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Old Bordeaux Dinner
Hong Kong Country Club, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong
Tasted June 4, 2015 by Goldstone with 681 views
Introduction
Seven of us gathered over a super dinner in the Grill Room of the Hong Kong Country Club to try super array of old Bordeaux wines contributed with amazing generosity by Jeremy.
Flight 1 - Steamed White Asparagus with Shaved Belotta ham (2 notes)
Simple dish that let the perfect quality of the component ingredients sing and that perfectly complemented the two white Burgundies, especially as they moved towards room temperature.
White
2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Domaine
90 points
Nice lightly bronzed gold colour. Smoky and burnt rubber nose with some hints of butterscotch followed by that lovely smell of new tennis balls. Palate is beautiful rounded burnt rubber, charred oak barrels and those tennis balls again with warm thick butter on the back end then rich butterscotch on the finish. Good balance of medium acidity. Got better with more time in the glass and some warming but remained a bit disappointing in length or resonance.
White
1990 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot
94 points
Daerker brass-gold colour but still very fresh-jeweled and bright in the glass....no-one could guess it was 25 years old. Nose is subtle and multi-layered: deep bass notes then seashells, ozone, melted butter, rounded pebbles in a saltwater stream. Palate is gorgeously deep and unctuous, perfectly harmonised and all round edges like the pebbles from the nose but with an added element of slightly carmelised butter. Grows and expands in the head on the finish - it positively billows. Serious length and resonance....deep and growling. It's that rounded pebble thing you remember the most, though.
Flight 2 - Frogs Legs "Bernard Loiseau" Style. (1 note)
Red
1968 Château Lafite Rothschild
92 points
Light, totally transparent, amber-crimson-sepia hue. Nose is gorgeous: light and fleeting like a water-based perfume, some pencil lead and pencil shavings, tons of fruit still - like confit raspberry. No sign of oxidisation or mustiness. Palate still has a lot of acidic life together with a lightly dusted attic and an old aunt who smells of talcum powder. Lightly resonant but still definitely resonant. For me, a perfect old wine on the nose and impressive for such an unremarkable year. However, this did drop off quite quickly in the glass.
Flight 3 - Seared Sea Bass (2 notes)
Red
1933 Château Haut-Brion
flawed
Mid shoulder fill. Still a rich opaque crimson colour but discernable signs of separation. Nose is attractive briar fruit and blackberry jam. Unfortunately the palate is dead on arrival, very tannic and like eating a cigar the day after it had been stubbed out.
Red
1943 Château Léoville Las Cases
flawed
Typical of a Las Cases, this showed an impenetrably opaque black-red colour with just hints of amber on the meniscus. Sadly, both on the nose and particularly the palate it was completely past its sell-by date..
Flight 4 - Roast Suckling Pig (2 notes)
This was an absolutely divine dish that still hung to my taste buds the following morning.
Red
1949 Château Latour Grand Vin
flawed
Bottom shoulder fill. Plum-amber in colour and with distinct signs of separation. Tired nose of old rubber inner tubes. Palate is verly acidic and with very sharp plum stone......like unpleasant cherry medicinal pastilles. Not nice.
Red
1979 Château Latour Grand Vin
88 points
Lovely jeweled translucent ruby-claret purple-ish colour. Nose is deep bass organ notes, resonant but surprisingly restrained - you have to chase after it. Palate is absolutely gorgeous on entry, very harmonious, definitely Pauillac with cedar, pencil shavings, graphite and dry fresh-sawn plank wood together with black cherry fruit but with the cherry stones still in them. Unfortunately too tannic to be really enjoyable. Not much length or resonance.
Flight 5 - Filet of "Allaiton" Lamb (2 notes)
Red
1968 Penfolds Grange
flawed
Dense, dusky purple-brick dust red in colour. Nose is slightly oxidised Oloroso sherry that sadly didn't blow off. Palate is sweet, very rich but has a cognac and overly candied boiled sweet element that lacks the usually multidimensionality of an old Grange. Black coal and rather stale molasses. Rather harsh and hot finish. Heady and resonant but clearly an imperfectly kept bottle. Too disappointed to score it but interesting to have drank it. Apparently, another bottle from the same collection opened two days ago was much better. Damn.
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Red
1973 Château Cheval Blanc
95 points
Low neck fill. Totally transparent but with a very harmonious and consistent light ruby colour.....it looks jeweled and fresh still. Nose is lovely - seductive, rich, dried herbs still hanging on the bush on a sun-baked dry earth hillside with a few drops of misty rain. I can't stop sniffing this. Palate is light but gorgeously poised, good acidity balanced perfectly by light red fruits of raspberry and redcurrant. Gosh, I'm having a silence attack. Lightly, femininely resonant and reverberant. Absolutely brilliant....wow....wow...clearly a perfect bottle.
Flight 6 - Daube of Slow-Cooked Beef Cheek (2 notes)
Red
1976 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron
91 points
High neck fill. Lovely jewelled, bright translucent ruby colour. Nose is slightly old faded velvet furniture, fully mature, autumnal plums.....but early autumn. Palate is beautifully elegant and well-defined, classic Pauillac pencil shavings and pencil lead. It still has very good structured tannins. Some length.
Red
1976 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
88 points
High shoulder fill. Bright transparent dark ruby jewel colour. Nose is much richer and plusher than the 1976 Pichon Baron drank alongside it. Some musk in a pleasant way. Palate is all smoothed out and with plummy tertiary character and started to seem flattened out and well past its prime but then some enjoyable belly-filling fruit emerged - like a Lynch Bages - and it became more secondary. Not as much power or length as you might expect.....actually, a rather tired but interesting bottle.
Flight 7 - Selection of Fine French Cheese (2 notes)
Red
1970 Château Brane-Cantenac
92 points
High shoulder fill. Totally transparent but still a lovely bright light ruby colout. Nose is captivating - sweet, light, fragrant rose and raspberry. Palate is wow......wonderful structure, graceful tannins, rich but light in body yet somehow with real power. The finish is mouth coating and with a super resonance and revererance that is impressively long. Almost as good on the night as the 1973 Cheval Blanc. Brilliant.
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Red
1962 Château Beychevelle
85 points
Base neck fill. Transparent but rich , bright and fresh looking crimson-ruby colour. Nose is earthy, then damp earth, rustic but very clean. Palate is fresh but slightly cola-ish. Rather pallid on the finish and in length/resonance. The nose is 91 but the palate is 84....... 85.
Flight 8 - Strawberry and Chocolate Dessert.....the Partagas Lusitania Cigar (1 note)
Red - Fortified
1977 Graham Porto Vintage
Not decanted (which was a pity) but drank slowly over Partagas Lusitania cigars (which was a delight). Semi-translucent rich deep dark ox-blood colour. Nose is attractively smooth and very masculine but quite reticent and seemingly young. The palate masks the alcohol well but this vintage is all about muscularity and structure and is still a work in progress......I drank mine from a Bordeaux glass, which helped a lot. It was a bit too late in the night to score this.
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Closing
The bon mot 'no great vintages, just great bottles' seemed very apposite........ with - for me - the 1973 Cheval Blanc being closely contested by the 1970 Ch. Brane Cantenac for WOTN. Thanks to Hans for the superb cigars and to the staff of the Country Club, who showed great patience as the night turned into the wee small hours.