Lunch break wines - White Burg, Washington reds

Busman’s Holiday Luncheon Wines

The day’s work schedule called for 108 wines from 9 – 5, with a 45 minute lunch break. With lunch, our host graciously presented the following:

2017 Matrot Meursault ‘Chevalieres’ [opened the day before and refrigerated] – Medium gold, but deeper color than I expected. Classic aromas featured gala apple, bosc pear, bread and butter. The palate was medium bodied, slightly low in acidity, but still with a fairly long finish. The flavors were both primary and somewhat muted; the whole was attractive but a little clumsy and disjointed. This is a very good but slightly dull wine that might have been better the day before and hopefully will improve with another year or two in bottle. This is not a classic old school Meursault to drink at ~10 years. Rated 88, up to 2 points of improvement possible over the next 2 years.

2016 Gramercy ‘Lagniappe’ Syrah, Red Willow [opened the day before] – As dark as you would expect, the aromas are fresh, lively and vivid featuring all black fruit… blackberry, black cherry and black raspberry. The palate is no more than medium bodied, with excellent freshness and balance, flavored with distinct peppery notes to go with the fruit, lots of lift and a moderately long finish. This friendly puppy will grow into a good mid-sized dog you can rely on. Rated 91.5, up to 3 points of improvement possible over the next ~5 years.

2016 Doubleback Estate Reserve, Walla Walla – Inky black color. Aromas are distinctive, but much closer to the restrained power of the Medoc than anything from Napa. Small black fruits, minerality and a hint of lead pencil are the dominant aromas. The palate is dense and powerful, packed with black fruit, backed by a tiny but intriguing hint of green herbs. While there is little oak flavor, the palate is somewhat marred by powerful drying tannins that detract from what otherwise is almost seamless. Rated 91 today, this could improve by up to 5 points, but I am far from sure that the tannic intensity will resolve.

2016 Sheridan Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Block 1, Yakima Valley – The aromas are again more Medoc than Napa, with outstanding purity of fruit, mostly black cherry and blueberry but with definite red currant tones. The palate is outstanding, with a firm texture but excellent balance from start to finish, an abundance of fully ripe, fine-grained fruit tannins, intense minerality and an exceptionally long finish for such a young wine. The wine is extremely fresh but does not seem young. I rarely find this level of harmony in such a young Cabernet, but I think this will gain still more subtlety over the next 5 – 10 years, and be just as good at 20 years. Rated 95 today, up to 2 points of improvement likely.

Dan Kravitz

[quote2016 Sheridan Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Block 1, Yakima Valley – The aromas are again more Medoc than Napa, with outstanding purity of fruit, mostly black cherry and blueberry but with definite red currant tones. The palate is outstanding, with a firm texture but excellent balance from start to finish, an abundance of fully ripe, fine-grained fruit tannins, intense minerality and an exceptionally long finish for such a young wine. The wine is extremely fresh but does not seem young. I rarely find this level of harmony in such a young Cabernet, but I think this will gain still more subtlety over the next 5 – 10 years, and be just as good at 20 years. Rated 95 today, up to 2 points of improvement likely.][/quote]
On my list of WA wines to try. Great note.

Premox?

I don’t think so. I wish I’d had the Meursault when the cork was pulled. It came out of a fridge, but I don’t know how long it was open or at what temp before it went back into it after opening. This may have been an off-bottle. In general, I trust Matrot and this is not at all what I expect from a Meursault of his at 18 months of age. As I’ve dialed way, way back on white Burgundy since the plague started, I’ve avoided a lot of experience with premox. But I don’t remember the premoxed wines I’ve had being quite this young.

Dan Kravitz

Matrot is well known for premox but 2017 seems unlikely, sorry read the date wrong.

I should have said ‘I trust Matrot’s wines when young’. I know that there have been premox issues with this producer. Basically, I don’t buy white Burg to hold for 10 years except for some growers in lesser Appellations who have never had a problem.

Dan Kravitz

Dan, I think that score for the ‘16 Sheridan Block 1 cab is about as high as I’ve ever seen you score something!

Chuck,

I can’t remember when I segued from the Board Squires Murdered over to here, but I’ve scored a small number of wines in the high 90’s, and a 1949 DRC Richebourg at 100. Looking back, I think most of my high-90 ratings have oddly been for California Cabs and some other wines, but that may be because recently I rarely have the opportunity to drink very great Bordeaux and Burgundy (I’ve got some in the basement, but Sally rarely drinks any more and I refuse to open them without somebody else there to appreciate them). There was a thread last year on your most influential wines… I don’t think I rated them, but 1961 Jaboulet Hermitage and 1960 Gemello Cabernet were both 100 point wines. And I believe I rated the half-gallon jugs of NV Foppiano Petite Sirah 95, after cellering them under screwcap for 10 years.

I don’t post on wines I sell, so a fair amount of Pegau gets guzzled without notes going up.

Some friends and fiends have promised to visit this summer, so some bottles that should be great will be opened, even if I hate opening big reds in the summer. And some Chablis from 1996 forward could be pretty good, although most of what I own is (sigh), wine I sell, so I won’t post.

Dan Kravitz

Nice notes on some great WA wines, Dan. Thanks for posting.

A 95 from you means I need to find some to try for myself, Dan. Thanks for posting these notes. I’m sure a Da Capo or two has found its way up to that stratosphere (at least in your non-published notes), no?

Hope you are otherwise keeping well

Best

Mike

I’m shocked at the number of Washington wines that I’ve never seen nor heard of - perhaps it’s an issue of living in another wine region, California, but it’s crazy how few Washington wines find they way here. Is it like that nationwide?

Todd, from what I’ve seen when I’ve traveled outside the region, yes. Unfortunately.

I’m beginning to pay attention to Washington wines again (I bought a case of 375’s of 1968 Sainte Michelle Cabernet about 45 years ago… damn that was good!).

Of course they are more available in any other state than California… in California they are both Not California and Not Imported, while in Oregon, they are essentially local. Everywhere else, it is simply a question of scale, there are infinitely more wines from California than from Washington.

Also, the smaller producers of top quality are in the same enviable situation as the smaller producers of top quality Santa Cruz Mountain wines. From the Santa Cruz Mountains, they can sell everything locally to Silicon Valley. In Washington, they can sell everything locally to the Microsoft / Amazon cluster and maybe even still to Boeing folks.

Another thing in common between Santa Cruz Mountains and Washington is the lack of ooze monsters and Napa silliness. Their respective Grand Seigneurs (Ridge and Q Creek) are priced below the middle of NAPA (the Napa Arrogance and Pretension Association), with far higher quality and a much longer track record.

Doubleback is celebrity owned (Drew Bledsoe), but kudos to him for investing in Washington rather than Napa… kudos for the effort, which didn’t quite do it for me with this first wine I tried. I gather that this is a $100 wine. I’d try it again before paying $300 for a 3 year old Napa from a producer who didn’t exist 10 years ago but who has a 100 point rating from a critic whose taste I don’t know.

Dan Kravitz