Magnum Dinner: 2000 Pavie, 2000 Malescot, 1997 Dominus plus more

The dinner was centered around wines a la magnum: 00 Pavie, 00 Malescot (wotn), 97 Dominus and a mystery cab. Enjoy!

• NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Réserve / La Française 91 Points

  France, Champagne

  Opens with a veryfloral nose highlighted by beautiful rose and raspberry. The nose is pitched high and shows young, but vividly clear. The acidity on the palate is cleansing and sharp, very focused. This wine cuts through fruit and cheeses very nice and should have plenty of potential evolution to develop secondary aromas and complexity. I would assume the nose would round out, loosing some of its angular allure but adding more supple and depth to its pitch. An excellent holiday choice if it is to be had at a decent fare. I would love to know its bottling age to help clue in its evolutionary potential.
  **.5

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• 2006 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  The Fevre was poured along side the 99 Chassagne Montrachet and the contrast in color couldn’t be more apparent. A golden orange versus a pale straw yellow (the Fevre). The Fevre is a baby, which coaxes one to drink it in its youth, especially with the fear of premox leering like a rocky cliff near a siren’s beckon. The Fevre opens with serious mineral backbone and reticent fruit that began to really emerge after 25-35 minutes in the glass (if one was able to hang on that long!). The wetstone and limerock begins to integrate beautifully with a wonderful round tones of leechees, mandarin oranges, Spanish pear and zesty lime. It isn’t tropical in the sense of a warm climate vintage/appelation, but it has a bit of panache to it that its older companions probably had grown out of. An exuberant, if not precocious youth. I quipped that it needs 4 years in college to come out a complete man!
  **.5+

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• 1999 Marc Colin et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Vide Bourse 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru

  This was a fantastic showing for this Chassagne Montrachet, courtesy of our hosts. An absolutely fantastic nose that screamed out of the bottle when I pulled the cork. It simply exuded a class that shows breed and age. Drinking in a perfect spot between primary fresh character and secondary complexity and depth, the wine has developed serious weight. The nose is deep, with hints of toffee, under ripe navel orange, light dollops of butter and soft mushed apple. It glides on the palate, without a haunting permanence of a Montrachet but with a coaxing supple quality that begs one to think about what he or she just drank. The finish is sweet but still structured. Drink now.
  ***

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• 1998 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne Flawed

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Upon first smell, I knew there was a chance for trouble as the wine was butterscotch with hints of oxidative notes. Luckily the palate wasn’t maderized, but it was close. Some thought it was undrinkable (Levy), some found it enjoyable (Vuckovich). I was somewhere inbetween. Not fair to evaluate.

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• 1989 Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Dry Creek Valley 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Served blind out of magnum. We were told it was opened and decanted for several hours and given false tails as to its origin ;) Dark on the core with some let up on the rim. Unevolved to say the least...far more primary and backward than the Dominus. Opens with a nose of dirt, green pepper and tobacco that Darryl (imo) aptly noted as Cab Franc esque. Our attentions floated to the old lands, as thoughts of Nebbiolo (due to the earthiness) were floated out but shot down due to the lack of mushroom and the pitch/color. Then Right Bank Bordeaux was dabbled with, but shot down due to the firmness/type of the tannins. Accordingly, I set my guess to 98 Left Bank St. Julien, due to the earthiness and structure, but without the refined Margaux feel from the vintage or the Pencil/Cassis combo of Pauillac. It could have been a reticent/shut down Montrose imo. Jace kept mum and others moved onto the new world; a often qualified guess when dealing with Jace’s cellar. The wine was revealed as a 1989 Michel-Schumberger Reserve Sonoma Coast Cab Magnum that Jace had purchased at the domain for $12 earlier this year! Absolutely shocking to say the least! I remarked that they must have done some serious extraction. Kevin C and Darryl quipped that there must have been some root stock in that pressing!! The wine is a dead steal at that price, while not offering complexity or refined class, what more could you want at $6 a bottle with 20 years of age!!!

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• 1997 Dominus Estate 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Slow Oxidized for 4 hours and then poured into a decanter for 45 minutes prior to serving. The wine is ruby to the rim with little bricking. It is evolved and regal on the nose, with a feral cherry note that reminded me instantly of a 1998 Pegau I drank in February. There was some debate as to how much life this wine had left. Several, led by Dr. Levy, thought the wine was falling apart and proceeded to dump their glasses an hour after pour. I felt that the wine was delicate and still had some rounding to do. As fragile as it was in the mouth, there was still some angular tannin that poked out and some, such as Darryl, found it to be slightly disjointed as a result. I understand his argument completely. I found the wine to be very symptomatic of aged claret, save for the nature of the tannin, which felt more new world in its tone. Everything else about the wine screamed 1980s Margaux to my palate. This wine was bought from a retail store who acquired it from a private cellar with (supposedly) high quality provenance, so if it is indicative of its life, one may pop these sooner than later.
  ***

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• 2000 Château Malescot St. Exupéry 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Served out of magnum, double decanted for 6 hours in cellar temperature and decanted for 30-45 minutes prior to service. A phenomenally complex wine that was showing very well at the moment to my palate. A panoply of aromas, from cigar to grange, tobacco and pure mixed cassis (not a dark cassis symptomatic of a Pauillac). Truffled aromas developed with time in the glass. The palate still shows classic Bordeaux tannins but they are refined and really personify Margaux typicity. It is a wine that starkly contrasts, at this stage of its life, the 2005 Malescot which is a black hole monster to my palate, with little reference (again at this infantile stage of its existence) to a wine from Margaux. I would be curious to see how this wine was at release for those that have tried it as a reference to how the 2005, a widely revered wine, will evolve. In my opinion, the 2000 is in a hell of a drinking plateau at the moment to which it may steep down and reemerge in 6-8 years. For its price, it was the best value wine I’ve had in quite some time. Please don’t clean it out on my note. My palate is bollocks, remember!!

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• 2000 Château Pavie 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  Served out of magnum, double decanted for 8 hours in cellar temperature and then decanted for 45 minutes prior to service. The big boy and my first crack at a 2000 Pavie, having drank the 98, 01, 03, 04 and 05. Inky black, immediately recognizable as Right Bank, when one gazes at its texture/color and then picks up the wafting wall of plum from the glass. This wine needed perhaps an additional 4-6 hours of air as I saved a glass for when I drove back home (kids dont try this at home) and had kept evaluating it until the wee hours of the morning. The best term to describe this wine is "monolithic beast with unlimited potential." It opens with that serious blast of dark plum and drowned oak, with a mouthcoating palate that finishes extremely long. With serious swirling, a sea of dark cacao and Kenyan coffee emerges on the nose and the palate continues to dance, mercurially, showing signs of emerging dark and red fruits. This wine undoubtedly will need 10 years to show cracks of change. It is, right now in my opinion, in a phase removed from its glycerin loaded youthfulness but not at a balanced juncture of loosing its alpha elements (the plum, chocolate, oak) into primary elements (cab franc balance/earth, more red fruit and cassis) let alone secondary elements (truffled notes one can often find in the 98 or 01 at this juncture). Compared to the 05 I have drank recently, I find the 05 a touch more complete as the glycerin is balanced by firmer tannins than in the 00.
  
  As balanced as this wine is (not an element out of place, even in its infancy, as Darryl astutely summated), my reservation is about the relatively round nature of the tannins. While not a bad thing ordinarily, this wine is so basically primary that it scares me while wondering whether it will develop into its potential before the tannins fall away leaving it little structural support to butress its evolution. I don’t have enough reference points with the wine to make that my firm opinion, but it is something that I often fret over with many right bank wines, esp some of the more controversial 05 Right Banks (ranging from Richelieu la Favorite all the way to Troplong). This wine has the potential to be legendary or to be a disappointment. One will have to gamble for the next 20 years over it imo. Needs revisiting.
  ****-- ******(?)

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• 2001 Château Suduiraut 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  A generous donation by Kevin K. This wine has all the hallmarks of 2001 Sauternes: immense balance and structure in harmony with tropical, exotic fruit (pineapple, mango, bright lychee, exotic maple syrup, if there is such a thing!) with acidity to boot. It could likely age for generations. The 2001 shows less flashy and tropical than the 2003 Suiduirauts that I have drank this year, but it is far more seemless, pairing better with cheese and most likely being more food friendly with seafoods or foie gras. A fair amount of residual sugar is noticed on the palate, but it isn’t overbearing at all. The finish is wonderful, as it never feels cloying, dancing on one's palate. I think one should sit on this wine for a decade and then begin to enjoy the marvels from this vintage.
  ***.5+

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