Ten Birthday Wines - Starring a 1970 Bordeaux (France, Germany, Ontario, California)

'Twas the night of my birthday and friends were in the house - bottles of wine were opened and here's what we had:

Starting with a Dr. Burklin Wolf 2004 Riesling, which was quite an interesting older German Riesling full of honey and waxy notes with some apricot pit ... this was the first dead soldier of the night (some wines did not get finished).  Other whites of the night were a Thirty Bench 2012 Riesling, Chateau des Charmes 2010 St. David's Bench Chardonnay, Cave Spring 2012 Dolomite Chardonnay, Vineland 2011 Elevation Riesling, and a Vineland 2005 Dry Riesling (this one did not show well).  Speaking of not showing well, we also opened a bottle of Ruhlmann 2004 Sylvaner Bouquet Printanier - Cuvee Prestige, sealed with a cheese-o plastic cork, this wine should never have spend this long in my cellar, nor should it have been opened tonight - this wine should have stayed lost.

Surprisingly, only two reds were opened, a Tom Eddy 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which proved to be a delightful wine, well aged, well balanced but certainly not the star of the night ... on any other night maybe, but tonight it was a 43 year old Bordeaux that stole the show.  The Chateau Gruaud Larose 1970 Grand Vin was absolutely stunning, considering its age.  To the average everyday wine drinker this is going to sound unappealing, but to wine geeks (like a couple around the table tonight) this wine kept changing and opening and giving different aspects of its character that were admirable: starting with Band-aid and forest floor on the nose and a bit on the palate, there were also welcome (and surprising) hints of raspberry that appeared, not strong, but subtle and appealing.  No doubt the wine is very mature, but still very drinkable. The most surprising part is the acidity, which still stood up and kept the wine "fresh" or at least the palate from getting tired.  The biggest and best compliment I can give this wine is that it is savoury and sexy - in its own kinda way.  This is only the second wine I have ever had from my birth-year, this time it was extra special cause it was my actual birthday.

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Chateau Haut-Bailly 1970 Cru Exceptionnel (France)

When you get a bottle from your birth year you start wondering what to do with it.  Of course, the purpose is to open it and try it, but the questions arise: with whom and when.  I acquired this bottle a couple of months ago and put it into my wine fridge awaiting the opportunity to open it.  I figure that since my fiancee and I were born in the same year it only made sense to open it with her - when do you get the opportunity to try a wine from your birth year, when your birth year was 40 years ago?  The answer, not often enough.  

I decided to do some checking on the Chateau after I had drunk the bottle, so as not to skew my opinion of it.  First off, Chateau Haut Bailly is a "Grand Cru Classe" wine from the Pessac-Leognan appellation (Graves), which means it was ranked in 1959 as one of the top vineyards with 16 other wineries, included on that list is Chateau Haut-Brion.  A search on the Bailly website under "memorable vintages" shows 1970 to be: "Powerful, plentiful, promising".  Now that that is out of the way I suppose I should tell you what happened with this bottle.  

My fiancee came to town for a family dinner (parents, brother, niece and maid of honour), this was also the first time we have been in the same place since we got word that we are to be home owners later this month.  So there is no better time to pop the cork on an old bottle then when there are friends and family around.  The cork was slightly moldy and broke in the middle - it took me some time to get it out without getting cork bits into the wine, but it finally slid out of the neck (there was no loud pop).  The smell was old, dried (some would say rotten) fruit and wet leaves, lots of wet, damp forest smells.  45 minutes later some fruit peaked out for its last hoorah, it then disappeared never to be heard (or in this case smelled) again.  At the peak it was licorice and dried cranberries, the acidity was still there (and fairly prominently) with each second sip.  It was a pretty good bottle of wine considering its age.  I looked up Parker's notes, just for some reference, he said the bottle was fully mature back in December of 1993, I would not deny that, but I did not have this bottle in 1993, I got it in 2010 - and you know what, to sip on history it was well worth the wait to get it.

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Leoville 1970 vs Thomas George 2007 (France / United States)

Two misnomers in the title of this posting:  First these wines were had this afternoon, so it is not "what I am drinking tonight"; the second is there was no versus here, these wines were tried separately and judged separately.

We started with a bottle of 1970 Chateau Leoville-Barton; at first those in attendance wanted to write this one off, but i figured you have to give it a chance, heck it's been sitting in a bottle for the last 40 years or so.  But I didn't blame them, the nose was all woody and the same flavours followed, nothing fruity about this number and there was some really sour cranberry on the palate.  Two hours later I wouldn't say this wine shined but it sure showed better then when first poured out of the bottle.  The nose was woody with forest floor notes, tree bark and very dried fruit, with that slight sweet note.  The taste was sour cranberry, dried leaves and woody.  I have heard of this kind of wine described as rotting fruit, but in a good way.  You have to remember, this is a 40 year old wine, it tastes old but it's old in an interesting kinda way, not the make salad dressing with kinda way.

Next wine poured was a polar opposite, young, full of fruit, and lots of alcohol (16.5%).  The Thomas George Estates 2007 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, The Torrente Vineyard was just loaded with plum and cherry, sweet vanilla, chocolate and caramel, there was even some blueberry notes.  The palate was just as exciting as the nose: dark berries, plummy, chocolaty and sweet raspberries - absolutely delicious - you have to like real Zinfandel to appreciate this wine, the red kind, not the pink kind.

This really was the tale of two wines, both interesting, both exciting in there own way.

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