A group of NY area winos gathered at Inside on Jones St in Greenwich Village on Wed night to see how the 1994 Bordeaux vintage. The evening started with the
1998 Trimbach "Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre" Gewurztraminer. After I opened I passed it around as I was getting settled, unwrapping stems, etc. I heard someone say "very petrolly". Petrol, in Gewurz? But by the time the bottle got back to me and I got a pour I'll be damned if there wasn't a somewhat petrol note in the rather flowery nose. Good litchi fruit, some minerality, good acidity for a Gewurz. Very balanced - clearly Gewurztraminer but without any over-the-top qualities. A-Then the '94s started flowing, in blind flights of 2. As there were 15 people, we stuck to small pours. Which is my excuse if my notes suck :)
Wine 1A 1994 Troplong Mondot (St. Emilion) Tannic, with a slightly stinky nose. Some cherry fruit, but lost in the tannins. C+/B- 1B 1994 Clos de l'Oratoire (St. Emilion) More red fruit, not as tannic as the other, but still pretty hard. B- Both of these struck me as hard and thin. After they were revealed I was surprised neither showed much overt oak, compared to other vintages. Not an auspicious start.
3A (order of flights was changed, as one of trhe wines for flight 2 was a late arrival) 94 Trotanoy (Pomerol) Blackcurrant fruit, medium body. Not great, but better than previous flight. Tasted later in evening after unveiling it showed a bit deeper fruit and some earth. B 3B - 94 Lafleur (Pomerol) I consider myself on the insensitive side of the TCA spectrum, but this one hit me in the face. Too bad.Not looking so good for the '94 vintage so far. I thought the food at Inside was mostly tasty, but the appetizer list offered little in the way of traditionally claret-friendly. So I just said the hell with it and ordered a oyster pan-roast. Luckily about this time a bottle of
2002 Huet "Le Mont" Vouvray Demi-sec showed up (not a great match, but better than a tannic Bordeaux!). Nice nose with a little chenin funk, apple and honey on the palate. A-Back to the #2 flight:
2A 1994 l’Evangile (Pomerol) Minerally, ripe lush red fruit. Very good. B+/A- 2B 1994 Clinet (Pomerol) Bam, big in your face nose. Lots of red fruit, some earth and herbs. Well-balanced with some acidic zip. A-Hey, things are looking up.
4A Haut Brion (Pessac-Leognan) Balanced fruit and tannins, dark fruit, some tobacco. B+ 4B 94 La Mission Haut Brion (Pessac-Leognan) I really found this hard at first.But with a little coaxing seemed to open up. Mineral and red fruit. B/B+About this time my food arrived, a nice steak (though a bit overdone) with a tapenade topping and fava beans. A steak helped with the tannins as we moved to the next flight:
5A 94 Leoville Poyferre (St. Julien) Blackcurrant and blackberry nose with some cedar/cigarbox. B++ 5B 94 Leoville Barton (St. Julien) Blackfruit, good structure, though tannic. B+ Others found this lean and tight.While this was monetarily the cheapest flight, I quite enjoyed (the steak probably helped)
Next up
6A 94 Pichon Lalande (Pauillac) Earthy, sweet fruit, but tannic. B/B- 94 Cos d'Estournel (St. Estephe) Black fruit (my notes are really fading here) B7A 94 Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac)(from Magnum) Muted nose, but ripe fruit and long finish. B+
7B 94 Latour (Pauillac) Bright floral and red fruit nose. Earth and minerals, good finish. B+/A-Group favorites were l’Evangile, Haut-Brion, and Latour. Clinet was my WOTN, I was sole vote for it however.
1980 Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port Cherry, medium-body, sweet and nice. B+ (like I could think clearly at that point).A nice night. I think I liked the style of the '94s better than most present. Thanks to Arv for organizing, Jay for arranging Inside, Matt for faxing me my notes which I left on table in a mad dash to meet a friend who was giving me ride back to Westchester.
My usual disclaimer: I'm a pretty easy grader, basically A is a very good wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice Dale
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