Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Nice to see you in the 'nabe again, Salil.
Impressions - yesterday
- Thread starter Keith Levenberg
- Start date
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
Oh, yeah. Classic and classy juice. The most recent bottle I acquired came with a DC-area back label that you want to avoid, but the wine was sooooo good.
Lets agree to disagree on 1990 Pape-Clement. No problem. Think of 1989 L'Evangile as a good parallel; another great wine (I think I've stressed how much I like 1990 P-C) that is cleaner, slightly more polished, and woodier than any of its predecessors. And when I say woodier, I am not implying that either wine won't absorb the wood, or won't age in balance.
The comments from Kane, while archetypically Wrong, are also misplaced: this has nothing to do with the new regime eventually taking over at Pape-Clement in the 1990s; it is more about a general trend in Bordeaux that was sweeping the region in the years surrounding 1990, manifesting itself in some deliberate actions as well as in an inability to cope with warmer climate while maintaining a classic style.
Pape-Clement prior to 1990 was never a woody wine on release, nor was it a particularly clean wine in a UC Davis sense of the word. If anything, there is a slight hint of volatility (nothing on the order of what you'd find in older vintages of La Tour HB or LMHB of course) that gave the wines one of its many charms. The vintage I've been drinking most often in the past two years is the 1975, and while I don't find the 85, 86, 88, and 89 (also tasted recently) all that far removed from the 75 in style, I find the profile of the 1990 to be far more aligned with 1995 and 1996, despite the change in regime.
I think that wines such as 1995/1996 P-C have many classic elements, and if you brought yourself up on those vintages you will, perhaps involuntarily, concentrate on those elements when building connections to older vintages. There is nothing wrong with that. But I grew up on slightly older stuff.
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
Hah, as Jayson suggests, Keith and I may be talking vintages past each other after all. I've never had the 24, 34, or 49. I did have the 47 a couple of times while it was still affordable, and the other older vintages I am most familiar, in descending order of levels of familiarity, are 70, 28, 64, 66, 61, 59, 62. And then almost everything from the 70s and 80s. Never from Tampa, unfortunately, but quite a few from Nicolas when they first started cashing out in the early 90s.
So you guys think the newly crowned HB is classic Pessac? Interesting; perhaps we should put this to the test after all. I still lean towards the "recognizing beloved HB profile, therefore classic Pessac" theory.
Among the vintages I binge on, the one that would make me take your side of the argument would be the '85. But it would still have to be a broader definition of classic Pessac for me, which I interpret as gravelly, tarry, tobacco leaf/cigar box, black-Pauillac-like-but-much-richer fruit style epitomized by Haut-Brion, Pape-Clement, La Miss, La Tour HB, Fieuzal, Louviere, Bouscaut, etc. The expression of Merlot in HB - in vintages where it is highly pronounced - is so "right bank," red but voluptuous. And when I think of red-fruited vintages of Haut-Brion, I don't get that; if anything, the dethroned HB is more crystalline in those years.
Regardless, HB is one of my favorite chateaux of all time, classic Pessac or not.
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
2002 was a departure.
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
You may prefer 2001.
I've never compared Emery to 2000 DDC, but I'll get back to you on that.
Keith Levenberg
Keith Levenberg
DDC has had a couple different rough spots that have been rough for different reasons, but the 2015 is terrific.