After spending a weekend in the city, my brother Doug and his family traveled
to the Tarrytown Hilton Monday for a short visit with us before heading to a
conference at Lake George. We had them over for dinner - though my brother had
seen our house and met Lucy the Basset, my sister-in-law and nieces hadn't. An
extraordinarily pleasant evening, with the girls romping with Lucy, David
videotaping them, my sister-in-law Dianne helping Bets in the kitchen, and my
brother and I watching it all.

The appetizer was gravlax, and I served what I knew was one of Dianne's
favorite wines, the 2000 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay (Napa). Good sweet apple
and tropical fruits, but MAN is there a lot of oak there! Long but hot finish
(I glance at label later- 14.5% ABV). Not my style, but I don't actually really
mind just sipping on a warm day (but a little less alcohol would be nice). B

In honor of the main dinner wine, I had asked Betsy to do a fairly simple roast
chicken, and she came through with flying colors (roasted the birds with an
herb-butter under the skin). Also mashed potatoes, asparagus, and salad. The
wine in question was, like Doug, from 1961. A fairly recently acquired 1961 Ch.
Pape Clément (Graves). Fill to base of the neck. Cork came out cleanly, a quick
whiff showed some mushrooms and flowers with a hint of black plums. I decanted,
let rest for a couple of minutes. Nervously I poured the first glass- the wine
is brick-colored, with clear edges. Fruit is rather subdued (to be expected!),
but clearly hanging in there- mostly blackcurrant but with a hint of red fruit.
As it expands in glass a bit there's a rather dominant (and pleasant) damp
forest floor element, complimented by some cigarbox and tea notes. Nice clear ,
if not exceptionally lengthy, finish. After dinner I run the remaining few
ounces in the bottle through a coffee filter, still hanging in there (3 hours
after opening) though the profile has changed to a more red-fruit meets
mushroom style. Quite a nice mature wine, if probably a few years past its
absolute prime. Probably technically deserves a B+/A- on my easy scale, but for
the fun and emotion of drinking a '61 Bordeaux with the best brother of the
entire '61 vintage, a solid A.

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. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy,
and certainly not of consistency.
Dale

Dale Williams
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Thanks for the notes for the 61 Pape Clement. I only bought one bottle
of it many years ago, and it is good to know that it likely will be
quite decent when I open it. Most tasting notes that I have read
recently suggest that it should be drunk soon, so I guess I should drink
it within the next year or so.

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It is good to have a Brother born in such a good vintage. If he was born a
year earlier or later, you would not have had a Bordeaux. My birth year
(1963) was not good in Bordeaux, but great in Port.

Fred.

>
>It is good to have a Brother born in such a good vintage. If he was born a
>year earlier or later, you would not have had a Bordeaux. My birth year
>(1963) was not good in Bordeaux, but great in Port.
>

In general, even for my brother, I'm priced out of the '61 market.

I'm a '60. I've had some good though not great '60 Ports, and barely alive
Rhones (and 1 OTH Barolo). I have one Port left, but have no intention of
chasing more.


Dale

Dale Williams
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> 61 Pape Clement. I only bought one bottle
>of it many years ago, and it is good to know that it likely will be
>quite decent when I open it. Most tasting notes that I have read
>recently suggest that it should be drunk soon, so I guess I should drink
>it within the next year or so.
>

I don't know storage history of this one bottle (I bought last year at Premier
Cru), but was told today my notes were mostly in agreement (at least as far as
maturity) with group consensus from a Pape-Clmnt vertical last year. Enjoy!
Dale

Dale Williams
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"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
> >
> >It is good to have a Brother born in such a good vintage. If he was born
a
> >year earlier or later, you would not have had a Bordeaux. My birth year
> >(1963) was not good in Bordeaux, but great in Port.
> >
>
> In general, even for my brother, I'm priced out of the '61 market.
>
> I'm a '60. I've had some good though not great '60 Ports, and barely alive
> Rhones (and 1 OTH Barolo). I have one Port left, but have no intention of
> chasing more.
>
>
> Dale
>
> Dale Williams
> Drop "damnspam" to reply

I'm a '61. I should have splashed out on at least a couple for my 40th but
didn't. If I make up for that this year, what do you reckon which might be
best bets below £250 GBP?
thanks

In article >, "gedh"
> writes:

>m a '61. I should have splashed out on at least a couple for my 40th but
>didn't. If I make up for that this year, what do you reckon which might be
>best bets below £250 GBP?

As this is only the 3rd (I think) '61 I've tried, I'm not one to ask. Hopefully
Bill Spohn or cwdjrx can chime in with suggestions. First-growths would be too
expensive. The Ducru was excellent, and probably in your price range. I've
heard the '61 Lynch-Bages is really good.
Dale

Dale Williams
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The 61 Ducru is excellent!

I also found the 61 Ducru to be first class. The 62 Ducru, if very well
stored, is not far behind and often costs less. Others that I have
tasted within the last 5 years that were very good to outstanding
include. Gruaud-Larose, Leovlle-Barton, Palmer(but it costs more than
some of the 1'st growths), and La-Mission-Haut Brion(expensive).
Montrose, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Beychevelle, Malescot-St.-Exupery, and
d'Issan were very good but they seemed more advanced than some of the
others and proper storage probably will be very important for these. Of
course good storage is all important for wines of this age. I once met
someone who had bought a poor bottle of the 1961 Latour, perhaps the
best red Bordeaux of 1961 and one of the top wines of the last century
when properly stored and not corked.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase
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check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

Dale Williams wrote:


> As this is only the 3rd (I think) '61 I've tried, I'm not one to ask. Hopefully
> Bill Spohn or cwdjrx can chime in with suggestions. First-growths would be too
> expensive. The Ducru was excellent, and probably in your price range. I've
> heard the '61 Lynch-Bages is really good.

We opened a '61 Lynch-Bages for Jean's 40th, and it was easily one of
the finest wines of my life. It was also easily within the OP's price
range. FWIW, the only other '61 I've had (Cos) was not nearly so
impressive, though I wasn't nearly as experienced a taster when I tried it.

Mark Lipton

Dale, Bill, Cwdjrx_ , Mark - thanks for your replies