A group of 60s winonauts blasted off into (mostly) untasted territory with a horizontal of 1967 wines from around the world — and we were all not just pleasantly surprised, but blown away.
We took over the private {Samurai} bar at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills — the first and still best Nobu restaurant in the world. Nobu himself, who was in Japan, sent us some specially requested (by moi) delicacies from Hokkaido — including hairy crab, uni, scallops.
Major props to Manager Ron for helping organize this, and of course to Nobu and his Samurai Bar chefs for the incredible Hokkaido hairy crab (served two ways), Hokkaido uni (served two ways, including an incredible clay pot seared version), Hokkaido scallops, Foie Gras with Sea Bass (for the Yquem), Wagyu, toro and on and on.
LESSON OF THE NIGHT: “no great wines, only great bottles”
LIST OF WINES:
1966 Comte De Taittinger – 2003 Haut Brion Blanc en Magnum – 1967 Gaja Barbaresco – 1967 Conterno Monfortino – 1967 La Tache en Magnum – 1967 Vega Sicilia Unico – 1967 Penfolds Grange Hermitage – 1967 Chateau D’Yquem – 1967 Lafite
One of the winonauts sent me these notes:
Comte – just beautiful. Wonderful caramel and honey notes and richness.
Haut Brion Blanc – very good
La Tache – excellent – unbelievably youthful. Almost none of the secondary aged wine flavors.
Gaja – not quite up to snuff
Contero Barolo – WOTN! This is one of the best wines I have ever had. Beautiful, deep, silky, with an unbelievable finish that just kept going with notes of star anise and cardamon to it. FANTASTIC!
Unico – perfect bottle. Great balance and beauty.
Grange – Fantastic also. Still power and vigor but beautiful harmony. Must be hitting it’s perfect age right now.
Lafite – very good but overshadowed by Barolo, Unico and Grange.
Yquem – one of the best I have ever had. This wine has evolved into something completely unique – rich and subtle and harmonious. An absolute pleasure to drink.
My personal WOTN was the perfect 1967 Magnum of DRC LA TACHE.
A close second, in a tie, were the Conterno Monfortino and the D’yquem.
The Vega Sicilia Unico was third place. Some notes on these:
1967 LA TACHE EN MAGNUM — this was refined, elegant, and extremely well balanced — and a great, GREAT example of the La Tache terroir and why we love it so much. The color was gorgeous. This was perhaps better than many 1966 La Tache I have had (including one recently in NY). This rare Magnum must have been perfectly stored (the cork was in great shape). MY THEORY is that this is a classic shadow year wine (being a shadow of the 1966), and that we were blessed with a perfect Magnum (I dont think we would have had the same experience with a 750).
The 1967 Conterno Monfortino and the 1967 yquem are both known to be two of the best wines produced on the planet in 1967 — with the yquem being the most famous (often called the greatest wine of 67). Both wines lived up to their reputation — the Monfortino was like a gorgeous old burgundy, with secondary and tertiary layer that kept expanding in the glass over its first hour open (and weirdly, unlike a lot of old Barolos, it was great right out of the bottle — most old Barolos seem cooked at first, and come alive after hours and hours of air — not the case here). The D’yquem lived up to the hype — it is really a beautiful wine and one of my favorite yquems.
The 1967 Vega Sicilia Unico was another example of a brilliant shadow year (being the shadow to the 1968, arguably the best Vega ever produced). It was the color of deep black ink, and bursting with mouth staining sweet jam.
Honorable mention goes to the 1967 Scotch — Vintage 1967 is a great scotch vintage and this was no exception.
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