couple of bords

[brappy]

Tasted both of these wines at work. The guy that brought these in is always gracious enouph to offer a half glass for tasting. However, his Know-it-all personality beyond that is annoying. I accept the tastes, wave the corkage, and tell the waiter how to handle the wine. And then smile and say "Thank You" when I taste.

'82 Pichon Lalande; I've tasted this wine a couple of times now and have been impressed with the youthful fruit each time. This wine barely had a lighter rim. The nose expresses the wine fully; red fruits, touch of dirt but only in the background. The palate matches the nose but how it does this makes the wine special. The red fruits are up front and the first thing tasted. As the wine moves to the mid-palate, some darker fruits add complexity along with some spices. And by spices, it reminds me of "Rutherford dust" and a touch of eucalyptus. Not quite the same but close. The concentration of the fruit is grows and grows. The finish of this wine sits with you for awhile. Interestingly, the tannins turn sweeter as the finish gets longer. Truly amazing wine. The complexity is amazing. Every other second, secondary (and beyond) nuances keep popping up. A final note: For a wine 25 years old, the age on it is barely noticable. It's there, but it only adds to the complexity of the wine. Great stuff.

'55 Pichon-Lalande
This is where the guy's ego kills me. I, earlier instructed the waiter to open this just before drinking and under NO circumstance was he to decant. I had already told the guy this bottle should be opened and enjoyed first but he would have none of that. I did talk him into not opening this right away explaining the air would kill this off. Anyway, the waiter came to me and told me he demanded the bottle be decanted. So I went to the table and explained to him why he shouldn't decant. He told me several things but mostly that ALL older wines need to be decanted. This is always a sticky situation; its his bottle so he can do what he wants so I always back down graciously. I instructed the waiter to do what the guy wanted. There is a lot of sediment in this wine so decanting takes awhile. When I go back to the table, he has my half-glass taste ready and waiting for me. I nose the wine: Lots of acid, not much fruit. Lots of wood also. I almost started thinking maybe this wine needed more air for the fruit to come out. Maybe this guy knew exactly what he was doing. So I tasted the wine. Nope, this wine was as dead as a wine could be dead. Damn! The kicker is the guy was explaining to his guests that great aged wine tastes like this and its a wonderful thing blah blah blah......... The wine on the palate still had a little fruit, but the acid was almost puckering. Acidwood.... is that a word? Oh well, really a shame. I used the rest of my glass to explain to my staff why you don't decant older wines. Some good had to come of this.

As a side note, The guy I'm talking about really is a nice guy. He's generous to a fault. He's also simply a wine nut, so I really like his enthusiasm.

Anyway, the night didn't end there, so I'll finish this in the cab section....

mark

[winoweenie]

I hate it when a great wine has turned. The 82 Pichon was one of the stars of this remarkable,IMHO, vintage and I kicked myself for not buying more of them on the en primier futures. The few 82s I have left are about to get their respective corks pulled. By-the-bye this bottle was under 30 bucks on the opening futures market. WW

[wondersofwine]

Nice notes, Mark.