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Acker BYO Holiday Dinner
Tribeca Grille
Tasted December 13, 2016 by MC2 Wines with 558 views
Introduction
Our first of these and what an experience! Many thanks to the generous folks who shared at our table and the others who dropped by and did some trades. Funny because even at the end of the night there was some some wonderful wine running around. Fun evening with some new wine friends!
Here was the menu:
CHILLED LUMP CRAB SALAD
American caviar, Green Goddess & Upland Cress
HOUSEMADE CAVATELLI
Lobster Ragu, Saffron & Garlic Crumble
BONELESS BRAISED SHORT RIB
Forgotten Vegetable Ragu & Truffle Butter
CHEFS SELECTION OF ARTISINAL CHEESES
La Tur, Epoisses & Tumbleweed
Toasted Raisin Pecan Bread, Fig Jam & Quince Paste
Flight 1 (29 notes)
White - Sparkling
1996 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
Wow - twice in one month! That's special. Still my favorite champagne although I'll say the Cristal gave it a run for its money. Beautiful and bright and vanilla and kindof some sweet notes but with great structure and maybe a hint of slate and apple and just very very very good. It was a great pairing with our first crab course.
White - Sparkling
1996 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut
Prob the best Cristal I've ever had. This was served next to my favorite champagne ('96 Salon) and really held its own. It's much too young to be drinking now - could go decades longer and the acidity just needed a bit more time to mellow, but still wow. Sweet and citrus and maybe some white fruits and hints of nuts. The opening flavors are beautiful and bright and then acidity jumps in and it finishes a bit quickly but very crisply. Left in the glass to open up a bit some of that softened down. Just a wonderful champagne.
White
1997 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes
I'm still chasing the 'wow' moment we had with the '98 a few years ago and while this was good and had moved past the oxidation stage, it was a bit more simple than that one. Light honey flavor and tasty, but more one dimensional and not sure I can use the word beautiful (it was also surrounded by some particularly stunning wines). Easy drinking though and wish I'd had it with the lobster dish - would have been a good combination.
White
2003 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne
The table generally agreed this was the best of the whites and I think if I was a white burg person I would have been inclined to agree. Even though not my style, I can appreciate the delicacy combined with a fairly long finish. I just don't love the flavor of chardonnay and this had it in spades. Showing very well.
Red
2011 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes
Maybe the biggest baby of the night (at least from our table). Red currant and branches and overall just tight. Needs quite a bit more time.
Red
1994 Colgin Cabernet Sauvignon Herb Lamb
This was a clear contender for my WOTN. Only had a standard wine opener and cork crumbled a bit, but we filtered and decanted and drank over the course of prob 2-3 hours. Kept getting better in the glass and I think we might have finished before peak. In the beginning the nose was better than the palette. It's got that standard Colgin Herb Lamb smell, there's cinnamon and lavender and fruit. With time that came forward in the mouth as well - first the spices and then the fruit (starts with a well-ripened - not overly extracted - blackberry but then blueberry as well). Very well done and very enjoyable. The kindof wine that makes you understand that Napa really can age.
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Comment
Red
1999 Colgin Cariad
This was the first vintage of the Cariad vineyard. Drank next to its older sibling the '94 Herb Lamb. Took some flak at the table for it, but I still really enjoyed the wine. It was a pnp and then drank over the course of probably 2-3 hours. There was a point towards the end where it had started to fade, but in the beginning it was a lovely more savory set of characteristics. Fruit more muted. Leather and cloves more prevalent. Good food wine.
Red
1961 Château Haut-Brion
There is a difference with some of these Bordeaux first growths. This is a 55 year old wine and it's still very lovely. More leather and earth and a delicacy to it that was pretty impressive. The finish just kept going on and on. It was really great.
Red
1995 Château Cheval Blanc
This was a popular wine for us this year and it continues to be very enjoyable. Drinking well at this stage, but no rush either on it. Drank next to a '78 and this seems to be in a different class. Again forest floor and leather and cigar and I think the differentiator is just a bit fresher and longer finish. Love this wine.
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Red
1978 Château Cheval Blanc
Similar to the '95 that we drank alongside. More leather and cigarbox. Starting to fade a bit and a bit more of a quicker finish. Still very tasty though.
Red
1970 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
From a magnum. Drank next to the '75 which was from the bottle. Wonder if this would have benefited from a bit of a decant. It was a bit all over the place and not totally integrated. Almost didn't seem like the same wine. Mostly leather flavor comes through.
Red
1975 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
This just jumps out of the glass at you. Dried fruits, leather, super alive, tastes like a wine that is much younger. Wants to be had with a steak. Very enjoyable.
Red
1987 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único
My WOTN which is really saying something. Opened and decanted and the first few sips were honestly a bit more in the good not great. Left the glass and came back to it and suddenly it's licorice and dried red fruit, and leather and everything is just getting a bit brighter. Crushed black pepper. With time the fruit tastes even less dried and more just fresh. The last sip was the best. Really wonderful and amazing wine. Makes me want more Unicos.
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Red
2005 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
Small taste of this. Similar to when we had it earlier in the year. At this point it's just fruit in the bottle. Very primary. Will be good, but needs a lot more time to get there.
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Red
1978 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Again a smaller taste of this. Fruit still going which is pretty surprising but also nice. More dried variety. Faster finish, but still a nice wine.
Red
2008 TOR Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 337 Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard
Coming on the heels of a Bordeaux this was more of the almost extracted Napa fruit wine. It's not over the top though and comes across as more fun and a bit like the child in me who just likes a bit of that jammy flavor. A touch of heat on the aftertaste, but suspect that would blow off with a decant.
Red
2009 Herb Lamb Cabernet Sauvignon HL
In that ever popular debate about fruit or winemaker this wine is an interesting point to the winemaker. It's a good wine. A bit overshadowed by the rest of what was going on on the table. Interesting too as we had an older Colgin Herb Lamb also on the table which just blew it away (of course in that case there was also 15 extra years). It's big and bold fruit similar to the TOR Kenward.
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Red
1970 Château Mouton Rothschild
Starting to go over the hill I think (or at least this bottle was). Small taste. Still that compelling first growth mixture of cigar and leather and old school library which I ascribe to a lot of bordeaux. In this case though just a bit better structured than the average wine although not quite up to the standards of some of the other first growths drunk that night.
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Red
1997 Paolo Scavino Barolo Bric dël Fiasc
Small pour out of a decanter, just in a really lovely spot right now. Spicy. Saddle. Very good.
Red
2011 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon Monsieur Étain
Hard for this wine since it was surrounded by quite a few beauties and mostly old world and next to them it just seemed a bit too extracted and fruit forward without that fun factor I mentioned in some other notes. 2011 was a tough vintage so could be that.
Red
2000 Château Pavie
Yum! This wine is pure velvet. Red currant, leather, smooth, beautiful bottle. It's very young in it's life, but with the decant (which I assume had happened a few hours before) it was drinking very well.
Red
2011 Screaming Eagle Second Flight
Drank straight from the bottle and not sure that this didn't need a decant. Smallish pour which I tried to save for later to give it some time to open up. At this point it was mostly just tight and just a bit too much. Even revisited at the end of the night wasn't really singing. Had some hard competition though.
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Red
1954 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Bosconia
Drinking incredibly well. I'm surprised at how very young this wine is. It was a quick taste so don't have lots of detailed notes. Caramel, dried fruit tomato paste, and leather. Very flavorful. Can tell that it has some age, but it's not overdone.
Red
1991 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne
Opened this prob an hour into the night and decanted and at first it was all tight and tasted like a 2 year old wine. It opened up really well though over time and suspect it's a wine that would be even better the next day. A bit of meat and salinity and dark fruits. Very very good.
Red
2005 Sine Qua Non Pinot Noir Over & Out
My first SQN Pinot and man is it fun! Exactly what you would expect of Manfred. There's an elegance to it and yet there's almost almost every flavor you can possibly get out of the Pinot grape. Even a meatiness. Lots of red fruit. Tastes a bit like candy. Love it.
Red
1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba
Poured out of a magnum. Maybe 20 years is the sweet spot for these Barolos because this one was also just right on. Bright and fruity and pretty. I really enjoyed it.
Red
1966 Château Latour Grand Vin
flawed
I am pretty sure that this was flawed. Or maybe it had just been open a bit too long when we got to it. It was a lot like straight alcohol in a bottle. Too bad.
Red
1989 Château Margaux
Beautiful wine. Surprised that this didn't get finished at the table it was at. Perhaps was a bit less pliable when first opened. Again that elegant mix of the library (leather, cigar, maybe even the old pages of books). Very much enjoyed.
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Red
2007 Favia La Magdalena
Last wine of the night and coming on the heels of a 1989 Margaux so perhaps not the best notes I've ever taken. This was just a big wine. Much more heavy and less nuanced. Fruit dominated.
Closing
WOTN was the 1987 Unico for me. I thought it was going to be the 1994 Colgin Herb Lamb, but that Unico just really snuck up on me. Really no bad bottles though. Looking forward to next year!