1899 Montrose and more

An absolutely stellar tasting with Ian Blackburn of Learn About Wine. We tasted: '86 Cheval Blanc, '83 Latour, '95 Margaux, '05 Calon Segur, '03 Calon Segur, '03 Montrose, '00 Calon Segur, '96 Montose, '94 Montrose, '90 Montrose, '89 Montrose, '82 Montrose, '70 Montrose, '59 Montrose, 1899 Montrose, and capped it all off with '95 Yquem.

So, for starters, '86 Cheval Blanc: The ethereal wine Miles (of the movie Sideways) held onto, and then finally drank out of a styrofoam cup with a burger- (N.B. His was a '61) It was what I'd expect of a right banker, but with the depth, balance and length of a Chevy. There's something about Cheval that marries the grace and light perfume of merlot with the stuffing of cab franc, and creates beauty.

'83 Latour- Is it blasphemy to say I didn't love it? Maybe just not showing that night. Too old to be in one of those famous lockedup Latour in between times, it just wasn't showing me the love.

'95 Margaux- I popped this bottle myself and didn't notice anything off, but later, in the glass, I got some TCA on the nose. It was a strange example, because it wasn't hideous, and even, still drinkable. Usually, for me, when a wine is corked, it's gone. I'm just not interested in drinking corked wines. This one though, it was only lightly funked. At the end of the evening, Ian and a few others tried out an experiment, we poured the wine into a pyrex bowl with some bunched up cling wrap, then tossed the plastic wrap, poured the wine back into a glass, et Voila, drinks just fine! The TCA notes were completly vanished, I couldn't detect it at all, and never would've called it corked in a tasting. The fruit however had been affected by the tca and wasn't showing, BUT, it transformed a corked wine into a drinkable one. Still, a neat trick.

Don't worry, I won't make drag you through all the tasting notes, just some highlights:

'05 Calon Segur- Yum. Buy it. what a great medium priced alternative. Great big fruit, lovely balance, this'll be a winner for the short term and the long haul. Most 05's are shutting down these days, ad going to sleep, but this Calon was rockin'

'03 Montrose- I was really looking to this one with excitement. I had tasted the '03 Montrose alongside the first growths and some other super second '03 Bordeauxs at a big tasting in NYC. I placed the Montrose #1. To me it was the wotn and the champ of champs. This night though, (3 years later) it's early sweet fruit had tamed and the structure won out. It's important to point out, that it was still a blockbuster, a giant of monumental proportions and will undoubtedly continue to be a legend. If anything, it was most interesting to me as a peek into the time capsule, a way to check in on it, and see how it's evolving. I'll have to check back in in a few years and see how she's doing.

'96 Montrose in some ways, my favorite of the evening. I'd remarked that more than any other, this wine was showing it's best potential. There were other wines that could be considered potentially better, and still others that may have shown better that night, but this particular night, the '96 was showing beautifully, it's fruit, structure, balance and purity were all there. It was at it's peak.

'90 Montrose- A Parker 100 pointer. I can see why- but I preferred the '89

'82 Montrose- right where it wanted to be. Beauty as an '82. it's amazing how wonderfully these '82's are still showing. The vintage that solidified Parker's rep, these are just beautiful. This 82 was no exception.

'70 Montrose- Had to look at the label twice. 1970. Really? As youthful as the '82, if not seemingly more so. The only other 70 I could compare it to, is a 70 Latour, and this Montrose killed it! This is why we collect Bordeaux...

1899 Montrose- Wasn't even sure what to expect. The oldest bottle of Red I'd had previously was a '62 Lafite. What can you expect from a 110 year old bottle anyway? The color changed in the glass as it was poured. as the oxygen hit it, the light red juice turned slightly brown in front of our eyes. Almost tea-like in character, nutty, light, velvet, it was almost more of a texture than a taste. In some ways, I wish we'd tasted the 1899 first, but it was lovely to have at the end. But not quite- cause then we had:

95 Y'quem- Boy is this stuff magical... This wasn't even a great Yquem for me. I didn't find it as usually complex and otherworldly as some of the others I've had, but even still, it's just amazing. Crazy weird tropical fruits, lilting finish. Some neat stuff.