Unauthorized

This remarkable event, a tasting of 2003 Bordeaux, was held at one of the most historic and beautiful private clubs I have ever visited, the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They have been rated the country’s number one private club for over ten years, and together with one of their members and my friend, Michael D. Cheteyan, II, we planned a momentous evening where all the proceeds went to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Oncology. I chose the wines and let Michael and the Club plan everything else, and I can’t think of a better wine tasting than what the Duquesne Club organized (including the perfect Riedel glasses, the right temperature, and impeccable service).

The 2003 Bordeaux tasting included 13 wines, all of which performed well. My comments on these wines will be brief since I have reviewed them many times. With the exception of the Léoville Las Cases, I thought every wine performed as good or better than I had rated it in the past. We began with the Las Cases (rated 91+?). Perhaps the first wine is always the toughest to calibrate one’s palate, but this wine was completely shut down and closed, although it eventually should be a beauty. While powerful and full for a Las Cases, it needs a decade of cellaring. Other wines that were backward, but revealed more depth, concentration, and overall complexity (both aromatically and on the palate), included the fabulous Léoville Barton (rated 96) and Léoville Poyferré (rated 96).

We then moved to some 2003 Margaux, which performed better than I remembered. This was the finest showing for Giscours (rated 93) since I tasted it from barrel. It is certainly one of the great bargains remaining for this vintage, and I’m sure that following the tasting, a lot of Pittsburgers rushed out to buy some. The Lascombes (rated 92+)  revealed its modern style, with plenty of new oak, but loads of fruit, complexity, and richness. Several guests questioned why the brilliant Château Margaux (rated 99) did not receive one hundred points (three wines that followed it answered that question). One of the great young Margauxs, it is open-knit and precocious, with superb reserve, richness, and overall harmony. It is the quintessentially elegant wine.

Next we had some sensational St.-Estèphes. The unbelievable 2003 Montrose (rated 100) and Cos d’Estournel (rated 99) are two of the greatest St.-Estèphes I have ever tasted. Montrose is the more backward, and the Cos is more precocious, but both wines will benefit from 8-10 years of cellaring, and should last for 30-40 years.

One of the vintage’s sleeper selections has always been the Pontet-Canet (rated 96). Its dense purple color is followed by classic aromas of crème de cassis. It comes across like a first-growth rather than a fifth-growth Pauillac. For me, the prodigious 2003 Latour (rated 100) and 2003 Ausone (rated 100) were the two greatest wines of the night.. Their complexity was fabulous. The Latour is probably a hundred year wine, and the Ausone should easily last as long. The 2003 Pavie (rated 98+) was almost as good, but its Right Bank style with more minerality, ripe fruit, espresso roast, and chocolaty notes were in complete contrast to the perfect blue and black fruit character of the Latour and enormous richness and exotic incense-like character of the Ausone. We also had the flamboyant 2003 Angélus (rated 96), which performed fabulously. I may have underrated this wine in its youth, but out of bottle, it appears to be one of the more precocious and fast evolving wines of the vintage, although it should keep for another 20-25 years.

After the two and a half hour tasting, we sat down for an absolutely superb meal, which was the culinary highlight of my four day visit to Pittsburgh. Everything on the menu was outstanding, and I can’t say enough about the culinary staff at the Dusquesne Club. The first course of poached Maine lobster was cooked perfectly, but I was underwhelmed by the accompanying wine, the 2001 Louis Latour Bâtard Montrachet. It seemed surprisingly light for a Latour, and not nearly as opulent as I expected. Things quickly improved as the 1982 Léoville Poyferré(from the Dusquesne Club’s fabulous cellar) was absolutely outrageous. Still black as a moonless night, full-bodied, and rich, it worked beautifully with the pan-roasted duck breast and seared foie gras. I was very pleased with the showing of the 1995 Mouton Rothschild, which has been closed and backward. However, the wine had been decanted, and it revealed some firmness, it displayed a dense ruby/purple color as well as loads of licorice-infused black currant notes offered in a full-bodied, powerful style with plenty of tannin to shed. It appears to just be coming out of its dormancy. A great wine, the 1997 Lafite Rothschild exhibits a brilliant dark ruby/purple color as well as classic Lafite notes of graphite, black currants, cherries, and toasty oak. Surprisingly rich for a 1997, it demonstrates how top estates can be counted on even in lighter years. We finished with the 1995 Yquem. While top-flight, it is not among the great vintages from this estate. Its crème brûlée, orange marmalade, and voluptuousness were remarkable.

I can’t thank enough the chairman of the Wine Society of the Dusquesne Club, Louis Astorino, as well as Michael Cheteyan, and all the members for being such extraordinarily generous and gracious hosts. I was profoundly touched by their kindness, and it was good to see after a twenty year absence many of my early subscribers who have been supporting The Wine Advocate for over two decades, in particular, the great John T. Ryan, III and the ebullient Marshall P. Katz.