Our Monday Night Blind Wine Dinner Group was blessed to have another wonderful evening of fellowship, fine Italian cuisine and accompanying service of excellence while pursuing our charge of learning more about wine in order to enhance our overall experience and buying decisions.
As usual, we pre-assign the general wine brings to achieve the balance preferred while dining. This translated on this night into us having a bubbly, a white wine and 2 red wines. All are to be prepared in advance to serve and are brown bagged or poured out of the site of others to ensure maximum objective assessment.
We each share our impressions over the course of the entire evening which also allows most wines to shift and evolve from more exposure to air which in most instances results in a way different wine than if it was just poured, drunk and dumped as is the case in some of our other wine tasting groups.
Here’s some notes:
2004 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- depending upon which source you trust, this is comprised of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay {other sources have indicated 53-47% and 55- 45%}; one common agreement is, it is dosed at 8 gpl; I pulled this to check in on the vintage as we’ve had many other vintages of Cristal in the last few months and due to the telltale clear glass bottle with no punt, I poured it blind for the others; the color was a youthful yellow toward gold and the nose and taste profile initially offered yellow apple, mango, honey dew melon with honey coated yellow apple dominating the taste profile; the honey component was so appropriate as its served to emulate the creamy texture that had some weight and then enhanced the finish which thankfully lingered on to our delight; it was tangy, rich and full bodied, yet had lots of charm and finesse; after 30+ minutes, it expanded and seemed to gain momentum, character and energy and after an hour, it had morphed into an outstanding champagne that had me thinking of how many more to I want to purchase as I move on from 2002. The other members narrowed down the choices and got real close to what this was, all the while praising its class and sophistication from the first sip; I thought it improved immensely having first noted “it was not great, but definitely enjoyable”, but it took off over time and eventually became great.
2017 HUBERT LAMY CLOS de le CHATENIERE VIEILLES VIGNES SAINT-AUBIN 1er Cru- blind; years ago, I used to think wines from St. Aubin were inferior to other appellations, but Olivier Lamy and especially Pierre- Yves Colin-Morey has changed that immeasurably in the last few years; this wine was recognized by most as being a white Burgundy and I guessed from 2018, but did not get the appellation; it was so subtle and required going just a bit deeper into the aromatics and tastes to glean its treasures, but they were there and worth the extra effort; the nose included some musty, dusty flint and minerals that complemented the stone fruit that translated especially into yellow apple once tasted; a dollop of lemon zest came in late; it lacked weight and energy, but possessed enough charm and elegance to make for a good experience.
Olivier, who honed his intense focus on meticulous vineyard work when working at Meo Camuzet, was also one of the first winemakers in the Cote de Beaune to use large barrels, ranging between 350 to 600 liter barrels. Following harvest, the grapes are sorted and then pressed with the juice before moving to stainless steel tanks. After fermentation, the wines are moved to these large barrels with generally 0-15% new oak for roughly 18-24 months. I did not detect any oak influence in our bottle.
2008 DOMAINE GEORGES MUGNERET-GIBOURG ECHEZEAUX GRAND CRU- blind; following its medium red purple color came mild aromas of spice and pepper laden delicious red cherry which became much more expressed on the palate; although it was on the mellow side, it had enough stuff to impress while maintaining a stately, elegant profile; I had it as a 2005 red Burgundy, thinking it was from Domaine Groffier Les Hauts Chambolle-Musigny as I recalled similar accented red cherry fruit and elegance. The 3 of us did get it a a red Burg.
1995 ARTADI VINA el PISON RESERVA RIOJA- blind; it was tough to ID this wine as it was inundated with the 4-ethylphenol compound that distinguished this type of Brettanomyces from others with its band-aid, barnyard, horse stable character; the nice fruit profile was close enough to call this red Burgundy, but the pepper, talc and sandalwood suggested otherwise and I’m thinking N. Rhone as it also possessed some meaty notes; the color was youthful dark red purple and the nose offered ripe red and black raspberry while the taste profile also included black cherry and black currant; it was full bodied, soft and smooth and yet, a bit overwhelmed by the Brett IMHO.
Cheers,
Blake
