Arvind Rao and Asher Rubenstein organized a tasting of the second wines of great chateaux in NYC last night. The Deuxieme Offline was held at new Morrells Downtown (just north of Union Sq), very cordial group of 14 showed up. Red wines were served blind. I'll try to put any comments that weren't from my notes at the time in brackets (as I'm usually hopeless at identifying blind, except for my one incorrect guess I didn't even try). The numbering of the wines was a little funky, as there were some additions/changes between what people said they were bringing and what actually arrived.
1)1982 Les Forts de Latour Nose of dark fruit and (pleasantly) slightly burnt cedar, some earth and leather. B+
1A)1982 Les Forts de Latour (second bottle) Blackcurrant, cigarbox, earth, and leather. A-
2) 1982 La Tour Haut Brion Initial impression was that it was slightly thin, but it filled out in glass. Nice red fruit, some tobacco and mineral, although slightly short finish. B+
2.5) 1989 Haut-Batailley Slightly bretty nose, good dark fruit, but seems one-dimensional. B- [not a Second]
3)1989 Carruades de Lafite [Magnum] Great nose- earth, pencil lead, cedar and a touch of barnyard.Excellent blackcurrant fruit. A
4) 1995 Carruades de Lafite Somewhat closed note, a sour edge. B-
5) 1996 Carruades de Lafite Tight and young. Good mineral base under the fruit (which led me to guess it might be a Bahans Haut Brion , oops!) A-
6) 1998 Carruades de Lafite A little light after the previous wine, ok berry fruit. B-
At this point we voted on wines tasted to this point, then they were unveiled. The group favorites were the 1989 Carruades de Lafite and the 1998 Carruades de Lafite
7) 1996 Clos du Marquis Sweet dark fruit, tasty. B+
7.5)1997 Macarini (Long Island) !!! Ripe black cherry and cassis. B [A ringer Yaacov brought. Much more fruit forward than the wines that surrounded it]
8) 1996 Pagodes des Cos Soft, blackberry fruit. B
9) 1996 Reserve de Comtesse Good structure, ripe cassis fruit B+
9.5) 1995 Pavillon Rouge Floral nose, dark fruit B+
10) 1996 Pavillon Rouge Nice dark fruit with interesting edge of bitterness, lots of cedary oak, young. Very nice, gets better. B+/A-
10.5) 1998 Pavillon Rouge Soft, vanilla-ey oak. Dense fruit, young. B [I was a little surprised I got so much oak from the Pavillon Rouges, as my very limited experience with Ch. Margaux is that it's not very oaky]
A vote at this time led to the (gasp) Long Island wine coming in first for this group! Shock all around when revealed (I didn't vote for it, but certainly didn't suspect it as a ringer).
There was no 11, I think it was supposed to be the 1998 Clos du Marquis, but when I went to decant it was corked, so I had brought the 1998 Pavillon Rouge instead. Unsure re why there was no 12.
13) 1998 Fugue de Nenin Tight, closed. My neighbor Bill says he gets sulphur, but I'm not getting much of anything. B- [ Lots of '98 Right Bankers seem very shut down right now]
There was no 14.
15) 1997 Bahans Haut Brion Mineral, earth, tasty but with slightly green edge to fruit. B
16) 1998 Bahans Haut Brion Young, ripe black fruit, with flowers, earth, mineral B+
17) 2000 Bahans Haut Brion Beautifully balanced, flowers on nose, ripe (yet almost bittersweet) black fruit. B+/A-
18) 2000 Haut Bages Averous Ripe fruit, spicy oak, very nice . B+/A-
19) 2000 Carillon de L'Angelus Dark plum and berry fruit, hint of leather. B+
20) 2000 Dame de Montrose Initially I thought corked. Others (with better TCA noses) disagreed. Closed. B- [I've had much better showings with this wine]
I'm afraid I didn't note voting this time.
The dessert wines:
1997 Cyprès de Climens (500 ml) I brought this Barsac second. Pleasant honeyed peach fruit, good acidity, but one-dimensional. B
1996 Ch. Les Fesles Bonnezeaux (375) Apricot fruit, soft and a bit oaky. I had almost purchased the 1998 of this in Portland (where every store seemed to carry), glad I didn't - it's not bad, just unexciting. B
1997 Huttieres Coteaux de l'Aubance (500) Hope I got that right, not an appelation I'm familiar with. Sweet Chenin, nice ripe apples and apricots and a little honey. B+
Overall a very instructive and pleasant evening. Morrell's did a very good job. The food was quite good- I had a tasty quail appetizer and a very nice veal porterhouse (though I wasn't really fond of the veggie side). Others were happy with their desserts, I enjoyed the cheese. I had split a plate with Arv- Munster, Keen's Farmhouse Cheddar, Gorgonzola, Cashel Blue, & Cabrales. As we had finished the red wines I had concentrated on the Keen's, saving the others for the stickies (well, I did sample the other cheeses a little). Got involved in conversation and didn't realize they took the plate away before the sweet wines arrived. The staff at Morrells were extremely gracious, bringing back full servings of all 3 blues (even though our nibbling had made big dents in them). Thanks to the nice group (especially Asher, Arv, and Yaacov, who did the work) and Morrells, I had a very pleasant evening (except the train back to Westchester didn't have AC on).
My usual disclaimer: I'm a pretty 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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