think I've had that year, but I always grouped them into the older school of styles? Did they change when they went to newer bottle?

I guess so, Arv. At least I was surprised by it.

Tonight we drank 1999 Garaudet Pommard Les Charmets with grilled chicken thighs. It is fully mature, pure, and has good balance. Not special, but a pleasant wine to drink while zooming with another couple.

2018 William Fevre Chablis with red snapper leftover fishcakes. A little fattier than usual due to the riper vintage, still yummy and easy to drink but the structure is lacking and the finish is a bit weak. For the price, it's still top notch.

I've been tempted by the 2018 Fevre Chablis. I suspect the "fattier" characteristic likely makes it easier to drink younger, which is OK with me.

JCNorthway wrote:I've been tempted by the 2018 Fevre Chablis. I suspect the "fattier" characteristic likely makes it easier to drink younger, which is OK with me.

Indeed!

2017 Arnoux Père et Fils Chorey les Beaune Les Beaumonts: this second bottle was way better than the first one. Good complex mixture of red berries and cherries, cranberries, light vegetals and flowers. Light in mouth, perfect match for sandwiches at the beach.

Nic

There are a lot of very nice red wines from Chorey les Beaune that are available at reasonable prices.

Chris Bublitz

2017 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Maltroie; seductive aromas of lemon, apple, pear, oyster shell and reductive matchstick notes that lead to a mouthful of lemon rind, mineral and oak flavors that really provide good depth on the long pleasing finish. 93

I am drinking Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux 2018, which I purchased from Fortum and Mason on Piccadilly for £29 a bottle a good price. The 2016s were fabulous, but this 2018 sadly is flabby and too easy in comparison, confirming my misgivings about the 2018 vintage in Chablis. The wines are too ripe for my liking, they lack tension and have lost that spine-tingling Chablis typicity. Perhaps I need to try more from other producers to gain a more definitive judgement but Louis Michel for me is a benchmark so I am wary of these 2018s. I did t buy any 2018 white burgundies from further south either, nor any red burgundies for that matter.

Last night for our 52nd, Lucie and I drank 1990 Pol Roger Winston Churchill with delicious seafood crepes. While the mousse on the Winston is now small, the Champagne still explodes in the mouth. It now has an old Champagne taste and too many flavors to describe. The effervescence fades toward the end of the bottle, so we'll likely drink our last bottle in the near future.

Good stuff. Just a hint of barnyard on the nose. Nice balance of red fruit and dried leaves. No cassis, lead pencil, or other overt Cabernet markers. A classic St Estephe.

Racer Chris wrote:

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Good stuff. Just a hint of barnyard on the nose. Nice balance of red fruit and dried leaves. No cassis, lead pencil, or other overt Cabernet markers. A classic St Estephe.

Great picture! Sounds like a nice wine. I have little experience with Ormes de Pez. IIRC it is handled by Cazes of Lynch Bages?

stefan wrote:Last night for our 52nd, Lucie and I drank 1990 Pol Roger Winston Churchill with delicious seafood crepes. While the mousse on the Winston is now small, the Champagne still explodes in the mouth. It now has an old Champagne taste and too many flavors to describe. The effervescence fades toward the end of the bottle, so we'll likely drink our last bottle in the near future.

Hey, congratulations! Glad 1968 was more propitious for marriage than for wine.

I have found every 1990 champagne except Dom Pérignon to have aged alarmingly fast and need to be drunk up ASAP. That’s a great description of the Winston.

Stu

Thanks, Stuart. From my limited experience, 30 years is pretty old for a Winston. Dom does seem to live forever.

I wonder whether the 1988 Winston is fresher than the 1990. Have you drunk it recently?

Belated happy anniversary stefan and lucie

2017 Domaine Tour du Pech Syrah Vin de Pays d'Oc.

Satisfying even if basic syrah. Black and red berries, smoke, little animal touch. Deep color, mouth is smoky earth, with sandy cherries touch, good tannins and dry. Quite good.

Niv

Last night drank another Berthaut Fixin 1er Cru Les Arvelets 2010
I have now consumed the 6 bottle case and whilst this is hardly a classic Burgundy (it has a fruit character that suggests the Rhone more than Burgundy), it is a good wine in its own right.
Fixin never gets any accolades and for a vineyard that is next to Gevry Chambertin, maybe I could expect more typical Burgundy character??
So Wendy says: "This does not taste like Burgundy..."
Well, to a point, yes. It started to show some more dark cherry, earth and mushroom characters with air, but it had a spicy, slightly peppery red fruit character and smoky, gamey flavours that were something akin to Cote Rotie.

Weather the last few weeks has been torrid. High temperatures that don not abate at night, lots of rain and 99% humidity (dew forms whenever the temp drops a few degrees).
Everything feels damp and you feel like changing clothes every few hours.
So NV Champagne has been glugged down a lot, along with some less famous white Burgundies (St Romain, Givry, SLB) with gusto.

Belated 52nd Stefan. Our 36th coming up Aug 23rd and willing be with Larry & wives golfing and dining in Collingwood. Canadian Seniors was cancelled but not our accommodations so still going for a well needed vacation about 2 hrs north of Toronto. Still no refund from hotels in France and CC insurance turned us down!!

Jacques

Chateau Musar used to be readily available especially in Quebec on wine lists and was a go to reliable never fail to impress through the 90s. Prices had risen and I don't see it for sale or on restaurant lists anymore and don't know what has happened.

The Musar was $42 at Total Wine Danny. I will not buy anymore

Yesterday with sauteed sticky lamb chops and a Greek salad we had a 2016 Domaine Jamet Collines Rhodaniennes Syrah. Low alcohol, I believe 12%, this was the opposite of a Musar; balanced and open, pretty dark ruby color, peppery, smoky and herbal. Dark ripe fruit, it is sweet and smooth with good backbone but also vibrant and focused, and for the price just delicious. Everything I've ever drank from Jamet has been delicious and this is no exception. 91

Thanks, Ian and Danny. Too bad about your tournament, Danny, but have a great 36 with Danielle.

Last night with sautéed red snapper we drank 2014 La Perliere Meursault. I had never heard of this but bought it locally as it was the only 2014 white Burgundy in the store. It is surprisingly good and true and certainly a bargain.

I haven't had any Musar younger than the 2004, but when this was $35 a bottle or so for new releases (I got bottles of the 97, 98, 99, 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05 for around that), I considered one of the world's great values. The 1999 is in brilliant form at present.

That said, Musar is a divisive style and I get why some don't like it. For me it's only a problem when the VA levels soar.

stefan wrote:I wonder whether the 1988 Winston is fresher than the 1990. Have you drunk it recently?

Winston is the one champagne I wish I had tasted much more over the years. It seems I missed the ‘88 somehow. I believe David still has a stash from his anniversary year.

In general, at this age, I am finding the ‘88 champagnes distinctly fresher and livelier than the ‘90s, although I rarely get to try them now. Dom Pérignon was a rare miss, at least the bottles I have come across.

Stu

Blanquito wrote:
That said, Musar is a divisive style and I get why some don't like it. For me it's only a problem when the VA levels soar.

Exactly! The 2013 was a perfect example of VA in a wine

We drank our last '88 Winston a couple of years ago. It was still going strong but I like old Champagne. It was definitely more advanced than it was when Stefan and I brought the '88 and '90 to the Miami BWE convention.

That drink off between '88 & '90 was really fun, David.

I have not drunk a Winston at age 25+ that I thought I would like more with additional time in the bottle.

The last bottle of 1988 Krug that I drank in March 2019 was starting to fade a bit for my taste. The last bottle of 1996 Krug in December 2019 was spectacular.

After a few nights of NV Rose Champagne (Ruinart and Billecart-Salmon), tonight, we went with 2015 Domaine Cabirau - First Things First, Maury Sec. Typical Rhône grapes grown in Roussillon. The vineyard is owned by friend and wine importer, Dan Kravitz. Very fresh tasting wine that’s a bit lighter on its feet than some of the Chateauneufs with similar grapes. Good stuff for about $30.

Chris Bublitz

1988 Krug--brings back memories of the view from Corinne's balcony at the top of Chateau Margaux in 2005.