My Top 14 Wines I've Ever Had...

I've been wanting to post this for a while, just haven't had the time. I couldn't narrow it down to 10, but I managed to get it down to 14. So here we go... I'll list the top three in order at the end. 1990 Krug Brut Champagne - an immense champagne. Tons of woody, spicey, citrus and melon. This was gorgeous. Deep gold in color, with beautiful bubbles. This one got better the longer it sat there. Amazingly long finish. 1993 Royal Tokaji Wine Company "Escenzia" - had this one because of a mistake... actually tried it on 4 separate occasions, several months apart. From the same bottle. 2.5% alcohol. 700+ grams/litre residual sugar (roughly 4 times that of a Sauternes). Pouring the "syrup" (and I'll call it syrup because the consistancy was far too rich to be called wine), the bouquet immediately wafted up. A delicious array of sweet cherry, apricot blossoms, citrus fruits, and rose petals was the first sign of an amazing experience. It coated my mouth completely, and I don't think I could have taken more than a sip of this - it's that sweet. It was clearly still fermenting, and after 4 months of being open (!), the wine started to develop an even more evolved complexity on the palate. Outstanding. 1947 Chateau Caillou, Barsac, 2nd Growth - A special bottle, as this wine is not distributed at all - only sold from the Chateau directly. This bottle was just released when we tasted it. A gold/orange/brown color, this was the perfect wine with both the seared Foie Gras and Foie Gras Cru (marinated in Grand Marnier). Rich in texture, but beautifully silky. Apricots, botrytis, and peaches. Beautiful long finish. Nice. 1982 Château Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac, 2nd Growth - For years, the best Bordeaux I'd ever had... Is now the second best 82 (you won't see Latour, Lafite, Haut Brion, Margaux, etc) I've ever had. Beautiful cedar, tobacco, cigar box nose. All-spice, anise, black currant, and sweet cherry fruit on the long, long, long finish. Beautiful Bordeaux. If it weren't for the 1982 Cheval-Blanc, St.-Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Classe "A", it would be the best of the 82's I've had. But, they were completely different wines. The Cheval Blanc has more cedary cherry-sweetness than any other Bordeaux I've ever had. It had a velvety texture and a finish that lasted forever. Tasted in a Cheval-Blanc vertical. I'll stay with Bordeaux and throw out the 1989 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion, Pessac-Leognan (Talence), Graves Classification and 1989 Chateau Haut Brion, Pessac-Leognan (Pessac), 1st Growth - I put them together not because they are similar, but because I tasted them side by side. The La Mission Haut Brion was a beautiful mass of black currant, graphite, tobacco, cedar, and hints of vanilla. Medium-full bodied with decades of life left. Amazing wine. The Haut Brion actually hits #4... the wine will age for another 50 years. Inky purple in color (at 15 years old!) showing no signs of orange, brown or any other aging signs. I called it a 2000 Bordeaux. That much concentration. Figs, black currants, plums. Outstanding Bordeaux. On to Italy and the 1998 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo - the earthy velvety texture on this wine is unbelievable. I've never found the same concentration of the textures with the flavors in any other wines. Angelo Gaja must do something special... I would love to try this wine every 5 years. Rhone? 2003 Domaine de la Mordoree "La Plume de Pientre" Chateauneuf-du-Pape (barrel sample). The biggest, blackest, meanest CDP I've ever seen. At the time, it was around 16.5% abv. Not sure if that's the published number, but the Delormes knew what they were doing with this wine in this abnormal vintage. The wine evolved over the course of a 3 hour lunch into a beautiful, inky-black, garrigue influenced, plum and fig, stony wine with a 60 second finish. Outstanding. Australia? 1998 Penfold's Grange - this wine is so young, it's not even funny. Maybe my kids will get to drink it(!). Full of spicy black tar, raspberries, black cherries, stewed plums - classic shiraz. Better than the 82, 81, 94, etc. Get one. White wine? 1988 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Montrachet - what a wine. Such grace, elegance and power - everything I thought this wine should be. Now, on to the top 3...
3. 1990 Maison Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne, Grand Cru, Aloxe-Corton - this is the one that made me so crazy about wine. This honeyed, golden, nutty, wet-stone wine was mammoth. So powerful and beautiful. Not as elegant as a Montrachet, it is the wine I measure every other white wine against. Super-long finish.
2. 1961 Chateau Latour, Pauillac, 1st Growth - It's everything it is cracked up to be. Even at the tender age of 44, this wine showed remarkable youthfullness. While showing a touch of brown on the rim, the nose was a cedar/tobacco/blackcurrant bomb. So seductive! The finish - incredible. 3 hours later it was even better.
1. 1990 Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Musigny Vieilles Vignes, Grand Cru, Chambolle-Musigny - this is the wine I judge all others against. I can still taste it. The texture. The nose. The palate. All of it. It's still there. Its wild strawberry, red cherry, turned-earth, cedar and sweet fruit all rolled into one. Absolute perfection. I hated to drink the last drop. Unfortunately, we drank this again last month and the wine had vanished. It was nothing close to what it was last year. Wow. It's what wine is all about.