France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
Might have pegged this for Bordeaux if you'd poured it to me blind. Fruit is rich and penetrating, broad-shouldered in shape and tannic structure, but no Burgundian svelteness here.
Piercing in its impact, both in the inky concentration of the black fruit and the finely acute acidity. You don't feel the tannin at all, so even though the fruit is still primary in its sweetness you don't get the sense this is asking for more time.
Totally resolved of its tannin and consequently slick and glossy in the mouth, ready to go just like the '87 Monfortino but redder in its complexion and with an extra dimension to the flavor with its notes of old woodspice.
Best of the '60s Conternos I've had. A bright translucent ruby and nowhere near the edge of the cliff, amazing given that this bottle was run through a coffee filter. Pure fruit and a sappy, sticky texture.
Fantastic. Intensely aromatic with burning cigar tobacco, and every sip of this is like taking a long, deep drag on a cigar, so intensely smoky is the flavor. We're not talking "notes" of tobacco, we're talking about a box of Cubans somehow transmogrified into a liquid. The palate presence is plush and mouthfilling, like a plume of smoke, deep and dark and plummy (at least to the extent any of this is still evocative of fruit, which it mostly isn't). This is right up there with the '61 Palmer I tasted a few months ago. It doesn't have the delineated dimension of the Palmer but is just as well composed and at least as interesting in its flavor.
A low-fill bottle, so I wasn't expecting much, but it managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and even though it had problems, the problems had nothing to do with the low fill. On uncorking, it's the identical twin of the '61 with its intense cigar tobacco bouquet. As it sits in the decanter the scent transforms into an unusual and unappetizing dead ringer for Flintstones vitamins, complete with the sugary sweetness and synthetic scratch-and-sniff type fruit. This, too, passes, but the wine pours very cloudy and feels correspondingly muddled. The acidity is spiky at first and the material is actually bigger and sweeter than the '61, a nice reminder that the difference between the great and the good is a matter of composition, not of size. It has a similar smokiness so some of the material is the same, it's just not put together nearly as well.
Translucent ruby color, more delicate and pliant than any of the Barolos tonight, maybe even hewing to a purer expression of the varietal flavor, but not much in the tertiary department other than its resolved texture.
1991 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes 87 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
Might have pegged this for Bordeaux if you'd poured it to me blind. Fruit is rich and penetrating, broad-shouldered in shape and tannic structure, but no Burgundian svelteness here.
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1989 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 95 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Deeply and powerfully fragrant with I-don't-know-what. Richly fruited and still inky in its gloss, with some slightly abrupt tannin to buffer it.
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1987 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino 94 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Piercing in its impact, both in the inky concentration of the black fruit and the finely acute acidity. You don't feel the tannin at all, so even though the fruit is still primary in its sweetness you don't get the sense this is asking for more time.
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1985 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 94 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Totally resolved of its tannin and consequently slick and glossy in the mouth, ready to go just like the '87 Monfortino but redder in its complexion and with an extra dimension to the flavor with its notes of old woodspice.
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1982 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba Flawed
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Corked.
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1961 Giacomo Conterno Barolo 95 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Best of the '60s Conternos I've had. A bright translucent ruby and nowhere near the edge of the cliff, amazing given that this bottle was run through a coffee filter. Pure fruit and a sappy, sticky texture.
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1961 Château Pape Clément 99 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Fantastic. Intensely aromatic with burning cigar tobacco, and every sip of this is like taking a long, deep drag on a cigar, so intensely smoky is the flavor. We're not talking "notes" of tobacco, we're talking about a box of Cubans somehow transmogrified into a liquid. The palate presence is plush and mouthfilling, like a plume of smoke, deep and dark and plummy (at least to the extent any of this is still evocative of fruit, which it mostly isn't). This is right up there with the '61 Palmer I tasted a few months ago. It doesn't have the delineated dimension of the Palmer but is just as well composed and at least as interesting in its flavor.
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1964 Château Pape Clément 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
A low-fill bottle, so I wasn't expecting much, but it managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and even though it had problems, the problems had nothing to do with the low fill. On uncorking, it's the identical twin of the '61 with its intense cigar tobacco bouquet. As it sits in the decanter the scent transforms into an unusual and unappetizing dead ringer for Flintstones vitamins, complete with the sugary sweetness and synthetic scratch-and-sniff type fruit. This, too, passes, but the wine pours very cloudy and feels correspondingly muddled. The acidity is spiky at first and the material is actually bigger and sweeter than the '61, a nice reminder that the difference between the great and the good is a matter of composition, not of size. It has a similar smokiness so some of the material is the same, it's just not put together nearly as well.
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1982 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Gallina di Neive 89 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco
Translucent ruby color, more delicate and pliant than any of the Barolos tonight, maybe even hewing to a purer expression of the varietal flavor, but not much in the tertiary department other than its resolved texture.
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