Well, it was actually a GERMANTOWN thang ... we had our resident Memphis suburbanites, Latour67, Shaferguy, and Stemor, meeting up with the visiting Louisvillian -- Kybo.
We had no theme, other than "bring some good wine". Here's what we wound up with, in order (sparse notes, even though Kybo and I actually cooperated in putting them together):
-- '02 Vinum Africa Chenin Blanc, 13.5%. Grapefruit on the nose, green apple at first taste, although the acidity faded quickly leaving a somewhat heavy finish.
-- '86 Gruaud Larose, 12.5%. Delicious and refined. It earned ooohs and aaaahhhhs all around the table. Latour67 "decanted the snot out of this wine", to steal a phrase from DaveL, not once but three times. It worked ... it was wonderful straight out of the bottle.
-- '96 Shafer Hillside Select, 14.3%. Guess what happens when you invite a guy named "Shaferguy"?!? This was a wonderful wine that was drinking beautifully thanks to SG's extensive decanting of this wine.
-- '90 Ch. Semeillan Mazeau. After much decanting, swirling, sniffing, and discussing, we decided to declare that this wine sucked. THAT'S RIGHT, IT SUCKED
. Well, actually Kybo thought it was corked enough to pour out, while Latour declared that it was merely "mustified"
. Shaferguy and I kept quietly drinking our wine.
-- '00 Numanthia, 14.5%. I came home for lunch today and opened this wine, tasted it, scrunched up my face due to overwhelming tannins, and then poured into a decanter. Six hours later, it was STARTING to show what it was made of.
By the end of the bottle, we had the waiter, the wine manager, an adjoining table, and the (very appealing and friendly) co-owner of the restaurant all hovering about our table (ask Latour if he likes lovely ladies clinging onto him, and I bet he feigns ignorance. HAH!), This wine generated much discussion, most of which centered about what a promising future this wine had. It was AWESOME now, but will only get better. Come back to this one ON or AFTER 2010.
-- '96 Helena View Cabernet Franc, Johnston Vineyard, 13.9%. This was a typically lovely bottle of Cab Franc, showing a stong nose of mint at first but quickly evolving into chocolate. Very good.
-- '01 Pfeffingen Scheurebe Auslese, 9.7%. Although Auslese - sweet, it showed a georgeous balance of sugar and acidity. Never losing balance, we found that the sugar was offset by acidity components: Ripe lime (and orange?), along with mango and other ripe tropical fruits.
To me, the wines were all good ... but the company ruled the day. Oh, and after we were done, it was off to Latour's home (only two-three miles away) for a rummaging session through his cellar. Several several assorted bottles later, we called it an evening.