Gimonnet Cuvée Oenophile Extra Brut 1998
Nice stuff. Tart, mineral, appley, intense. I liked it very much, though most other tasters found it a bit too tart and intense.
Then we had the 66, 70, 75, 76 half blind with one fully blind joker. The colours of all the wines were very dark; no differences could be found among them.
Montrose 1975
A fine, typical Bordeaux. Sweet, yet earthy, cassis, typical brawny style. Very good.
Tignanello 1986
My note as written then: Typical Bordeaux scents, red toned, more mature than the others (maybe it's the 66?), with sweeter fruit, but otherwise very much the same style. It has noticable, bright acidity like the 66s we have recently tried, a bit of tannins and lots of cassis. Refreshing and long. Lovely. My favourite.
Oops. For some odd reason, I've never really warmed up to Tuscan wines. But within Tuscans I've preferred the "traditional" to the Super-Tuscasn. So it was a great shock when I chose this wine as my favourite of the day. It was a perfect ringer in being so like the Montroses - though with hind sight I should have blocked it as the joker because of the slightly more red toned and sweeter fruit. But in all other respects it was like the Montroses. I guess me picking this as a favourite is a portent that the world as we know it is at an end.
Montrose 1976
Most loved this wine. I didn't. At all. I could hear the sighs from the others when discussing this wine ("Otto is again a contrarian", "his palate sucks", ok this is a joke, but I do sometimes sense a bit of amusement and boredom from the others because I am so often of a different opinion). It was soft, lacked the savoury qualities of the other wines, was in no danger of being over the hill, but was of little interest now. It was also short, and the aftertaste was disjointed from the mid-palate: it didn't show a continous line from beginning to end.
Montrose 1970
Odd nose: all sulphur which didn't clear up during the evening. It did have nice typical Bx scents underneath though. The palate was lovely, however: great concentration of fruit, but lovely and intense acidity and very, very long. Nice, but what's with the sulphur?
Montrose 1966
The youngest seeming of the day: The nose had some evolved aspects like leaves, but had such sweet fruit that I convinced myself it was much, much younger. There was also a nice mineral component to it. The palate was very tannic, very acidic, very fruity, perfectly balanced, but seemed like something I would expect in a 1996 left bank, not something 30 years older! Lovely. My second favourite tonight!
With dinner we had a couple other interesting wines:
Fonsalette Cuvée Reserve 1998 was nice and vegetal, big but balanced, very true CduRhône aromas and flavours but much more depth than anything from there I've tasted before. Lovely!
Guado del Re 1997 was not at all to my taste. No sense of place or of individuality, only sweet fruit and sweet oak. Cloying and unsavoury.
Dom de la Vieille Julienne Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1998 VV was also very modern, but had some interesting savoury scents going on as well. Not my cup of tea, but an obviously well made wine.
Chéreau-Carré Muscadet The Severe and Mean Bois Bruley 2004 was much needed after these big and modern wines. Friendly, light, palate cleansing and life reaffirming stuff.
Then I made the fatal mistake of staying for and espresso, cigar and a dessert wine:
Yalumba 50 YO Antique Tawny was brilliant. Almost sherry-like, very sweet and intense with lovely acidity.
A Saison Dupont was another mistake but cleared up my mouth very well: fantastic hops, but a touch of sweetness so it isn't tart.
It's been a long, long time since I've drunk this much in one evening. I'd forgotten what hangovers feel like: bloody unpleasant.
