WTF?: '95 Pontet-Canet

Hey, this is just the discussion I was hoping for. Like Jonathan, I would never have attributed the wines showing to spoof, it just seems remarkably shut down. But in my experience a truly good wine, even when shut down, will still manage to reveal itself as good wine. It will have something. This one didn't give an inch. Maybe that's due to RO or maybe it was just having a particularly bad day.

Peter, I'll try another bottle in few years.

And Jonathan, again we agree about the Monbousquet, spoof ages like spoof.

We should start a support group.

Hi, my name is Kay and I bought a case of 1995 Monbousquet.
 
There is a bottle of 2005 Monbousquet in my cellar, which was a gift. May I join your support group? My application for a fatsink was turned down yet again.
 
I liked '95 Palmer last week. Very nice with a good burger. I was horrified when I heard how much the owner had paid, though.
 
Hi, my name is Jeff and I own a case of 1995 Chateau Monbousquet (minus four bottles,now). I also own a case of 1994 Monbousquet (minus four bottles). I have found neither of these as consistently devoid of a hint of joy as their Chateau Pontet-Canet counterparts.
 
Hi, my name is YiXin and someone gave me a bottle of '98 Monbousquet as a graduation gift. I made mulled wine with it and neither the giver nor those who drank the mulled wine have forgiven me.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by Michael Lewis:
originally posted by .sasha:
Where was P-C at in the mid 90s? According to reports, Jean-Michel Comme is doing a fantastic job nowadays, but what was the deal back then ?
Click to expand...

Alfred Tesseron had just started making some improvements in the early 90s and brought in Jean-Michel Comme around the same time. I think he was there by 1995 but still getting settled. Quality started improving around then, but had not reached the levels that the chateau is getting credit for today.
Click to expand...
The quality today has not yet reached the levels the chateau is getting credit for today, either.
Click to expand...

Fair point. I was attempting to convey the larger wine community's view of P-C today (thus my use of "getting credit for"). Of course, the preferences and views of many that post here are quite different.
 
I enjoyed a 375 of 1995 Pichon Baron recently. Still vibrantly young but quite delicious especially after the first 2 hours or so. Did I really purchase that 14 years ago? Lot of wine under the bridge since then...
 
The Calon Segur '95 has been consistently excellent on my card.

Similarly, the Calon Segur '96 and Lanessan '96 have measured up well at their price points.

. . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

The Calon Segur '95 has been consistently excellent on my card.

Similarly, the Calon Segur '96 and Lanessan '96 have measured up well at their price points.

. . . . . Pete
Click to expand...

The '66 Calon Segur I opened this weekend didn't suck, either.

Just sayin'
Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
The '66 Calon Segur I opened this weekend didn't suck, either.

Just sayin'
Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

Did it turn out deeper and sweeter than expected, towards the end of the bottle ?

Just askin'
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by MLipton:
The '66 Calon Segur I opened this weekend didn't suck, either.

Just sayin'
Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

Did it turn out deeper and sweeter than expected, towards the end of the bottle ?

Just askin'
Click to expand...

Not sure if I'm missing some humor here, but it was double decanted 3 hr prior to consumption and remained its usual, gorgeous self throughout its finite lifetime. It was certainly very much alive if totally mature, but I didn't experience any great change in character over the hour or so that I paid attention to it.

Mark Lipton
 
Humor? Moi?

You are a wiser man than I, for sure. I've never decanted the 66 that long, not even from magnum, and my impatience has always led to the revelation I've attempted to inquire about.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
Humor? Moi?

You are a wiser man than I, for sure. I've never decanted the 66 that long, not even from magnum, and my impatience has always led to the revelation I've attempted to inquire about.
Click to expand...

My first bottle, consumed last year, was the object lesson, as it got noticeably more giving over the course of several hours. You know, the usual "last glass is the best" phenomenon. I can claim no particular wisdom, though, as I was lugging the wine to a get-together 2 hours distant from my house, so double decanting was called for to avoid agitating the sediment. That's par for the course with my more inspired discoveries: blind luck.

Mark Lipton
 
When you double-decant, do you leave it in the decanter until just before transporting/serving, or decant rapidly back into the rinsed original bottle?
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
When you double-decant, do you leave it in the decanter until just before transporting/serving, or decant rapidly back into the rinsed original bottle?
Click to expand...

What I was doing here was just stabilizing the wine for transport. I had a secondary goal of aerating it based on my earlier encounter but I didn't want to overdo it. So, I decanted it with laminar flow into the decanter, rinsed the bottle thoroughly and decanted back into the bottle, again with laminar flow. I recorked the bottle, placed it into my very stylish, leopard print tote and set off on my 2 hour drive which, owing to a major iPhone maps fuckup, turned into a three hour drive.

Under other circumstances, with other wines, I vary the procedure. For the Matt Latuchie jeebus in Chicago, I double decanted the '08 Dom. du Cros Marcillac because it was going to need a lot of air before we got to it. So I splash decanted it into the decanter, gave it a vigorous shake, and then back into the bottle for transport.

I try not to think about whether I'm in violation of Indiana open container laws when driving these double decanted wines, but I like my chances of being able to argue that a recorked bottle in a closed tote is in no sense "open."

Mark Lipton
 
Makes sense.

Naturally, in this specific case, you'd expect three hours in a decanter to have a more dramatic effect on the wine than the few minutes of direct exposure provided by your procedure, even assuming reactions continue once the wine is re-bottled.

If the recorked bottle is in the truck or a cooler in the rear luggage area, shouldn't be a problem, I'd imagine. But I know no law.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
It should also help your story that the bottle is full.
Click to expand...

That employs logic, Joe. You realize that we're talking about the local constabulary, no?

Mark Lipton
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top