I posted a note on this in 2001, then forgot about it. I still have
one bottle left, which I will drink soon.

Bottle had very good level, again the cork was a mess. Short cork.

A big grape and spice nose, but quickly dissipating. Color quite brick, a little
short in the mouth but with nice leather and spice overlaying solid dried
fruit and raspberry. Very pleasant, but fading I thought at first. This bottle
then exhibited the peculiarity of gaining in body and structure over the
1.5 hours or so it was open. Unusual for a bottle of this age. All in all more
claret-like than west-coast.

84 was the year Adele and I started dating, so this seemed like a good
Valentine's offering. What did you folks open to fete the day with a loved one?

-E

P.S. Here's my note on the same wine from 01:

Veering slightly toward brick in color but still dark
purple in the center, with a strong nose of
black cherry and vanilla, very silky, medium
long, still a bit of green oak in the structure,
very nice raspberry, vanilla oak, maybe a hint of
red gooseberry, chocolate, bit of spice. Not dried
out!

--
Emery Davis
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Emery Davis > wrote in
:
>
> 84 was the year Adele and I started dating, so this seemed like a good
> Valentine's offering. What did you folks open to fete the day with a
> loved one?

Drappier Grande Sendree 1996 (disgorged march 2003). Lovely wine, quite
dark colour, tiny bubbles, good intensity on the nose, with plenty of
toasty aroma and hints of red fruits and what I call "beef stock" if that's
possible in a Champagne. Some truffles too. Round in the mouth and quite
long. It could handle a few more years IMHO. I did not find much difference
from our first bottle two years ago. Excellent value at 36 euro.

Best,

Santiago

Emery Davis wrote:

> A big grape and spice nose, but quickly dissipating. Color quite brick, a little
> short in the mouth but with nice leather and spice overlaying solid dried
> fruit and raspberry. Very pleasant, but fading I thought at first. This bottle
> then exhibited the peculiarity of gaining in body and structure over the
> 1.5 hours or so it was open. Unusual for a bottle of this age. All in all more
> claret-like than west-coast.

Nice notes, Emery. We had the '85 Burgess CS, but IIRC not the '84.
I'm not terribly surprised that it's lasted this long. FWIW, that
phenomenon you observed I've noticed quite a bit with older B'dx.
Assuming that they have not been aerated, such wines start off quite
thin but then gain in body and bouquet as they sit in the glass. This
is why, contrary to accepted wisdom, some older B'dx actually do need to
breathe. The '61 Lynch-Bages was a great case in point when tasted in
'01. Of course, once they reach a certain stage of delicacy, it would
be foolish to aerate them.
>
> 84 was the year Adele and I started dating, so this seemed like a good
> Valentine's offering. What did you folks open to fete the day with a loved one?

Well, since you asked... ;-) We had our first dinner together without
the baby, courtesy of my mother. At dinner, we had a half bottle of
Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label with our first courses (oysters and
Portobellos stuffed with Gruyere and herbs and fried): more toasty and
less evident fruit than previous versions of Veuve that we've had.

That was followed by a bottle of 2000 Anne Gros Vosne-Romanée 'Les
Barreaux' with our main courses (venison for Jean, duck for me). We
opened it ahead of time for aeration, but it still needed time to open
up. Initially, it was tight with a nose of cedar and raspberry, but
opened up to reveal more varietal roundness, barnyard and a bit of
smoke. By the end of the meal, the wine was fully open and showing very
well indeed.

Happy St. Valentines Day!
Mark Lipton