Seattle Tasting Group does 1990 & older Bordeaux
Seattle, WA, USA
Tasted March 12, 2004 by Eric with 2,128 views
Introduction
On Friday evening I hosted the Seattle Tasting Group for a tasting of 1990 and older Bordeaux. The wines were tasted blind, apart from the wines that each taster submitted. I did know the full lineup, as I had to arrange things appropriately. After wrestling briefly with the best way to arrange the wines, I realized that I had different vintages of 3 of the 6 wines (1990 La Mission, 1990 Las Cases, and 1990 Leoville Barton), so I opted to do three flights of three wines. Two of the three wines in each flight comprised a mini-vertical, and then the third was designed to complement the others in terms of vintage, locale or personality.
Flight 1 (2 notes)
First we started off with a mini-vertical of Dönnhoff Kabinett.
White
2000 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett
Germany, Nahe
AP #77530100901. The nose is nicely advance showing plastic and honeysuckle. On the palate this is fairly heavy and sweet, far heavier than a Kabinett should be. This does show nice, lemony persistence, but compared to the 2001 it is monolithic and clumsy. I would never have picked these wines as back to back vintages of the same wine.
White
2001 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett
Germany, Nahe
AP# 77530100402. This is very closed aromatically with bare hints of floral elements and some mandarin orange. Oh my, the acid and balance here are amazing. This wine has such a stunning palate entry and just dances on the palate. This has amazing minerality with some citrus. Beautiful and racy!
Flight 2 (3 notes)
Next we moved to the warmup flight. The Palmer was the obvious "odd bird" in this flight, and every taster correctly guessed this.
Red
1981 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Very brown color. The nose shows roasted earth, espresso, mushroom and some heat. With time a almost Syrah-like element of roasted meat enters the bouquet. This has a very resolved palate, quite mature with a roasted feel followed by a medium-short finish. This faded pretty quickly in the glass, but on a fresh pour it was lovely. Despite the less than flattering descriptors, this is a very charming Claret!
Red
1989 Château Palmer
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
This showed very strangely and was in a fairly closed, awkward state. The nose was floral with loads of brown sugar, toasty oak and asian spice. On the palate this was shut down pretty hard and not giving up much other than a feeling of impressive structure. It was clearly a quality wine yet nowhere near ready for consumption and somewhat difficult to evaluate.
Red
1990 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Oh my! This shows roasted earth, espresso, minerals, and licorice. A simply gorgeous nose. On the palate this shows a huge whack of structure and was very closed, black and tight for quite a while, smacking of potential. However, over the course of 30 minutes this started to unfold and revealed a silky texture with purity and sweetness admist the earthy, roasted elements. This is so smooth, silk and stunningly long, amazing stuff that is still very young and just starting to unfold. It was head and shoulder above the rest of the flight. (1989 Palmer, 1981 LMHB)
Flight 3 (3 notes)
At this point we stopped to chow down some grilled ribeye, sauteed lacinato kale, and garlic roasted potatoes. Suitably filled we moved on to one best flights (the St. Juliens) I have ever tasted. In this next flight, most tasters assumed the 1986 Leoville Las Cases was the odd wine out, as it showed so youthfully as to taste more like a 1996.
Red
1986 Château Talbot
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Quite brown at the edge of the rim. The nose shows barnyard, tobacco and a hint of cotton candy. The palate is deeply tannic yet spreading and beautiful with just the right amount of caramel mixed up with earth and minerals. Compared to the 1986 and 1990 Leoville Las Cases served alongside it, this is on a much faster track to maturity. Very pretty and very enjoyable.
Red
1986 Château Léoville Las Cases
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
This is stunningly youthful in color, purple to the edge. On the youthful nose there is cassis, mineral and graphite. Wow, this is a pure expression of Cabernet, so primary and still very tight and closed. So pure and focused right now. This has a LONG life ahead and will likely be far better in at least 10 years.
Red
1990 Château Léoville Las Cases
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Holy crap, this wine is amazing! Dominant notes of cedar are tinged with tobacco, roasted plum, and lead pencil. On the palate this is just unreal, a revelation. This is so youthful yet so complex, powerful and long. Whenever I tasted this wine I had the equivalent of wine-induced Turets syndrome, as I would swear uncontrollably. The 7 tasters rated this as 98, 98, 99, 97, 95+, 95 and 96, the WOTN.
Flight 4 (3 notes)
This flight was the "Tannin Flight," and the ringer of 1990 Dunn Howell Mountain was right at home in this regard. My memory was getting a bit bleary at this point, as I had trouble spitting the prior flight. However, as I recall only Roy Hersh pegged the Dunn as the outlier.
Red
1982 Château Léoville Barton
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Fairly muted aromatics with a hint of cedar and graphite aka lead pencil. On the palate this is stunningly sweet with nice minerality. The finish is awesome, very well rounded, a beautiful wine.
Red
1990 Château Léoville Barton
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Stunningly tannic and primary. On the palate this is sweet with some cranberry. Very long. Very young. Almost painful right now.
Red
1990 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain
USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
Jason snuck this in as a ringer, and it did fantastically well. The nose shows tons of primary pleasure with mint and cassis. On the palate this shows just awesome, crushing tannins, long and silky, very powerful. Despite the mouthful of structure this is sweet, pure and lush, and very pleasurable. I know that people are very critical whether these wines ever come around, so I was stunned at how delicious and approachable this was.
Flight 5 (5 notes)
Finally we finished up a terrific tasting with an assortment of interesting dessert wines. Apologies on the sparse notes at this point.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1976 Château Rieussec
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Nail polish, caramel, and awesomely dark color. Perhaps this slightly oxidized on the nose, but it is a delicious Sauternes with so much caramel.
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