Pre Davos Wine Forum tasting
Zumikon, Switzerland
Tasted Monday, January 19, 2015 by Eric with 828 views
Introduction
All wines were served single-blind.
Flight 1 - Four different grapes from four different regions. One grape double from the same region. (5 Notes)
In this flight I swapped the Chave and the La Landonne in my guesses.
Flight 2 - Five wines from the same region across three vintages - all Pauillac (5 Notes)
In this flight I swapped the Lafites with each other (but at least guessed they were all Lafites).
Flight 3 - Two world famous wines from different regions and grapes - Vega vs. Margaux (5 Notes)
In this flight it was easy to pick out all of the Margaux, but I swapped the 1979 with the 1989. And I swapped the vintages on the Vega Sicilia.
Closing
Many thanks to Daniel and Sabina for hosting this lovely tasting!
1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon S.L.V. 86 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District
Somewhat oxidized on the nose. Hints of green stalk and some pickle moving to an interesting gunflint note. Despite being a bit tired, this features a pretty and supple palate of sweet cherry. It is a bit simple, but it is certainly a pleasant drink (and a historic wine).
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1976 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands-Echezeaux 92 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru
Very light color and obviously Pinot Noir. Lifted aromatics show tangerine and rose with hints of tar. Soft and juicy with nice mineral and citrus.
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1990 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 100 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
Is it tacky to rate your own wine as perfect when you blind guess it as another wine? Given how generous it was, I assumed it was the warmer vintage 1990 Chave.
Mmm, caramel and smoked meat, it's a wowza nose with more descriptors than I can conjure in 10 minutes. The palate is utterly seamless, cherries and more smoked meat. The wine is perfumed in the mouth and extremely harmonious. Just oozing with complexity and screaming Syrah, and it doesn't really get much better than this.
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1986 Penfolds Grange 97 Points
Australia, South Australia
This was pretty easy to pick out from the very deep color and the not so subtle hints of mint and eucalyptus. Saturated and powerful on the palate with a sweetness that I attribute to the Cabernet in the blend. (I was assuming it was 5%, but apparently in this vintage it was 13%.) It is a wow wine that easily holds it own next to a stellar Chave and Guigal La Landonne. Fantastic wine!
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1985 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne 98 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
This wine played hard to get at first with faint initial aromatics. Smoky with charcoal briquette and iron. The wine is quite cool and aloof at first, structured, with very bright acids. Mmm, OK, with a lot of coaxing this is showing amazing purity and minerality and finally starts to open up. This is a wine to slowly savor. Very pretty!
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