AWS Wine Tasting, September 11, 2005 - Home of Warren Sublette
JT was nice enough to supply the following notes he took during the tasting. He also recorded the information about the voting that occurred.
Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Wines were decanted in pairs and immediately served among 15 participants. These are my subjective opinions; others differed greatly as to the quality of the vintages.
The 1990's Vintages
1995 **** - Spicy nose, spicy fruit, full front, long oaky finish, heavy tannins, later seemed very harsh, even later smoothed out but this is definitely too young.
1994 **+ - Slight sulfur nose with a bit of dirty socks, later had fruity nose, light fruit front, prominent "merlot" taste, oaky finish, later smoothed out.
1992 *** - Opulent nose of violets and perfume, sweet fruit was slightly acidic, medium body, sweet finish with vanilla, taste was almost disappointing with this aroma.
1990 ***+ - Dusty corky mushroom nose, rich full body, even and nicely balanced.
The 1980's Vintages
1989 **** - Slightly acidic and fruity nose, very dry dusty front, rich middle, prominent "cabernet franc" taste, lots of life left in it.
1986 ** - Dust and perfume nose, bright fruit with depth, fruity through finish, lacked some complexity but later evened out with flavors.
1983(a) ***** - Iodine and rich fruit nose, great rich full fruit flavors, rich balance through finish.
1983(b) ****+ - Restrained nose, similar rich fruit, great balance, fruit maintained through end.
The 1960's Vintages
1966 *** - Mysterious nose (couldn't find descriptor), even thick flavors, great for its age, asparagus in finish though it did not seem like a fault.
1964 ** - Slight iodine and cherry cough drop nose, thick concentrated flavors fell off towards end, later finish filled out but overall had light body.
1962 *** - Nose unfortunately disappeared quickly, sweet and easy fruit, extremely nice, later fruit seemed restrained by tannins.
1961 ***** - Spicy nose, rich even flavors, great drinking, slightly weak finish, a great wine holding well, later improved and all was good - the best!
Favorite Wine Voting
My Favorites - 1961, 1983(a), 1990
First set of voting was done by decade. Each person voted for there favorite wine. One vote for each decade.
Best Value voting was one hand/two hand. Two hands for number one choice, One hand for second choice
| | 95 | 94 | 92 | 90 | 89 | 86 | 83+ | 83- | 66 | 64 | 62 | 61 |
| Decade Vote | 3 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
| Favorite Overall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| Best Value | 1 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| (estimated price) | 143 | 70 | 70 | 150 | 192 | 228 | 200 | 200 | 195 | 400 | 400 | 780 |
