It had been a long eight years since I’d last seen Drew—many, many head-to-head fantasy football jousts ago—and this time I had the added bonus of meeting his lovely wife Janice, her mom Dorothy and Drew and Janice’s wonderful four kids. I also had no idea that Drew has his own grilling blog and I tell you true—dis boy can grill! We had pork tri-tips, which neither of us had seen before and were absolutely delectable and Drew added some more meat to the BBQ that ended up being probably the best food I’ve had on this trip.
Most of all, though, we had a marvelous catch-up, about careers, life, future, a bit of politics, plenty of football and basketball talk and lots and lots of stories. Have really missed you, bud.
2013 Pepiere Clisson
I love these, and this just underscores why. Zingy lime and mineral threads come cruising up the nostrils. And it is as clean and fresh as a whistle as you would want, yet also has an underlying bit of spine to it. Replays and touches of white fruit. Very good and refreshing.
2012 Lucien Jacob Savigny-Les Beaune Blanc
I was delighted to find this bottle of a favourite producer on the shelf in Calgary to bring along. Bouquet is of pear, very light touch of toffee–or sort of clotted cream, maybe. This has considerable harmony already and is a terrific match with the pork, has those replays with a wee bit of interesting graham cracker and mineral mix, and also shows a trace of sweetness that matches with what I’ve had from the vintage in whites. Also very good.
2013 Cayuse Bionic Frog Syrah
Drew will correct me if I have the vintage wrong. We talked some about culling of lists and that Cayuse is/was one of the last survivors for him. And this, while having a measure of seeming evergreen freshness and some dark berry fruit on nose and mouth, we both decide is an off bottle. For Drew, it threw bell pepper notes on the aroma which I didn’t get much of. My problem was in the mouth, where I picked up a distinct metallic tang that didn’t go away. We both end up suspecting VA got at this.
2011 Clos Rougeard Saumur Champigny
This is my first Clos Rougeard. And now I do understand what the fuss is about. A complicated nose of earth, currant, very low level coffee and unripe crabapple. To taste, this brings CF to a level of lightness of being and luminosity that is awfully hard to achieve. No olives or green pepper notes here, just waves of fresh red fruit mixed with very subtle earthy and thyme tones. Excellent and WOTN for me.
2011 Cayuse Cailloux Syrah
This came in a very close second, though. Lots of plum, cherry and red fruit is edged by meat tones. Palate is very sure and quite polished for being so young. It features the fruit with slivers of iron and cedar here and there and just creates a very vivid picture in terms of mouthfeel and flow. Also excellent and reacts very well with the meats.
2012 Bressler Cabernet
A very different beast, this IS a ride—plum pie and plenty of cocoa underpinning to sniff at. On the tongue, this gets right to the edge of what I like in terms of big, bold and sweet, with oodles of plum, crabapple and pomegranate, but stays on the playing field with a very intriguing soft-but-gritty tannins…really, like the finest sandpaper. This won’t be for everyone, though.
Again, huge thanks for having me over. It was a great night.
A bientot, j’espere
Mike
I didn’t expect the night to end with Mike taking over the keyboard, Manhattan in hand, and entertaining the family.