Two Latours and a Palmer: Happy Birthday Dr. Alice!

We can't believe we've taken this long to blog about this, but...

On December 30 we celebrated the 83rd birthday of Margaret Anne's mother, Dr. Alice Goodfellow-Hodges, and we did it in style, with a wine/cheese/chocolate tasting and dinner.

The wines were something very special: a Chateau Latour 1974, a Chateau Latour 1994, and a Chateau Palmer 2001. (We decanted all three just before serving; the Palmer might have benefited from longer decanting, but we didn't want to over-oxygenate the older Latour.)

We were saving the Latours for a special occasion, but in the once case, Margaret Anne had been saving it for a special occasion for at least 20 years, so we decided, well, what the heck. (She bought it at the liquor store when it was being discontinued; at the time, it probably cost her no more than $30 or $35.)

So, how did the 1974 Latour hold up, especially considering 1974 is not considered a great vintage?

Well, says Margaret Anne, "If this was a bad year, I'll take a bad year any day." She liked it the best of all three of these great Bordeaux. Although supposedly on the downhill slide, it was beautifully balanced, neither too sharp nor too bland. Our notes feature words like "smokey" "vegetal" and "barnyard" (but in a good way).

1994 was also considered a less-than-great vintage year. Ed bought this bottle of Latour as a birthday present for Margaret Anne. It cost about $250 a couple of years ago. Ed liked this one the best, finding it better balanced than the 1974, with much more berry left in it. Margaret Anne liked it, too, but she still preferred the '74.

We did try them with cheese, and although there have recently been stories about cheese killing the taste of any wine, we weren't disappointed in the pairings. We particularly liked a cheese called "Old Dutch Master Gouda" with them.

Finally we come to the Chateau Palmer 2001. We recently had the opportunity to taste a number of great wines at the Banff Springs International Wine and Food Festival (which we will blog about, even though it's now been five months since we were there) but we were most impressed with the Chateau Palmers that we had there. So we bought a bottle while we were in Banff, for something close to $100, specifically for Dr. Alice's birthday.

(We have another reason to like Palmers. Back in the 1980s, Dr. Alice won a bottle of 1978 Chateau Palmer at a bingo night at the Ontario Club. That bottle remained in the cellar--first in Toronto, then in Regina--awaiting another, yes, "special occasion," and since in more than 20 years that occasion had not yet arisen, we finally decided to drink it for Ed's 40-somethingth birthday. We liked it.)

The 2001 Palmer had an almost chocolate bouquet after the others. It was noticeably younger and more tannic and certainly would have benefited from aging.

Our guests seemed to prefer either the 1994 Latour or 2001 Palmer over the 1974 Latour.

We must have tried the wines with the chocolates we were tasting, but they must not have worked very well because we have no recollection of them.

All in all, a fabulous birthday party. Ed says "One we probably won't repeat very often" but Margaret Anne says "We should do this again next year." (To which Ed is amenable, provided he doesn't have to pay for all the wine!)