By: AJ McClellan
A first growth is always a special treat. They are some of the most coveted wines in the world and they always have a special mystique when the bottle hits the table. Yesterday, we not only got a chance to taste a first growth, we got a chance to taste three!
1990 Dom Perignon – Pear cider with light apricot extract and some vanilla on the nose. Freshly rising bread with a dazzling acidity and succulent toasty notes backed by crushed almonds. Wonderfully complex with a montage of fruit. And a very long finish expressing honeysuckle and heavy mineral notes.
1975 Lafite – The 75 Lafite was an interesting wine. The bottle started out with an impressive nose of wet earth, mossy log, prune, and a slight cedar note. The palate however was flat and uninspiring. I was hoping that with time the palate would come around but after almost two hours in the glass the wine only marginally improved.
1970 Lafite – The 70 Lafite was showing much more life than the 75 right out of the bottle. The nose was more expressive, showing notes of dried leaves, black fruit, dark chocolate and olives. While the palate did take some time to come around. It started off with an old wet gym sock flavor that was off putting. After a few minutes in the glass the palate started to show more fruit and the old moldy smell morphed into a pleasant damp forest floor. While this wine was very pleasant to drink I would recommend drinking it in the next few years as I feel that it is edging towards the end of its life.
2002 Latour – The 02 Latour was extremely tight compared to the two older first growths. Showing bright red currants, raspberry, and cherry this wine had a beautiful nose, but the palate was all tannin. I could pick very little earth off the wine and even after allowing it to open up for several hours the wine never became very expressive.
Of all the wines, I would say it was a tie between the 90 Dom and the 70 Lafite for wine of the night. Like trying to judge between a fantastic apricot and a beautiful plum, the wines were just to different to pick a clear winner… But it sure was fun trying to!