So our Bordeaux group met for Haut Brion night on Tuesday. In keeping with a First Growth theme, we splurged on venue, with a nice private room at Vau cluse.
We started with Champagne and passed canapes- truffled gougeres, duck croqu ettes, salmon rillettes, duck croquettes, more duck croquettes, etc.
1999 Billecart-Salmon “Cuvee Nicolas Francois Billecart” Br ut At dinner a couple of weeks ago we had gathered most of the HBs , put in my wine check, and Ben carted to Vaucluse after dinner. I had planned to brin g a Comtes for the HB dinner, but won’t fit in slot in winecheck. S o brought this (not knowing the “competition”). Baked brio che, apple, pit fruit, with good acids and a solid mineral finish. Big but reasonably spry. B+/A-1996 Moet et Chandon Dom Perignon Big fruit, full, bread dough, mushrooms, big and long. A nice gunflint/smok e note. Really delicious. A-
1996 Moet et Chandon Dom Perignon“Oenotheque” Huge fragrant exotic nose, really noticable acids, young. If anything, I pr eferred this, but vast majority preferred the the original release. A-On to the reds, in 3 flights with 3 courses
Beef tartar
2000 Ch. Haut Brion Great nose, surprisingly open, rich and long. Sweet cassis, tobacco, spice. Elegant long and lovely, I can’t believe how well this is drinking , though I think has long future. A-1998 Ch. Haut-Brion Tighter nose than the 2000, buit opens up. Rich, full, spicy, long. Quite s tructured, B+ but will get better.
1996 Ch. Haut-Brion Tightest wine of the night. LOts of tannin, acid, with some black fruit in background. I loved this young but it has really shut down. B/B- for drinki ng now, but will be very nice eventually- I think.Next I had rabbit & reblochon ravioli with a black truffle butter sauce
1995 Ch. Haut-Brion Very open compared to the ‘96. Dark berries, meat, tobacco. Some ta nnic structure but goes down smooth. Very nice. B+/A-1988 Ch. Haut Brion My wine, yet my surprise of the night. The most elegant ‘88 Bordeau x I’ve tasted, with black cherry fruit, leather, cedar, and gravell y rocks. Tannin in background, seamless and long. A-
1986 Ch. Haut Brion A bit funky, animal and mushroom, and still some roughness to the tannin. BMy main was grilled lamb chops, rosemary potatoes, & caramelized onions
1990 Ch. Haut-Brion Lovely showing! Rich and deep. Rich and long. Did I mention rich? Black and red currant, cigarbox, leather. Long, deep, full, rich. A/A- 1989 Ch. Haut Brion The legend! Much tighter than the ‘90, but you can sense the greatn ess. Ripe fruit, black soil, herbs, leather Nowhere near mature, but really delicious.Incredibly generous of Chris. A/A-1985 Ch. Haut-Brion Certainly not as powerful as rest of flight, but gorgeous in an elegant way . Tobacco, minerally soil notes, cigar smoke. A-/B+
1982 Ch. Haut Brion This was really good, but not the stunner I’ve had before. Good dar k fruit, tobacco, pomegranate, earth. Good finish, but a little flat compar ed to previous times I’ve tried. B+ . Group voting 1990 23 points 1989 17 pts 2000 16 pts 1982 2 pts 1995, 1988 1 ptDessert people had mocha cake or pot de creme au chocolat, we all had the 1
970 Taylor Port. Macerated cherries, spice cake, floral. Very nice B+/A-Great night. Thanks to Bill for organizing, and to all for great company an d wines.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a p arty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivi ty, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.