Light golden. Caramel and citrus. Rich. Marvelous equipoise between incredible vigor for 23 year old Champagne and just the faintest notes of incipient maturity. One can't ask for a better Champagne experience. The wine of the night on a night with 3 great wines.
Remarkably limpid color for its age. As I've noted before, positively Germanic in its weight and delicacy. All tart lemon fruit to start, but unfolded to reveal subtle stone fruit as well. Rising petrol secondary aromas. Not one of the higher acidity Clos Ste. Hunes. A model of discrete elegance.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
(5/17/2013)
Still very primary ruby without lightening. Menthol, blackberry, a touch of spice and graphite. Upfront wood which fell into the background. Full bodied, then loosened a bit. Impressively concentrated and dense but lacking some definition and tension. Admittedly, this showed very young, but it never developed as much outstanding complexity on the palate as it had at times on the nose. Certainly no problem in holding for 10 more years.
Medium yellow without any browning. Right out of the bottle, a transient whiff of sherry, but then it became fresher and fresher over 2 hours with bright citrus. Waxy, vanilla feel and remarkable acidity. Always a hint of oxidation, but this remained in the background for the whole time we drank this. Singular wine, extremely enjoyable and interesting.
Incredibly saturated color with only the thinnest rim of brown. Aromatically, this was a mess right out of the gate-VA, mustiness and some apparent brett, but this sorted itself out over time. Still, not entirely pristine, with an out of place sharp scent that persisted. Much better in the mouth, in fact, an amazing amount of sweet dark cherry fruit and spice for a 40+ year old wine with good length and some remaining tannins. In summary, far from perfect but still lots to admire about this bottle. Better than when we had this in a Riojanas tasting 4 months ago.
1990 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill
France, Champagne
(5/17/2013)
Light golden. Caramel and citrus. Rich. Marvelous equipoise between incredible vigor for 23 year old Champagne and just the faintest notes of incipient maturity. One can't ask for a better Champagne experience. The wine of the night on a night with 3 great wines.
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1997 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune
France, Alsace
(5/17/2013)
Remarkably limpid color for its age. As I've noted before, positively Germanic in its weight and delicacy. All tart lemon fruit to start, but unfolded to reveal subtle stone fruit as well. Rising petrol secondary aromas. Not one of the higher acidity Clos Ste. Hunes. A model of discrete elegance.
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1990 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
(5/17/2013)
Still very primary ruby without lightening. Menthol, blackberry, a touch of spice and graphite. Upfront wood which fell into the background. Full bodied, then loosened a bit. Impressively concentrated and dense but lacking some definition and tension. Admittedly, this showed very young, but it never developed as much outstanding complexity on the palate as it had at times on the nose. Certainly no problem in holding for 10 more years.
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