Not content with lunch last Thursday, Jojo offered to host our little group for more wine tasting this Sunday at his shop - Premium Wine Exchange. Our generous host insisted that all the bottles to be opened would be from his personal stash and all we had to do was show up and enjoy.
For starters we had a:
Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 - Still quite tannic with prominent acidity. The fruit seems to be fading from this. Pruney. Not much on the nose. I would drink this up.
The next two wines were decanted about an hour and served blind although we were told they were both Cab Sauv:
Wine #1 - Initially, a bit of rubber on the nose which blew off to revela some subdued fruit. Tannic. Good balance. Decent finish. Good, solid wine rather than something of great interest. Mas de Daumas Gassac 1998.
Wine #2 - Very strong stinky, smoky, rather off-putting nose. Soft tannins. Seems to lack flavor. Hard to get past the nose. Nobody liked this. Chateau Cos d'Estournel 1996. Could this have been a bad bottle? Didn't really seem flawed, though.
Wine #3 - First of two bonus wines. Again, this was served blind. On the nose, sweet fruit, coconut, coffee. Tannic. Very young. Medium-bodied. Lots of fruit. Well balanced. Quite sweet. Everyone guessed New World and we were all so surprised when it was revealed as Chateau d'Aiguilhe 2005.
There was time for one more bottle and for a change of pace we moved to the Right Bank. We were asked to choose a year and Monty said 1989. We were also asked to choose the appelation and I requested for Pomerol so out came:
Chateau Le Gay 1989 - The nose on this was just exquisite. Strawberries, red berries, aromatic wood, tobacco leaf and so many other things besides. Unfortunately the fruit was definitely fading and the tannins were very soft. This wine has passed its peak. It still makes for a good and very interesting drink but probably won't last much longer. Hands down, the best wine we had.