Kracher vs. Yquem
Scala Restaurant, Renaissance Hotel, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tasted Friday, April 27, 2012 by Goldstone with 1,463 views
Introduction
Roland Muksch kindly invited me to a Hong Kong Wine Society dinner he had organised "as a patriotic Austrian" to pitch the fabled wines of Alois Kracher against an impressive line-up of 6 vintages of Ch. d'Yquem.
As Sun Tzu would have predicted, in a set-piece battle the stronger side won comprehensively but a lot of medals for bravery were handed out to the Krachers........actually, as several people observed, it was the marked difference in style of the two producers that was more evident than any huge difference in quality.
Flight 1 - Pre-Dinner Tasting (12 Notes)
12 wines served blind.........double-blind in my case as I hadn't read the list of what was being served.
Flight 2 - Scallop Carpaccio, Chili, Cherry Tomato, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (1 Note)
The fresh chili may have impaired the wine a little, but I'm not sure.....
Flight 3 - Porcini Risotto (1 Note)
This was a super dish and it complimented the "Y" beautifully.
Flight 4 - Braized Veal Shank, Garlic Potato Mash, White Thyme Oil (1 Note)
This was an excellent dish and didn't overwhelm the fairly light wine.
Flight 5 - Three Italian Cheese......and a Kracher Petit Cru Cheese (courtesy of Roland)
There was a Kracher Saemling 88 Auslese 1990 served with the cheese but I was suffering "Botrytis overdose" so I passed on it
Closing
A really enjoyable and educational evening excellently organised and where the chef and staff at Scala in the Renaissance Hotel did a great job........such a pleasure to drink my fist 2001 Yquem and to encounter such a rare jewel as the 1960 Lur-Saluces "Y".
1995 Château d'Yquem 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind. Light golden bronze colour. Nose is light, lifted, petrol and honey.....very special. Palate is sweet, very penetrating and intense but not cloying sweetness, dryish fresh-sawn woodplank, tastes young.... demerera sugar and lots of Bot, complex......but rather sharply acidic and cut-off on the finish. Nice piano notes but no harmony....seems too young..... I was surprised when it was revealed as a 1995 but not surprised it was an Yquem. Needs a lot more time to integrate. I ranked this #9 but most ranked it much higher.
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1994 Alois Kracher Welschriesling Beerenauslese Zwischen den Seen 86 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Maple syrup bronze in colour and quite viscous. Nose has nice bass notes of burnt caramel and Bot with hints of old leather boots....quite heady. Palate has dark brown sugar notes from the lower keys of the piano but counterpointed by a distinct light cucumber freshness that makes you salivate. Good length but low on resonance. Interesting..... I ranked this #8 on the night and one notch higher than the Yquem 1995.
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2002 Alois Kracher Noble Wine #12 Zwischen den Seen 83 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Tasted blind. Golden mahogany oil in colour. Highly glyceric in the glass. Reticent nose but lots of power.....hints of new tennis balls and older socks. Palate is WOW!......but not neccessarily in a great way...incredible concentration of almost pure sugar that quickly finds every potential cavity in your teeth.....I much preferred the nose! Short and monotone finish. Interesting when revealed.....it is 42% sugar and just 4% alcohol. In fact, it doesn't technically qualify as a wine in Austria. My #12 wine on the night.
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1990 Château d'Yquem 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind. Beautiful medium bronzed gold colour. Nose is gosh......very elegant...tanned leather....white flowers and buttercups. The first sensation on the palate is lots of Bot.......a lovely burnt almond element....medium weight......goood acidic harmony. The first wine of the tasting to display resonance.....wow, lots of it. When revealed....this is a super wine but no way is it a 99-pointer, although way better than other bottles I have drank and scored around 90 points ( according to others at the dinner, around two-thirds of all bottles from Yquem in 1990 are sub-par...so I'm assuming this was one of the good bottles). My #5 wine of the night but way behind the 2001 or the 1986.....and even the 2002 was a better wine to drink for the here and now on the night.
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2001 Château d'Yquem 97 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind but knowing it was in the pack. Light bronzed gold colour with just a touch of burnish. Nose is drop-dead silence creatingly lovely...... supremely elegant yet rich and heady acacia flowers and acacia honey and warm summer-night garden air....gosh, this is almost reverberant and head-resonating on the nose, which is very rare indeed. Palate is just drop-dead gorgeous......coffee roasting oils and several variations on a fugue of honey and tons of Bot followed by deep, deep and mounting resonance but balanced by tons of acidic freshness. The pleasure was not in correctly spotting this blind but in being so completely transported by it. I didn't think that the Ch. Rieussec 2001 I have drank on many occasions could have been so comprehensively bettered.
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1986 Château d'Yquem 95 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind. Deeper but medium bronzed gold colour that totally belies its age. Lovely light spirited nose, like a very mature Islay whisky, that plunges you in beguilingly but less totally then the preceding wine (with turned out to be D'Yquem 2001)....yum! Palate is a front-end of distinct just-steamed Kale-leaf cabbage and fresh white mushrooms.....less sweetness than the preceding 5 wines but then a gorgeous burnt creme caramel cuts in followed by super refreshing citric acidity (more acidity then the preceding 2001) and a lovely elegance (much more elegant than the preceding 1990). The elegance then turns into a resonance that very slowly creeps up on you and just grows and grows. Really beautiful.......and much better than the 1990, though comprehensively outshone by the 2001. This will continue to improve with more time and perhaps has uber-longevity to go 40+ more years. My #3 wine of the night.
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2002 Alois Kracher Scheurebe TBA #10 Zwischen den Seen 89 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Tasted blind. Deep burnished dark maple gold colour. Nice nose of high-tone , lifted acidity followed by slightly damp socks and beautifully ripe bananas. Palate stops you in its tracks with its cavity-probing sweetness. Very high sugar levels but actually it carries them off surprisingly well. I enjoyed this the most of the Krachers (except for the one I thought was incredibly old D'Yquem). My #4 of the night. This or the 1998 Kracher #13 would be the ones I'd introduce to someone who hasn't tried these wines before.
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1995 Alois Kracher Grande Cuvée TBA #12 88 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Tasted blind from magnum. Deep dark bronzed Oloroso sherry colour. Nose is all new rubber cyle tyres and inner tubes with the french chalk on them. Similar on the palate but got better on the back end. Curious....I actually scored this higher than the D'Yquem 2002 and D'Yquem 1995 blind on the night during the tasting but I'm not sure I'd advocate it over them. Worth trying if you can find it.
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2002 Château d'Yquem 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind. Substantial but light silver gold …almost steely colour and by far the lightest of the 12 desert wines blind tasted tonight. Lovely young fresh citric nose with just an alluring element of Bot.. Palate is very heavy and initially a bit blunt-headed……lots of honey balanced by burnt tart Seville orange marmalade. I hurried my initial tasting of this under time pressure to complete all 12 wines……this was the wine that improved the most over the post-tasting dinner. The general consensus was that this was the most-rounded and ready for business of the d'Yquems on the night and it won the group's vote as WOTN by a surprisingly clear margin ……definitely the best for Yquem for full enjoyment today and great value compared to the 2001 and 1990 at roughly one-third of the price.
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2002 Alois Kracher Scheurebe TBA #5 Zwischen den Seen 83 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Tasted blind. Bright shiny fresh Maple gold colour. Nose is distinctly warm rubber like car inner tubes…and distinct but not unattractive sweat. On the palate the sweaty element is more predominant and less enjoyable, especially as the overall sweetness of the wine coagulates in the mouth as one-dimensional, sugary and too cloying for my taste. I ranked this #11 out of 12.
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1998 Alois Kracher Chardonnay TBA #13 Nouvelle Vague 94 Points
Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee
Tasted blind. Almost old claret-red in colour. Nose is all mature autumnal plums with a touch of sugar that has solidified and resinated on the outside skin. Palate is very deep, deep smoky old plummy sweetness but still with lots of almost youthful acidic balance. More like a red Shiraz-based wine than a desert wine. I got totally fooled by purely my own auto-suggestion into thinking this was probably and extremely old Ch. D'Yquem from pre-1900, which shows how much I know about wine…………….and auto-suggestion. I voted this as #2 of 12 wines and ahead of the Yquems of 1986, 1990, 1995 and 2002.
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1999 Château d'Yquem 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Tasted blind. This was somewhat hurriedly tasted under time pressure as the last of 12 wines…….medium light-gold colour like Singha beer. Nose is "October"…..not really giving much but a touch of Keats' "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness….". Palate is in sharp (literally…sharp acidic) contrast to the nose. Maybe suffered from its place in the line-up but there again it didn't unfurl any further charm with extended time in the glass over the post-tasting dinner. It massively underperformed the (in ascending order) 1995, 2002, 1990, 1986 and 2001 vintages. My #10 wine of 12.
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