2001 Caillou Quartz and 1990 Figeac

Time to crack one of the 2001 CdP to see how they are doing, and maybe try a mystery Bordeaux brought by Lou.

We started with a 2007 Terredora DiPaolo Greco di Tufo, a pleasant summer drink that was showing a bit more rusticity than I recalled from an earlier taste. This one struck me as a bit unintegrated with its somewhat angular profile, hanging somewhere between full ripe fruit and a harder acidic character. This could drink better with time, but we came away undecided as to where this was at or where it was going.

Next up was one of my modest stash of 2001 CdP. I had had the 2001 Clos du Caillou Quartz Chateauneuf du Pape a few back at one of Steve Rigisich's Bay Area Wine Experiment (BAWE) events where it showed quite well, big, powerful, structure, and all potential. Perhaps surprisingly, this bottle seemed not to have evolved a great deal, barely budging past that same structured, primary character it showed about 4 years ago. We have an interesting time analyzing the effect of temperature here along the lines of what Paul Savage and others have discussed--initially the wine was a touch warm, which made it seem a little looser and less impressive in its structure, but we cooled it down a few degrees and the wine's structure, mineral undertones, and volume emerged much more clearly. Still, this wine seems to need at least 5 years to show much more, unless you are in to primary CdP (I am not so much anymore myself). Right now, not a 95-96 point wine IMO...

Next up was a mystery Bordeaux. The initial aromatic attack was striking, with an almost aggressive leafy green character on the nose. The palate even from the beginning was much smoother, with an abundance of ripe fruit that suggested that this was not from one of those rainier "classic" vintages of Bordeaux, despite the green aroma notes. With time in the glass (almost an hour), the nose toned down and took on a more floral character, with a stronger suggestion of aged tobacco, but with a signature quite different from the floral character of a Pichon Lalande, for example. The green leaf tobacco nose had me thinking Cabernet Franc, so I guessed 1990 Figeac, even though a bottle that Lou had brought to a Bordeaux offline some years back showed a very different (less leafy) character). Bingo, I got that one right at least...