1990 Bordeaux in Napa with MichaelP & Nalan

[JoelD]

On a bit of a whim, for my friend Daniella's birthday, we decided to take a last minute trip to Napa to get a much needed vacation and celebrate.

So of course my first thought was to hit up some BWE-er's and try to get a tasting/dinner together. Michael P and Nalan happened to be up in Napa this weekend and were able to meet up for Dinner with us. Sadly SF Ed, couldn't make it. Hopefully next time.

One of MP's recommendations for dinner was Bottega in Yountville and it was a great choice. I always have some wine stored in Napa, so I was able to bring a few bottles and Michael busted out some very fun 1990's as well. Dinner was great, the company was awesome, beautiful 65 degree Sunday outdoor dinner in Napa. The wines turned out quite fun, with crazy ups and downs on all four bottles as they opened up and had more air.

We started with the 1990 Leoville Las Cases and the 1990 Pavie Decesse that I brought. MP opened and recorked his a few hours prior and had us blind taste those two bottles. Out of a list of 7 options I was actually able to guess the two bottles right. Of course I reversed them. Would have sworn early on that the 1990 Lynch was a right bank, and probably St Emilion. The 1990 Canon La Gaffeliere was my early favorite. We drank these bottles over 3-4 hours, PNP and there were so many changes. Turned into a fairly intellectual tasting for me. Especially since we kept it to a reasonable number of bottles and got to track them for a while.

1990 Lynch Bages-This wine was certainly not a favorite to start for me. It felt a little thin and unbalanced. Would have pegged it for a right bank that might have been a tad past its prime. While blind tasting, I pegged it for the Canon La Gaffelliere. After some more air, especially glass time and with food it started to really come together, develop some depth and showed great Bordeaux complexity. Similar to what I've seen with other good vintages of Lynch. It went from been least favorite, to probably my favorite wine of the night. What a treat to try, and track over hours.

1990 Canon La Gaffeliere- Blind tasting, this started out as a quick favorite. Beautiful freshness for a 31 year old wine. With lots of structure and some good fruit left. It had a little heat that distinguished it with a tad higher alcohol than the others tonight. Sadly that showed more with air, and lost some of the freshness and fruit. But still a fantastic wine and fun to try.

1990 Pavie Decesse started out with some good fruit and balance but started to lose some complexity and any freshness it had left as the night went on, although a few sips towards the end were quite good. Consensus least favorite of the night. But still quite enjoyable and paired well with the others.

1990 Leoville Las Cases was an interesting one, started out strong, lots of flavors and good pepper notes, then became a little thin after an hour. Then balanced out and arguably peaked around the 2-3 hour mark with lots of complexity and good structure As with the others. Paired quite well with some short ribs. Probably my second WOTN to the Lynch, but it was close at the end.

We pretty much closed down the restaurant but stopped by MP and Nalan's Napa house which is super cool and of course has an entire two car garage converted into a wine cellar. As well as 400 year old antiques. MP opened a 2010 Ovid Experiment (still quite young with lots of structure but great complexity) to go with awesome homemade cheesecake. Both were quite tasty night caps.

I was very glad to finally meet Michael P and Nalan after many zooms and have a second BWE meetup in as many weeks with lots of great Bordeaux and great company.

Hopefully as everyone gets vaccinated, more of these can happen. Some pics below.

[dstgolf]

Well done. Envious of course but nice to see some having a good time together. Not sure how you reversed the Lynch and the Canon L-G but I would have expected it to steal the show. I had a fabulous bottle last year that just rocked and the 90 Lynch for me has underwhelmed the 2 occasions so a surprise to see this as WOTN amongst the 4. Las Cases good but not wow and Pavie D was rated where I'd expect amongst the four.

Great looking partially hidden fireplace MP!

[SF Ed]

Nice! It would have been fun to have joined you, but I haven't been vaccinated yet and I am taking no chances now that my turn is likely so close.

1990 Bordeaux is always a good theme, and LLC and Lynch Bages are both great examples.

Next time!

[Nicklasss]

Glad for you guys, and very nice report.

Me too I've been underwhelm by the 90 Lynch. The 90 LLC you brought to DC 2020 was excellent Joel, but to my surprise, very influenced by the 1990 vintage.

Nice pictures and can just dream at the moment when I'll go back to Northern California.

Nic

[JCNorthway]

Great to hear about people starting to get together again. Hopefully the summer (or fall) gets us close to normal again.

MIchael, I need to see that "two-car wine cellar!"

[stefan]

Must be great to get together again in person. We are looking forward to Friday, which is the 14th day after our second jab.

[Jay Winton]

Thanks for representing the DC contingent! A great evening.

[jal]

Hey, that's a good looking bunch of people!
I absolutely love the 1990 Lynch Bages. I consider it the wine that started it all for me. The LLC is not too bad either.
I have never been wowed by 1990 right bankers but I'm glad they performed for you guys.
It's been a rough year, enjoy yourselves guys.

[AKR]

Very nice. Mrs R has been pestering me about getting up to Napa/Sonoma for a while, and I was actually mildly looking at hotels this am.

1990 is a favorite vintage of mine, although nearly all gone now.

[JoelD]

Very interesting to see all of the mixed reviews on the Lynch, as it ebbed and flowed a lot for me over the night. So did the LLC. Although I don't think this bottle was quite as good or as big as the one I brought to BWE 2020. Maybe that would have continued and it was just a strong finish. Great to try. Very nice of MP to bring the 1990's for Dani's birthday!

[JoelD]

Very nice. Mrs R has been pestering me about getting up to Napa/Sonoma for a while, and I was actually mildly looking at hotels this am.

1990 is a favorite vintage of mine, although nearly all gone now.

Arv, I forgot you were in Cali. Which part?

[AKR]

I'm in metro Sacramento area. Other nearby BWE include WilliamP and GeneM as well.

At some point when more of the cadre get vaxxed we'll have some local confab!

[jckba]

Nice lineup on what sounded like a super fun evening!

[DavidG]

So great to hear you got out to Napa to meet up with MichaelP and Nalan. Pretty nice wines to boot!

[s*d*r]

Nice report, Joel.

Tell me, do you think tasting outdoors, even in perfect weather, affects your ability to smell and taste wine?

Unfortunately, for me it does. My outdoor drinking = Yellowtail vs. Meiomi tasting .

[JoelD]

Nice report, Joel.

Tell me, do you think tasting outdoors, even in perfect weather, affects your ability to smell and taste wine?

Unfortunately, for me it does. My outdoor drinking = Yellowtail vs. Meiomi tasting .

You know, that's a good question. I would say, in a more controlled environment without many very obvious smells that no it doesn't. Especially since you can really stick your nose in the glass.

However if it were in a more city environment or in the complete opposite of total nature such as woods and flowers or animals then I could definitely see it being an issue. Also if there were serious temperature issues, either too cold or too hot.

Although there's not much better than sitting out on the porch in early summer with some aged rieslings. Even with everything else going on. I think wine was made to be in nature anyways.

[JoelD]

I'm in metro Sacramento area. Other nearby BWE include WilliamP and GeneM as well.

At some point when more of the cadre get vaxxed we'll have some local confab!

Definitely, I'll make sure to let you know next time I'm back in the area. Hopefully by then most people will be vaccinated and we can have more normalcy.

[stefan]

We often have wine dinners on our back patio, Stuart, and I have never noticed any problem tasting or smelling wine.