Steve Lagier is chewing on a bag of dicks right now
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I had quite the BD15 weekend.
Morgan Ranch ground beef smash burgers along side some Dickās.
Then a French omelette with more Dickās.
And lastly a Flannery ribeye
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Those are the ones Iād have gone for, too- sorry Iām not of more help here!
Received the Flannery lamb and beef, Papa A5 and caviar, waiting on the Dickās. No pics of the grilled Flannery beef, pic below of the A5 + caviar and some local uni. This was off the hook good.
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iām surprised you arenāt still having convulsions of pleasure
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oh thatās a great idea! I have my Astrea in-house and still one Papa Wagyu A5 steak!!
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16oz Flannery ribeyes. Holy hell these were incredible. I feel like I usually buy good steaks from legit butchers. These were next level.
Paired with an 08 Haut-Bages Liberal that I enjoyed far less than the 18 Desire Lines Evangelo I had last night that was killer.
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2016 Deaver Alicante Bouschet and 2018 Fogline Rockpile Rocky Ridge Zinfandel - both very enjoyable
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Claire Hill Syrah 2021. Elegant, lifted, structured. This is not your typical CA Syrah. What Cathy Corison is to Cabernet Sauvignon, Claire Hill is to Syrah. The wine needs air is itās young and tight, but with some time, it shows the peppery dark varietal character of the grape. I see this wine cellaring for decades with ease. Really nicely made wine.
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Hi Mark - I replied back to the welcome email a while back asking about recommended drinking windows on the cab and the syrah, but never got a response. Do you have any guidance on that? Thanks.
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Hey Stephen,
Sorry I missed your email. The petite Arvine is good to go now and will last a few years easily. The Syrah is still young with a lot of primary fruit. It has a decent amount of tannin so Iād guess the window is more like 2025-2028/9. The cab is an interesting one. I find it doesnāt profile like most cabs. We describe it as a cab made by a Pinot house. Itās fruit forward and doesnāt have the traditional hard tannin structure. The tannins are soft and fruit is a mix of red and black- plum and blackberry. Itās drinking well now if you want a lighter style red wine thatās somewhat easy to drink and fruity. Itās a lovely wine, but you wonāt confuse it for Bordeaux.
I hope that helps. Cheers,
Mark
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Thank you, Mark, for the quick response. That is helpful and the cab sounds very interesting.
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We drank the 2021 Championship Bottle Hard Promises Pinot Blanc a few nights ago. My first CB. Nice job @Saul_Mutchnick! My wife like it so much that she went looking for the bottle to find out what it was. Along with Goodfellow and Kelley Fox, Saul is showing what great white wines Oregon can make with this grape and others beyond just Chardonnay.
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You need to shave some white truffles onto it and add a dollop of foie gras, that isnāt quite decadent enough as is.
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Awesome! Glad you (and, more importantly, your wife) enjoyed it. Blanc is a grape that I strongly believe in, but itās hard to find it from great sites. Partially because I think there have been a lot of producers who historically fight its nature and therefore make wine thatās pretty innocuous as a result, and so there hasnāt been a whole lot of demand for it. But if you take it seriously, it seems to reward that.
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i know, if i was eating this, iād wear a hood to hide my shame from god
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I keep beating the drum and wringing my hands about the Willamette Valley becoming essentially a two grape game. Iām fine with it just being Pinot Noir, but I so wish there was wider diversity of whites beyond Chardonnay. But I donāt have any skin in the game and the market is paying up for Chard. So Iāll just keep pecking around like an old rooster for overlooked scraps that most people donāt care about.
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Are there particular white varieties youāve thought were great from Oregon, or ones that arenāt planted there but you think they would be profound there?
I guess the obvious thing feels like WV is similar to Burgundy therefore Chardonnay. And of course the economics ā if you could make good aligote, riesling, gewurtz or something, it probably wouldnāt fetch the kind of pricing you could get for chardonnay.
The incoming wave might be sparkling wine. Which isnāt different varieties, but a different wine.
For sure, it is an economic issue and I know that other white varieties have been ripped out or grafted over to Chardonnay. However, Oregon (like California before it) has the opportunity to be a blank slate and doesnāt have to be Burgundy 2.0. I think diversity of choice wins every time and it is a shame if it all comes down only to economics. From Oregon, Iāve had great examples of Pinot Blanc (several), Pinot Gris (well, two), Riesling (several), Gruner Veltliner (two), and Gewurztraminer (one). Personally, Iād rather drink Loire Chenin Blanc over most Chardonnay, so would love to see that planted.
For Oregon Sparkling wine, Iām at the front of the line!
Edit: And PGC makes a really nice Muscat or two!
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