Dinner out with a friend. I chose the first two wines from our cellar.
We started with the 1978 Ausone, St. Emilion which had been decanted about 30 minutes prior. Gorgeous, leathery mature Bordeaux nose with soft red fruit and milk chocolate across the palate. Though entirely worth drinking on a special occasion, it was better, perhaps, because it was 30 years old than because it was Ausone--that sense of greatness just wasn't there. From what I've read, that's probably more attributable to the weak 70's era for Ausone than it was any problems with this bottle.
The 1990 La Mission Haut Brion, Graves, that followed was a whole 'nother story. Again, decanted about 30 minutes prior, this wine was that very rare thing: perfection. Violet/cherry nose showed more merlot, robust midpalate fruit was riddled with iron-rich minerality, a little tar and licorice. Incredible flavor, balance and length. Probably not yet at peak, but certainly at a place where it could hold like this for a decade. Originally purchased in Alaska in the mid 90's, the original price tags bear witness to the fact that I fished this bottle out of a sale bin for $59.99. Original price: $77.99.
From the restaurant wine list, I wanted a white stickie for the cheese course and I chose a 2003 Climens, Barsac ($215 Canadian, 500 ML). Any wine that followed the LMHB should have been anti-climactic, should have just been a footnote to the night, but this wine was instead the wine I woke up thinking about this morning. Every time I have a Climens, I wonder if I prefer this to all other Sauternes and Barsacs. Well, after last night: yes, I do. Light yellow color. Mindblowingly exotic nose of white flowers (night blooming jasmine, geraniums, clover) and white fruit that was so beautiful it actually made me cry. I have never reacted to a wine like that before. On the palate, lemons and clover honey, quince, a tiny bit of mint and about 118 other things I'm not sharp enough to give name to. Very sweet but not heavy, oily but not viscuous, it's lighter on its feet than any other 03 I've had yet more intensely aromatic and focussed. I've had Y'Quems, I've had everything else, but nothing, NOTHING, moved me the way this did. Just magnificent. Must buy some for the cellar--can't live without it.
in fact it was she, if I remember correctly, who said I should buy that '89 