Went to a wonderful tasting last night featuring the wines of Domaine Dublere with Blair Pethel leading the tasting. As I meet more and more winemakers and winery owners (or as Blair would say, farmers) over the years, I am impressed at what really nice and generous people so many of them are. But, even in this company, Blair really stands out. He is just a really nice and down to earth person. But, he is also a thoughtful person and when you ask him a serious wine question you get a serious and thought out answer. So, it was great to see Blair last night and to get to talk with him again.
But, as much as I like talking with Blair, I guess I like drinking his wines even more. His wines are very understated and pure. No window dressing (like no new oak) so the wines not as showy as wines from other producers and do not necessarily show as great in large tastings when you take a sip or two and go from wine to wine. But, take a bottle and open it with dinner and drink just it over time and the purity and beauty of the wines come alive.
We had mostly 2013s last night, with a couple of other wines. The first wine with passed around appetizers was a white Savigny les Beaune Aux Vergelesses. This was a relatively rich wine with beautiful flavors but not necessarily as elegant as the wines to come. With our first course, we had a NSGs Terre Blanches Blanc, a Chablis Valmur and a CM Chenevottes (all 2013s). All three of the wines were quite nice and very elegant, but the star was the Chenvottes. It seemed richer, more elegant and longer than the others. Fabulous wine.
Moving to the reds, we had a 2014 SLB les Planchots du Nord, which was really nice, but not as goods as the premier crus to come. Then we had two more 2013s, a MSD Blanchards and Volnay Taillepieds and a 2012 NSG Bousselots. The Taillepieds was very pure and still primary, the Blanchards was just fabulous and the Bousselots was richer and plumier as a NSG should be. All fabulous wines, each different from the other. My favorite was the Blanchards (I love Volnay, but I love MSD even more), but my wife’s favorite was the Volnay and the favorite of a friend sitting next to me was the NSG. I think this makes sense as the wines probably were pretty comparable in quality, the differences reflecting the terroir differences and which style you like better. Of course, answers could change in 10 years if we retasted these wines.
All in all, a great evening. Thanks Blair.
Great month (through in a couple of home wine dinners as well), but I am not sure I could handle this many large tastings every month.