1924 Huet Vouvray Haut Lieu – Fabulous. The wine glowed on my tongue. It tasted like a vanilla creamsicle. Not from oak, but the wine itself. Great structure, beautiful length, and tongue-coating viscosity, while not being very sweet. A pleasure to drink. A+
1979 Bollinger Champagne RD – Excellent. Champagne is underrated as being a white wine equivalent, and I find that as time goes by I enjoy it more and more in that situation. This bottle had all the attributes I like. Slightly sherried from maturity, assertiveness on the palate, a tight, firm mousse and a good dose of austerity. I could drink a bottle of this every day and be happy. A-
1979 Trimbach Clos St. Hune – This was terrific and perfectly ready to drink. Not a perfect bottle but really enjoyable. Is there such a thing as an over-the-hill St. Hune? B+
1983 August Clape Cornas – I tend to find Cornas a bit light for my palate, and this bottle, at the end of its useful life, held true to that form and more. Not bad, but not my style. I prefer the more assertive style of Cornas that is now being made by producers like Domaine de Tunnel. C+
1985 Lafite-Rothschild – The combination of a vintage that was easy to drink out of the box, and the style of winemaking that creates wines that usually don’t drink well until they are more than 30 years old, make for strange bedfellows. The result is a wine that is currently awkward to drink and which needs a good decade, probably two, to be in its prime. B
1985 Roumier Bonnes Mares – Very good, but maybe a hair over the top. It seemed a bit sweet and cloying, maybe a function of the wine having come to room temperature. Still, I’ve had other bottles from the same case which were earth shattering. Is this now over the hill or was it this bottle? B
1988 Palmer – Palmer is usually a bit light for my palate, but this vintage seems to have produced a more acute version of the attribute. Pleasant to drink, the wine seemed to have more of a citrus component than I usually find in Palmer, but maybe that is a result of the wine not having the same amount of fleshiness that the famous vintages of ’70 and ’83 have. B-
1988 Reichsgraf von Kesselstat Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Auslese 1988 – I put the bottle of wine I brought to BYO back in the bag when I saw this on the list for $72. Terrific, with great structure and a long finish loaded with minerals. More evidence that restaurant can defeat people’s desire to BYO by having good, well-priced bottles of wine on their list. B+
1989 Meo-Camuzet Corton – You could tell this bottle had suffered slight heat damage because it had that funky edge associated with the issue. Still, it was a pretty compelling bottle of wine with deep fruit and a long finish. I continue to be impressed with Meo’s Cortons, which I think are underrated wines. This wine would have been B+ or maybe A- but not given the condition of this bottle. B-
1989 Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet Vergers – This bottle must have seen some rough treatment at some point because I’ve had better examples of this wine. Not terrible, but not stellar either. B-
1990 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann – Surprisingly delicious. Post-1988 ZH wines have a bad reputation among the artisanal wine crowd, but I find that there are many good bottles of post-’88 wine out there. This was one of them, with good structure, good extraction, no signs of overextraction, and a lovely finish with a touch of exotic fruit which probably comes from being slightly overripe. Where can I find more of this to buy? B+
1991 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne – Excellent wine, although this isn’t really ready to drink. And we gave it a two-hour decant but that wasn’t enough. Nice and spicy and showing more acidic than bottles I’ve had in the past, which usually seem fruity. It needs a good 3-4 years before trying it again. B+
1993 Lamarche Grands-Echezeaux – Years and years from being ready to drink. Still a surprising amount of available fruit showing. But the wine isn’t harmonious at this point. It needs time to resolve itself and develop secondary flavors. It’s a bit citrus heavy at the moment. B-
1996 Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elizabeth Rose – This didn’t impress me very much. A very pale rose with a heavy mousse. It didn’t seem to have much finesse. C+
2001 Nigl Sauvginon Blanc Reserve - I quite enjoyed this. Lots of power and a good attack on the palate. None of that cat pee stuff here. Good structure and it made me look for the platter of oysters that would go perfectly with the wine B-
2002 Domaine Richaud Cotes de Rhone "Les Garriques" - Delicious $20 bottle of wine. Big on the palate, a little spicy, and nice ripe fruit. Surperb balance. I couldn't stop drinking it. C+
2002 Ramonet Bourgogne – Spotted on the list at Michael Mina for $42 and scooped up immediately. Terrific bottle for it’s category. Nice and viscose, good ripeness, and good length. Of course, it didn’t have the same depth as the Chassagne’s but this wine was clearly trending in that direction. I would like to buy 3-4 cases and use it as my house wine. C+
Pierre Gimonet Blanc de Blancs NV – Fine for a bottle you buy at a restaurant to drink as an apertif, but not something I would buy cases of. But I thought it held up well to the next champagne we drank, which was the 1996 Cuvee Elizabeth which cost twice the money. C
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