Two bottles on my dad’s birthday. He tends to prefer wine that he deems good enough and that is not super-expensive, in contrast to my mom who has got taste buds and a great memory to boot. The wines, although pulled from a cool cellar, seemed to warm up in the stems all too quickly, and really showed better later in the evening.
Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste-Hune 1993
Perfectly stored bottle from a natural cellar, but of which a mouse appears to have gnawed off part of the label. The first bottle ever of all I have had that definitely tasted as if it had undergone malolactic fermentation (since there are two bottlings of CFE in 1993, the Fût #4 separated because it underwent malo, as I was told at the winery, there has always been suspicion that the CSH has, too – some bottles certainly show some traits – but no one I know got an actual confirmation). A bit under the weather perhaps (entirely possible given the heat and air pressure these days)? Tasted like a mature Pinot Blanc on the evening, when I had to put the bottle into a wine cooler and pour small portions, chalky and a touch hay-like. Better, that is, chalky-minerally, portraying better body and length the next morning, faintly spiky aged lime and partly dried herbs, a little pine forest earth and salted pistachio, good intensity, a bit tannic on the surface. Tasty, but hardly ideal. My dad was extremely happy with it, that seemed the important thing. Curious to see what the remaining bottles are going to be like. Drink up! Rating: 88-
Château Sociando-Mallet Haut Médoc 1986
Opened on my father’s birthday. Again most impressive for its depth and lively youthfulness of colour, plummy ruby-black, opaque at the center, lighter ruby at the rim. Started out a bit closed and musty-earthy without seeming at all cork tainted, then gradually opened up, without ever showing quite as well as the finest bottles I have had of this wine (which can be as good as its 1982 counterpart, and really seems second only to the 1990). Meaty-blackcurranty tobacco, quite thick and juicy, fairly full-bodied and long, nicely firm and round tannin, ultimately not the greatest depth of terroir expression, but nobler than its pedigree seems to suggest. Mild, finesseful, harmonious and rather longer with airing, more Burgundian perhaps as my father suggested, lovely wine. Rating: 91-?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti