Last night with porterhouse roasted in butter with whole garlic cloves, we opened an 88 Lagrange from St. Julien. This is one of the last bottles of our original first-ever Bordeaux purchase, a mixed case of 88-90 classed growths. Color as expected for age, a healthy maroon with clearing rim. In the mouth it's much leaner than the 89 we opened a year ago, but very claret-y with plums and tar and some savoury herbs. Good with the meal, but the tannins got parchy toward the end. I don't have another bottle, but if I did I'd either drink it very soon or gamble on waiting five years.
The other night at a friend's house, the 05 Foley Santa Maria and the basic 05 Hitching Post pinots were served with a salad course. These are the first 05's I've tasted out of that area. The Foley was typical Foley with clean, bright cherry and tomato skin flavors. Good, but the Hitching Post had a depth and resonance to it the Foley didn't, and it was excellent. Without knowing anything about how the wines are made, it tasted like the difference between filtered and unfiltered wines.
With dinner, a 95 Ridge Geyserville that I brought was served. I've opened two others in the last couple years that were a little hollow and jammy. I couldn't tell if they were closed or just gone, but this one was back on track. Drinking beautifully now. Which caused our host to remember that he had a 95 Lytton Springs, so he opened that one: it was even more youthful than the Geyserville, and by comparison where the Geyserville reads 'blend' the LS is more obviously zin-dominant, and was the more youthful of the two. In fact, surprisingly youthful, this wine could probably age another ten years. Lots of black currant and bramble there.