October 28, 2005

Some great wines from a recent dinner.

Welcome to the tasting note portion of the blog. I taste alot of great wine and I like to share my notes every once and a while. This is some of the wines I had at a wonderful dinner at Montrachet this week.

The '82 Haut-Brion was beautiful with great supple texture and a wonderful femininity. Loads of tar, weedy tobacco and delicate cassis fruit with almost fully resolved tannins and a very long finish. This is an '82 that is rarin'to go. While the '86 Haut Brion lived up to it's reputation of the funk in a glass. Mushrooms and loads of tobacco with tons of cassis and gorgeous minerality. Super intense nose. Really comes out of the glass roaring. This is my favorite Haut-Brion ever because if it's very distinctive personality.

The Montelena's were interesting. The '80 was singing with lots of mint and menthol and sweet blueberry and cassis fruit. Loads of concentration and freshness on the palate with a slight touch of green tannin. The '92 was completely shut for business. Never opened up the whole night.

The Yquem's were great. The '90 was truly thrilling wine with pefectly balance between botrytis and acidity. Wonderful texture and explosive inner mouth aromas. Stunning finish and great delineation. Almost better than the corked '67 I had recently. The '97 was full rich and packed with botrytis. Little less focused than the '90 but great in a different way in the '90.

The '97 Scavino Rocche del Annunziata was dissapointing. Hot, out of balance with low acid and very candied fruit. Open for a minute and closed for the rest of the night.

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 9:28 PM