Anyone going to this? Saturday March 22, 1-5pm, City Hall Restaurant at 131 Duane Street, NYC. No reservation needed.
First one I’ll ever miss, unfortunately, as I’ll be on a plane to SF.
Shhh. Hopefully the weather will stay “cool” as that basement can turn in to a seething mass of humanity.
You must’ve attended a boatload Brad. How many?
RT
Ever since Joe held his first one in his office in January of '01, as told by Coad.
I’ll be there.
Thanks for the link Brad. Coad is the best TN writer I’ve ever read. “The story” comes first and everything flows from there. Nice to get a feel for his “earlier” work.
RT
I’ll be there as well. Last year was my first time and I made the rookie mistake of choosing the latter time slot. Bad mistake.
No time slots mentioned, but they do recommend coming at the beginning or the end.
Unfortunately I’ll miss it this year. We have guests coming over that day.
I plan to be there. Always an interesting group of wines and for a great cause.
Anybody else plan on going?
i will be there on the earlier side.
Chalk up 2014 as another successful gathering hosted by the Dressner and Chambers Street teams. Busy but not particularly crowded. 85 wines are a lot to taste. I missed a handful. Tough going at the end with so many higher acidity wines left a little high and dry without a symbiotic (and potentially transformational) food pairing.
David Lillie is somehow to blame (partially) for my Muscadet affection. Front and center were Remi Branger of Domaine Pepiere and Pierre Luneau of Luneau-Papin. Hard to go wrong at either. My Pepiere fav was the simple charm of the 2012 plain “sur lie” and a killer QPR < $15. Missing in action were the Briords and Clisson, with the line-up including the 2012 Gras Mouton, 2010 Thebaud and 2009 “3".
It was a pleasure meeting both Remi and Pierre. The Luneau-Papin table stepped things up with the 2005 and 2009 L d’Or. The 2005 had a tasty mushroomy subtlety compared to the 2009’s bright intensity…a strong candidate for white of the tasting.
Domaine Francois Pinon - missed Francois but his son was a worthy substitute. The 2012 Silex had that minerally complexity that satisfies pretty much every vintage.
Four Riesling producers represented: Weingut Knebel, Immich-Batterieberg, Clemens-Busch and Koehler-Ruprecht. The 2011 Clemens-Busch Pundericher Marienburg GG impressed with great mineral expression and overall exuberance, while the 2010 Koehler-Ruprecht Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Trocken Spatlese (long enough name?) flirted with grace and precision.
Mathieu Baudry was in fine form and made time for a brief chat. If you like bright, crisp, food friendly Rose…do NOT miss the 2013 Chinon. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2012 Chinon Blanc Croix Boisee, but the $41 price tag…a little less so. It’s a lovely wine that can surely compete at the price. The 2011 Domaine Chinon and Grezeaux were fairly tannic. Food and/or a year or two will help both. The 2011 Clos Guillot, according to my note was: “killer”. The complete Baudry experience…back up the truck.
The Olga Raffault style kind of confuses me. Bottle variation? They’re funky. Plenty of musk (some barnyard maybe) and interesting secondary as well as aged notes. They poured the 2009, 2002, and 1989 Chinon Les Picasses. Such a contrast from the clean, direct Baudry style. I get why some love them. Judgement withheld.
JP Brun Terres Dorees - Missed seeing JP Brun. The 2011 Fleurie was my fav but the line-up didn’t really wow me. The 2012 Chard is simple and a respectable value at $16-ish.
Eric Texier. Missed seeing Eric but the table was manned by Martin Texier. No real pop, iMHO, until the 2011 Domaine de Pergaud St. Julien en St. Alban Vieille Serine…garnering a double star as my 2nd fav Red of the day. A unique and vivid expression of Syrah.
Franck Peillot was cordial as always with his excellent English. The wines continue to grow on me, year after year. Bugey isn’t exactly a household appellation, but don’t let that stop you from snagging the dry white 2012 Altesse. Lovely floral notes, bright and mineral laden. Fine drinking at around $24. A smattering of bubbles could be found at various tables, but none impressed as much as the NV Montaganieu Brut with surprising complexity for only $20.
Silvio Messana of Montesecondo is a winemaker worth chatting with if you have any interest in pure red fruited Sangiovese from Chianti Classico. Always informative, he was pouring his 2012 Rosso Toscana and his 2010 Chianti Classico from Mag. Both not quite ready for prime time with tannins still a little rugged. That said, the 2010 should be a winner in 3 - 4+ years, whereas the 2011 CC (not poured) is a thing of beauty now, being that I’ve already quaffed 3 or 4 bottles this year.
The Rose Room housed a potpourri of 30+ miscellaneous wines. The 2012 Clos du Tue-Boeuf Touraine Gamay “La Butte” was incredibly bright…as expected. My notes have a star for the 2012 Georges Descombes Brouilly, very red fruited and enjoyably perfumed.
The 2012 Cascina Tavijn Grignolino attracted me for its uniqueness. The 2011 Poderi Sanquineto Rosso di Montalcino was tasty if a bit brash. The mineral brightness and persistence of the 2012 Noella MorantinTouraine “Pichaux” (Sauv Blanc) lured me in to buying at $20.
With a fatiguing palate, I’ve no idea how the 2012 Laurent Barth Alsace Pinot Noir caught my attention…but it definitely did! Clean and engaging for only $23. Yes the 2010 Claude Marechal Auxey-Duresses Rouge was a very enjoyable Burg…if not a total bargain at $40.
I was pleased to spot the 2011 Romeo del Castello Allegracore until the tannins sandpapered my mouth. So it goes.
Nice to see some familar faces and meet Peter Kleban.
A la prochaine.
RT
Fantastic notes Richard. I missed this but I feel like I got everything I needed to know!
Cheers
There was a mini event here in Seattle the week before. Remi Branger, Eric Texier, Franck Peillot, and JP Brun were all at our local outpost, Vif.
To me the Pepiere wines were lovely with the Briords being exceptional as it often is.
I had never had the Peillot wines but my thoughts were similar Rich - the Montangnieu was an exceptional sparkler at $20. I bought a few, and we opened one tonight. Definitely going back for more. Also liked the Altesse very much. Offered at $27 here, so I’m a little more shy.
JP poured the 2012 Cote de Brouilly here. To me it was not showing a lot but a bought a few on faith. Pretty sure it will pay off.
The Texier wines all showed well and Vif carries them, so they are available.
Thanks for the notes Richard. I’ll keep an eye out for the '05 Lunea-Papin.
I had the '12 Pepiere by the glass at Marlow & Sons last week and thought it was the best vintage of the regular bottling that I’ve tasted, denser than usual if that makes any sense.
I had a lot of the '11 Baudry lineup at the Baudry/Raffault dinner last Thursday, and I tried a bottle of the Clos Guillot last night. I was not as impressed by the Clos Guillot as you were… the Croix Boissee and Grezeaux seemed to be the big standouts for Baudry in '11, at least for me. The bottle of Clos Guillot that I tried was a little gritty and rough around the edges compared to my usual experiences with Clos Guillot. I’ve always thought the Clos Guillot to be the most elegant and charming wine of the lineup (at least in the context of cabernet franc). I’ll have to revisit.
Agree on the Baudry Chenin Blanc… a solid wine, but there are better QPRs out there.
Sorry to have missed this.
And sorry to hear that. We guzzled down many a bottle of the 09. The 2010 is a bit less fruity and more acidic, but still very good. Any chance your palate was burned out by the time you got to the Allegracore? I’m looking for reasons not to trust your assessment because this has been a go-to weekday wine. 
Thanks for the notes, Richard. Good to run into you again. Here are some impressions (although I didn’t really take notes, so these are all from memory).
In general I thought last year’s tasting, which mostly covered 2010 for the reds, was much better than this year’s.
As usual, the Pepiere lineup was the standout. Agree that the basic Muscadet in 12 is excellent. The 12 Gras Moutons is also great and much better than the 2010 version of that wine, which was a little boring. The Chateau Thebaud and Cuvee Trois are very good as well. They showed a little riper and rounder in this context than the more linear, mineral 12s. I had a bottle of the Trois last week that was fantastic.
I’m not as big a fan of the Luneau-Papin wines. Compared to Pepiere they come across to me as a touch milky/lactic and dilute.
I liked the Closel Clos du Papillons. The 07 was quite mature, with lots of honey and round nutty character, while the 10 tasted much younger, with racier acidity and more minerality. Both good in very different ways. Pinon’s wines have never done much for me and this was no exception, which is a shame as they seem like very nice people and the devastation in their vineyards is awful (Pinon described it as “10 minutes of Armageddon.”) But all their wines have an odd, disjointed acidity to me.
The Baudry lineup did not move me like the 10s did last year. The rose is really nice (and I normally don’t like rose at all, but this one I liked a lot), and I also like the blanc a lot (although I agree it’s pricey), but the reds are a bit blocky right now and are showing a bit of brett. I liked the domaine cuvee the best for drinking right now, it’s a little juicier and the tannins aren’t so obtrusive. I think the others will improve with some time in bottle but I worry about the brett, which I don’t recall finding in any of the 2010s I’ve tasted.
I actually preferred the Raffault lineup, which I chalked up to the vintage difference (Raffault poured 09/10, Baudry 11). The Raffaults show less upfront fruit but have a nice meaty/earthy/tobacco quality and the I think the better vintages gave them a bit more depth. The 89 was interesting to try but a bit volatile, and not as good as a bottle I opened a couple years ago.
Of the Texier lineup, the 2010 Seguret was my favorite, again likely due to the vintage, but this was a pretty, low-octane take on S. Rhone Grenache.
Upshot: I need to buy more Pepiere. Annoyed I didn’t snag any of the 12 Briords before it disappeared from the market. Really looking forward to when they release the 2012 longer-lees aging wines.
My Pepiere positive bias not withstanding, that 2012 Sur Lie was as good an entry effort as I can remember. I much preferred the previous vintage of Gras Mouton and for some reason the Thebaud has never grabbed me. Snag the 2009 L-P L d’Or for a fine comparison to the Pepiere Clisson.
Chris, I actively chatted with Mathieu throughout the tasting line-up. Mathieu was indicating his father’s preferences for some of the recent wines as well as commenting on the tannins. He was quite pleased with the Rose and Domaine Chinon encouraging pairing with food for balance. I thought the 2010 Grezeaux was dynamite from the word go, but the 2011 really needs another year or two…with plenty of upside. The Guillot hit my sweet spot, for whatever reason…and apparently others too. Chambers St was cleaned out of the '11 Guillot in < 48hrs.
John, there were some heavier hitters near the Allegracore with a fairly rugged and somewhat medicinal Salice Salentino immediately before it. Sadly, my impression stands. Maybe you’ll have better luck. I also enjoyed bottles of the '09 and '10 so I approached it with a positive expectation.
RT
Thanks, I may have had an unusual bottle, or bad palate day etc.
I guess it’s all academic at this point, seeing that it’s sold out at my usual source.