I had two separate events this week, and both events lead to one conclusion. Before we jump to conclusion, let's look at the processes.Pauillac Blind TastingAn overseas friend came over during the weekend, so I threw a theme before they fly over -- let's do a blind tasting of Pauillac wines regardless of the vintage. So they picked up a bottle of wine in HK before heading to Singapore.5 bottles and 6 persons attended the dinner cum tasting. The event is served double blind, no labels, no vintage ideas. We had a pour each and started guessing which are the top 3 consensus wines, and we had an answer within an hour.At this point, we revealed what wines we have brought, these are the wines:Lynch Bages 89Lynch Bages 2000Mouton Rothschild 83Pichon Baron 96Latour 83Now all 6 of us voted, and we had the following results:Latour 83 -- 6/6 votesLynch Bages 89 -- 5/6 votesLynch Bages 2000 tied Pichon Baron 96 -- 3/6 votesMouton 83 -- 1/6 votesShocked with the results that Lynch Bages was so close to snatching the 1st position in this blind tasting! A note, I find that the Mouton 83 wasn't in its best condition and probably bottle shock coz my friend arrived at 3 pm and we had this event at 7 pm onwards. Basically there's no time for the bottle to rest.Bordeaux 86 Blind TastingThis is the 2nd event of the week. We again decided to do an 86 blind tasting, again its full blind (everyone brings a bottle, labels not revealed). Originally we planned for 7 persons' participation, but someone fell sick, so I had to scramble to find some replacements, ended up we had 9 participants.We had some pizza, cheese, baguette, duck rillettes over the tasting. We spent 1.5 hours blind tasting to reach consensus (the wines were not double decanted but everyone opened their bottles almost 2 hours before the event, we decanted all 7 bottles into 7 different decanters).As usual, we reach consensus of the top 3 wines before we reveal the labels. Let's see what the labels are first:1. Montrose, St Estephe, 2nd growth2. Figeac, St Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Class B3. Palmer, Margaux, 3rd growth4. Gruaud Larose, St Julien, 2nd growth5. Clerc Milon, Pauillac, 5th growth6. Cheval Blanc, St Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Class A7. Ausone, St Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Class AResult:Clerc Milon, 9/9 votes! (Unanimous consensus)Montrose 6/9 votesPalmer 6/9 votesSurprise, surprise! A 5th growth Clerc Milon 86 smashed through 1st growth equivalent wines! According to my friend, the provenance of this bottle is ex chateau, hard to believe that the chateau wanted to keep wines for so many years before releasing it for sale but I guess the result is undeniable.On pouring, typical Pauillac nose, slight smoke, woody and cedarwood are the promiment characters. On the palette, the first few sips showed that this wine is exceptionally tight and rough (I actually used the word "Harsh" in my notes). Tannins are moderate. At this point, I was about to give up and write off this wine as my top 3 choices. As clock ticks away after an hour, I realized the wine has changed completely, the harshness has morphed into sweet & pleasant wine, fruits began to surface. Just before we voted (90mins), the wine has blossomed into full blown, voluptuous fruits! What a change that I can normally only find such changes in only 1st growth wines!We also voted for the onion wine of the night, and the following wine has got:Ausone 0/9 votesThe one who brought this bottle will probably have to host the next event as well as coming up with a theme :) Really poor thing, bringing a first growth equivalent turned out to be total disaster for my friend.After the consensus, the rest are personal glory for being able to arrange the wines in sequence. I managed to get 2 out of 7 labels and 3 appellations correct. Nothing to shout about, that's my level which is decent but can never be the top student in these blind tastings.Hey readers, this is a consensus vote, so the result is very powerful and the persuasion is very strong that a Clerc Milon has fended off so many good wines tonight to be the champion! She has truly humbled the premier wines like Cheval Blanc which is at least 5x more expensive but has only garnered3/9 votes. Lessons learned, you think fifth growth wines are inferior? Don't let classifications fool you. Drink up some and let me know how you feel about my tasting events!
