The Ultimate Cult Wines - Opposite Ends

Ahhh... it continues... Last night was quite unreal. After Wednesday I expected a letdown, and it may come tonight, but it wasn't last night. First, the 1997 Communali Brunello di Montalcino was outstanding. Dried and ripe cranberries with wonderful smoke and spice. This wine is on fire right now. Great stuff. And after that, well... The 1995 La Mission Haut Brion was fantastic. Still very, very young, and an excellent wine in it's own right, it's just not mindblowing. Soft, silky, leather, tobacco, starting to reveal hints of sweet cherry. A good wine, just not a great one. Enough of that... The ultiamte California Cult Wine (yup, I've always like it better than Screaming Eagle) 2001 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine, Napa Valley is sick. Completely massive but without any substantial, overbearing palate weight. It comes roaring at you, but then is just so soft and sexy. This is what wine is supposed to be about. It is without question a "perfect" wine and is immediately in the 5 best wines I've ever had. Sweet black currant, ripe cherries, tobacco, graphite... it just goes on and on. The finish was well over a minute, perhaps stretching 90 seconds. Simply an incredible experience. What was NOT an incredible experience and perhaps one of the greatest dissapointments I've ever had was the 1988 Le Pin, Pomerol (2 bottles). This ultimate-cult wine, the single-most sought after garagiste wine was a wimp. Now, I will say that this was not the ultimate vintage of Le Pin either. But still, for all of the hype this wine was flat. Very light on the palate, both bottles tasted very similar, with bottle #2 perhaps being a touch better. Chocolate, deep berry fruit, cedar and black turned earth. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but with WS and RP scoring this wine 95 and 92 respectively, I wouldn't put these bottles any higher than the mid-80's. I've had much better $20 bottles of Cali Cab. With all of that being said, Le Pin was an experience, and I would welcome the opportunity to try one of the "great" vintages of this wine. We'll see.