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WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

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Bill Spohn

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WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Bill Spohn » Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:21 pm

Lunch notes for September:

Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna – damn! forgot to note the vintage. Probably 2010. Recent, anyway. Gold with green hints, lots of stuffing and good balance, and a nice hit of acidity at the end. Added some tropical fruit in the nose as it warmed.

2005 Guyon Volnay Clos des Chenes – good colour, decent raspberry nose, a touch lean in the middle, restrained, with decent balance. OK but no more than that.

1988 Ch. Clerc Milon – I brought this as I am doing a vertical at a dinner in a week and wanted a reference point. Good colour, nice claret nose that highlighted gravel, earth, capsicum and dark fruit. A tad austere and lots of acidity, as befits this vintage.

2001 Ch. Moulin Rouge – this Medoc cru bourgeois had a ripe smoky nose with soy sauce and meat elements and was slightly warm. Has tannin, but ready to drink up.

1994 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou – this vintage is always a chore to guess! Good colour, strong edges, sweet fruit nose, well balanced wine with medium length. Good show!

1999 San Lorenzo Sassotondo – made from the Ciliegiolo grape (which for some reason I always have trouble saying). Ripe leather and plum nose, ripe fruit on palate and decent length.

2004 Perticaia Montefalco Sagrantino – sadly, this wine was corked. It showed decent fruit levels but also an astringency and we’ll never know how good it could have been.

2001 Errazuriz Chadwick – this expensive Maipo Valley cabernet had a nice mellow cab nose, no poop or nuts like the last one I tasted. Medium bodied and smooth in the mouth, elegant and with good length. Much better than a previous bottle.

We still had cheese to go, so I offered up my back up bottle to replace the corked one from someone else (after a democratic vote, of course – wouldn’t want to overload them with too much wine).

1994 Ch. Bouscasse Madiran (Alain Brumont) – damn it if Jenise didn’t go straight to Tannat after I taunted her that she wouldn’t be able to guess this one! And then a short step from there to Madiran. Still a good dark colour, and showing a ripish nose. A brooding hard wine that is only now starting to loosen up and it went well with the cheese, which took the edge off the tannin. a savage wine barely domesticated at this point.
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Bob Parsons Alberta

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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:58 am

Everything I have tasted from Argiolas has been top drawer.
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:17 pm

Some comments:

Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna – I think it was a 2012, actually. Agree with your notes.

2005 Guyon Volnay Clos des Chenes – definitely different. Hard, in a way it's owner wasn't happy with. Showed more like a Pommard than a Volnay.

1988 Ch. Clerc Milon – What you said.

2001 Ch. Moulin Rouge – And again.

1994 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou – Exceptional for the vintage. But at peak. I don't have another bottle but if I did I would plan to drink the others over the next two years.

1999 San Lorenzo Sassotondo – I had never even heard of the Ciliegiolo grape. Good wine, though.

2004 Perticaia Montefalco Sagrantino – What you said.

2001 Errazuriz Chadwick – Decanted for about two hours, and completely ready to drink at this point. You said, "Much better than a previous bottle." You brought one to lunch a few years ago that we kind of argued about. I didn't like it at all, found it nasty green and weedy. Neither of us thought it was cork taint, but I knew I'd have never bought the wine (you and I sampled it at the same tasting and our wines came from the same source) if it had been green like your bottle. None of my three bottles--this was the last--had any trace of that.

01994 Ch. Bouscasse Madiran (Alain Brumont) – "damn it if Jenise didn’t go straight to Tannat" . Neener, neener. :D
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Bill Spohn » Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:18 pm

Jenise - have Ducru 78, 79, 90, 95.

Your last 94 would fit the vertical very well - maybe we should plan something.
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:50 am

Bill, unfortunately that was my last bottle of the '94. I would have sworn I had two 95's, but they're not on my inventory, just 98 and 01. I haven't begun to drink 95's yet so it's odd that I would believe I had them and for them not to be there. No matter, though, as you have that vintage anyway. :(
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Mark S » Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:42 am

Nice to hear that a 14-year old ciliegiolo is alive and kicking (I've always thought that this was a more early-maturing grape).
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Diane (Long Island) » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:12 am

Jenise - why are you waiting on the 1998 Ducru? I drank mine a few years ago as I was afraid the fruit wouldn't last. I am now thinking of opening my last 1998 Left Banker, Leoville Las Cases.
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:20 am

Diane (Long Island) wrote:Jenise - why are you waiting on the 1998 Ducru? I drank mine a few years ago as I was afraid the fruit wouldn't last. I am now thinking of opening my last 1998 Left Banker, Leoville Las Cases.


Seriously? Because I just hadn't got around to them. I had a lot of 98's, perhaps too many, but they were so cheap at the time I couldn't resist. Still have Leoville Poyferre, Grand Puy Lacoste, and many others.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Diane (Long Island) » Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:58 am

Well, I didn't buy too many. Apparently I don't have as much patience as you, which is why my oldest Bordeaux is from 1995. I'll probably read your notes and kick myself for not holding onto a few.
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:23 pm

You've got me curious about taking a look at what I *do* have left. I'll report back. My favorite 98 so far, and drunk within the last year, was the Haut Bailly. If you ever run into any second hand, it's a buy.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Diane (Long Island) » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:37 pm

My memory of the Grand Puy Lacoste is that it didn't provide much pleasure. I probably had my last one a little over 5 years ago. I, too, was buying them because the prices were so good.
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:42 pm

Diane, here's what I have left in the 98's. I didn't even remember having the H-B or LMHB! I paid silly money for most of these. It was in the "Freedom Fry" days not long after 9/11--the nutjobs weren't buying French wines at all, and the pointy people were waiting for the 2000's so a warehouse full of mostly 98's and 99's went up for sale and was purchased by one Dennis Overstreet, Wine Merchant, of Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. He rented a building and a moved all these wines through at, I remember being told by a salesman, $1 a bottle over his cost--he wanted them gone in a weekend. It was a flash sale before anyone had invented flash sales. The cases were flying out the door about as fast as they could unload them off the trucks. What was available for you to buy depended on where stuff was in the trucks. It was wine-sale mayhem, and the prices were ridiculous, like $16 for the 98 GPL and $60 for the Moutons. I loaded up the trunk of my little XK8, took it home and went back to fill it again two more times.

1998 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
1998 Château Faizeau
1998 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste
1998 Château Haut-Bailly
1998 Château Haut-Brion
1998 Château La Cardonne
1998 Château La Fleur de Gay
1998 Château La Louvière
1998 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
1998 Carruades de Lafite
1998 Château Lafon-Rochet
1998 Château Latour Grand Vin
1998 Château Léoville Poyferré
1998 Château Margaux (1.5)
1998 Moulin de Duhart
1998 Château Mouton Rothschild
1998 Le Petit Cheval
1998 Château Prieuré-Lichine (1.5)
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Re: WTN: Ducru, Clerc Milon, Chadwick, Sassontondo

by Jenise » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:43 pm

Diane (Long Island) wrote:My memory of the Grand Puy Lacoste is that it didn't provide much pleasure. I probably had my last one a little over 5 years ago. I, too, was buying them because the prices were so good.


I loved the GPL about five years ago, but the last one we opened a month ago wasn't stellar. Reports on Cellartracker were a bit more positive, so I'm hoping they're right and I'm wrong.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

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