Notes from another unrepeatable tasting arranged by Albert Givton. These wines
were for the most part purchased soon after release, and were stored at 9-10
deg. (fairly cool) ever since. The focus of the tasting was the excellent 1974
vintage in California, 30 years later.

You may look up these wines in the various reviewers' notes, but frankly it
won't do you much good. There is little benefit in knowing that Mr. Parker hit
a bad bottle of something 20 years ago - it bears no relevance to the wines we
were tasting. In fact several of the wines had been tasted and rated very
poorly by various reviewers - either bad storage or simply spoiled bottles that
were not at all indicative of how these particular bottles would show on this
night.

We started out with a real bit of history for a white:

1973 Heitz Lot Z-32 Pinot Chardonnay - amber colour and an absolutely
fascinating nose that I spent several minutes pondering before I tasted the
wine. Sweet, not maderised, rather like some old Semillons. Silky feel, fruit
declining, but bright acidity lightens it at the end. This wine was excellent,
like a very old Sauternes that had dried out, and was probably about the last
white wine that Joe Heitz put his mind to.

Flight 1 (with squab with almond dusted foie gras):

Chappelet - clear garnet appearance, a very good if slightly one dimensional
fruit driven nose, sweet entry, good mouth feel, long soft finish. This wine
had the freshest fruot of the flight.

Clos du Val - nice fruit in the nose, and the fruit on palate clear and well
defined. Still a bit of tannin, but showing an elegance the others lacked. This
was the most complex and Bordeau-like.

Freemark Abbey (regular bottling) - the nose on this one was very slightly
corky, but spritely acidity right up front enlivened the wine, and there was
some nice sweet fruit that followed through on the finish, which had good
length.

Mondavi (regular) - asking a bit much for the regular bottling to hold up for
30 years, but this wine had a cedar and light fruit nose, medium body and
length, still with a bit of tannin. The fruit was on the low side, but it
showed at least decently before it started to break up in the glass.

Sterling - light berry nose, and a bit of perfume, tannins alittle forward, but
not bad. Interestingly this label was the old style while the Reserve was the
new more familiar one. I like the retro appeal of the old one.

Stonegate - warm nose with some fruit, absolutely no tannin, and only a shadow
of acidity. Tired and essentially defunct.

Flight 2 (served with veal tenderloin with sweetbreads)

Burgess Vintage Selection - slightly hot nose, full in mouth with sweet tannin
at the end - very good wine.

Chateau Montelena - sweet cassis and raspberry nose, rich sweet and very long
in the mouth. Excellent!

Joseph Phelps - this was a very interesting wine. By far the lightest in
colour, with a stunning nose that would fool you in a blind tasting into
guessing Pinot Noir - clear fruit with a herbaceous note (young vines at that
point). The wine was delightful and fresh, which was not what we expected from
a light coloured 30 year old wine.

Spring Mountain - a very poor pongy dead animal nose, and for those with
sufficient intellectual curiosity to actually put some in their mouth, zero
fruit but lots of tannin. A desiccated corpse.

Sterling Reserve - Very dark wine - looked like it was 10 years old. Mushrooms,
tar and herbs in the nose, and tons of rather astringent tannins in the mouth -
this wine is not yet ready to drink, and I'm not sure if it ever will be.

1975 Mondavi Reserve - to make the point that 1974 was a watershed vintage,
this wine was poured blind and we kept it for the next flight to compare with
the 1974. Warm fruit nose with a slight hit of white pepper, medium to full
body with abundant soft tannins and very good length. As the comparison would
show, this wine was in good shape, fresh even, but the style had indeed
changed.

Flight 3 (served with cheese)

1975 Ch. Palmer - yes, another blind offering. Old rubber cement nose, lighter
colour than the California wines (except for the Phelps), lean and lacking
fruit - one of the 75s that is drying out. I like 75 Bordeaux a lot and have
had this same wine in tastings I have organised and would normally class it as
one of the best, so this was undoubtedly a substandard bottle.

Beaulieu Georges de Latour - odd nose with a hint of coconut (American oak?),
medium body and clearly getting a bit past it and drying out, but not without
interest. This wasn't half the wine that the 1970 was, tasted several years
ago, but then I would think that the 1970 (made in much smaller amounts) would
be over the hill by now.

Gemello - Santa Cruz - this one had a minty nose that would have done a Heitz
proud, and a layer of spice on top of that. Lots of punch left in this weighty
wine, and good length. Very enjoyable and still showing some tannin. Wouldn't
want to try this in a blind tasting with a Heitz!

Heitz Martha's Vineyard - Big mint and a bit of tea. Lots of flavour interest
here, with excellent concentration and tannins at the end, very well balanced
wine.

Inglenook Limited Cask C-12 - nose not bad, but a saddle leather note that was
a little out of place, and it was a bit animal in the mouth. Lighter colour
than the adjoining wines. Interesting but fading.

Mayacamas - a bit of vinyl in the nose at first, but that subsided and left a
sweet coffee sort of thing happening. Full bodied, and a bit less sweet, so it
seemed leaner. Lots of tannins and it needs a few more years, but a stunning
showing.

Mondavi Reserve - dark wine showing anise, cedar and spice in the nose, huge
presence on palate with great concentration and length. This is what I would
characterise as a 'complete' wine, lacking nothing (except a presence in my
cellar). It got my vote for wine of the night, although the Mayacamas was also
right up there.


Then with dessert:

1974 Mayacamas Late Harvest Zinfandel - this monster was 16% alcohol and was
still off-dry - the RS at harvest must have been huge! It carried a blue
capsule instead of the more familiar red one, and is a rarity as I doubt much
was produced. As expected, there was no sign at all that this was a Zin, the
varietal characteristics having long ago disappeared with maturity. The nose,
aside from the slight heat, was more like a claret, and the wine was
deceptively soft with good length. Nice way to end a fascinating tasting.

Thanks very much for your tasting notes. I have had many of these wines
and still have several 74s. I would rate the 74 BV Private Reserve even
lower than you do. It was much too old for my taste the last time I had
it a few years ago. I would not argue with most of your notes,
considering that there can be great bottle variation at the age of these
wines.

The 74s that I still have that were still decent to outstanding when
tasted within the last few years a Freemark Abbey Bosche, Robert
Mondavi Reserve, Clos Duval, Ridge Monte Bello, Joseph Phelps, Joseph
Phelps Insignia,Chateau Montelena, Charles Krug Vintage Selection, and
Sterling. Of these, my favorites are Ridge Monte Bello, Freemark Abbey
Bosche, and Joseph Phelps Insignia(which does blend some other grapes
with the CS). I have had several other 74s in he distant past. For
example the Robert Mondavi standard wine was very good about 20 years
ago when I last tasted it.

As usual, you give great tasting notes, Bill. I've tasted most of those
wines several times over the years, but don't have any left. :^(

Unfortunately absent were Ridge Monte Bello, Alexander's Crown, Conn Creek
(which was AFAIK the debut of the Eisele Vineyard), Mount Eden and Villa Mt.
Eden Reserve - the last two of which are surely still in fine form; the
Ridge, done in a more elegant style, may not have survived as well. I'm not
certain about the others, but I'd guess that if stored as well as the ones
you tasted they'd be fine to superb.

Tom S

Re Eisele. Ridge 1971Eisele was the first commercial Eisele wine, the Conn
Creek was made by Lyncrest but they went out of business and Bill Collins
Conn Creek's original owner bought it because of his friendship with Milton
Eisele. When I visited Eisele in the early 80's he gave me wines made for
him by the late Norman Mini (who worked for Mondavi) after Mini passed
Travis Frettter made wine for Milton and his wife, because of Eisele's
contract with Phelps, Fretter besides making wine for the Eisele table also
used Eisele grapes in his Napa Cabernet but could not so designate. I also
met him on the same trip. He had his winery in Berkley which closed in the
late 1980's.

I had an Eisele-mania tasting in 1985 or 1986 with all the Eisele wines
including the Mini & Fretter wines through the 1978 vintage. At the same
tasting we had a Phelps Insignia vertical. I also had several 1974 tastings
from 1984-1986 with every 1974 cab I could find except the Diamond Creeks.
Here are my scores of the 1974s on the WA system:
Conn Creek=93, Mount Eden=93, Phelps Insignia=92, Norman Mini=95, Ridge MB=
91, Villa Mt Eden= 91, Mayacamas=91 Burgess VS=88,Souverain VS=88,Sterling
Res=91, Stags Leap=90. Those are the only scores I could find from these
tastings. I recall the BV lived up to its nickname, bottle variation.
--
Joe "Beppe" Rosenberg
"Tom S" > wrote in message
om...
> As usual, you give great tasting notes, Bill. I've tasted most of those
> wines several times over the years, but don't have any left. :^(
>
> Unfortunately absent were Ridge Monte Bello, Alexander's Crown, Conn Creek
> (which was AFAIK the debut of the Eisele Vineyard), Mount Eden and Villa
Mt.
> Eden Reserve - the last two of which are surely still in fine form; the
> Ridge, done in a more elegant style, may not have survived as well. I'm
not
> certain about the others, but I'd guess that if stored as well as the ones
> you tasted they'd be fine to superb.
>
> Tom S
>
>

"Tom S" in om...
>
> Unfortunately absent were Ridge Monte Bello, Alexander's Crown, Conn Creek
> (which was AFAIK the debut of the Eisele Vineyard), Mount Eden and Villa
Mt.
> Eden Reserve - the last two of which are surely still in fine form; the
> Ridge, done in a more elegant style, may not have survived as well.

I don't know specifically about the 1974 Ridge, if that's what you had in
mind, Tom S, but not long ago at a favorite restauraunt of mine we had a
fancy bring-your-own-wine dinner, I will not go into all the details,* but
one (by my standards) young winemaker (whose Pinots some of you may know)
brought a 1964 Ridge Cabernet, born the same year that he was. That was
before they started calling it Monte Bello; it was just labeled Ridge
California Cabernet, I believe same grape source though -- and it showed
very well indeed.


* (One diner who is a poet for wine and food notes kept details -- we
improvised the wine pairings as the various courses came out -- this wine
was applied to a course of "squab: confit and roast breast, adorned with a
tea-marinated prune and completed with shards of roasted endive hearts." --
From those notes. I have been after this particular diner to do some
professional food writing, editors here solicit it; but like most people
I've met who are good at that, he is otherwise employed ... )

Gentleman, I understand in the late 1980's most of the top wineries like
Chateau Montelena changed the method of filtering. Even though the wines
are unfiltered there is still some process that Montelena and most do today.
The purpose was to make the wine drink better in its youth...will that
impact the longevitiy. All I know is my older Montelenas are the most
ageworthy in my cellar.

dick
"Bill Spohn" > wrote in message
...
> Notes from another unrepeatable tasting arranged by Albert Givton. These
wines
> were for the most part purchased soon after release, and were stored at
9-10
> deg. (fairly cool) ever since. The focus of the tasting was the excellent
1974
> vintage in California, 30 years later.
>
> You may look up these wines in the various reviewers' notes, but frankly
it
> won't do you much good. There is little benefit in knowing that Mr. Parker
hit
> a bad bottle of something 20 years ago - it bears no relevance to the
wines we
> were tasting. In fact several of the wines had been tasted and rated very
> poorly by various reviewers - either bad storage or simply spoiled bottles
that
> were not at all indicative of how these particular bottles would show on
this
> night.
>
> We started out with a real bit of history for a white:
>
> 1973 Heitz Lot Z-32 Pinot Chardonnay - amber colour and an absolutely
> fascinating nose that I spent several minutes pondering before I tasted
the
> wine. Sweet, not maderised, rather like some old Semillons. Silky feel,
fruit
> declining, but bright acidity lightens it at the end. This wine was
excellent,
> like a very old Sauternes that had dried out, and was probably about the
last
> white wine that Joe Heitz put his mind to.
>
> Flight 1 (with squab with almond dusted foie gras):
>
> Chappelet - clear garnet appearance, a very good if slightly one
dimensional
> fruit driven nose, sweet entry, good mouth feel, long soft finish. This
wine
> had the freshest fruot of the flight.
>
> Clos du Val - nice fruit in the nose, and the fruit on palate clear and
well
> defined. Still a bit of tannin, but showing an elegance the others lacked.
This
> was the most complex and Bordeau-like.
>
> Freemark Abbey (regular bottling) - the nose on this one was very slightly
> corky, but spritely acidity right up front enlivened the wine, and there
was
> some nice sweet fruit that followed through on the finish, which had good
> length.
>
> Mondavi (regular) - asking a bit much for the regular bottling to hold up
for
> 30 years, but this wine had a cedar and light fruit nose, medium body and
> length, still with a bit of tannin. The fruit was on the low side, but it
> showed at least decently before it started to break up in the glass.
>
> Sterling - light berry nose, and a bit of perfume, tannins alittle
forward, but
> not bad. Interestingly this label was the old style while the Reserve was
the
> new more familiar one. I like the retro appeal of the old one.
>
> Stonegate - warm nose with some fruit, absolutely no tannin, and only a
shadow
> of acidity. Tired and essentially defunct.
>
> Flight 2 (served with veal tenderloin with sweetbreads)
>
> Burgess Vintage Selection - slightly hot nose, full in mouth with sweet
tannin
> at the end - very good wine.
>
> Chateau Montelena - sweet cassis and raspberry nose, rich sweet and very
long
> in the mouth. Excellent!
>
> Joseph Phelps - this was a very interesting wine. By far the lightest in
> colour, with a stunning nose that would fool you in a blind tasting into
> guessing Pinot Noir - clear fruit with a herbaceous note (young vines at
that
> point). The wine was delightful and fresh, which was not what we expected
from
> a light coloured 30 year old wine.
>
> Spring Mountain - a very poor pongy dead animal nose, and for those with
> sufficient intellectual curiosity to actually put some in their mouth,
zero
> fruit but lots of tannin. A desiccated corpse.
>
> Sterling Reserve - Very dark wine - looked like it was 10 years old.
Mushrooms,
> tar and herbs in the nose, and tons of rather astringent tannins in the
mouth -
> this wine is not yet ready to drink, and I'm not sure if it ever will be.
>
> 1975 Mondavi Reserve - to make the point that 1974 was a watershed
vintage,
> this wine was poured blind and we kept it for the next flight to compare
with
> the 1974. Warm fruit nose with a slight hit of white pepper, medium to
full
> body with abundant soft tannins and very good length. As the comparison
would
> show, this wine was in good shape, fresh even, but the style had indeed
> changed.
>
> Flight 3 (served with cheese)
>
> 1975 Ch. Palmer - yes, another blind offering. Old rubber cement nose,
lighter
> colour than the California wines (except for the Phelps), lean and lacking
> fruit - one of the 75s that is drying out. I like 75 Bordeaux a lot and
have
> had this same wine in tastings I have organised and would normally class
it as
> one of the best, so this was undoubtedly a substandard bottle.
>
> Beaulieu Georges de Latour - odd nose with a hint of coconut (American
oak?),
> medium body and clearly getting a bit past it and drying out, but not
without
> interest. This wasn't half the wine that the 1970 was, tasted several
years
> ago, but then I would think that the 1970 (made in much smaller amounts)
would
> be over the hill by now.
>
> Gemello - Santa Cruz - this one had a minty nose that would have done a
Heitz
> proud, and a layer of spice on top of that. Lots of punch left in this
weighty
> wine, and good length. Very enjoyable and still showing some tannin.
Wouldn't
> want to try this in a blind tasting with a Heitz!
>
> Heitz Martha's Vineyard - Big mint and a bit of tea. Lots of flavour
interest
> here, with excellent concentration and tannins at the end, very well
balanced
> wine.
>
> Inglenook Limited Cask C-12 - nose not bad, but a saddle leather note that
was
> a little out of place, and it was a bit animal in the mouth. Lighter
colour
> than the adjoining wines. Interesting but fading.
>
> Mayacamas - a bit of vinyl in the nose at first, but that subsided and
left a
> sweet coffee sort of thing happening. Full bodied, and a bit less sweet,
so it
> seemed leaner. Lots of tannins and it needs a few more years, but a
stunning
> showing.
>
> Mondavi Reserve - dark wine showing anise, cedar and spice in the nose,
huge
> presence on palate with great concentration and length. This is what I
would
> characterise as a 'complete' wine, lacking nothing (except a presence in
my
> cellar). It got my vote for wine of the night, although the Mayacamas was
also
> right up there.
>
>
> Then with dessert:
>
> 1974 Mayacamas Late Harvest Zinfandel - this monster was 16% alcohol and
was
> still off-dry - the RS at harvest must have been huge! It carried a blue
> capsule instead of the more familiar red one, and is a rarity as I doubt
much
> was produced. As expected, there was no sign at all that this was a Zin,
the
> varietal characteristics having long ago disappeared with maturity. The
nose,
> aside from the slight heat, was more like a claret, and the wine was
> deceptively soft with good length. Nice way to end a fascinating tasting.
>
>

Bill Spohn wrote:

> Chateau Montelena - sweet cassis and raspberry nose, rich sweet and very long
> in the mouth. Excellent!

I too had '74 Ch. Montelena from a magnum in Sep 2000. It was,
in my recollection, *excellent* was well.

> Mondavi Reserve - dark wine showing anise, cedar and spice in the nose, huge
> presence on palate with great concentration and length. This is what I would
> characterise as a 'complete' wine, lacking nothing (except a presence in my
> cellar). It got my vote for wine of the night, although the Mayacamas was also
> right up there.

My pal John has a '74 Mondavi Reserve that needs drinking, apparently.
I'll have to help him.

Dana

Bill Spohn wrote:

> Notes from another unrepeatable tasting arranged by Albert Givton. These wines
> were for the most part purchased soon after release, and were stored at 9-10
> deg. (fairly cool) ever since. The focus of the tasting was the excellent 1974
> vintage in California, 30 years later.

<SNIP>

Great notes, great tasting, Bill. I wish I'd picked that weekend to visit you
;-) Though I know many of those wines by reputation only, I have only had the
Martha's -- which remains one of the best young wines I've ever had -- and the
Mondavi Reserve (as part of a vertical tasting back in the early days of my
oenophilia). Thanks for sharing the experience and evoking so many pleasant
memories!

Mark Lipton