Saturday night 50 Bordeaux fans took over the main dining room at Triomphe in NYC for a horizontal of 2000 Bordeaux. As people gathered and socialized, several bottles of 2001 Les Arums de Lagrange (Bordeaux) circulated. The white of Lagrange, it had rich pear fruit, a light waxy note, good finish. A B/B+ on my easy scale.
We sat down, and wines flowed. All of the 2000 Bordeaux had been double-decanted 4 to 6 hours in advance. Some of the wines were quite closed down anyway, but some swirling usually opened them up a bit. Read my notes with even more of a grain of salt than usual.
Flight one: Graves & Margaux My first course was scallops in a porcini foie gras butter.
2000 Smith-Haut-Lafitte-Quiet nose, oak and sweet Merlot-ish fruit on palate. B
2000 Pape- Clément-earth and mineral, sweet cassis fruit, beautifully balanced A/A-
2000 Palmer - really tannic (all these wines are, but really noticed here) but great black fruit, fleshy but structured, A
2000 Malescot-St. -Exupéry- earth , a little animal , not bad B/B+
2000 Ch. d'Issan *- rich fruit, perfumed, very good B+/A-
2000 du Tertre - lots of people found it accessible, but I found this quite closed. Some black plum and cedar, the tannins more outfront and the fruit quieter than a few months ago (from same case). Needs time B+
Flight two: St. Julien, Pauillac, and St. Estèphe I had a beef filet over lambshank risotto
2000 Lagrange *-medium-bodied but with a firm structure, earthy, red and black berry fruit, quite classy B+
2000 Léoville Barton - challenger to the Palmer for my WOTN. Flowers and framboise on the nose, cassis on the palate, long long finish. A
2000 Calon-Ségur- ripe ripe nose, a little flat on the palate. B
2000 Pichon Lalande- initially I got a wierd funk- kind of eucalyptus meets pine needle, but that blows off, but there remained a definite touch of green-ness to the wine. This is a $100+ wine in a ripe vintage? C+/B- (lots of discussion about this one- a few loved it, a few absolutely hated it, most of us were in the middle- but I don't think anyone in the middle was rushing out to buy some).
2000 Lynch Bages- I thought tannic and closed, others disagreed. B? (with realization that almost impossible to know what'll happen when wine opens up)
2000 Pichon Baron -ripe tannins, rich black fruit, very very nice. A-
Flight three: St. Émilion & Pomerol Nice cheese plate ( I ignored the blue and the goat during the reds).
2000 Corbin* -fared very well against much more expensive neighbors. Sweet and round, open, mineral and earth notes, really quite nice. B+
2000 Figeac -earth and oak, almost California-ish at first.
2000 Pavie -lots of oak, lots of fruit, sweet, heavy. Well-made if not my style. B+
2000 Hosanna- ripe, ripe, very low-acid , perfumed, could be Napa. B/B-
2000 Bon Pasteur-red fruit, smooth and fat, somewhat short on finish. B
2000 La Fleur-Pétrus-lush yet structured, earth and red plum. B+/A-
Afterwards a few bonus pours made the rounds. Mark Goldetz had provided a double magnum of 1982 St. Pierre. Sweet fruit, a (pleasant) aroma of dead leaves, but fading fast, little in the way of finish. B (and drink up). A bottle of 1982 Pavie showed well, classic Right Bank, very unlike its modern successor. B++ The 1989 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese (1 star) showed more petrolly and a little less sweet than my other bottle a year or so ago. A little slate, some apricot and orange. B+ A 1976 Wgt. Schneider Merler König(? can't read this part)-Terrassen Beerenauslese had a little petrol, some (slightly tired) tropical fruit, complex finish. B+ (and drink up!).
1977 Graham's Vintage Port - I wrote "a little hot" (hell, it's port!) , still firm tannins, raisins and fig.
Kudos to the organizers (mainly Michael Jessen and Mark Golodetz), the restaurant and Chris Wilford the wine director (very accomodating, and food was very fine), Jim How and the BWE board, and the all of the guests, who made it a fun evening.
- the owners of Issan, Corbin, and Lagrange were in attendance, and offered us some informed opinions on 2000 & 2003. I was happy that all 3 of their wines showed well, as I could tell them how much I enjoyed them honestly and openly. I sat across from the owner of Issan (Emmanuel Cruze, hope that's correct spelling) who was very informative and pleasant.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent 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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