AJ McClellan
Mondays are normally quite slow around Graileys. Typically we spend the day cleaning up the wreckage from the prior weekend, but you never know when an epic tasting is around the corner. The day started like any other Monday.
2005 Pignan Chateauneuf du Pape – I had just finished cleaning up the joint and popped a bottle of Pignan to see how Rayas’s second label was tasting. With big blue fruit and soft gamey flavors the wine was quite nice and perfect for relaxing after a hard day of cleaning. The wine finished with leather and sweet tobacco. A relatively light mid palate for a CDP but it was a very pleasant wine.
1997 Solaia – This is when the action started. One of our members walked in and declared that it was time to open the good stuff. The Solaia was the first bottle on the table, and as good as the Pignan was it paled in comparison to the Solaia and was left in the dust. The Solaia showed off a stewed plum and sour cherry nose with dried tobacco and cracked earth. The palate boasted green coco and red roses with chewy tannins of silk and a well balanced finish of dark chocolate, pine needles, and dark raspberries. Nothing like a great Italian wine on a Monday afternoon.
1982 Pichon Lalande – With only the three of us in the shop Simon decided to spoil us with a bottle that he had been saving for a special occasion. After blowing the dust off the bottle I popped the cork and pour a taste. As soon as the wine touched my lips, I kid you not, “It must be love” by Madness started playing in the background. The wine had so much complexity it took me a moment to unweave the wine enough to put it to words. First were the purple violets with graphite and baked raspberries. Then for a moment all I could think about was how magnificent the wine was. I pushed through trying to capture this piece of art with mere words. Bright red cherries, a well developed funk – not offensive but extremely pleasant – dried tobacco, tart cranberries, a slight herbaceousness on the back, very lush finish including cloves and fennel that lasts for more than two minutes. The longer the wine sits in the glass the more complex it becomes revealing a garden growing over lightly spread compost soil with chewy milk chocolate filled with caramel and wrapped in homemade beef jerky. While sitting back and enjoying the long lasting finish all I could think of is how classy this wine is a real lady. With only a few sips left in the glass the wine changed again to show a slight smoky toast and coffee on the nose with a light mocha and green coco on the palate. This wine was a chameleon. I only wish I had more of it in the glass so I could watch it change another time.