Sacramento Offline Tasting Notes

Some of the Sacramento group got together last night at Piatti’s Pavillions location to share some good (mostly all French) wine. Wonderful venue that is reliable, classy and tasty.

With a plate of charcuterie we started with

00 Gaston Chiquet [Champagne] I’m assuming this is the brut level bubbly but didn’t look closely enough at the label. I don’t think I’ve had one of his wines in a decade or so. They are light, dry, lemony, crisp, almost airy. We put this in the ice bucket and came back to it later…it had gotten even better.

08 Mugnier ‘Clos de Marechaule’ [Nuit St Georges] I don’t drink much pinot, and even less of the Burgundian expression. I found it delicate and medium bodied. Sometimes I feel guilty when people pour fancy Burgs for me, since I don’t get them.

We moved on to some Rhones with our first course. (I had the chanterelles). Both were served cool, popped and poured.

88 Vieux Telegraphe [CNDP] The cork was pretty soggy here, and it was a good thing I’d brought the Monopole Ah So. It starts off quite lean, cool, and iron driven. It does get better eventually with some air, and the food, but its a hard VT. Drink up.

01 Pegau [CNDP] Perfect cork here. Meaty, sweaty, and fruit starts to blossom with air. Surprisingly not as much funkiness as one would expect. After some bottle age, its hard to predict how bretty these will be. No hurry on this one, but drinking well today.

We now moved on to the main courses, where we had a decanted a couple of Bordeaux to pair with them. I had a fabulous pork osso bucco with polenta.

95 Pichon Lalande [Pauillac] Excellent balance, rich flavors, great silky mature texture. We had another bottle of this a couple of months ago and this is at the same level. These are drinking great today.

02 Lascombes [Margaux] This is from the Colony era I think. There’s a little floral on the nose, but not as much as the usual mature Margaux might have. I got earthy, mint and coffee flavors here. It’s modern styled. No hurry on this one. Likely benefited from the decanter.

For dessert there was a chocolate confection, which we had with a port. No decanting on this.

85 Grahams [Porto] Light color, baking spices on the nose, exceptional balance despite being simply popped and poured. So many ports taste spirity and hot to me at first, calming down after some air, but this was drinking super right away. Lots of richness, no tannin, full bodied.

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Thanks everyone. Great time, and I look forward to seeing everyone again in a few months.

WB’s in the greater Sacramento area who might be looking to join a group - just drop me a PM and we’ll include you in the next email.

Nice set of wines. Thanks for the update on 2001 Pegau.