Pick My Next Bottle – The 1998 Vintage

The December Installment of Pick My Next Bottle focuses on the 1998 vintage.  As I mentioned in the first installment, the purpose of this series is to provide insight into specific wines or producers you may currently have in your cellar. The winning bottle will be opened this Saturday and a Bottle Note will be published shortly thereafter.

All three wines were from regions that did well in 1998. More importantly though, they are some of the top producers in the world and their wines age well under ideal conditions. At 21 years of age I suspect all the wines are more or less ready to drink.

The Contenders:

• 1998 Antinori Tignanello – The 1998 offers a classic bouquet of berry fruit new saddle leather underbrush earth and toast from its new barrique aging. Medium to full-bodied good delineation and a firm classic style it requires 2-3 years of cellaring and should drink well for 15-16. 91 points from the Wine Advocate.
• 1998 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon – Blackberry jam, juniper berries, and spices can be found in the rich aromatics of the stunning, dark-colored 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon. A wine of awesome breadth, width, concentration, and power, this full-bodied beauty is crammed with lush layers of blackberries, plums, and cassis. This offering’s prodigious fruit envelopes its copious silky tannin. Additionally, it displays an extraordinarily long finish. 96 points from the Wine Advocate.
• 1998 Canon-La-Gaffelière – This saturated purple-colored 1998 offers sumptuous aromas of prunes, blueberries, overripe black cherries, chocolate, coffee, and spicy new oak. Full-bodied, opulent, and expressive, this flamboyant/ostentatious effort is crammed with glycerin and extract. The tannin is sweet in this accessible, multilayered 1998. 93 points from the Wine Advocate.

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Thanks for voting! I’d love to see a comment below on why you picked one bottle over another. Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for the January installment of Pick My Next Bottle.