What I Tasted on My Spring Break - SPEC's Liquors

www.specsonline.com
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inventory to sell off our racks when the
vintage is shipped. The other is to offer
the best possible prices on rare and
expensive wines to our Bordeaux-loving
customers. As we get confirmations on
our orders, we offer the wines out for sale
as futures, a way to buy wines that haven't
even been bottled yet. On the wines we've
tasted and like and on wines with great
track records, we buy as much as we are
allocated, often at several different prices.
If our customers get hot on a particular
wine and we run short or sell out, we go
back and buy more, usually at a higher
price. We then make a second offering
reflecting that higher price.
In order to open the futures opportunity to
as many customers as possible, Spec's
offers Bordeaux futures sales on bottles and
three-packs as well as the standard twelve
bottle cases. While the price advantage is
not as substantial in the smaller lots, there
is still an edge over what the wines will sell
for on arrival. But far and away the main
benefit here is the guarantee of availability.
Single-bottle and three-pack pricing is
available only on 750ml bottles of dry reds
and whites and both on 375ml and 750ml
bottles of most Sauternes.
So what's all the fuss about Just that the
futures market insures the savvy Bordeaux
lover a way to buy his favorite wines at the
best prices they'll likely ever sell for, and a
way to insure himself that he will actually
get some of the rarer wines that may never
make it onto a rack or shelf in the store.
Is my
1996 Margaux
in the
stage
dumb
“When will my 2001 Ducru enter the
dumb stage When will it emerge” “Will my
1989 Leoville las Cases ever emerge from the
dumb stage” “Don’t open that yet, it’s still in
the dumb stage.”
<strong>What</strong>’s the dumb stage It is a period in a
wine’s development where the wine is
undergoing reductive changes in the bottle
as it sheds some of the fresh fruit of its
(continued p. 3)
Chateau
Margaux
Bordeaux Report (continued from p. 1)
and Bordeaux Millesimes to name a few. I also taste at
many chateaux whose wines are not shown at the
UGC tastings. Each year I go to all the first growths
and many of the seconds where we taste more than
just that wine. There are second and sometimes third
wines to taste as well as associated properties. At
Mouton, we also taste Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac, and
at Lafite we also taste Carruades and Duhart Milon. At
Haut Brion, we taste La Chappelle de la Mission (the 2nd
vin of Ch. La Mission Haut Brion), Bahans Haut Brion (the
2nd vin of Ch. Haut Brion), Latour Haut Brion, La Mission
Haut Brion, and Haut Brion as well as Laville Haut Brion (the
white wine of La Mission) and Haut Brion Blanc. All in all at Haut
Brion, we taste seven wines from each vintage and we usually taste two
vintages.
This year, the opportunity to re-taste past vintages served me well. The 2001
Ch. Margaux wine had not shown well in 2002 or 2003 and I was frankly a bit
worried that I’d made a mistake in buying it. My purchase was based on Margaux’s
superb track record and assurances by Margaux director Paul Pontalier that the wine was just
backward and that it would come around. It finally did come around and is now showing very well,
just in time for release.
At dinners in restaurants and during visits and dinners at chateaux, we always drink older, usually mature
wines. The last few years our Bordeaux dinner wines have included many great wines from 1985, 1986,
1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, and 1995. We have had the odd 1982 and even a couple of 1991s. The
1991s from Ch. Latour, Ch. Parenchere, and Ch. Segur de Cabannac were shockingly good wines from a
frankly forgettable, very wet vintage.
All this tasting (and drinking) leads to a familiarity with a property that transcends vintage variation as well
as to an understanding of each vintage and where its sub-regional strengths and weaknesses are. It also
reinforces, for me at least, the notion that I’d usually rather drink the wine from chateau I really like in a
merely good or even mediocre vintage than wine from an also ran property in even a great vintage.
1993 and 1994 were lightly regarded, rain affected vintages that still made very nice, elegant, mediumweight
clarets. Most from the lesser appellations have already been drunk and that is a good thing as most
of them wouldn’t have lasted. The best wines of these vintages (the top classified growths) are very pretty
wines that in many cases are drinking very well now. Whenever I see good 1994s on wine lists, I am
interested. They are often very good values and are always under appreciated.
1995 was a great warm year that made fine wines all over Bordeaux. These were big rich wines somewhat
in the style of 1982 and 1990 featuring ample fruit and flavor with good ripeness and a fairly low level of
acidity. The 1995s tasted good on release and while they did descend a bit into the “dumb stage” (please
see side bar The Dumb Stage at left), it was not a deep descent and the wines were enjoyably drinkable.
Many of the age-worthy wines have now emerged and blossomed. While the first growths need a bit more
time for optimum drinking, many of the other classified growths from 1995 are drinking beautifully. Even
a number of petite chateaux are holding up nicely.
1996 was, if you believe James Suckling of the Wine Spectator, a disappointing vintage. Or, if you follow
Robert Parker, 1995 was the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon vintage in Bordeaux since World War II. Parker
is correct. While the Merlot-dominated right bank appellations (Pomerol, St. Emilion, etc.) yielded many
very good wines in 1996, it was the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated left bank appellations (Graves, Medoc,
Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac, and St. Estephe) that had the potential to make excellent and even
outstanding wines in 1996. I still remember tasting the outstanding 1996 Ch. Margaux in the chateau and
being momentarily transported by the wine. The also outstanding 1996 Ch. Latour out of barrel was so
intense that it was almost painful to hold it in the mouth. All the better 1996 wines were excellent from
the barrel and were excellent on their release in 1998 and 1999. Most of the Cabernet-based wines had
enough intensity and acidity that they have slipped firmly into the dumb stage. They are not undrinkable
now but will be so much better with a few more years in the bottle that it seems a shame not to hold them.
1997 made pretty wines that emphasized fresh fruit and perfume with a classic weight and structure. They
are not blockbusters and there was some unevenness in quality attributable to uneven ripeness due to an
extended, uneven flowering period. Some clusters (especially Merlot in St. Emilion) had ripe grapes with
some green grapes mixed in so a good triage was important. The 1997s also had the problem of being
released as futures at prices too high for the quality, coming immediately after the excellent 1996s. Since
there have been no price increases (and in fact some discounting) on the 1997s from the time they were
sold as futures, the vintage is now reasonably priced and drinking very well. 1997 was an excellent to
outstanding year for the sweet wines from Sauternes and Barsac.