De Grandes Dames | Vins d'Anthologie

De Grandes Dames : Vins d'Anthologie 

Wines of the night | LeDomduVin  © 

About a few weeks ago, on June 21st, prior to the 1945 horizontale (read it here), I had another dinner where I had to prepare, condition, decant, taste and serve some amazing wines.

A selection to dream of (once again) for a Sommelier like me!

In the order of the picture above from left to right:

Haut-Brion 1986

La Mission Haut-Brion 1957

Ausone 1962

Anglus 1989

Mouton Rothschild 1970

L'Evangile 1989

Margaux 1982

Lafite Rothschild 1961

Latour 1959

Cos d'Estournel 1968

Cheval Blanc 1990

Yquem 1990

The dinner occurred at a famous Hong Kong Chinese restaurant, but I need to admit, the food was not up to par with the wines selected for that occasion.

So no point to talk about the food pairing, and let's go straight to the wines, shall we?

Here they are in the order they were served.

La Mission Haut-Brion 1957 | LeDomduVin  ©

La Mission Haut-Brion 1957
It was amazing (no wonder the Haut Brion wines are my favorites) so smoky and earthy, balanced and harmonious and so flavourful... I could have stayed minutes just on the nose. Very much alive and kicking. Earthy nuances of underbrush, mushroom, game, figue, plum, spice and liquorice lingered in the lightly structured yet complex palate up until the finish. Loved it.

(DN-LDDV | 21.06.2016 | Average Retail Price 5,350 HKD | 620 Euros)

Haut-Brion 1986 | LeDomduVin  ©

Haut-Brion 1986

It was succulent and so youthful, but no surprise there as HB is my favorite wine. Almost a shame to open it so early. Earthy, smoky, red and dark berries fruit aromas and flavors with asphalt and stony nuances, so characteristic to Haut-Brion emanated from the glass and coated the rich, structured and textured palate, up to the full and generous finish. Harmonious and balanced by great acidity, quite common to most 86 Bordeaux Left Bank i tasted in the last 20 years, this wine is promising a bright future and still quite a few years in the bottle. Beautiful.

(DN-LDDV | 21.06.2016 | Average Retail Price 3,640 HKD | 425 Euros)

Latour 1959 | LeDomduVin  ©

Latour 1959

What a stunning wine! It had been quite a few months that I had not tried it and previous bottles were good, but this one was far much better than previously tasted and still so vibrant. Complex, long, rich, structured and textured, beautiful nose and stunning palate. Rich, generous, balanced, harmonious and solid enough to age quite a few more years in the bottle. Game, underbrush, mushroom, spice, wood and earth flavors mingled beautifully in the expanding palate and the lingering finish.

(DN-LDDV | 21.06.2016 | Average Retail Price 20,570 HKD | 2395 Euros)

Margaux 1982 | LeDomduVin  ©

Margaux 1982

A beauty, smooth and delicate, fragile but still very much alive and racy.  A ballerina as I like to call it. Floral, earthy nose leading to a velvety palate nuanced with dark berries, sous-bois and earthy tones balanced with great acidity and freshness tending to the gentle, silky finish. Margaux has always been feminine for me, and this 82 confirms it. A great example of what Margaux is all about, more especially in this classic Vintage. Great silhouette.

(DN-LDDV | 21.06.2016 | Average Retail Price 7,910 HKD | 915 Euros)

Lafite Rothschild 1961 | LeDomduVin  ©

Lafite Rothschild 1961
It worried me to begin with as the level was low and the overall conditions acceptable but not great, confirmation came with the cork being totally damp and friable.. color was dull and tasted a bit flat... this bottle was not a good example, though the wine was not bad but has suffered due to the oxidation and eventual old seepage. To bad. I tasted some tremendous examples of Lafite 61 before, but this one is not one of them. The problem with these old vintages of top tear wines, which traveled all around the world and passed from the hands of a collector to another via Auction Houses, is that it is very difficult to define the quality of the wine inside and more especially the conditions in which it has been stored all these years prior being opened. Even with my knowledge and experience of inspecting countless amount of old bottles for more than 20 years, it is always a difficult task. Difficult to prevent bad bottles from time to time despite obvious signs to the eyes of a seasoned Sommelier like me boasting a certain expertise on the subject.

(DN-LDDV | 21.06.2016 | Average Retail Price  13,568 HKD | 1580 Euros)

Ausone 1962 | LeDomduVin  ©

Ausone 1962

What a nice surprise as I never tasted it before and was not sure what to expect, but it was well behaved, on the light side but still complex enough to be really enjoyable.

Angelus 1989 | LeDomduVin  ©

 

Angelus 1989
Good and youthful but still felt to impress somehow despite its complexity.

L'Evangile 1989 | LeDomduVin  ©

L'Évangile 1989
Pretty good, consistent and well structured, and thorough till the end.
Too young somehow and slightly restraint somehow but still very elegant.

Mouton Rothschild 1970 | LeDomduVin  ©

Mouton Rothschild 1970
Much better than expected for a vintage that was not so great... but then again was not that up to the par for a wine pretending to 1st growth position a few vintages later...

Cos d'Estournel 1968 | LeDomduVin  ©

Cos d'Estournel 1968

Château Cheval Blanc 1990 | LeDomduVin  ©

Cheval Blanc 1990

Yquem 1990 | LeDomduVin  ©

Yquem 1990

Corks of the night | LeDomduVin  ©

Trouble | LeDomduVin  ©

Corks of the Night | LeDomduVin  ©

Standing by the ladies of the night | LeDomduVin  ©

...... till next time Ladies

Dominique Noël | LeDomduVin

1985 Chateau Cos d' Estournel Saint Estephe Bordeaux France

You probably noticed lately that my notes describe more expensive and high quality wines, and not anymore or rarely the good value that I used to taste, buy and write about.

Well, don't get any idea that I may have won the lottery, far from it, I just changed my job a few months ago and my boss is a wine lover and collector who has a great palate and extremely good taste for fancy rare and refined wines.

As one of the directors for his company's wine division and personal Sommelier, I do not buy anymore wines or even taste as much as I used to before while buying for boutique retailers and restaurants and I'm less aware of the current market.

However, I now get to taste some truly rare gems that I have never and surely will never be able to afford. Hence, even if only with words, I like to share these delightful experiences with you on my blog. It reminds me when I was a young Sommelier / Wine Buyer in London 15 years ago working with award winning wine lists full of these rare jewels.

I feel privilege and lucky every time I open one of these bottles, because rare and few like me have the opportunity to taste some if these truly sought after and revered wines combining history and stories, conveying emotions and nostalgia, as well as being the pinnacle of drinking luxury and the collection's centerpieces of the most established auction houses around the world from New York to London, Geneva and Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, I continue to drink pleasant, enticing, more approachable and accessible wines at home. Therefore I will go down from the luxury cloud from time to time to come back to reality and elaborate about everyday wines for everybody, not only the rich and fortunate.

Moreover, only writing about expensive wines will be like denying my roots and culture, and as a countryside Frenchman and grandson of a local winemaker, I feel the need to remain faithful to the small, independent, lesser known producers and appellations, which also corresponds more to my personality and interests.

I have been lucky enough to have tasted quite a few bottles of the following wine in this classic vintage, and I can't get enough of it. Most bottles that I have opened, although quite similar in taste and profile, behaved differently each time and evolved through the last 15 years, but the quality of the wine has remained constant to this day despite going through time and various storage conditions and handling. An undeniable sign of quality and potential for a wine of such a pedigree.

1985 Chateau Cos d' Estournel 2eme Cru Classe Saint Estephe Bordeaux France

In the glass, it exhibited a bright garnet color with slight brownish-brick nuances. The nose was nice and expressive right after opening; but knowing already that this wine needed to breath to fully unloaded its aromatic palette, I decanted it and went back to it after 30 minutes. It was then a fresh explosion of secondary and tertiary aromas. A meli-melo of nuances and hints all at the same time, dark and red berry fruit mingling with figs and old prune, mixed with floral, underbrush and oaky notes as well as mild spice, tobacco, saddle wood and soil.What a lovely nose. The palate was even more exhilarating and unexceptionably youthful (not all bottles are like that by experience, but this one was showing particularly well that day). Complex, rich with great acidity and earthiness, lively red and dark fruit and similar flavors as the nose suggested, but with more earthy, terroir oriented notes. Very long, well balanced and enticing, I loved it. It even showed the potential, texture and structure, combining the needed amount of fruit, acidity and tannins to last for quite a few more years. Definitely a pleasurable wine to get back to and give it a few more years to see how long it will last.    

Tasted on 18.7.2012

Enjoy!

LeDom du Vin