This time of year, as we start worrying about freezing pipes, we have a "closing party" at our hunt/fish club. The ladies bring treys of hors d'oeurves, the men bring in game (this year, fresh venison, grouse, woodcock, pheasant, and smoked brown trout) and we start it off with a winetasting. These are NOT wine geeks, except for a couple of us, but do bring in some exceptional wines from time to time. I took no notes, not even a list of the 20+ wines, but here are a few recollections.
1996 Cal Cabernets. We had two, a Silver Oak and a Hess Collection. It should have been no contest, and it wasn't, but the contest went decisively to the Hess Collection. The SO was all oak and tannins. I got nothing else at all, over a three hour period. The Hess C was open for business, with dark fruit and resolving sweet tannins, very balanced, and in a word, wonderful. Not as complex as some, but nevertheless the clear winner.
1990 Bordeaux. Again, two of them, by the same donor. Chas brought a 1990 Haut Brion and a 1990 Figeac. There was little fruit left on the HB, but the secondary flavors were gorgeous. I loved it, daughter Karn did not. There might have been slightly too much cow manure in that barnyard. But it was the bottle I sought out when we went to dinner. The Figeac, I think, was very slightly corked. It still had a bit of fruit, but it was hiding under that slight little whiff of wet moldy cardboard. Others did not detect it, and by the time Beth tried it, she had lost her fabulous sense of smell. I intended to go back to it the next day, but the bottle was gone.
2000 Bois de Boursan. Opened 6 hours in advance. This is how a CdP should taste. Still fruity, not closed down at all, and developing wonderful secondary flavors, with beautiful Rhone funk. Better flavor balance than the Haut Brion, but second to that one in gut level enjoyment.
1976 BV Cabernet - the regular bottling. Stored well, but showing only a faint hint of what it must have been. I went back to it three or four times during the course of the evening. It was better at 4 hours than at any other time, and unbelievably showing a little black fruit, but in truth it had seen better days, probably 20 years ago.
2003 Ridge Geyserville. This was probably the favorite wine of the night for most people. Obviously still very young, but the red fruit/pepper nose and fruit forward taste, followed by the spice and nice lengthy and sweet finish, made a lot of converts.
We wrote the names of all of them in our log book, and I will have to check it for the names of others. Perhaps one of the most interesting was a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet and Malbec from California. And a blend of Mourvedre, Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault and ??? - also from California. Both were young, both very interesting if in a new world kind of way.
Great fun. The evening ended with power going out in the women's building and all that chose not to go home (or were unable to do so) taking over the bunk room upstairs in the men's building, and the men there relegated to the sleeping porches - in 38 degree weather. Most of us had enough anti-freeze that it didn't matter.
