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Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/2/2007 3:48:29 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Well those who know me should be expecting a Bordeaux red.

But no - it was a Montrachet (can't remember the year or producer - sorry), drunk at the Cafe Royale!

Whilst reading your best bottles I'll think about the best red ever - still hoping it will be tomorrows ;)

L.

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Post #: 1
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/3/2007 4:20:37 PM   
mbannon

 

Posts: 268
Joined: 10/1/2004
From: Portland, OR
Status: offline 		There is something magical about Montrachet, isn't there?  I've had some nice wines, but I often find myself thinking back to my last Grand Cru tasting.  Wish I could afford to buy/drink them once a month or so.  Alas, my budget is a tad lower than that.


(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 2
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/3/2007 6:12:50 PM   
duckfaninmt

 

Posts: 16
Joined: 2/3/2007
Status: offline 		Somewhat of a newbie, so I don't have the "history" of many forum members. That said, in the last 3+ years,l the 2001 Greenock Creek Apricot Block is the finest wine I've ever had.

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Post #: 3
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/4/2007 4:18:50 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Yes got you down for that on the Best New World section.
Not a shareholder of GC I hope ;)
L.

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Post #: 4
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/4/2007 9:24:27 AM   
fingers

 

Posts: 682
Joined: 8/26/2006
From: Santa Ana, CA
Status: offline 		1998 Penfold's Grange.  Only 100pt wine I've ever tasted, thankfully at someone else's expense.  Incredible, even at nine years, much too early in it's window.  Make the leap, Colonel!  There is beauty in the Southern Hemi as well!

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 5
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/4/2007 6:59:11 PM   
1800kidney

 

Posts: 245
Joined: 7/17/2004
From: Birmingham, AL
Status: offline 		Can't pick one as THE best, so much depends on context, venue, meal, company, etc....see my tasting notes

Reds:
1982 and 1988 Lynch Bages
1996 Gaja Barbaresco
2002 Peter Michael's Les PAvots

White:
2000 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot

Champagne:
1996 Dom

1800kidney

(in reply to fingers)
Post #: 6
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/5/2007 2:54:14 AM   
Pontac

 

Posts: 339
Joined: 8/3/2006
Status: offline 		Best wine???

Always the next one !!

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 7
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/5/2007 12:08:48 PM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		fingers,
I'm with you on the Grange.
A long while back I moved to Korea and a buddy said:
1.  the winters are miserable - learn to ski
2.  the wine is lousy, if you can find it, it's been pasteurised and frozen (tough climate Korea).

I transitioned through London and bought 47 cases of Bordeaux to take with me ( the skiing is a longer story).
''unfortunately'' on of my French selections was out of stock and Farr suggested I substitute with a case of Grange 1981.
Since that date every bottle has got spontaneous recognition from my guests (including non wine afficionado's.
I believe 1981 was average for Grange, but I don't care I still have 2 bottles left.
They cost somewhere between 10-20 pounds!!!!
Now 100++
L.

(in reply to fingers)
Post #: 8
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/8/2007 8:14:03 AM   
fingers

 

Posts: 682
Joined: 8/26/2006
From: Santa Ana, CA
Status: offline 		It is simply stunning what reputation does for prices, isn't it?  I suppose if you're middle-class, like me, there is the psycho-symatic benefit of enjoying an incredible wine AND knowing it cost a weeks' salary!  Trader Joe's, eat your heart out!



"The wine business is a cruel and shallow money trench.  A long plastic hallway where theives and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There's also a bad side."

adapted, H.S. Thompson

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 9
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/8/2007 11:06:21 PM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		I think I may be moving in the opposite direction, re expensive wines  The more I read the more I find that facts and opinions frequently don't move together.
e.g.
1.  It's rare to see Bordeaux 1st Growths do badly in an open tasting.  Now test them blind and the results are all over the place.  You may have noticed than in semi-blind tests the Bordeaux 1st's often have a separate flight of their own (avoids ''the experts'' embarrassing themselves).
2,  I've seen the Bordeaux 1st's ranked 1st through 5th in one blind tasting and then 5th thro' 1st is one just a year later (the tasters included many of the same people!)
3.  New wines very frequently do well in blind tests against the top wines, less well in open ones.
4.  There are distinct differences in preferences around the world (e.g. it seems quite likely that there is a difference in style liked US vs UK).
All the above, and critically the ridiculous pricing of Bordeaux 2005 and even 2006, have led me on my pilgimage to doiscover the great lesser known wines.
Hears to great affordable wine.
Cheers,
L

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First they came for ....................

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Post #: 10
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/9/2007 7:25:54 AM   
deb293

 

Posts: 287
Joined: 8/24/2005
Status: offline 		Best wine I've ever consumed was the 1989 Chateau Coutet Cuvee Madame, but I know I'm an oddball in choosing to spend the big $$ on dessert wines rather than reds or whites.  Partly it's because they give immense pleasure to many more people at a meal (well, me in particular) and are easier to focus on when there's no competition with food.  They also don't suffer from the over-hyped ratings that then lead to over-hyped pricing (d'Yquem excepted.)

There's a world of great wine out there (Old World and New) to be consumed if one is not concerned with collectibles.   If resale value is the motivation behind buying wine, then there is almost no limit to one’s vulnerability to escalating prices.  Time to break free and drink up!  In theory, this is what the winemaker intended.

BTW, I read once that Tom Cruise's favorite wine was a 1985 DRC (don't remember which specific one) and the cynic in me wondered if HE could pick it blind in a tasting!


< Message edited by deb293 -- 9/9/2007 7:30:48 AM >

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 11
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/9/2007 12:05:39 PM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		More an Italian fan I suspect:
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/03/tom-cruise-david-letterman-and-jamie-oliver-drink-together/

(in reply to deb293)
Post #: 12
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/9/2007 12:28:11 PM   
deb293

 

Posts: 287
Joined: 8/24/2005
Status: offline 		I rest my case.

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 13
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/9/2007 11:42:02 PM   
nwinther

 

Posts: 347
Joined: 7/28/2006
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		I can't pick _one_ either. But it'd be either Latour 83, Lafite 85 or Gruaud Larose 82. The first reds I ever really "tasted". Didn't like wine before I tried those one evening in 2000.

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What I lack in size I make up for in obnoxiousness.

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Post #: 14
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/11/2007 4:25:59 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		That's the way to get into wine!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strangly the worst wine I've ever drunk was the 1983 Gruaud Larose.
But it was simply terrible storage (I bought them on a wine auction site) that ruined them.

L.

(in reply to nwinther)
Post #: 15
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/12/2007 12:05:28 AM   
nwinther

 

Posts: 347
Joined: 7/28/2006
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		I think so too, Lawrence.

If you care to read the story behind, then here it is...

My dad has always been into wine, but never on an elite scale - though he knows his way around. My dad is a photographer and my parents have friends in the neighbouring city, which runs a photo-shop (the shop - not the software), and it's in their shop that it all begins.

One day a guy, a janitor on the local school actually, comes in the store and asks about a Hasselblad camera that's in the window. He offers to pay for it with wine. (I don't know if you know much about photography or cameras, but Hasselblad is a pretty expensive brand and this particular camera is a bit of a rarity).

Now, the owner of the shop knows nothing about wine, but the janitor has brought a few bottles and the owner calls the local wine-dealer and asks him about if this is worth anything. "It is", he's answered. Well, this guy trades in a case of each of the above wines (Lafite 85, Latour 83 and Gruaud 82) for this camera.

A few days later, my parent's friends are coming for dinner, and "they'll bring the wine". At this time, I have no interest in wine whatsoever. Actually I despise wine and would much rather have a dark beer or soda.

As the evening progress, they ask me if I don't want a glass - and I agree to have just a small sip, as I know this is expensive stuff (my dad told me) and I think it'd be wasted on me. So I get somethink like two centiliters (I don't know the american equivalent - something like four thimbles) of each. And for the first time, I actually like the wine. And I immediately pick up on this particular smell of "greatness" which I've come across many times later when drinking the elite wines such as Mouton, Leoville, Gruaud, Conselliante etc. I find it something like buttermilk or white bread - it's hard for me to define. But I've never picked it up in everyday wines or even the fruity shiraz' of Australia or South Africa. Almost exclusevely in great Bordeaux' or Northern Rhone's.

Anyway, since that evening, I was hooked on the stuff (not the Betty Ford-way, mind you).

_____________________________

What I lack in size I make up for in obnoxiousness.

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Post #: 16
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/12/2007 3:56:25 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Nikolaj,
Great story and yes I had a ''photographic'' Uncle who upgraded from a Rolliflex to a Hasselblad, so appreciate the class.
My entry into wine was much more prosaic:
Found I hated most cheap wines, but having little money discovered ''Grants of St. James" who did great own brand/bottled generic wines.  You could drink a pretty fair Chateauneuf du Pape or Nuits St Georges for an amount I could afford.
Roll on a few decades and I lifted my sights: found I liked the better Bordeaux red wines a lot.
Attended a few eye-opening wine tastings and voilla I'm hooked.
Over the past 2-3 years have been building my cellar (bottles that is, not bricks).
Now have approaching 500 cases (90% Bordeaux), including some special stuff:
2000 Margaux
2000 Leoville las Cases
1996 Lafite Rothschild
1996 Margaux
1996 Latour
2003 Margaux
2000 Haut Brion
2000 Latour
and every Mouton Rothschild from 1995-2005 (excluding 1997, cos it's not that good and 2006 because it's stupidly expensive).

You can see I've gone quite mad; let's call it my pension fund.
Now just have to live a long life and get to drink it all - the plan is actually to sell half, to pay for what ''ve drunk ;)
L.

(in reply to nwinther)
Post #: 17
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/13/2007 7:41:33 AM   
Wrighty

 

Posts: 642
Joined: 10/3/2005
From: Hong Kong
Status: offline 		Afraid I'm old school.

1986 Margaux
1995 Clos du Mesnil Krug
2001 Rieussec
1994 Fonseca Port

First time I thought wine was more than just another type of booze was when someone brought a Mouton and Haut Brion to a dinner - not so good early 80's vintages - but there was something 'different' about them - will look out for the white bread.

Hope I've got a few bottles stashed away to challenge these wines in the years to come.

Wrighty

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 18
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/15/2007 6:08:53 AM   
jajjguy

 

Posts: 12
Joined: 9/5/2006
Status: offline 		My major turn-on wine was a 1986 Calon Segur, drunk in 2004 or 05. It was then that I saw the magic in good Bordeaux.

But I think my favorite bottle of red remains 1983 Beaucastel, drunk around the same time.

And a 1990 Veuve Grande Dame drunk earlier this year. Wow.


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half of BailliSacks on CT

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Post #: 19
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/15/2007 8:18:05 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Tried the first of my Pichon Baron 2000 in an attempt to have something worthy to put forward, just look at these blind reviews:

http://www.erobertparker.com/EWS/ews10.asp

http://www.weimax.com/1999_&_2000_bordeaux_march_2004.htm

Sadly whilst the wine was clearly excellent, and surpassed most of what I drink, it didn't set the lights, whistles and explosions off.
Rather short in the fruit arena actually.  Don't suppose anyone knows whether it may reappear in a few years?
What the hell does ''closed down'' mean?

L.

PS  Jonah, had some good - always reliable - Beaucastel myself (bought 2 cases once).


_____________________________

First they came for ....................

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Post #: 20
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/17/2007 5:12:54 PM   
PSirah Tampa

 

Posts: 76
Joined: 12/9/2006
Status: offline 		Shocker- nobody's posted Yellow Tail as their favorite red wine!

< Message edited by PSirah Tampa -- 9/17/2007 5:15:04 PM >

_____________________________

I just gotta drink'um faster!

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Post #: 21
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/18/2007 3:12:46 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Doesn't seem that popular with CTers
http://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?fInStock=1&iUserOverride=0&Table=List&szSearch=Yellow+Tail&Page=0


(in reply to PSirah Tampa)
Post #: 22
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/18/2007 2:36:42 PM   
Schu

 

Posts: 89
Joined: 12/3/2005
From: Gaithersburg, MD
Status: online 		I drank an 02 Schild Moorooroo the other day that I thought was pretty spectacular.  Since I've only been in to wine for 2-3 years now I can only hope to have many more fantastic bottles.

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 23
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/19/2007 4:41:58 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Blown away by a 1998 Quinault LÉnclos last night:

"From first look and smell - something very special.
Colour deep, clear, brilliant.
Aroma - full and fruity, but not fruit juice - real crisp complex St Emilion nose.
Taste - even better, just perfect balance, smooth, round, mellow: good start, but even better an elongated finish.
Was surprised by how good this was; perfect now and for the next few years.
Have a further bottle which I await with anticipation."

Drunk by three of us, with unanimity of opinion!
Marked it equal to a 1995 Latour and ahead of 1995 Mouton Rothschild and Haut Brion.

Help I think I'm turning into RP............................
http://www.cynthiahurley.com/2007/07/chateau-quinaul.html

_____________________________

First they came for ....................

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Post #: 24
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/22/2007 6:55:04 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		Trying hard for the best ever: last night cracked open a 1998 Pichon Baron.
While I have no complaints - lovely liquorish and dark chocalate - didn't quite match the 1998 Quinault LÉnclos.
Although I think I should really drink them again on the same night ;)
My wife distinctly preferred the Quinault - I think she's turning into a right bank fan (pity as most of my wines are left bank).


_____________________________

First they came for ....................

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Post #: 25
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/22/2007 7:21:42 AM   
jamscreator

 

Posts: 313
Joined: 9/10/2007
From: Indiana USA
Status: offline 		As I am a relative newbie to wine, the best thing I've had in the past year is the Baros Yalumba "The Signature".  I'm glad a bought half a case though, as a couple more years of cellaring will really pay off.  I've been steadily adding to my collection and have some great bottles in the cellar now.  I only wish more of my friends (and my wife) drank RED wines!  Guess I'll have to drink all of those tasty reds myself!

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 26
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/23/2007 3:16:18 AM   
Colonel Lawrence

 

Posts: 1953
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline 		At least your "best ever" wasn't homemade ;)

It's hard to find the right people to taste your better wines with, either they don't appreciate the wine, or perhaps worse, appreciate it so much they drink it all.
I've found a small group of like-minded tasters (don't have to be similarly skilled, just the same attitude to the wine) is best.
I've had tastings where I think my wines have been at best average, but with everyone searching for the good we manage to have a great time.

The bug will grow .........................

L.

(in reply to jamscreator)
Post #: 27
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 9/25/2007 9:12:49 AM   
Wrighty

 

Posts: 642
Joined: 10/3/2005
From: Hong Kong
Status: offline 		Jamscreator,

Yalumba was one of the stand out wineries from the Decanter New World Wine Event I went to in May so would recommend, try the Octavius.  In a couple of years - when those wines are drinking you'll be glad that your friends and wife don't drink them as you probably won't have as many left as you hope.

Happy collecting - and drinking.

Wrighty

PS - Did any 8 vintage Leeuwin Arts Series Chardonnay vertical with Denis Horgan this week - probably the best tasting I've ever had!

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 28
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 10/7/2007 8:42:35 PM   
elliotgl

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/7/2007
Status: offline 		I guess I'm going to show my age but I agree with 1800Kidney that time-place-mood and circumstance factor into the "best" - That having been said I'd add  1968 Heitz Martha's Vyd - 1970 BV Georges Latour - 1947 Ch Latour - 1969 Dom Laflaive Les Pucelle - 2002 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vyd - 1978 Jayer Cros Parantoux - 1969 La Tache - I could probably name another six or so but I agree with 1800Kidney

_____________________________

elliot

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)
Post #: 29
RE: Best Wine I've Ever Drunk - 10/8/2007 6:55:15 PM   
cgrimes

 

Posts: 895
Joined: 10/8/2007
From: Massachusetts
Status: offline 		Strangely, the wines which have blown me away in the most memorable sense have been white--perhaps because the best whites make all of the other whites we drink seem like lemonade and butter.  Most of us probably have a better sense of the composition of a great red--but a great white--much more rare.
2 examples that come to mind:
1. Bouchard, Pere & Fils Chevalier Montrachet, 1995
2. Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne 1989
(both drunk in 2006)

(in reply to elliotgl)
Post #: 30
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