Three of us enjoyed a fine dinner at one’s Country Club while blind tasting 3 wines, a champagne, a white and a red:
1995 CHARLES HEIDSIECK BLANC des MILLENARES- blind; the color was a yellow gold with an emphasis on the gold suggesting some age; the first notes I got in the nose was licorice, then a hint of hazelnut, minerals, anise and peppermint which became much more prevalent once tasted; in fact, it was the unusual notes of black pepper, anise, mint and spice that I only remember ever coming from Piper Heidsieck Rare and that swayed me toward choosing that house for this bubbly; it had a lot of different things happening initially, but within 10-15 minutes, everything came together and we had ourselves a fabulous, perfectly balanced champagne; it was creamy, rich and mature to the point I mentioned it had reached its apogee and it was good we were drinking it now; honeyed citrus fruit with grapefruit and orange contributed to the wondrous taste treat, but it was that streak of pepper, anise, mint and spice that was the most pronounced in the aromatics and taste profiles; while I’m calling it 2002 or older, as in 1995 Piper Heidsicek Rare, one attributed that unusual character as being from Charles Heidsieck and I bowed to him once the bottle was revealed. So, my question still remained: what contributed to the very different notes of pepper, anise, mint and spice found here and only ever experienced in the Piper Heidsieck Rare and now Charles Heidsieck?
The first release of this Blanc de Blanc came in 1993 when the house offered the extraordinary 1983; only 7 cuvees have ever been made: 1983, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2004, 2006 and 2007. the fruit for this 1995 was sourced from 5 major crus from the Côte des Blancs, Oger, Mesnil-sur-Oger, Avize, Cramant and Vertus and it was aged for over 20 years prior to being released.
2018 CHATEAU MONTELENA CHARDONNAY NAPA- blind; this wine was in my wheelhouse for being a stellar Chardonnay and and thankfully an easy call {famous last words} for being new world; following its cloudy gray, yellow color came aromas of slightly toasty, oaky lemon, green apple and pear coated with a touch of honey, all of which continued on to the back end while being joined by a nice addition of honeysuckle and orange marmalade; it had bright acidity, a super tactilely pleasant oily mouthfeel and was in perfect balance with the oak nicely integrated; this wine does not go through ML and was aged in 100% French oak barrels for 10 months before being bottled 8/19; the vineyards are located in the south-central Napa Valley appellation, near the base of Mt. Veeder and Dry Creek Valley Road on the western bench of the Napa Valley; I kept getting this as Napa Chardonnay after going though all of the options of Sonoma County and Santa Barbara County and Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Lucia Mountains and then I remembered, I had a great Chardonnay that this reminded me of from Chateau Montelena and I landed on this producer and a vintage range of 2015-2018. It must have been the law of averages as I had just struck out on all 5 wines 2 nights before with these guys and 2 others.
1996 WILLIAMS SELYEM ALLEN VINEYARD RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY PINOR NOIR- poured blind, but my bring; last minute decant for 30 minutes; high neck ullage; the color was sort of a grainy dark red raspberry in the glass but only light red when being poured, noticeably showing its age; the nose offered nice spicy laden red raspberry which continued on once tasted with an eventual transition into black raspberry at the back end; it had a velvety texture, was medium bodied and really good although it was devoid of a usual hallmark accent of cinnamon that I’ve found in many previous bottles; in its best showings, this has been one of my all-time favorite wines. Both my friends already knew the possibility of a WS Pinot from the 90s and one even offered 1994 or 1995 WS Allen- great call.
Once again, tasting wines blind over the course of an evening is such a humbling and yet fun and informative experience and it leads to a much more objective opinion of what pleases the palate and why.
Cheers,
Blake