1995 Ch. Durfort Vivens

[AlexR]

Our Easter lunch started off with snails in garlic and parsley butter accompanied by a 2014 Saint-Aubin Premier Cru “En Monceau” from Kristin and Jan-Frederik Borge. This was on the thin side but still went extremely well with the snails and good crisp country bread. Yum.
We had two red wines with the leg of lamb and roast potatoes.

The first was a 2015 Vacheron red Sancerre. My impressions were seriously at odds with comments on Cellartracker. The wine was very light in color, kind of a halfway house between red and rose, and was already showing signs of ageing on the rim. The nose was pleasant, but nowhere near as aromatic as others found it. This Sancerre was eminently gulpable, fresh, and simple, but the price tag warranted something much more serious. Most importantly, I do not see this wine gaining anything whatsoever by further cellaring, and I’m glad I caught it when I did.
We had 1995 Durfort Vivens with the cheese platter. This was showing its age and then some. It had that lovely aged Médoc bouquet, with some telltale graphite nuances, but was too indeterminate, not fresh or characterful enough. The wine was soft and fully resolved on the palate, but had begun to dry out, and much of the fruit had left – a prime example of a wine that should have been opened years ago…

With dessert (because people often drink Champagne with dessert here), we had a very old non-vintage brut grand cru Champagne from Bonnaire in Cramant. This was given to me along with a few other old bottles by a friend who was putting some order into his cellar and intimated that this was a crap shoot. In the event, the wine was surprisingly good. The fizz was weak, but the Chamapgne was more properly aged than oxidized, and was much appreciated.

We finished the meal with coffee and Candolini Riserva Grappa.

And then it was time for a nap…

All the best,
Alex R.

[DavidG]

Alex, I hope your lunch and holiday were enjoyable despite the wines being past it.

[JimHow]

Greetings from the U.S. Alex.
We had lamb and ham and fixins' along with 2012 Janasse Chaupin, 2012 La Fleur de Bouard, 2012 Barde Haut, and 2005 Jadot 1er Cru.
The Jadot needs about ten more years. Nice day yesterday but back to wintry cold today.
But... the Sox are in first place, the Yankees suck.
Spring is here in New England, the snow is almost gone, although the lakes and ponds are still frozen over.
It was a cold, hard winter up in this neck of the woods, spring coming along ever so reluctantly.

[jckba]

2002 Janasse Chaupin, 2002 La Fleur de Bouard, 2002 Barde Haut

I think you meant to write 2012’s of each of the above based on the pic but I guess you still have 2002 in the brain. The lamb looks downright delicious and the season has just begun young grasshopper ...

[JimHow]

Yes, I've been doing that lately, mixing up 2002 and 2012.

[JCNorthway]

Sounds like lamb was the theme of the day. We also had boneless leg of lamb that looked similar to Jim's coming out of the oven, along with ham, lasagna (Paula's mother is Italian!) and assorted side dishes. Among the sides were carrots steamed in butter, roasted asparagus, and rice pilaf. A cheesecake dessert and coffee/espresso followed. And this was after we munched on several appetizers for a couple of hours.

Since our crowd was not particularly wine savvy, I went with lesser wines that I was confident would work with the menu. I served a 2010 L'Hortus Pic St. Loup which was in a very good place, though I think it will shortly be on the decline. I also served a 2015 Virginie Thunevin Bordeaux blend from St. Emilion, produced by Jean Luc Thunevin of Valendraud. This is an inexpensive bottling (about $15) that I tasted in a local wine shop and immediately bought a case. I opened it almost 6 hours before we ate, and it was in a really nice place by the time it was poured. If you need an everyday Bordeaux blend and can find this, I'd say it's a can't miss bottle. For the ham, we served a 2014 Trimbach Pinot Gris which paired nicely.

It was a very nice holiday meal with family, 12 of us in all. Paula organized an Easter egg hunt (chocolate eggs) in the Condo and discovered that her family members are really competitive!

[AKR]

I've not seen the Hortus wines around us in a long time, but remember liking them in the past.

Bummer about the Durfor Vivens. I think my only experience with that estate is some 50's era bottling that MichaelP poured for us.