Another luncheon planning session for an Autumn trip abroad occasioned
the popping of a few corks.

As it was also New Year’s Eve day, we started with:

1990 Piper Heidsieck Rare Millesime – I like my bubbly well aged and
this one was – citrus notes in a mature nose and good clean length.
Most annoying thing was that they had used regular sized corks in a
smaller than normal thin necked bottle, which resulted in snapping the
cork off and having to extract the stub with a corkscrew!

2004 La Chablisienne Mont de Milieu – balanced and clean but a bit
light in the nose. With salmon rillettes.

2007 California Cult Classics Pinot Noir Las Amigas Vd (Napa) – made
here in BC from California fruit, some of these wines can be very
interesting. This one was pinot but beyond that it was a bit difficult
as it had a big chocolate oak nose, good colour, and was spicy in the
mouth a bit hot and was a large framed wine, if not of quite the size
of the ‘largest’ California pints. Very decent.

2004 Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux – a nice fruit driven nose on this
one, with excellent mid palate fruit and a fair bit of tannin that
went well with food – in this case some spicy veal sliders with
tarragon mustard.

2005 Glen Fiona Syrah (Columbia Valley – iron and pepper in this nose,
with good fruit levels on palate and some spiciness. Pleasant. With
spicy winter soup

1984 Acacia Cabernet (Napa) – while not primarily known for cabernet,
I couldn’t pass this one up when offered a choice. A slightly stinky
nose blew off leaving mature cabernet, and on palate the wine was
faded and had lots of acidity, not unpleasant but well past prime. I
am willing to offer myself up to be experimented upon by any number of
these 80s cal-cabs, as the pay off when you it a really nice one makes
it worth all of the ones that are now over the hill. And you never
know which ones will be really good, as they seem to defy logic!

On Jan 1, 6:43*am, "Bill S." > wrote:
> Another luncheon planning session for an Autumn trip abroad occasioned
> the popping of a few corks.
>
> As it was also New Year’s Eve day, we started with:
>
> 1990 Piper Heidsieck Rare Millesime – I like my bubbly well aged and
> this one was – citrus notes in a mature nose and good clean length.
> Most annoying thing was that they had used regular sized corks in a
> smaller than normal thin necked bottle, which resulted in snapping the
> cork off and having to extract the stub with a corkscrew!
>
> 2004 La Chablisienne Mont de Milieu – balanced and clean but a bit
> light in the nose. *With salmon rillettes.
>
> 2007 California Cult Classics Pinot Noir Las Amigas Vd (Napa) – made
> here in BC from California fruit, some of these wines can be very
> interesting. This one was pinot but beyond that it was a bit difficult
> as it had a big chocolate oak nose, good colour, and was spicy in the
> mouth a bit hot and was a large framed wine, if not of quite the size
> of the ‘largest’ California pints. Very decent.
>
> 2004 Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux – a nice fruit driven nose on this
> one, with excellent mid palate fruit and a fair bit of tannin that
> went well with food – in this case some spicy veal sliders with
> tarragon mustard.
>
> 2005 Glen Fiona Syrah (Columbia Valley – iron and pepper in this nose,
> with good fruit levels on palate and some spiciness. Pleasant. With
> spicy winter soup
>
> 1984 Acacia Cabernet (Napa) – while not primarily known for cabernet,
> I couldn’t pass this one up when offered a choice. *A slightly stinky
> nose blew off leaving mature cabernet, and on palate the wine was
> faded and had lots of acidity, not unpleasant but well past prime. *I
> am willing to offer myself up to be experimented upon by any number of
> these 80s cal-cabs, as the pay off when you it a really nice one makes
> it worth all of the ones that are now over the hill. *And you never
> know which ones will be really good, as they seem to defy logic!

My experience with several of the large Cali Cabs of the 80's have
faded more than some of the better producers of the 70's. Recently
opened an '85 Montelena Cabernet that may not have had the best
provenance and it had faded to acid with almost no fruit. I was
shocked as this was presented at an 80's Cabernet tasting but most
were late 80's including Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadows 88 that was
amazing.

On Jan 1, 11:31*am, Lawrence Leichtman > wrote:
> On Jan 1, 6:43*am, "Bill S." > wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Another luncheon planning session for an Autumn trip abroad occasioned
> > the popping of a few corks.
>
> > As it was also New Year’s Eve day, we started with:
>
> > 1990 Piper Heidsieck Rare Millesime – I like my bubbly well aged and
> > this one was – citrus notes in a mature nose and good clean length.
> > Most annoying thing was that they had used regular sized corks in a
> > smaller than normal thin necked bottle, which resulted in snapping the
> > cork off and having to extract the stub with a corkscrew!
>
> > 2004 La Chablisienne Mont de Milieu – balanced and clean but a bit
> > light in the nose. *With salmon rillettes.
>
> > 2007 California Cult Classics Pinot Noir Las Amigas Vd (Napa) – made
> > here in BC from California fruit, some of these wines can be very
> > interesting. This one was pinot but beyond that it was a bit difficult
> > as it had a big chocolate oak nose, good colour, and was spicy in the
> > mouth a bit hot and was a large framed wine, if not of quite the size
> > of the ‘largest’ California pints. Very decent.
>
> > 2004 Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux – a nice fruit driven nose on this
> > one, with excellent mid palate fruit and a fair bit of tannin that
> > went well with food – in this case some spicy veal sliders with
> > tarragon mustard.
>
> > 2005 Glen Fiona Syrah (Columbia Valley – iron and pepper in this nose,
> > with good fruit levels on palate and some spiciness. Pleasant. With
> > spicy winter soup
>
> > 1984 Acacia Cabernet (Napa) – while not primarily known for cabernet,
> > I couldn’t pass this one up when offered a choice. *A slightly stinky
> > nose blew off leaving mature cabernet, and on palate the wine was
> > faded and had lots of acidity, not unpleasant but well past prime. *I
> > am willing to offer myself up to be experimented upon by any number of
> > these 80s cal-cabs, as the pay off when you it a really nice one makes
> > it worth all of the ones that are now over the hill. *And you never
> > know which ones will be really good, as they seem to defy logic!
>
> My experience with several of the large Cali Cabs of the 80's have
> faded more than some of the better producers of the 70's. Recently
> opened an '85 Montelena Cabernet that may not have had the best
> provenance and it had faded to acid with almost no fruit. I was
> shocked as this was presented at an 80's Cabernet tasting but most
> were late 80's including Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadows 88 that was
> amazing.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

You may have had a bad bottle as I recently opened a bottle of 1985
Montelena and it was still quite youthful with plenty of fruit.

Many mid-80s cabs including Montelena are still in good shape. Acacia
was never a cabernet house - more known for their Burgundian
varietals, so expecting an 84 to be anything much would be overly
optimistic.