Nice pix of this dinner…though…I have to ask…were there any people there? 
Don,
Nice writeup and thanks for the statistics. It did seem in reading the initial writeup that there were fewer problem wines at this tasting. Hope in continues.
I take it there is still no generally accepted reason for premature oxidation, nor a cure. Any new thoughts on this?
Another shout out for your work on the wiki. Always a resource I consult.
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III, usually a compact macro 50mm, and a macro flash. This isn’t the BEST food setup, but it’s the best I’ve found that doesn’t require external lighting (which doesn’t work at restaurant dinners). Really, you’d want a big bright diffuse light source behind the food (off frame) and some bounces to cut the shadows in front.
I have an article I wrote a couple years back on shooting food: Foodie Photography 101 :: All Things Andy Gavin I was using the 5D Mark II then, but the Mark III just focuses faster and has less noise.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a 100mm macro (very good lens) shi_hai_01_26_15 arguably, these look a bit better, but it’s a a more difficult lens to use in restaurants as one has to stand up and back away from the plate. It would almost certainly be better photoing food in a studio with a proper lighting setup.
Yes. Why?
Vintage assessment of the tasters? 
People are essential to a good (and meaninful tasting) IMO, and I didn’t see any in the pictures. Just lots of pictures of bottles and plates of food. So, I wondered…
Howard
You certainly can drink the Bouchard MP now, but this bottle (out of my cellar) was very youthful. I will likely let my bottles rest until age 9 (another 18 months) and try another one. The 2004 Bouchard MP is one of the wines I’m drinking at home currently. I expect the 2007 will likely live just as long.
Andy, nothing like the infamous “second dinner” (which looks awesome). The funny thing is when I was looking through Don’s report my first thought was, “why didn’t they feed these pour people?” ![[whistle.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/87d24eb81ec6dc01d84f3d6c19fa9a357e90218e.gif "whistle"){kind=small}
Although in fairness the passed hors d’oeuvres aren’t shown in Don’s post and they make the food quantity seem much more reasonable.
Thank you very much. There is no single cause for premature oxidation. Obviously, cork quality has played a role, because that’s the only reasonable explanation for why there can be very significant variation of bottles within a single case from a single producer. On the other hand, corks cannot be completely explanatory because there are several producers who have a very low incidence of premox (i.e. Raveneau, Coche-Dury, Roulot, Leflaive, DRC and Leroy) and incidence which is no higher for them now than it was back in the 80s. To some extent there was a perfect storm that created premox – a combination of factors including greater variation in the porosity and weight of corks, changes in wine making technology (i.e. computer controlled bladder presses), concerns about sulfites in food and wine, and deliberate choices by some winemakers to make wines which were more user friendly on release, which also meant the wines died early too. Most importantly, a lot of changes were made (in some cases simultaneously) with a complete lack of awareness of the chemical consequences of the adoption of the new technology or techniques. Unfortunately, organic chemistry as applied to wine making doesn’t seem to be part of the curriculum in French enology schools. After we complete this year’s series of tastings I will likely put something together to address the the question of where we are on premox 10 years later.
A great report and always much anticipated. Don thanks again for all your pozitive work for our benefit. Great notes and very helpful to all white burgundy drinkers.
Stuart:
I guess you must have stopped reading (or looking at the photos) part of the way through. The last photo shows Erick Pangilnan, Larry Hoffman and Liz Lee working on the Corton flight with all of their stems in front of them.
Here’s another one for you, taken during the first Meursault flight.
From left to right that’s Kent Russell, me (swishing some lip-smacking Meursault around in my mouth), and Brian Devine.
So were are the bottles from 1 cellar or were they from the participants? Could any of the bottles been just off bottles? As they say there are no great vintages only great bottles, or something like that…
I was there also, Stuart! No picture, but I was on the other side of Mr. Russell. All wines are bought on release and stored in cellars by the passionate collectors at the event.
As for food quantity, I could have used another bowl of risotto.
Dave:
Ten of the thirty bottles came from my cellar. Another five came from Ron Movich’s cellar. The remaining 15 were from the other participants. It is certainly possible that some of the individual bottles could have been “off bottles.” However, I think it’s impossible that the entire flight of Chablis could have been off bottles. On the Cortons, the three anticipated crowd favorites (Boillot, Bouchard and Colin-Morey) performed notably below the level described in the early reviews from Tanzer and Meadows. In the case of the Boillot, the wine was clearly advanced. Is it possible that the Bouchard and Colin-Morey were off bottles? Certainly. In fact, I definitely hope that is true because I own both Bouchard and Colin-Morey Corton as well as the Boillot Corton. (Neither of those bottles came from my cellar.)
One of the things I do in this series of tastings is to try to make sure that we get wines that were originally purchased on release or have well-documented provenance. That’s made very clear to everyone in the invitations that go out each year. In the case of my ten bottles, they were, with one exception (Girardin Corton) purchased on release. The Girardin Corton came from an auction purchase. Most of my bottles were purchased in Europe pre-arrival and shipped door to door refrigerated. The same is true for some of the other attendees as well.
Great tasting Don . ( and more pictures please ) .
Roulot Perrieres is indeed fantastic , but impossible to find . When I bought direct from them , I could buy as much as I wanted but always got only 1 bottle of Perrieres . I wish Roulot had more great terroirs .
Boillot is really frustrating . When his wine is clean , it usually is absolutely top quality ( especially his Clos de la Mouchere ) . But I I have also experienced more than a few premoxed bottles .
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.
Yes. Why?[/quote]
Vintage assessment of the tasters? 
[/quote]
I don’t generally show people on my blog. It’s a food/wine blog 
and also, I don’t know if people generally want to be pictured (some do, some don’t).
Disagree Herwig. I just wish he had more Perrieres !
Gentleman, please stop feeding the troll. They only come back for more.
Vintage assessment of the tasters? [/quote]
I don’t generally show people on my blog. It’s a food/wine blog and also, I don’t know if people generally want to be pictured (some do, some don’t).[/quote]
I get it. I was a little surprised to go to the link and see no animate objects in the pix. So, I couldn’t resist a wiseass comment/question.
Nick and Herwig, it certainly would be nice if there were more Roulot Perrieres around - but I think there’s something extreme in the way this is chased over all other bottlings. The Charmes is no slouch, and it seems to me that Roulot has a good range of great terroirs to work with.