Merry Christmas II

! I'll post when I have time... (I have time now...) The 1996 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was a bit closed and didn't give up a lot... very nutty with honeysuckle and lemon on the moderate finish... very good, not great... The 1998 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet "Les Pucelles" on the other had was spectacular! Piercing acidity with layers and layers of minerals, pear, and Granny Smith Apple... Awesome!!! The 2002 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine I didn't want to like... I tried so hard to hate it... and in the end, though it's not my style of wine, I have to admit - this wine is great. Very thick and concentrated with wonderful length, this is a classic of the 2002 vintage. The wine of the night was the 1999 Guigal Cote-Rotie "La Mouline"... I thought it was better than the 1990, and so I will bump the 1990 down one slot to #12 and put the 1999 in at #11 for the year... The wine just bursts from the glass with raspberry, tar, black plums, asian spices, and mocha... once you were done smelling it, the real fun begins... on the palate the wine has just the most velvety texture - it just sings in your mouth... The attack is so powerful, then gives way to pretty floral notes and finally the amazing, incredible finish. It just screams of earth and plums... the wine wants to not jump out of the glass - it wants to rocket out... One of the great wines of my life... I wouldn't be suprised if this ended up much higher on the list this year than #11 when I actually have some time to think about it... Oh yeah, the 2002 Screaming Eagle finally started to open up (!) 24 hours later and was a much more complete wine...