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Dale Williams
 
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Default TN: Big dinner, lots of 2000 Bordeaux

Saturday night 50 Bordeaux fans took over the main dining room at Triomphe in
NYC for a horizontal of 2000 Bordeaux. As people gathered and socialized,
several bottles of 2001 Les Arums de Lagrange (Bordeaux) circulated. The white
of Lagrange, it had rich pear fruit, a light waxy note, good finish. A B/B+ on
my easy scale.

We sat down, and wines flowed. All of the 2000 Bordeaux had been
double-decanted 4 to 6 hours in advance. Some of the wines were quite closed
down anyway, but some swirling usually opened them up a bit. Read my notes with
even more of a grain of salt than usual.

Flight one: Graves & Margaux
My first course was scallops in a porcini foie gras butter.

2000 Smith-Haut-Lafitte-Quiet nose, oak and sweet Merlot-ish fruit on palate. B

2000 Pape- Clément-earth and mineral, sweet cassis fruit, beautifully balanced
A/A-

2000 Palmer - really tannic (all these wines are, but really noticed here) but
great black fruit, fleshy but structured, A

2000 Malescot-St. -Exupéry- earth , a little animal , not bad B/B+

2000 Ch. d'Issan *- rich fruit, perfumed, very good B+/A-

2000 du Tertre - lots of people found it accessible, but I found this quite
closed. Some black plum and cedar, the tannins more outfront and the fruit
quieter than a few months ago (from same case). Needs time B+

Flight two: St. Julien, Pauillac, and St. Estèphe
I had a beef filet over lambshank risotto

2000 Lagrange *-medium-bodied but with a firm structure, earthy, red and black
berry fruit, quite classy B+

2000 Léoville Barton - challenger to the Palmer for my WOTN. Flowers and
framboise on the nose, cassis on the palate, long long finish. A

2000 Calon-Ségur- ripe ripe nose, a little flat on the palate. B

2000 Pichon Lalande- initially I got a wierd funk- kind of eucalyptus meets
pine needle, but that blows off, but there remained a definite touch of
green-ness to the wine. This is a $100+ wine in a ripe vintage? C+/B-
(lots of discussion about this one- a few loved it, a few absolutely hated it,
most of us were in the middle- but I don't think anyone in the middle was
rushing out to buy some).

2000 Lynch Bages- I thought tannic and closed, others disagreed. B? (with
realization that almost impossible to know what'll happen when wine opens up)

2000 Pichon Baron -ripe tannins, rich black fruit, very very nice. A-

Flight three: St. Émilion & Pomerol
Nice cheese plate ( I ignored the blue and the goat during the reds).
2000 Corbin* -fared very well against much more expensive neighbors. Sweet and
round, open, mineral and earth notes, really quite nice. B+

2000 Figeac -earth and oak, almost California-ish at first.

2000 Pavie -lots of oak, lots of fruit, sweet, heavy. Well-made if not my
style. B+

2000 Hosanna- ripe, ripe, very low-acid , perfumed, could be Napa. B/B-

2000 Bon Pasteur-red fruit, smooth and fat, somewhat short on finish. B

2000 La Fleur-Pétrus-lush yet structured, earth and red plum. B+/A-

Afterwards a few bonus pours made the rounds. Mark Goldetz had provided a
double magnum of 1982 St. Pierre. Sweet fruit, a (pleasant) aroma of dead
leaves, but fading fast, little in the way of finish. B (and drink up).
A bottle of 1982 Pavie showed well, classic Right Bank, very unlike its modern
successor. B++
The 1989 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese (1 star) showed more petrolly and a
little less sweet than my other bottle a year or so ago. A little slate, some
apricot and orange. B+
A 1976 Wgt. Schneider Merler König(? can't read this part)-Terrassen
Beerenauslese had a little petrol, some (slightly tired) tropical fruit,
complex finish. B+ (and drink up!).
1977 Graham's Vintage Port - I wrote "a little hot" (hell, it's port!) , still
firm tannins, raisins and fig.

Kudos to the organizers (mainly Michael Jessen and Mark Golodetz), the
restaurant and Chris Wilford the wine director (very accomodating, and food was
very fine), Jim How and the BWE board, and the all of the guests, who made it a
fun evening.

* the owners of Issan, Corbin, and Lagrange were in attendance, and offered us
some informed opinions on 2000 & 2003. I was happy that all 3 of their wines
showed well, as I could tell them how much I enjoyed them honestly and openly.
I sat across from the owner of Issan (Emmanuel Cruze, hope that's correct
spelling) who was very informative and pleasant.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B
a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party
where it was only choice.
Dale

Dale Williams
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