I’ve chastised my admin for misspelling his name after confirming I had it correct on the spreadsheet. I told her, just because he’s some Mexican doesn’t mean you can just switch out stereotypical names. How offensive. Totally have your back, Rodriguez.
Rodrigo for short. Juan has healed by now. Get a less racist admin, would ya?
Que you say?
Back from Thanksgiving break and time to get back on the note horse from the Dallas offline!
Saturday Night Whites
2013 Dagueneau Silex - Just beautiful grapefruit, lime, nectarine and floral notes wafting out with lovely cut. Well balanced and refreshing. Good stuff.
Next up was a run of some incredibly delicious chardonnays of differing sizes and styles. Talk about high expectations! I think half of these showed up in the “best chardonnay of the last year” thread.
2008 Mount Eden Vineyards SCM Estate Chardonnay This was fantastic. Lemon oil and apple with toast and a great mouthfeel. All around rock solid chardonnay with a nice lingering finish. Good balance to this. A winner.
2013 Aubert Eastside Chardonnay A very interesting wine. It’s massive and rich and creamy, but loaded with minerality and has good acidic cut. I recall tropical fruit, sweet lemon, creme brulee, and a flint note. Honestly I remember having a confused palate because it’s just got a lot of everything, including things I’d typically find contradictory…like creamy malo and big acidic cut, rich creme brulee and lemony notes. Certainly a lot of a lot going on.
2014 Kutch Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay This is like a considerably scaled down version of the Aubert. Less dense mouthfeel, but still carrying nice richness and balance between lemony citrus, asian pear, green apple and floral notes. Lovely. Perhaps not as complex as I’d anticipated, but a very lovely wine. Nice balance here.
2012 Ridge Monte Bello Chardonnay This was a big surprise, and I thought this may have been one of the top chards for my palate. It was somewhere in the sweet spot between the Kutch and Aubert, with nice toasty baked pear, nectarine, and toasty oak. Perhaps not super complex, and showing a bit more obvious oak, but a slamming chardonnay. I really like this and it’s in a great place. This was up there fore me.
2015 Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchere This was laser-like, showing distinct flinty, lemony, chalky mineral driven notes. Very crisp with good verve. Almost a palate cleanser after the more fruit focused wines that I had before this.
John, keep the notes coming! Thank you for organizing an incredible weekend of wine and food.
It was a pleasure to meet everyone and I appreciate those who flew in (Todd, Jorge) and those who drove long distances to judge a remarkable line up of wines.
My two takeaways from the weekend:
- No matter what people say, they love champagne more than any other varietal/region - evidenced by the fact champagne was long gone before anything else
- Reaffirmation that Parker points and drinking windows are as reliable as Dallas weather
Couldn’t agree more on this one. There was a little bit of wine left in most of the bottles each night. There was no champagne left in any bottle either night. It seemed to be the universal favorite. Perhaps it’s because that’s what everyone has first, and then as they plow through they begin to slow down their pace of play. But I also saw folks (and myself included) go back to during the night. I like it because it’s refreshing and almost like a palate cleanser. Then back to work.
Saturday Night Reds part 1:
2013 Argiano Brunello di Montalcino Surprisingly funky with meaty, leathery notes, with peppery cherry fruit. Pretty good young stuff on the funky side of Brunello. This might be really nice with some age on it.
2011 G. Conterno Barolo Cerretta The G. Conterno v. the Mascarello Monprivato was one of the funnest side-by-side tastings of the evening for me, and it was interesting to hear which of the wines folks liked. The G. Conterno was denser, had a currant and tar drive profile with big structure and a meatiness to it. This is worth setting down for an age and could be described as overtly masculine (though I hate descriptors like that, I think it will convey the message).
2012 Mascarello Monprivato Barolo In contrast to the G. Conterno, the Mascarello was light, bright, and elegant, with lifted cranberry and bright cherry, white flowers and rose water, with orange peel and potpourri. Much lighter and body, and with wonderful lift. This could be described as overtly feminine. Yin and Yang, this and the G. Conterno. Just fascinating. On that night, with champagne flowing, I preferred the Mascarello. It’s stuck with me. Lovely.
2005 Cos d’Estournel I’ve had this wine 9 times over the last 4 years and think it is absolutely smashing. It is aromatically explosive, with black fruits, rosemary, licorice, and sweet oak notes. This is big and aromatically complex. While it is rather big for bordeaux, I find it well balanced on the palate, with fine structure and just the right acidity to ensure it is not flabby or heavy in the least. Excellent bordeaux to my taste, and slamming on the night (to me, JR!).
2009 Gonon St. Joseph My notes on this wine are not so sharp, but I recall thinking that it was really nice. I have black and red fruit, minerality, meatiness, with nice garrigue aromatics. Lovely stuff.
2016 Gonon St. Joseph Too young. This has some nice cherry fruit and is showing some underlying minerality, but is very tight and not offering a ton of aromatics. The fruit is in that young chewy stage that doesn’t really show off much of what it will probably have to offer down the line.
Pinots and cabs next!
wow, John…I can’t even remember what happened last night. How are you able to pull out these notes weeks afterward? Must be because (as you so poignantly indicated) I was entering high school when you were born.
Or I scribbled a bunch of shit down the next morning over coffee and a bagel.
And leftover wine.
John, the 05 CDE was the perfect expression of “bordeaux” on the nose that underdelivered (to me) in terms of complexity and intensity on the palate. No doubt the palate will unfurl and nose will mellow out with time but that night it smelled like a Jackson Pollock and tasted like a Rothko. It also fell as the ~25th wine I tried that night which may have thrown my taste buds.
The 11 Giacomo Conterno Cerretta was my favorite wine of both nights but I also named my dog after him so maybe I’m biased.
First and foremost, thank you to our host for putting all of this together. The night was incredible, from the venue (beautiful home), to the company, the meal and obviously the wines! We had a wonderful time, as evidenced by the Fletchers being the last couple to leave the party (sorry John)!
When the night began, I had the best intentions of taking notes, even bringing my journal for formal note-taking. However, only minutes after walking through the door, said journal was placed on a bookshelf and was a complete afterthought until we left for the night. So no formal notes. I think I tasted 15-20 wines but these were my more memorable of the night.
2004 Taittinger CDC Rose: I only had a small taste as this was almost gone but it was exactly what I like in a Champagne. Bright and refreshing citrus, strawberry and raspberry with plenty of tiny bubbles. I only tried two other Champagnes on the night, but this was clearly my favorite.
2013 Aubert Eastside Chardonnay: There were five or six Chards available, one of which was mine (2014 Kutch Santa Cruz Mtns) and I left it for others to try. Of the Chards I tasted, this was my favorite. Very round mouthfeel and rich, but not over-the-top. Excellent balance. Lemon custard and light honey with a hint of minerality.
2013 Rivers Marie Summa Old Vine Pinot: I’ve had the regular Summa bottlings before but never the Old Vine. This was what I like in Pinot. Some stems but not to the extent you couldn’t make out the fruit or other qualities. Nuanced and seamless on the palate. Cherry, dark cherry, orange peel and pine needles. I do like this better than the regular Summa.
2009 Favia Cerro Sur Red Blend: Not a clue what this was until Todd gave a recommendation given it was Cab Franc dominant and we had just discussed appreciation for that grape. In short, I loved this wine and I will track it down. Complex and balanced. No green pepper, just full of fresh, bright red fruits, flowers and dark chocolate layers with a light toastiness on the back end. Dangerously easy to drink.
2016 William & Mary Shifflett Ranch Proprietary Red: One of the wines I brought (thanks to Will for providing!). My first time tasting this from bottle. Decanted about 6 hours earlier and poured back into bottle. Young and so fresh and delicious. Bright red fruit and sweet tannins. So smooth and laser-like focus. If anyone tried it early in the evening, I apologize as it was too cold (apologies Todd). I kept it in my fridge after opening and couldn’t remove it until about 60 minutes before the dinner given a later afternoon 10-year old soccer game and not being at home.
2011 Saxum Booker Vineyard: Damn this was good (I had two pours…possibly three). Big, but not as big as I had expected. Dark, rich fruit with sweet tannins. Fresh fruit delivery with some pepper from the Syrah, but more fruit and subtle spice. Not much meatiness either (maybe the 33% Mouvedre balancing out the Syrah?). Long finish. No alcohol heat from the 15.4% ABV. Been on the wait-list for 7 years now…looking forward to my first allocation.
1991 Ridge Monte Bello: Still going strong! Dark fruit was still plenty evident for me with a firm structure still in place. Tobacco and herbs pushing through to the forefront. Smooth tannins, but still a little grip. Very happy and thankful to have been able to try this.
2005 Cos D’ Estournel: This is a wine I could pour and simply smell all night. Big and structured. Drinking very well right now. Strong tannins but not a wall to where you can’t enjoy what this has to offer. I wish I would have been able to taste this the following day because I would have liked to have seen how it opened up.
Barbadillo San Rafael Medium Oloroso: It’s Sherry and my first experience. And it was wonderful! On the recommendation from Jorge (and thank you for the education on Sherry!), we had this with the bourbon pecan pie. Nothing could have been better. Beautiful dark peach/rose color, perfect viscosity and not overly sweet with a nice toasted caramel and sweet white raisins . Wonderful nose…again, something I could pour and just sniff on all night. Great palate cleanser after a couple of bites of the sweet, rich and delicious pecan pie. I need to find a bottle of this.
Again, such a wonderful experience. Thank you!
Another Jerez convert!!! My heart fills with joy!
Glad you enjoyed it as much as you did Trent.
I always feel like a dork taking notes at parties. And if you know me, I have a no-dork rule, Corey excepted. 
. Here’s the trick: most every single one of us walks around with an iPhone as a third appendage. iPhone has a note pad. Drop a few impressions here and there as you try the wines. Most people with think you are just shooting a text. In a few seconds you are done. Those notes coupled with your recollection can help weave together a decent write-up.
Sounds like a killer event, sorry I missed!
But you put in immense effort to be there, right?
Nice to see Jose down there preaching the Sherry Gospel!
Who dat?