A friend, Jim, inherited the wine collection of his father. The dad, a doctor, used to make annual pilgrimages to Napa Valley and come home with his Caddy loaded to the gills. He'd then offload the wines into the cold subterranean root cellar of his Kelso, Washington, home. He died quite some time ago and Jim would bring back a few bottles whenever he visited his mom, but she recently passed and the remaining collection has now moved to Jim's home. Jim enjoys wine but isn't a geek who would prefer a Heitz Martha's or a Silver Oak, both of which we've had from Dad's collection, to a
Kendall Jackson, they're all just 'Dad's wine' and equally treasured on that basis--as they should be. Anyway, every time we invite him to dinner he brings something interesting. Some have been better wines than last night's but never has any been more attractively dusty.
That dust, btw, is in large part Mt. St. Helens ash; Kelso is fairly close to the mountain, or what remains of it.
OldKJ.JPG
It's a
1986. The cork was in excellent shape--fresh color and unstained but at the tip, such that though we removed it with a Durand it probably would have slipped out with a simple Ah-So. Minimal sediment. Of course it's all tertiary now, but in a fairly grand way for a wine that wasn't held in high esteem even in '86. Decent fruit, nice oak spice, and a bit of coconut (American oak, I'm sure). Best part was the long aftertaste. Fun!
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