Ch. St. Jean

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Bill Spohn 21 years ago

Notes from a Château St. Jean 'survey' tasting dinner recently.

2002 Sonoma county Fume Blanc - light colour, crisp spicy fruit nose and decent acidity. Could live without the oak in this sort of wine. Nice, but didn't get in the way of the conversation. Served with arugula, chanterelle and chevre salad.

2002 Sonoma county Chardonnay - a typical medium weight oaked chard, soft and sweet with good terminal acidity. Inexpensive, but ultimately uninteresting - just not my style. With grilled ahi.

2002 Sonoma County Pinot Noir - dark wine, with a slightly heavy nose of cherry and wood. Some sweet and some acid, but not well melded. Uninteresting wine. Served with rabbit loin with fig and peppercorn glaze.

2000 Sonoma County Merlot - ah - signs of interest! Definite dark chocolate aromas, decent concentration and length, a passable wine, though not worth the local $46 Can. Price tag. I looked up the parker note on this later - 77 points and chalky tannins in a lean wine - must have been tasting a completely different wine, as this one bears no resemblance to that description. With lamb sirloin with truffle sauce.

2001 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon - a bit of cocoa in the nose, and some dark cherry. Decent concentration and length, the wood not overdone, and the first really worthy wine tonight. With stilton, marinated (God only knows why) with Port syrup (barbarians trying to pass themselves off as trendy chefs, no doubt). The cheese alone (I managed to get some unsullied fromage) didn't do the wine any favours, and I'm sure the sweet syrup would torture it beyond reason.

2000 Cinq Cepages - first bottle corked - not off to a good start. Second one fine, showing excellent depth of fruit in the nose - cassis and blackberry mostly. At first juicy in the mouth, then it goes through an elegant stage in mid-palate, and picks up power toward the end with good concentration throughout and a nice long finish. Very good wine, though the pricing, as is usual for me with American wines, leaves me scratching my head wondering if it is worth it, and mentally surveying all the other equally good or better wines I can buy for the price ($90 Can., $70 US) from other parts of the world. Paired (no doubt by the same genius that poured Port syrup on decent cheese) with chocolate cake and blackberry coulis!!?

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Ed Rasimus 21 years ago

The Cinq Cepages suffered immeasurably from success when the '95 (IIRC) was declared "Wine of the Year" in the top 100 by Wine Spectator. I had a half-dozen bottles, purchased at less than $30 US from the local shop. Two months later I found one on the shelf for $120!

I served the wine with Beef Wellington at a "Millenium" dinner on

1/1/2000 (I hope this doesn't start the discussion of when a millenium starts or ends---)

While enjoyable, I didn't think the wine was exceptional. Simply a nice dark wine. But, apparently by your pricing comment, the Shanken curse is still operative.

Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled"

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Hunt 21 years ago

Ed, I seem to recall the WS accolades for the '96, but you could be correct with the '95. I've always put down about 1/2 case, since about '94 and really enjoyed this one. I haven't gotten my allocation for 2003, but will probably do so. As to pricing, I paid US$35/btl of the '96, and US$37 for the '97. I drank up all the '96 that a local steakhouse had in PHX for $55/btl, until they flat ran out. Later, I saw it for $125 at Brooks in Den, then $450 there about 8 months later! The sommelier there was a good acquaintance of mine from the good old days in Den and I asked, "hey, what's the deal?" With a grin, he just said, "I can get that price all night long!" Now, this was before the . Com bust, and I'd venture to say that the $4000 dinner for 6 isn't quite what it once was at Brooks - but maybe I'm wrong. Heck, I should have shipped up my eight bottles, sold them to Justin and paid for a weekend at the Broadmoor!

The last price I have listed is for the '02 and I paid $60/btl - still worth it in my book, but starting to hit the ceiling.

Hunt

PS Bill S, I hope that you were tasting at a restaurant and not from a private cellar, considering the "corked" bottle.

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Richard Neidich 21 years ago

I kind of liked the Sonoma Chard....guess I am not that picky on my whites...typically I don't know the buttery affect of malocatic but I like this one.

Oh well...to each his own....

I think they are good on their Reds but I never can detect much in terms of complexity...they are nice fruit and wood bombs for me.

They do have one of the most beautiful wineries in Napa-sonoma.

Enjoy

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DPM 21 years ago

Ed,

It was the '96. My wife and I happened to be in Sonoma shortly after that WS issue was released. We'd enjoyed CC since '92 (I still have a bottle of the '94 tucked away), so we scurried over to the winery. They were still selling the '96 for the release price of $28 - one per customer! I've got it sleeping with it's '94 brother. Has anyone tried the '96 recently? How's it doing?

Regards, Dean

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