A little old for my tastes. This has a fair bit of sherried qualities, as well as a pleasant nutty salinity. The fruit is ripe, but definitely of a browned quality. More interesting than good at this point.
The nose has a little earthy quality here, and there's just some nascent oxidative elements starting to emerge. The palate's fruit is still present in the form of some sweet red berries, and there's also a hint of mushroom. Fairly complex on the palate, with a slightly creamy texture, followed by a chalky finish.
Interesting to revisit this after a few years -- to me this is a wine that is more of a curiosity than something that I would really want to drink. There's a surprising bit of apples on this bottle, and this drinks a little like dry cider. A hint of the customary longan fruit as well. No one is mistaking this for champagne.
Getting long in the tooth. Again fairly classic old champagne flavours here, with some nutty elements and browned apples. The palate displays a surprising amount of freshness from the acidity, but the fizz is weak and tapers off pretty quickly. The palate's umami is provided by a mild touch of mushroom broth. Not my preferred age for champagne.
Liked, but didn't love this. The most distinguishing feature here are the phenolics, almost like this went through a slight bit of skin contact. There's just a very slight bit of sweetness here, as well as some crisp apple flavours. Good material here, just better in spätlese than in GG.
A slight bit of gasoline, flint, reduction, or what have you on the nose at first. This is a wine that benefits greatly from exposure to air -- at first, this is just a heavy, thick wine with pure acidity and minerals, but the air makes some fruit emerge, which helps balance out the austerity.
#09-91, 8% abv. Haven't been a fan of what this house did to JJC, but setting that aside, you can't dispute that this was an absolutely brilliant bottle of riesling. Tons of complexity, with a creamy texture, as well as ample sweetness. It's full-bodied and rich, and holds the high acidity of 1990 so well here. The fruit is still fresh, and there are some well-delineated secondary characteristics as well.
Fantastic bottle that has held up incredibly well. The nose has a beautiful perfume, with just a hint of tart fruit, but also some relatively more autumnal aromas (for Bordeaux). Surprisingly still a slight hint of green pepper as well. Elegant and light, with lots of acidity and some leathery tannins.
I didn't like this bottle anywhere as much as the bottle I had last year. The nose showed too much of the Cordier funk (which is far too close to TCA for my comfort), and the palate had a fairly dirty character as well. Lean and structured and a little meagre in the fruit department. I can understand the allure, but I'm impervious to this (lack of) charm.
Quintessential mature Bordeaux with this elegant, svelte perfume that's intoxicating. Being next to the somewhat austere 1983 Gruaud Larose makes this all the more enjoyable a drink. Graphite, green pepper, a little cedar and leather -- just pure, classic Bordeaux. The palate is fully resolved, and this is probably nearing the end of its maturity plateau, with the tannins starting to dissipate. This bottle still had some nice red fruit to it though.
From an era before the wines got too worked over, this is a really nice bottle of Graves, and I think it does show a little of the rocky characteristic. The fruit is mature and starting to brown, but it hasn't quite dried out yet. A nice earthy quality, as well as a hint of graphite and pencil shavings on the nose, but the palate doesn't have the complexity that many other wines had tonight. Nonetheless, there's good overall concentration here, providing some room for further aging.
Compared to the Haut-Brion alongside, this showed a little more on the nose. There's not as much elegance as the 1983, and this feels still bound up with respect to its structure. The secondary characteristics are not as fully developed, even at 31 years, and this seems like it's just on the cusp of emerging into a mature Bordeaux.
The nose on this bottle feels a little dumb, but you can also tell there's a lot of ripe fruit and earthiness hidden there. It needs time to emerge (and a quick revisit at the end of the evening seemed to indicate that this may have needed more air than it got). The palate is more expressive than the nose this time, with lots of concentrated fruit and plenty of structure. That famous minerality is on display on the finish here. Needs lots more time -- I think there's enough fruit to age alongside the structure on this wine.
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
This is a huge whiff (but that's most Angelus anyway). It's the sort of wine that feels big for the sake of being big, because while there's a lot of extract, it's not used to put flesh on a structure, or to balance out acidity. Can't forget that big oaky finish either -- it's the only Bordeaux tonight where there was oak astringency. I'm trying hard not to factor in the ludicrous price here either...
Served double blind. The bit of leafiness on the nose and palate had me thinking Bordeaux blend, but I would never have guessed that this was California because the wine was just too thin and acidic. It has some elevated red fruit flavours and a lot of iron oxide on the finish. Thin, with fully resolved tannins and the acidity showing through too much.
I've had multiple bottles of this and the scores are all over the place. This bottle had a little bit of dirtiness on the nose, but plenty of the expected black fruit, leather, and graphite. The sweeter elements here haven't even started picking up secondary characteristics, and if it weren't for the fruit, this would have just been a monumental scaffold.
A bit of a dull showing today -- this was just a pile of tannin with very little fruit. A little earthiness, but overall clamped down hard. I'll go with the customary "too young" excuse, but I couldn't find the fruit that will enable this to age into something great. I just hope the structure can round out a bit.
From half-bottle. This is a fairly nice Rieussec, but it's lacking the rich botrytis that I want in Sauternes. Relatively high in acid, with some higher-toned spice notes on the nose. The palate is moderately sweet, with a relatively thin texture compared to the honeyed 1983. There's a light herbal quality as well that could make me think Barsac for a minute.
Massively botrytized (this was darker in colour than the 1975). The nose is slightly high-toned with a touch of Sharpie marker, but the palate is chock full of apricots, marmalade, and spice. Oily and thick in texture, this is one of the wines that pours without a sound. Very sweet, with less acidity to help cut it, this is a wine that is nice to drink a glass of, but finishing a bottle seems to be a tall order.
Frankly, this vintage feels like a big miss. It's a heady, high-alcohol Sauternes, without any botrytis depth. Sweet and bitter, slightly oily, lacking acidity, and the alcohol juts out way too much. You can feel the alcohol quite a bit, and it's exhausting.
1990 Taittinger Champagne Brut Millésimé 88 Points
France, Champagne
A little old for my tastes. This has a fair bit of sherried qualities, as well as a pleasant nutty salinity. The fruit is ripe, but definitely of a browned quality. More interesting than good at this point.
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1999 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut 93 Points
France, Champagne
The nose has a little earthy quality here, and there's just some nascent oxidative elements starting to emerge. The palate's fruit is still present in the form of some sweet red berries, and there's also a hint of mushroom. Fairly complex on the palate, with a slightly creamy texture, followed by a chalky finish.
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1991 Peter Lauer Saar Riesling Brut Reserve 88 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
Interesting to revisit this after a few years -- to me this is a wine that is more of a curiosity than something that I would really want to drink. There's a surprising bit of apples on this bottle, and this drinks a little like dry cider. A hint of the customary longan fruit as well. No one is mistaking this for champagne.
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1985 Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle 88 Points
France, Champagne
Getting long in the tooth. Again fairly classic old champagne flavours here, with some nutty elements and browned apples. The palate displays a surprising amount of freshness from the acidity, but the fizz is weak and tapers off pretty quickly. The palate's umami is provided by a mild touch of mushroom broth. Not my preferred age for champagne.
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2012 Peter Lauer Schönfels Riesling Faß 11 Großes Gewächs 88 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
Liked, but didn't love this. The most distinguishing feature here are the phenolics, almost like this went through a slight bit of skin contact. There's just a very slight bit of sweetness here, as well as some crisp apple flavours. Good material here, just better in spätlese than in GG.
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2015 Weingut Clemens Busch Pundericher Marienburg Rothenpfad Riesling Reserve 90 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
A slight bit of gasoline, flint, reduction, or what have you on the nose at first. This is a wine that benefits greatly from exposure to air -- at first, this is just a heavy, thick wine with pure acidity and minerals, but the air makes some fruit emerge, which helps balance out the austerity.
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1990 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese Flawed
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#03-91, 7.5% abv. Gotta keep that streak of corked old riesling going.
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1990 Mönchhof Robert Eymael Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese 93 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#09-91, 8% abv. Haven't been a fan of what this house did to JJC, but setting that aside, you can't dispute that this was an absolutely brilliant bottle of riesling. Tons of complexity, with a creamy texture, as well as ample sweetness. It's full-bodied and rich, and holds the high acidity of 1990 so well here. The fruit is still fresh, and there are some well-delineated secondary characteristics as well.
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1966 Château Brane-Cantenac 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Fantastic bottle that has held up incredibly well. The nose has a beautiful perfume, with just a hint of tart fruit, but also some relatively more autumnal aromas (for Bordeaux). Surprisingly still a slight hint of green pepper as well. Elegant and light, with lots of acidity and some leathery tannins.
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1983 Château Gruaud Larose 88 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
I didn't like this bottle anywhere as much as the bottle I had last year. The nose showed too much of the Cordier funk (which is far too close to TCA for my comfort), and the palate had a fairly dirty character as well. Lean and structured and a little meagre in the fruit department. I can understand the allure, but I'm impervious to this (lack of) charm.
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1983 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Quintessential mature Bordeaux with this elegant, svelte perfume that's intoxicating. Being next to the somewhat austere 1983 Gruaud Larose makes this all the more enjoyable a drink. Graphite, green pepper, a little cedar and leather -- just pure, classic Bordeaux. The palate is fully resolved, and this is probably nearing the end of its maturity plateau, with the tannins starting to dissipate. This bottle still had some nice red fruit to it though.
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1985 Château Smith Haut Lafitte 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
From an era before the wines got too worked over, this is a really nice bottle of Graves, and I think it does show a little of the rocky characteristic. The fruit is mature and starting to brown, but it hasn't quite dried out yet. A nice earthy quality, as well as a hint of graphite and pencil shavings on the nose, but the palate doesn't have the complexity that many other wines had tonight. Nonetheless, there's good overall concentration here, providing some room for further aging.
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1988 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Compared to the Haut-Brion alongside, this showed a little more on the nose. There's not as much elegance as the 1983, and this feels still bound up with respect to its structure. The secondary characteristics are not as fully developed, even at 31 years, and this seems like it's just on the cusp of emerging into a mature Bordeaux.
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1988 Château Haut-Brion 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
The nose on this bottle feels a little dumb, but you can also tell there's a lot of ripe fruit and earthiness hidden there. It needs time to emerge (and a quick revisit at the end of the evening seemed to indicate that this may have needed more air than it got). The palate is more expressive than the nose this time, with lots of concentrated fruit and plenty of structure. That famous minerality is on display on the finish here. Needs lots more time -- I think there's enough fruit to age alongside the structure on this wine.
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1994 Château Pontet-Canet Flawed
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
I thought this was corked; others thought something else was wrong with it. In any case, hopefully not a representative bottle.
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1996 Château Angélus 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
This is a huge whiff (but that's most Angelus anyway). It's the sort of wine that feels big for the sake of being big, because while there's a lot of extract, it's not used to put flesh on a structure, or to balance out acidity. Can't forget that big oaky finish either -- it's the only Bordeaux tonight where there was oak astringency. I'm trying hard not to factor in the ludicrous price here either...
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1973 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve California Mountain 83 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley
Served double blind. The bit of leafiness on the nose and palate had me thinking Bordeaux blend, but I would never have guessed that this was California because the wine was just too thin and acidic. It has some elevated red fruit flavours and a lot of iron oxide on the finish. Thin, with fully resolved tannins and the acidity showing through too much.
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1995 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
I've had multiple bottles of this and the scores are all over the place. This bottle had a little bit of dirtiness on the nose, but plenty of the expected black fruit, leather, and graphite. The sweeter elements here haven't even started picking up secondary characteristics, and if it weren't for the fruit, this would have just been a monumental scaffold.
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1995 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
A bit of a dull showing today -- this was just a pile of tannin with very little fruit. A little earthiness, but overall clamped down hard. I'll go with the customary "too young" excuse, but I couldn't find the fruit that will enable this to age into something great. I just hope the structure can round out a bit.
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1975 Château Rieussec 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
From half-bottle. This is a fairly nice Rieussec, but it's lacking the rich botrytis that I want in Sauternes. Relatively high in acid, with some higher-toned spice notes on the nose. The palate is moderately sweet, with a relatively thin texture compared to the honeyed 1983. There's a light herbal quality as well that could make me think Barsac for a minute.
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1983 Château Rieussec 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Massively botrytized (this was darker in colour than the 1975). The nose is slightly high-toned with a touch of Sharpie marker, but the palate is chock full of apricots, marmalade, and spice. Oily and thick in texture, this is one of the wines that pours without a sound. Very sweet, with less acidity to help cut it, this is a wine that is nice to drink a glass of, but finishing a bottle seems to be a tall order.
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2005 Château Rieussec 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Frankly, this vintage feels like a big miss. It's a heady, high-alcohol Sauternes, without any botrytis depth. Sweet and bitter, slightly oily, lacking acidity, and the alcohol juts out way too much. You can feel the alcohol quite a bit, and it's exhausting.
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2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Eiswein Flawed
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
From half-bottle. Apple-juicy and sour; probably oxidized.
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