Sunday, June 04, 2006
California/French showdown in Greenwich
On Friday, May 12, I led a group through a dinner featuring some of the great wines of California and France of the past 30 years. Many, many thanks to the hosts for supplying such great wines and arranging a fabulous meal to go with them.
Here's a recap of my impressions of the wines from last Friday.
Flight One:
We started with the 1978 Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet. A little bit of "bottle stink" when it was opened blew off quickly (fortunately, before anyone got a glass in their hand), leaving a moderately scaled wine with decent fruit remaining, but very little tannin--"smooth" was an adjective heard a few times. Most of the group ranked this second, behind the 1978 Leoville-Las Cases, which was showing more minerals and earth, and reasonable structure. I quite liked the 1978 Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace, but it had a bit too much tannin relative to the fruit, and most of the group ranked this last. I thought the Las Cases was the best of the three, and would give a slight edge to the Diamond Creek over the Jordan, although I can see why that's a minority view.
Flight Two:
An interesting group, not at all what I expected. The 1985 Sterling was pretty mature, and a little outclassed by the other two. The 1985 Margaux started out beautifully, not a huge wine, but very complex and elegant; it didn't seem to go anywhere in the glass, though, which surprised me. The real surprise for me here was the 1985 B.R. Cohn Olive Hill. I had no idea what to expect of this, but what we got was a real Helen Turley wine--high alcohol, a little residual sugar (which turned a couple of tasters off), much more concentrated than the other two, with its age showing in its complexity, but not in a loss of fruit like the Sterling or the 1978 wines. For me, this was one of the highlights of the night, but I can certainly understand the reactions of those who didn't love it (and, really, who is Helen Turley to say that thousands of years of winemaking have been wrong?).
Flight Three:
I liked the 1996 Mondavi Reserve better than the 1997 Opus One, but this was a distinct minority view. The fruit was certainly more forward, and I thought the Opus was a bit overoaked. The majority of the group thought that the Mondavi was a little boring, I think, and preferred the more traditional style that the Opus was made in.
Flight Four:
For most, perhaps all, of the group, this was the highlight of the night. I agree with that, although my single favorite wine was the Montrose from the next flight. This was also interesting as a personality test. Some people liked the 1995 Joseph Phelps Insignia and 1993 Peter Michael Les Pavots; others (including me) gave the edge to the 1997 Pahlmeyer Red and the 1989 Lynch-Bages. No one (at least, no one who spoke up) grouped them any other way. The Insignia and Peter Michael were different, with the Insignia showing a little more California, the Peter Michael a little more French-style oak (in a more attractive way to me than the Opus), but both were much smaller in scale than the other two. The Pahlmeyer Red hit some of the same notes as the B.R. Cohn, but was both more concentrated and more complex, a remarkable achievement; there was plenty of tannin, but so much fruit that it came across as perfectly balanced despite its concentration. The Lynch-Bages was very good, but the tannin was a little less well integrated into the whole, making it less appealing overall.
Flight Five:
The 1991 Dominus ran third in this group; it was less intense than I would have thought, and compared to the 1993 Dalla Valle Maya, less elegant as well. The Maya was outstanding--reasonably powerful, perhaps more so than we might have realized with the 1990 Montrose next to it, but also extremely elegant and balanced. (I know, I just used that adjective twice, but it's the best one I can find for it.) The 1990 Montrose, as expected, was freakishly concentrated, and this bottle didn't show too much of the horsiness that can characterize Montrose in general and this wine in particular. It lived up to its reputation as a wine like almost no other ever made in Bordeaux. For me, this was the wine of the night.
Flight Six:
The 1963 Croft was showing very well; fully mature, but plenty of punch left to it, and it wasn't showing alcoholic heat at all. And, of course, the 1986 Yquem was great, very rich, good tropical fruit flavors, and enough acidity to balance out the sugar.
My overall ranking:
1) 1990 Montrose
2) 1997 Pahlmeyer
3) 1986 Yquem
4) 1985 B. R. Cohn
5) 1963 Croft
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A contaminant often found in winemaking facilities, brettanomyces, can find its way into the wine, and when it does, one of the characteristic smells is often described as "like a sweaty horse." Some bottles of 1990 Montrose are *much* more like this than others--maybe some barrels had more of it? In very small quantities it can add some complexity (and a few operations, especially in the Rhone, even seem to go for that--I guess that's the "it's not a bug, it's a feature" school of winemaking).
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