First growth Bordeaux at Michael Gordon's

Bellevue, WA
Tasted Saturday, April 8, 2006 by Eric with 1,255 views

Introduction

Michael Gordon was kind enough to instigate a small tasting featuring first growth Bordeaux from our cellars. The idea was to enjoy a few gems in a relaxed home setting, with small flights, lots of time, and some monstrous Lobel's strip steaks. The partners in crime included myself (Eric LeVine), Michael Gordon, Jason Goldberger, Justin Wells, Roy Hersh and Ed Murray.

Flight 1 (2 Notes)

As everyone arrived, Michael greeted us with some nice cheese, pate, prosciutto, smoked duck breast and a lovely pair of bubbles. The few times I have had them next to each other I have preferred the 1996, but on this night it showed more ungainly youth compared to the more mature elegance of the 1990.

Flight 2 (1 Note)

Jason Goldberger had brought along a lobe of foie gras, but we didn't realize that there was no kitchen fan. So, with my heavy encouragement, Jason agreed to try and cook it outside on a cast iron pan over the grill. Lesson #1 when searing a product that is nerly all fat: open flame is not your friend. The first set quickly turned into foie flambee. However, we recovered by putting the cast iron a bit higher. Interesting...

Flight 3 (3 Notes)

At last, we were down to the reason for being here. I had organized the flights and elected to start us out with the only right-bank wines and the Haut-Brion. My thought was that the haut-Brion would be more expressive than the Pauillac wines and thus could hold its own with the Cheval. This was a lovely first flight which indeed featured the most exotic aromatics of the evening.

  • 1979 Château Haut-Brion 90 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

    Great nose, kinky, very cool. Mint. Roasted coffee with chicory. Some pine resin. Alas, the aromatics were the highlight, as the palate was tired and a touch dilute. After quite a bit more air, the palate did get a little more sweet and full, although I argued that this was from madeirization in the glass.

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  • 1982 Château Cheval Blanc 98 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

    This was the wine of the night for 4 of 6 tasters, although for me this was a shade behind the 1986 Mouton. The nose was a bit reticent at first, brooding, almost smoldering, plum, spice cake, rust, earth, and blood. Wow, the palate is silky, very young, dancing with minerality, and then with time chocolate, caramel, spicy with remarkable density. Utterly delicious wne.

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  • 1983 Château Cheval Blanc 95 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

    Very open from the get-go with nuts, smoke and sandalwood. The palate is so round and ready with very nice acidity. Wow, what a finish!

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Flight 4 (3 Notes)

This second flight was a bit of a dud.

  • 1970 Château Latour Grand Vin 89 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Some tar on the nose. Big and tannic with black fruit, mineral. Very powerful. Very tannic. Will this ever resolve?

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  • 1975 Château Lafite Rothschild 90 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Very cloudy. Cedar, horse and cinnamon on the nose. The palate gives an initial impression of iced tea, but this grows on you. Uncharacteristically chewy and rustic for a Lafite, clearly a product of the vintage and still with a tannic bite. I liked this wine a bit more than the score indicates.

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  • 1986 Château Latour Grand Vin

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    A weird wine. Medicinal and somewhat dirty smelling. A fair bit of pickle on the palate. Not rated.

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Flight 5 (3 Notes)

At this point Michael rolled out the 20oz. Lobel strip steaks. I love rare meat, but this was closer to bleu and resembed a block of seared tuna more than beef. Still though, the flavor of this meat is just unreal, and we had just the right wines with a killer trio of 1986's. The Mouton was just out of this world...

  • 1986 Château Margaux 94 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Mmm, tangy, chewy and a bit rustic on the nose with some cranberry. The palate is tannic and very powerful, sweet and tangy, coursing with acidity and structure, so masculine and powerful. Very enjoyable.

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  • 1986 Château Lafite Rothschild 93 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Tight, tight, tight. Very black profile. Gorgeous, so powerful, but just not giving up as much as I would hope for. This is almost silly it is so tight and tannic. There is a nice vein of cedar running through this, but this is just so tannic. I am not a huge fan of this wine, and this taste was very consistent with another bottle tasted in February.

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  • 1986 Château Mouton Rothschild 100 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Unreal color. Far more dark than any other wine this evening. Jeeze this is dense, loaded with charcoal, tobacco, just pure liqueur of Pauillac. This was clearly the best 1986 Mouton I have ever tasted. Simply unreal. Perfect and earth shattering on every single sip and my clear wine of the night.

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Flight 6 (1 Note)

We finished up with some blue cheese, fudgey chocolate cake and a port. I was pretty much done at this point and didn't get a lot out of the Port.

Closing

Thanks Michael for organizing a wonderful evening and to everyone for sharing such gems!

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