MichaelP and Nalan came over to our place and as we are want to do, opened a number of bottles of wine. Michael brought some extremely old bottles which were a mixed bag but still extremely fun.
We started with a 2002 Clos des Goisses which was excellent. Fully mature with a bit of the bitter honey flavor you get in older Champagne but still in great shape with ripe white fruit and good length.
Next came a bunch of very old wines:
We started by trying the 1945 Troplong Mondot. This had an extremely low fill and the cork fell in. While the wine looked OK, on the nose and palate it had clearly turned to vinegar.
Next came a 1949 Cheval Blanc. The cork was still in place and the fill was in the shoulder, so a much better chance of being good. A negociant bottling, the cork was very short and complete soaked. Luckily, the wine was sound. Extremely ripe, still some tannins, and very long. I can't imagine how ripe the legendary 1947 was given how ripe this was. This would have been better 10 or 20 years ago but still a treat and easily the best of the very old wines.
The next wine was of a type that Michael hates, Burgundy. No vintage on the label, but according to Michael it was from 1919, a Chambertin Cote St. Jacques from Jacqueminot. This bottle really made me think of the legendary winedinners and tim, as François and Tim would have loved this one. Still alive and kicking with strawberry fruit and no big faults, but certainly would have been better many many years earlier and without comparison to a sound 1949 Cheval Blanc. For me, and I think even more for Michael, this was more a curiosity than a great beverage but still fun.
Because we are BWEers, this wasn't enough for 4 people and we had to open my backup wine, a "young" 1995 Montrose. Not the best bottle of this I've tasted with a pronounced green pepper note. Lisa really enjoyed it as she has a soft spot for underripe fruit, but for me it showed the problem of 1995, which is that the vintages before it were so bad that even an OK but not great vintage like 1995 got a lot of positive press it didn't really merit.
We then tried a 1942 Chateau Rabaud. Cork was floating in the wine. Completely gone.
So we had to open a 1999 Climens as a backup. A bit disappointing - it didn't have the grace or length I usually get from Climens.
In any event, it was a great evening and its always fun to see MichaelP and Nalan and to see the power of BWE to enable great evenings and the camaraderie to open rare and obscure bottles. We have another event lining up in Napa in March to open even more fun stuff.
SF Ed
