Tried last night:
1. JosephSwan Chard NorthernSonoma (TW; EB) 1984: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; rather toasty/smokey/oak bit nutty/aged Chard/tobaccoy/bacony bit melony/Chard fairly complex nose; rather tart/lean some nutty/aged Chard bit melony/honeyed/Chard/herbal some smokey/oak/tobaccoy some complex flavor; med.long quite tart/austere bit bitter/nutty/aged Chard/honeyed slight herbal/melony/Chard/minty strong tobaccoy/oak/smokey/toasty complex finish; not a profound old Chard but still very much alive, showing some fruit, and much better than it has any right to be, given the dreadful storage.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Was working last night on the stash of orphan wines in my garage, stored under uncontrolled conditions for some 15-18 yrs. I went thru one whole case of reds, Bdx/Oz/Spanish, mostly fairly good stuff (including Pesquera). They were old/dead/totally shot. Interestingly, the best of this sorry lot was not a red, but the BonnyDoon VinGris de CigareVolant Mourvedre '87. Go figure. So I pulled another case that had Chards. This first one, this '84, was amazingly good.
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2. JoeSwan's Chards back in the late '70's/early '80's were amazingly good. They were rich/structured/oaky, and had a strong acidity to them. Much in the style of old StonyHill and Hanzell Chards.
His first Chard was a '73 (I believe). Joe was well-known as being a pinch-penny. For his first Chard barrel aging, he bought a stash of used Bourbon barrels (probably not at his local HomeDepot, though), broke them down, shaved out the Bourban-stained insides, and rebuilt them. Alas, he didn't get all the Bourbon stuff scraped off and the wine took on a noticible charred/vanilla/Bourbon flavor. Joe rued the day that he did that & ruined his first Chard. It was a pretty bizarre rendition of Chard, but I sorta liked it. Parker gave it a 78.
During that first vist to Joe's, there was this guy off to the side topping up some Zinfandel barrels. Joe introduced me to him..."I'd like you to meet my cellar hand, JoelPeterson". Little did I know at the time......
Tom