Collector's Corner: 1966 BORDEAUX & California CABERNET SAUVIGNON Tasting Notes

After the recent 30 Year Anniversary of the "Judgement of Paris" tasting" (see our article on Ridge Vineyards), our curiosity was whetted as to how California and Bordeaux wines have aged from the 1966 vintage. The vintage in Bordeaux was regarded as excellent! The wines were described by Michael Broadbent (in the Great Viintage Wine Book, 1980) as "stylish, elegant and well balanced". He described them as "lean, rather than plump", with good firm flesh and the likelihood of aging well. In regards to the 1966 vintage in California, reviews of other Cabernets of the vintage suggest the two Napa Valley wines also came from a good year and could be fairly compared with the Bordeaux.

BORDEAUX 1966

Chateau Latour (Pauillac) Broadbent described this wine as having "magnificent colour", was "bouquet and flavour packed" and, while "closed in", was "an enormous rich wine" that "dry, yet velvet-lined, should develop stunningly." He recommended drinking this wine in 1986-2010 plus.

• What we found was really impressive. It is a solid and complex wine that is still vital, deep and lengthy. The richness that Broadbent indicated is clearly evident. The wine has great depth and a wonderful sense of substance. It is aging perfectly and has not faded at all. This is as good an aged Bordeaux as we have ever experienced.

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré (St. Julien) Broadbent's notes indicated this wine to be "elegant and complete." He recommended it be consumed during the period from 1982-1996.

• Tasted ten years past Broadbent's recommended time frame, the wine definitely shows its age and has lost whatever sense of fruit it had when he tasted it. It now seems a bit thin and a touch sharp. A tobaccoey, perhaps brettanomyces, tone lingers in its aftertaste. It was stored at 56° so perhaps bottles stored under colder cellaring conditions may still be alive and interesting.

Chateau Pichon-Lalande (Pauillac) Broadbent described this wine as "deep, cedary and developing. Drink 1982-2000."

• This one still feels supple and vital on the palate and finishes well. While it doesn't show much depth at this point, it is still a delightful wine with a lingering cedary aftertaste. We found this wine a real charmer.

CALIFORNIA CABERNETS 1966

Robert Mondavi (Napa Valley) We had recently tasted a half bottle of this wine and were quite favorably impressed, so we looked forward to opening this full 4/5ths quart (the bottle size used by American wineries at the time). As expected, along with the Ch. Latour, it proved to be one of the highlights of the tasting. This was the very first vintage for the Robert Mondavi Winery and the facilities were still under construction. It was the single Cabernet Sauvignon released by Mondavi in 1966 and the grapes were grown on benchland vineyards in Oakville. It is smooth and still delivers a delightful expression of curranty varietal fruit in its aromas and flavor. This has stood up over time as a solid, beautifully made wine with a wonderfully lengthy finish.

Inglenook Vineyards (Napa Valley) The grapes for this wine came from the Rutherford benchlands (just north of Oakville) on vineyards begun in the late-1870s by Captain Gustave Nybom, now known as the Niebaum-Coppola Estates. But this bottling was the least prestigious of several Cabernets released by the winery from the 1966 vintage. The wines of this area deliver nuances of roasted coffee bean and mocha-ish tones that became known as "Rutherford dust". This one still shows good balance but now seems a touch thin on the palate and its lingering aftertaste shows a cedary character with a hint of slightly overripe, raisining grapes.

Martin Ray (Saratoga) With the passing of Santa Cruz Mountains vintner Paul Masson, Martin Ray took over as his successor and then established a new winery under his own name, after Paul Masson Winery was sold. Ray produced some of the best and some of the worse wines we can recall tasting. In this case, the Cabernet was out of character with the other five wines being tasted. After forty years there is a forceful (too forceful), strong fruit component punching out in both the aromas and flavors. It is still rich with a good acidity and a slightly hot finish. However, it came into its own and tasted wonderfully well with a serving of lamb shanks that accompanied the tasting.