Alex Rychlewski was in NY from Bordeaux this weekend, we decided to have an offline in his honor. Now, Alex is a tireless advocate for both less-regarded Bordeaux appellations and less-regarded vintages. Since we had already done a satellite offline this year (and there's not many decent Bordeaux Supérieurs to be found in NYC!), we decreed the theme would be "Good Wines in Iffy Vintages?". Arv Rao arranged a no-corkage dinner at al-Baraka, a Turkish restaurant in Midtown East.
All seemed fine, till 2 days before. Suddenly the restaurant owner realized it was Ramadan (how could he not have known?) and got nervous re having wine in restaurant. Pretty daunting thinking of trying to arrange an offline for 11 people on a Saturday with 2 days notice. Arv girded his loins with the righteousness of the winegeek, and did battle with the owner. He finally got the owner to agree- on the condition we kept the bottles under the table. Seriously.
A bit of a wierd night. Waitstaff totally ignoring us at first, with owner scurrying over to whisper "hide, please hide" if a bottle came topside for a minute. I was scared to go to the restroom, as I was near the middle and had open bottles on each side of me. At one point the owner said "people are fasting, it will be ok we can take your order after dark." !?!?!? There was a restaurant full of people eating. Finally, finally, they took our order. The appetizers were really good - good hummus, very good smoky baba ganoush, decent grape leafs, a very tasty stuffed eggplant, vegetable samosas. They were out of lamb chops, but most of us good varied kebabs (with a couple going for the lamb shanks). The shish kebab and chicken kokta were very good, the beef kebab unfortunately quite tough.
1996 Henri Boillot "Les Charmes" Meursault 1er Cru (with some recent discussion on a couple of boards about premature oxidation/death of 1996 white Burgs, I thought this could start us off). Slightly worrisome dark gold color, but no problem with this wine. Nutty, earthy, sweet fruit. A little tight at first, but a re-try later in the evening found a generous balanced wine. B+/A-
1984 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc (Graves) Old, musty (I thought TCA at first, but it was more a something decaying in the crawlspace smell than wet cardboard), a little minerality, not for me. At all. C
1981 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge Tired, leathery, fruitless. Arv: "this is the last time I buy a Domaine de Chavalier" C+
1993 Smith Haut Lafitte (Pessac-Léognan) Pleasant, ready, ripe, round. Drink up, nice now. B
1994 Beauséjour Duffau (St. Emilion) This was actually not on original schedule, I had opened night before, had 2 glasses, realized that it was 'On-theme". Friday it was tight and tannic at first, after 2 hours in decanter it showed as more lush, with cedar, deep red fruit, flinty mineral, and some balancing acidity. But Saturday night the tannins were more apparent (?), fruit less apparent. B on Saturday night (B+/A- Fri).
1997 Barde-Haut (St. Emilion) Oswaldo brought this to get some opinions, concerned that it wasn't showing the fruit that it had recently. Medium-bosied, nose of cedar, red fruit, and licorice. Picked up some depth over the night, but didn't have the chocolately lushness that I experienced with this wine less than a year ago. Getting tired or closing down? Still, a B/B+ wine.
1996 Troplong Mondot (St. Emilion) Double-decanted during afternoon, still showing as tannic and hard. Big, oak still showing, young deep fruit. Some feel the tannins will outlast the fruit, I'm more optimistic. B+
1996 La Gafflière (St. Emilion) Less tannic, more forward. Nice medium-bodied classically styled St. Em., but not exciting. B+/B
1997 Poujeaux (Moulis) Soft and easy, pleasant and ready. Fat, dark fruit, light toasty oak. B
1997 Sociando-Mallet (Haut-Médoc) Lovely, balanced, minerally. Riper and softer than most young Sociandos I've had. A little tight, but approaching prime time. B++
1997 Duhart Milon (Pauillac) Licorice nose, sweet fruit, but a bit dilute with a green edge. C+
1997Cos d'Estournel Best red of the night so far. Even for vintage, surprisingly forward for Cos. Sweet, ripe, easy, delicious. A-
1994 Pichon Baron Toughly tannic (opened 3 hours in advance). There's some real cassis fruit here, but this is tough even on a tannin pig like me. B?
1999 Palmer Goodbye, Cos. WOTN for me (and I think most people). Seamless and balanced. Big wine with deep blackcurrant fruit, graphite, and smoke. A-/A
Dessert
1996 Chateau de la Roulerie Coteaux du Layon Again a deeper color than I anticipated, but nice honeyed Chenin, with honeysuckle and almond notes. B/B+
1998 JJ Prüm Wehlener Sonnenhuhr Auslese (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) Sulphurous nose blows off, pear fruit with a distinct floral edge. Bracing acidity, I liked, but would like better with some time. B+
Fun night, great people, some good wines. We made it through without kicking over the sub rosa bottles. I don't think this changed my attitude much- there were some very good bottles, proving good winemakers can do well in difficult years. But there were also some real duds, there is something to be said for vintage generalizations!
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. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Dale
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