Jan 22, 2011 Old Cab Tasting

Yesterday we had 30 friends/customers over to sample the following lineup of fine old wines:
2001 J. Strub Riesling Kabinett (great year; glorious at 10 years)
2000 Ken Wright Wahl Vineyard (really impressive)
2003 Beaux Freres Pinot noir (first-rate)
2009 homemade Marechal Foch (happy to say it is the best Foch I have ever tasted)
1996 Chateau Meyney (awfully good for a less-expensive Bordeaux)
1996 St. Francis Zin (way past its prime; a good data point for life of zins)
1999 Silver Oak Alexander Valley (super, but oddly short finish)
1995 Lokoya Diamond Mountain (one of the crowd faves-incredible richness of perfume)
1992 Chateau Montelena (good, but often the Monties seem to slightly underperform)
1992 Dominus (another favorite; complex, lush, harmonious)
1995 Opus One (my first ever! very good but not worth the $200 PV)
1986 Chateau Cos d'Estournel (should've been the grand finish but disappointed severely; OK in the mouth--not grand--but the nose was way off)

And two stickies:

1989 Chateau Rieussec (ah! fields of honeyed flowers; stupendous)
1983 D'Oliveira Boal Harvest Madeira (not my cup of tea, but interesting)

The winelist was probably worth about $1500 (present value). It's great to bring together a group like this, where our collective purchasing power enabled this tasting for $30 per person. I was just trying to not lose too much on the event: I came close to covering my initial purchase cost on the wines, and six of the above bottles were very kindly brought by others, and we had a fabulous spread of food: organic (no preservative) Canadian bacon, and Harvarti cheese and red pepper tapenade on toasted baguette slices; mango-chicken sausage; blue cheese alongside dates; four kinds of chocolate (which goes great with dry red wine; try it!); relish platter; organic French bread, cut up; pate and cornichons; jam bars with apricot preserves; and yes even those peanut butter-filled pretzels.

A good time was had by all.