Bardessono Wine Dinner - Napa Valley Offline with "The Todd"

WINE TALK
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Normally would not post essentially the same thing here and on the Parker Board, but since “The Todd” was involved, could not resist! We had a really great dinner last night at Bardessono Restaurant in Yountville for an offline I put together for folks traveling into town from the BB. The following are brief notes of wines tasted. Hopefully others who attended will chime in with their thoughts.

White Wine of the Night - 2005 Aubert Lauren
Red Wine of the Night - 1926 Calon Segur

Starter Wines - The Ceja was a fresh, big mouthfeel, well integrated fruit driven wine. By contrast, the Benovia was a refined elegant, yet highly balanced wine. Both were a nice way to start the evening!

  1. 2006 Ceja Chardonnay 1.5L
  2. 2007 Benovia Chardonnay

Chardonnay Flight - The wine of the first flight was the 05 Lauren. It was floral, melon, lemon, complex and elegant. The 04 was second favorite that also had a lemon oil component, and opened up after some time. The 06 Lauren was light, tight, not very intense fruit, and not very exciting, just ok.

  1. 2004 Aubert, Quarry Chardonnay
  2. 2005 Aubert, Lauren Chardonnay
  3. 2006 Aubert, Lauren Chardonnay

Pinot Noir Flight - Overall, this was the least favorite flight. The favorite wine was the 03 Cohn with cranberry, dark fruits, but still, just an ok wine. By contrast, the 03 Koplen was hot and pruney, opened up, but did not show well. Finally, the Littorai was a little green, light, and fresh cut grass.

  1. 2003 Kosta Browne Cohn
  2. 2003 Kosta Browne Koplen
  3. 2006 Littorai Mays Canyon

Grenache/Syrah Flight - The 02 Alban was the favorite wine in this flight with balanced, forest floor, dark berry fruits. While ok wines, the 01 and 03 had some plum and harder tannin. The level of acid/tannin was quite pronounced on the 03.

  1. 2001 Alban Pandora
  2. 2002 Alban Pandora
  3. 2003 Alban Pandora

Cabernet Flight - Tied for wine of the flight were the 02 Colgin Cariad and 06 Seven Stones. Completely different in style, but both great in their own way. The Cariad was balanced, with dark fruit, dusty, complex, a solid wine, the Seven Stones had distinct blue and black fruits, no question, an elegant and age worthy wine. As for the 99 Cariad, lavendar, floral, tigher, opened up nicely, the Harris Estate, minty, well integrated and full bodied. Finally the El Nido had bright fruits, more plum, but did not find it to have a lot of depth, just hits the front palate.

  1. 2002 Colgin Cariad
  2. 1999 Colgin Cariad
  3. 2006 El Nido
  4. 2006 Seven Stones
  5. 2004 Harris Estate Treva Vineyard

Dessert Wine Flight - Similar to the Cabernet Flight, a tie for wine of the flight between the 06 Ceja and 01 Doisy Daene. The Ceja was very bright, sweet, with a full mouthfeel in contrast to the elegant more sweet mineral style of the Doisy. The 01 Giraud was liquid honey with age, and the 82 Sonoma-Cutrer was fortified, oxidized, and somewhat port like. Did not like this wine.

  1. 2001 Giraud Sauternes
  2. 2001 Doisy Daene
  3. 2006 Ceja Dulce Beso
  4. 1982 Sonoma-Cutrer Late Harvest

Surprise Wine - We were fortunate to have a friend sitting at a table next to us, who shared a surprise wine with Todd and I. When thanking the group, they showed us a long cork in amazing condition. Maybe a centimeter of wine absorbed into the cork at best. The bottle itself was representative of what you would expect for its age. Clearly, the overall provenance was exceptional!

  1. 1926 Calon Segur - Gorgeous! This was an exotic gamey, mineral, whole grains, earthy wine with nice tannin and surprisingly good, yet subtle fruit. Would never have guessed this bordeaux was over 80 years old and can still vividly recall the taste of this wine the day after!

The 5 course menu specially created for us:

Main Lobster Salad
williamson farm avocado, spicy tomato gelee, lemon creme fraiche, watercrest

Wild Striped Bass
chanterelle mushrooms, glazed black mission fig, spiced jus

Liberty Farms Duck
daikon radish, white crane springs ranch sylvetta, bitter chocolate sauce

Marin Sun Farm Beef
braised short rib, potatoes pont neuf, curry eggplant, cezanne condiment

Gravenstein Apple Tart Tatin
mascarpone chantilly, green apple sorbet

The restaurant was a very wine friendly place and provided exceptional service to us. They did such a great job, would not hesitate to hold another offline at their place!

As mentioned above, we had special guests, first of course was The Todd. Having had wine with him a few times now, can say he is a gracious, intelligent, enjoyable, and talented individual. Glad to see others echoing this similar view in other posts. Not often mentioned on the boards, but also a super nice guy in attendance was Armando Ceja, a good friend, neighbor and winemaker.

Cheers to a very good time!!

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