For the eleventh time, a group of Los Angeles collectors of Mike Officer’s wines gathered to break bread with him and look back at some of his wines. We were fortunate that Kendall Officer joined us this year. We returned to Chez Mélange in Redondo Beach, the site of some of our earlier dinners. Unfortunately, I left my notes at the restaurant, so the details will be fairly sparse.
It was my turn to choose the flights and we started with all six vintages of The Derivative, a white wine Mike first made with the 2010 vintage. I would put them into three groups: the 2010 and 2011, which are mature; the 2013, 2014, and 2015, which need more time; and the 2012 which stood out for its opulence and was clearly the wine of the flight for most of us. The 2010, the only wine with only Semillon and Muscadelle, was the least complex of the group. The other vintages included either Palomino or Colombard. The 2011 was more structured and interesting. None of the wines are in decline. My two takeaways from this flight are that this wine needs food to be at its best, and will benefit from age. (A day later, I’m sipping the remnants of the 2012, and while it has lost some, but not all, of its richness, it picked up as soon as I paired it with a mushroom soup.)
At our first dinner in 2007, the last flight included four soon-to-be-released Syrahs from the 2005 vintage: Bennett, Pelkan, Cardiac, and Papa’s. We decided to taste them ten years after, but included the 2005 Dry Creek and Russian River. All of the wines were in fine shape and I would not be surprised if Mike extends the drinking window for many of them. While my favorites were the Pelkan and Dry Creek, which I thought had greater body than the others, the group favorite was the Papa’s.
The third flight was of Carlisle Vineyard Zinfandels from odd number years from 2003 through 2013. I wanted to limit the flight to six wines, but also taste a chronologically wide range of the wines and thought the odd numbered years generally showed better than the even numbered years. I would again separate these into three groups: the 2003, 2005, and 2007, all of which were mature; the 2011 and 2013 which were clearly young; and the 2009 which didn’t belong to either group. I forgot to ask for favorites, but heard a lot of different opinions. I think it depends on whether you like Zinfandels young or old (or in-between). Kendall and I preferred the 2009; some liked the 2013; and I heard at least one person raving about the 2005. My takeaway: no hurry to drink Carlisle Vineyard Zinfandel, and buy as many as Mike will offer you. This bottle of 2003, stored by Peter Petersen in Culver City since its release, showed much better than a bottle Mike opened three days earlier.
For the last flight I asked Mike to bring six wines from the fall release. He brought the Papera, Carlisle Vineyard, and Pagani Zinfandels (all of which were true to type); Sierra Mar and Rosella’s Syrahs; and the Integral, a blend of 56% Syrah and 44% Mourvedre first made in the 2015 vintage (I now understand that in mathematics (not my strong suit) Integral is the opposite of Derivative.) My overriding impression was how forward these wines are, more so than any other vintage we’ve tried. I thought the Rosella’s Syrah was drinking beautifully, although some tannin started to show after the wine had been in the glass for a while. I’m not exactly sure what to make of the Integral, but the Mourvedre component appeals to me and I will be buying it (although with only 115 cases made, probably not a lot of it). Next time I’m at my locker, I will pull a few wines from the spring release and see if they are drinking as well, or have started to shut down.
24 bottles of wine, none corked, none in decline, all enjoyable. I’m already waiting for Carlisle-a-Thon XII.
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