OK, so with two days to recover, here is what I remember, but I'm not swearing to anything...
A dozen or so intrepid tasters met at the Tanglenet's to admire their beautiful home and try some 2000 Bordeaux. 9 of the wines came from their personal cellar, testifying to their generosity as well as stellar provenance. The rest of the group contributed three wines for the tasting and the wines for the dinner afterwards. It was an eye opening experience given the attention paid to Bordeaux wines recently, and also being the 10th anniversary (almost) of the wines' creation.
Being a practical affair, the wines were arranged in a circle on a round table and folks migrated (mostly counterclockwise) and tried all of the wines to get their impressions. Afterwards, the identities were revealed and further tasting confirmed or refuted initial ratings. The wines supplied had been slow oxygenated for roughly 24 hours and decanted a few hours before the tasting (correction needed if I dreamed this up), with the exception being the wines brought that evening, which received various treatments.
Early on it was surmised/hinted that there was a ringer, but the type of ringer was not disclosed, so that provided opportunity for animated conversation and speculation. Several people thought they identified a CA cab in the lot, some picked out merlot based Bordeaux versus cab blends, some guessed a Bordeaux from another vintage (I think).
Personally, as scribe for the evening, I'm taking the liberty of jotting a few notes, I hope others will provide more detailed and insightful analyses as my taste runs towards CA mostly. Here was the lineup:
1) 2000 Ch. Malescasse Haut Medoc - light, hint of veg.
2) 2000 Haut Bages Liberal Pauillac - Bell peppers, light fruit.
3) 2000 Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac - Red meat, good weight.
4) 2000 Forts de Latour Pauillac - Big, rustic, cedar, dust. One of my top 3.
5) 2000 Carruades de Lafite RothschildPauillac - Alcohol, mint, closed, purple rim, cherry fruit. Another top 3 entry.
6) 2000 Pavillon Rouge de Chateau Margaux, Margaux - Relatively dense, big, smoky, fresia?
7) 2000 Smith Haut Lafitte Graves - black truffles, light dusty fruit, mature
8) 2000 Monbousquet St. Emilion - Pretty cherry fruit, rich, bacony. Last of the top 3
9) 1990 L'Evangile Pomerol - Smoky, petrol, dusty fruit.
10) 2000 Gruaud Larose St. Julien - Hint of brett? Med. fruit flavors.
11) 2000 Clos du Marquis St. Julien - Mulberry (i.e. very ripe currants), dust, pretty
12) 2000 Coufran Haut Medoc - Light but nice.
Overall, solid bordeaux but still evolving IMHO. A treat on many levels.
Tanglenet had obtained these wonderful pouring attachments for the bottles so we would all be able to exactly measure our 2.5 ounce pours. After several attempts we realized that all never stopped pouring, including one spectacular failure where the pourer fell off the bottle in mid stream, dousing the table in wine. Given that, everyone poured conservatively, and seemed to have plenty to taste and drink, yet when the wines were revealed, up to a half bottle of each remained! Citing the evidence that the alcohol consumption was proceeding inadequately, the group removed to a local restaurant, Somerset, for some wholesome American cuisine and anything but 2000 red bordeaux.
I will leave tasting notes up to the team for these wines, other than to say the cold white Graves was a revelation after all the reds.
Charles Ellner Brut Vintage 1995
Jean Vesselle Brut Oeil de Perdrix NV
2004 Smith Haut Lafitte Graves Blanc
2002 Verite Le Desir
2004 Surh Luchtel Sacrache Cab
2002 Cliff Lede Stag's Leap District Cab
2002 Jacquelynn Cuvee Napa
Thanks again to our generous hosts and to all the participants. What a way to spend a Monday!