My lukewarmness toward new world cabs is rather publicly stated. An inspiring example now and then keeps the faith alive, but serve me a Bordeaux 1st growth, and now we are talking! Hundreds of $$ a bottle a rare treat, but more than that - it's a Margaux, the most feminine of the Cabernet-based left-bank appellations in Bordeaux, and feminine is my kinda wine!
The tasting started at 7:30. I came late, very late, 9. I was glad to be late. Ross accommodated, more than enough left in the bottle waiting for me - I love the "Bott crowd" - quirky always, grumpy sometimes, but always a caring bunch of geeks. I didn't want to do the blind tasting and ranking like the usual. I was there to take my time with Miss Margaux 1984, to give her my respects.
So what did I expect from the 1984 Chateau Margaux coming in? A grand wine from a weak vintage. A great chateau will make a good wine even in bad year - in fact it could be a great value. The pedigree could come through with age, leanness turned to character, harshness to smoothness.
Chateau-Margaux.com penned it beautifully:
"Beyond its reputation, people's considered opinions about it, and the sensations it provides, a great vintage stands out in our memories above all for its fantastic capacity to move us. Château Margaux 1953, 1961, 1982 and 1990, to mention just a few, appear to touch our hearts before, or at the same time as, they overwhelm our senses. While a very good wine impresses us, a great wine moves us. A difference which is ridiculous, elusive and considerable, all at the same time.
And what about the lesser vintages? Harvested in tricky conditions and aged with indifference, they are forgotten as they mature, until the day when, a bit by chance or out of curiosity, we finally decide to drink them. Of course, we should not expect miracles; we are neither overwhelmed with emotion nor deeply impressed. Most often, however, a straightforward pleasure without frills awaits us. It is all the greater because it is completely unexpected.
« Lesser » vintages are greatly appreciated by shrewd wine enthusiasts. The advantage they have over great vintages is that they develop more quickly, and after ten or fifteen years, display, in the absence of power, that subtlety which is the hallmark of great terroirs. Most of them are by no means « lesser », but the reputation they have been given sticks with them. Technical advances and strict selection, helped by a certain refusal to let fate decide matters, now enable us to produce a very good, good or ..... no vintage. One day, perhaps, we will no longer remember the unexpected, subtle charm of discovering a lesser vintage."
4 comments:
Before heading off to bed, I was surfing for some good wine writing from my short list of blogs I follow and realized I hadn't checked yours in a bit(sorry). Consider that itch scratched. What a great post, Gary, truly. It's a pleasure to read your sincere wine writing.
Many thanks for your kind words, Jim!
Well, 1984 was so much of a lesser vintage that it is rather difficult to find any tasting notes. Interesting read.
In the TV Movie "The Odd Couple: Together Again", the father of Edna's fiance told Felix that 1984 was a very bad vintage year.
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