A few short notes on wines at Peking Duck House

Jay Miller

Jay Miller
Perhaps the best food I've had to date at PDH. I always thought people overrated their duck but this was really good.

2002 Trimbach Frederic Emile Riesling
Gorgeous floral nose. The palate, while not bad is worryingly advanced and seems to be in the early stages of premox. I'll be opening my remaining 1996+ Trimbachs sooner rather than later.

2012 Peter Lauer Riesling. Looks like Arnderstenbosch but I know that's not right.
Can't he subcontract out label design to someone with better handwriting and stick to making thrilling wines like this one?

La Bota 44 de Vino Blanco "florpower"
Seems like a simplew wine at first but hte long finish has a gentle beauty that slowly blossoms into rainwater and cream

1976 Prince de Merode Corton Bressandes
Corked.

2004 Mt. Eden Pinot Noir
A stinky note on the nose blows off quickly to display lush strawberries. It did not avoid the ripeness of the vintage but remains in balance and firmed up noticeably over the course of the evening. Lovely wine. A great relief that one of the three bottles I brought wasn't flawed.

2010 Texier St. Alban St.Julien
This needed a lot of air to start strutting its stuff. Seems like it's starting to shut down and may need to hold until 2025

2012 Arnot Roberts Syrah

1989 Cantermerle (magnum)
Fantastic classic Bordeaux. That says it all.

2004 Trevallon
Cherry and structure, needs a lot more time.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
2002 Trimbach Frederic Emile Riesling
Gorgeous floral nose. The palate, while not bad is worryingly advanced and seems to be in the early stages of premox. I'll be opening my remaining 1996+ Trimbachs sooner rather than later.
Exactly what is "pre" about oxidation that happens after 11 years in bottle?
 
I would say that it could be called that if bottles of that age would not have had those notes in the past, or if an older bottle than it dating to before the plague seemed fresher, itself.
 
Having tasted that particular cuvee/vintage in the last three weeks, sourced from a meh-temperature control sort of store; if it's advanced, that's might just be pre-moxed. My experience was steel, salt, and 'why-are-you-opening-me?'
Best,
John
 
Was that Lauer definitely an '02 or was that again an issue of indecipherable script? An '02 Lauer is really not something you see everyday...
 
A real fun night and PDH did a great job in the kitchen. Have to say, the past 3-4 times I've been there, the food has been vastly better than say over the previous few years.

A nice eclectic mix of wines tonight. The only one I didn't like was the La Bota, but I'm not a palomino fan. I was also a lot less generous towards the FE, finding the premox severe on the nose as well as the palate. I know Manuel and I found it not worth drinking and dumped it after a quick taste. Not entirely sure if the problems with FEs from around that time are indeed premox, or issues with the three tier system. Could be a combo of the two.

The Cantemerle was my wine of the night. Just beautiful, classic Bordeaux.

The Arnot-Roberts showed ripeness without being overripe, nice juicy freshness with no oak notes, but a nice dash of meat, flowers, herbs and blue and red fruit. Alcohol is listed at 13%. I wish more Syrah was made like this in California.

The Lauer was lovely. Intensely fragrant with nice ripeness, but dry. Unlike with most dry German wines I've had, it didn't have a stripped feel to it.

As Jay mentioned, the Trevallon needs more time. Nice ingredients, but the structure is very much in the forefront at this stage.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:

1989 Cantermerle (magnum)
Fantastic classic Bordeaux. That says it all.

Classic Bordeaux indeed, but not classic Cantemerle, this one.
 
originally posted by Mark Anisman:
2011 Lauer Senior not tight in the least a few days ago.
Nice to hear your alive. I thought maybe you had joined the PGA tour and were playing in the far east for a period of time.
 
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