Sunday March 17, 2013

WARREN CONNECTICUT – We had dinner at home last night with David Young, a friend of long standing who is relocating to London (which makes some sense because he’s English). We opened a couple of spectacular wines: a 2004 Cheval Blanc and a 2003 Hosanna. Cheval Blanc is a St. Emilion; St. Emilions are classified and Cheval Blanc is one of two Premier Grand Crus. Because of this it has gotten expensive – out of reach of most mortals – but I happened to have a bottle lying around. Hosanna is a Pomerol, but is adjacent to Cheval Blanc just across the border between Pomeral and St. Emilion. Christian Moueix bought the Hosanna vineyard in 1999 (it was then called Château Certan-Giraud) and since then has been producing a wine similar to Cheval Blanc.

This was my first side-by-side tasting of these wines. Both are inky dark; both are powerful wines, both have tannins that are fully under control at this point; both have a wonderful rounded and complex nose and long finishes. The Cheval Blanc came out of the bottle slightly acidic and tasted unfinished. We decanted it and as the evening went on it become softer and rounder with a finish that went on forever. Both were lovely wines.

We finished up the dregs in three single malt bottles after dinner.

Here are the remains of the day photographed this morning with my medium format Leica S and 120mm macro lens.

On this day last year: Small barn.