John Chapman meets the three Headed Monster

John Chapman was coming in from hartford and decided to spend some time in chicago with some of the EBob Chicago misfits. A person can only have an idea as to what its like to be at the same tasting with Messrs Jacobs, Albrecht, and Freemott but experiencing them is an entirely different and laughing matter.

With the wines that were being brought, this had the make up of a great evening and returning to le titi is always fun with the great food and first rate service taht they provide

Jay Carroll had joined us briefly and brought the 01. I paired that against the 98 that I brought so we could see what Kongsgaards are like with a bit of age on them. It would've been a great flight if the 01 showed the way it did for me back in march, but this was still a great flight of top notch california chardonnay

• 1998 Kongsgaard Chardonnay 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: wonderful and evolved nose of various baking oils, light floral tones, lots of mixed nuts, drops of hot butter and nice fat citrus fruits blend well together and help provide a wonderfully aromatic wine
  
  taste: great full bodied feel with well balanced and fat tones of citrus', crisco oils, and a good healthy dose of roasted nuts. So smooth, but it works well in contrast to the largeness of the feel
  
  overall: Great rich golden color showing the age, and the acidity is still in a good place to keep this together. This is just drinking perfectly and showing what a top notch california chardonnay can do with age on it. There is a strong resemblence to an aged grand cru burgundy with this and it just has a great feel with a citrus attack and roasted nut finish

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• 2001 Kongsgaard Chardonnay 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: tight, reticent, and unyielding at first, but with coaxing pretty white floral tones, roasted nuts, tropical citrus tones, and marzipan tones. It took a while to get open, but when it did, a very pretty chardonnay was revealed
  
  taste: good full body with nice depth providing tones of roasted nuts, lots of tropical citrus tones, and smooth tones of marzipan
  
  overall: while not as good as the bottle I had blind in march, this was a excellent wine. Good fatness to the wine with great depth and acidity. With the air it rounded out and opened up with a roasted nut attack and long tropical citrus finish

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This was a interesting flight to see how well these are considering how mediocre the decade was for bordeaux. The GL showed the classic Cordier funk but was a pedestrian wine in the end, but good for the experience.

I had high hopes on the 78 LTHB consider the raves that RP has given on it. Maybe it was going in with those expectations and not having them met was a bit of a dissapointment, but maybe I expected too much and should've just let the wine talk to me. Still, it is a good example of an aged graves, and that's always a welcome addition to a tasting

• 1975 Château Gruaud Larose 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  nose: bringing some bootsy collins on the nose(ie the funk) with some cassis and black currants
  
  taste: a bit dried out, which can be indicative of the vintage, with some various funky earth tones, cassis, and bits of black currants
  
  overall: basically no fruit. Its a problem with the vintage as the tannins have outstripped anything resembling fruit and all is left is tertiary characteristics. A solid wine with a thin mid palate and little finish, though the attack is earthen laden. in a way, this is a good wine to experiment with at the right price, but not all that exciting and I was looking forward to more from the cordier era of Gruaud(though it still had the cool old school cordier bottling)

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• 1978 Château La Tour Haut-Brion 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  nose: a very alluring nose that takes a bit to work itself out. Shy and reticent at first with mushroom tones, but then starts to open itself up into a classic graves profile with charcol tones, black cherries, tobbacco, some woody tones, and some slight hints of scorched earth.
  
  taste: well resolved flavors of porcini mushrooms, charcol, loads of exotic spices, and fat black cherry characterisitics. great smooth feel with well resolved tannins. Very pretty and smooth with a dollop of elegance and class
  
  overall: A perfect example of a fully mature graves. The wine was filled with elegance and class while giving a interesting and enjoyable backdrop of mushrooms. This bottle wasn't the stunner that was expected, but it sure was good and very enjoyable. Very pretty length and aromatics were the focal point as it slowly changed over the course of 2 hours

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Two real big hitters here with the Le Pavillon and the Roy estate, but really, the Angelus outshone them all. Its just in a great place right now and is drinking perfectly. Its in a sweet spot right now for lovers of quality aged right bank wines

• 1994 Château Angélus 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  nose: sometimes homer simpson just gets it right when he says, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yea, the nose is like that, so succulent and so expressive. The 94s have really started to come into their own on the nose from what I've had, and its a pure pleasure. Dulcet tones of roasted herbs, dark cherries, loads of spice box tones, with deft tones of cassis and cedar box
  
  taste: supple and smooth with roasted herbs, cedar tones, spice box, loads of red fruits, dark cherries, and rich cassis tones. Lots of depth on the palate that belies the preconcieved notions of the 94 vintage
  
  overall: this is drinking in a beautiful place right now. Quintessentially Angelus in all its glory, this is just a beautiful wine no matter which way you slice it. Pretty and elegant depth on both the nose and palate while still being a bit precocious, this is a wine that is just drinking great right now

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• 1990 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  nose: very precocious and tight at first as it took a while to get much out of it. It wasn't decanted and was acting like a pouting child at first, but when it opened up, it presented a raw sauvage character to it with leather tones, black cherries, dill and parsley, black olives and a good barnyardy backdrop. Rich in color and blossoming on the nose when this finally opened up, this was starting to turn into a real beauty
  
  taste: great medium/full feel that is deft on the palate but with a bit of a schoolyard bully in it too providing the back drop for tones of black cherries, dill, parsley, charcol, black oilives and a bit of barnyard. The way in which this moves across teh palate is almost a study in contrast with the class and elegance that it has in feel, but with the surlish attitude that the flavors bring. Very fun to drink and think about
  
  overall: This bottle probably could've used more air as it kept on growing and growing in stature. Once the aromatics opened up, the balance of it was just a thing of beauty as the flavors just melded almost into one but retained their independence. A very beautiful wine from a completely pristine bottle that had no ullage to speak of and the cork was in magnificent shape. I look forward to trying this again as it just kept on getting better as it opened up

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• 2005 Roy Estate Proprietary Red 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: bold and rich nose that stands in stark contrast to the french wines that were being drunk before hand. Almost zinfandel like on the nose with bold and dark tones of blackberries, black cherries, oak, cassis, and black currants. Its a nose that screams, here I am, what do you want
  
  taste: again, very big. not full bodied per se, but just big with rich tones of oak, dark chocolate, dark cranberries, black cherries, and a touch of cassis. Very rich and almost port-like in a sense, but not in an alcoholic way. Its very smooth and there is good body to it, but very rich at the same time
  
  overall: This is very young, but drinking beautifully already. There is definitely a youthful verve to it that is both playful and brash. The underlying richness of it sets the tone for the rest of the bottle. It needs more time to clam down some of the brashness for my palate, and there is definitely a zin quality to it that is both intirguing and odd at the same time.

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honestly, this wine just speaks for itself. This is painfully young, but is amazing already, one can only imagine where this will be when its fully mature

• 1996 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 97 Points

  France, Champagne

  nose: this is a nose that one can just get lost in, and these weren't even all that great of champagne glasses. Wonderfully balanced and full tones of almonds, loaded amounts of various citrus fruits, a bakers dozen of busicuits, and wonderfully ripe tones of green apples. The nose is just so densely layered and so fine that its delicate yet robust at the same time
  
  taste: explosive amounts of green apples, almond shavings, biscuits, and roasted cashews. Its just like fireworks going off in your mouth, but at the same time being sickly balance with deft precision. The flavors are beyond comprehension, but so youthful at the same time
  
  overall: um, yea, this is amazing champagne. Quite frankly, this is probably one of the best wines that one can taste and experience. Insanely youthful with a ridiculous amount of acidity, this needs some time to calm it down. That said, with flavors this delicious, its hard to resisit to pop the cork and experience this opus of a wine. There is no substitute, this is extordinary stuff with amazing complexity and length, but still needs time to fully mature. this wine just says, "hello my son, welcome, to the machine."

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This was a fun flight in which we got a bordeaux styled california blend and a big hitter from the classic 90 vintage in bordeaux. They both fared well, though I was slightly expecting a bit more from the GPL as I was wanting a bit time wine. Still, they were both great wines and it was a fun match up

• 1990 Dominus Estate 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: great balanced nose filled with mint, cassis, dark cherries, roasted herbs, cranberries, and an underlying vegetal character that adds a bit of charm to the wine in a way that a mole in the right place can be called a beauty mark. For me, this works, but it is almost too much on the bottle. It toes that line, but it worked on this night
  
  taste: really good medium feel with a rich cassis attack the gently gives way to bit of tobbacco, dark cranberries, and roasted herbs. The vegetal characteristics weren't there on the palate
  
  overall: Smooth and elegant that hits just the right parts of the palate. A very enjoyable wine that has a balanced richness to it which gives it a prettiness that only mature dominus brings

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• 1990 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  nose: sweet, rich, and quintessentially pauillac nose filled with red currants, black cherries, spice box, pencil lead, and pipe tobacco round it out. Very pungent and it just flows from the glass into your nose with deft balance
  
  taste: at first this was a bit thin, but it put on more weight after an hour or so(this had been decanted for an hour before dinner) with sweet and rich backdrop providing tones of red currants, black cherries, sweet spice box notes, pencil shavings, and bits of cedar. Beautiful balance and medium feel on the palate with a youthful verve to it
  
  overall: A classic GPL and showing off the 90 vintage very well. Great richness with a sweet depth to it. This is one that needed the air to strut its stuff and show off why its such a big boy. There is still a youthfulness to it and its very pungent. Tannins are starting to resolve and it posseses a long black cherry finish

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This was another fun flight. The Araujo had the misfortune of being after the Poker Face, but this was a real heavy duty flight and for me it was fun experiencing my first SQN red. It definitely lived up to my expectation and it was a lot of fun to drink

• 2004 Sine Qua Non Syrah Poker Face 95 Points

  USA, California, Central Coast

  nose: jam packed nose that gets you set for a thrill ride with layers of anise, black cherries, black berries, belgian chocolate, smoke, and loads of purple fruits. Very dense nose that just takes hold and emits from the glass letting you know to get ready. With as bold and big as it is, it doesn't go over the top, and instead its walking the line and getting you to expect it to be too much, but then laugh at you while holding back a bit
  
  taste: Big and chewy tannins with a largeness to it that stands tall on the palate with very rich tones of anise, coffee, black cherries, blackberries, 100% cacao chocolate, loads of smoke and packed purple fruits. Well layered that unfolds in the mouth and shouts at the top of its lungs as it announces its presence
  
  overall: this was my first Sine Qua Non red, and it lived up to my expectations. A massive wine that goes for the jugular but doesn't do over the top. Thisis insanely well made and offers up its own style of syrah that puts the grape on show. An awesome wine with richness abounding and while being full bodied there is a smooth feel as it crosses the palate. This wine was certainly an experience

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• 2004 Araujo Estate Syrah Eisele Vineyard 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: deep and rich nose filled with red and black fruits, perfumes, black pepper tones, and rich dark cherries
  
  taste: full feel with loads of depth on the palate with tones of red and black fruits, perfumes, and black pepper tones
  
  overall: the Poker Face was a hard act to follow, but this stood up well. Big, rich and full that exudes a confidence of its own and has loads of depth. Definitely shows its pedigree with the purity of flavors and a insanely expressive nose

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This was an impromptu wine as Steve had some extra wines on him if we wanted some, and this one just seemed right at the time, and needless to say it was just right

• 2001 BOND Matriarch 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  nose: this is like smelling velvet in wine form, just so lush and beautiful with layer upon layer of black cherries, smoke, anisette, chocolate tones, and black currants. Just so lush on the nose that you don't want to get away from it. There is also impeccable balance to it too
  
  taste: like satin on the palate. Beautifully smooth and velvety with lush layered tones of black cherries, chocolate, red currants, black currants, smoke, and anisette tones. The feel is just amazing on this. So much polish and the flavors have so much depth providing a lot of joy
  
  overall: This capped the night very well. This was my third time in 5 days having a bond wine, and I just love how smooth in all aspects they bring. They bring so much polish and the words velvet and satin are the two best discriptors that come to my mind when having a bond wine. It was just so easy to drink this and so pleasing at the same time that you just couldn't help but drink it and fully enjoy it

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what was interesting, was that for Jordan and I have old world preferences, all of our top wines(save for the Salon) were California wines. Hey, the quality was there and one would have to be a real stick in the mud not to recognize it

It was great having John come, and it had to be an experience meeting Chicago's version of Moe, Larry, and Curly, lol. Lots of laughs were had and lots of great conversation over lots of great wines and food