Great get-together with the Houston Berserkers on Thursday night to start the holiday weekend. Once more we were graciously hosted by @Myles_Lup at AOC. There were a few familiar faces including @R.Condron, @Ryan.D, and @Corey.H, plus some first-timers including @Jeff_Corbett and @Jas0n_P. About halfway through the evening Kelly from AOC sat down with us and generously broke out some additional excellent wines from her own personal locker. She’s a great hang and her insane depth of knowledge was on full display.
Since it is high summer here we opted for a loose theme of “bubbles, whites, and summer reds.” The group showed up in force and we had a ton of stellar bottles on the table.
A few folks brought some absolutely wicked blinds, most more in the novelty vein than the “testable, actually realistic to get it” vein (guilty). Blind call of the night goes to Robert who, 10 minutes into increasingly frustrated guesses on the 2022 PGC/KF Blueberry Wine had the breakthrough: “THIS IS NOT A GRAPE WINE! THIS IS A BLUEBERRY WINE!”
Whiff of the night goes to yours truly who, after confidently calling the wine a 20yo Tondonia Blanco and getting a no, just TOTALLY blanked on the fact that if it ain’t LdH Blanco it’s probably Musar Blanc. The synapses stayed resolutely uncooperative even after a “right track, wrong continent” hint. D’oh!!!
Bubbles
Flights were sort of at random due to, well, we got impatient and started popping corks before everyone arrived.
Flight 1
NV Goodfellow Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs (second cuvee)
My bring, shock shock. This was firing on all cylinders, I am now down to 2 bottles from my BD 6er and already dreading running dry. Maybe Marcus will grace us with a Vindependence Day deal…? Note about as per my several prior, plus some jasmine florality that I hadn’t called before. This second cuvee really does kick this bottling up a notch in terms of intensity and vibrancy.
Obviously grain of salt as everyone is an easy grader on their own wine, but I thought this held its own in a pretty fierce lineup. Drinking this next to a bunch of really good champagne was actually super interesting. It was the most acidic, high toned, tautly mineral wine of the bubbles flights. It didn’t have the truly deep layering of some of these great Champs that had significant reserve components or ultra-long lees aging, but it made up for that in sheer pulsing energy and vibrancy. And it truly does have a distinctively Willamette Valley Chard character to it—it isn’t Champagne, but it isn’t trying to be.
2018 Waris Larmandier Chetillon Haut BdB
On the lees 7yrs; single parcel that is apparently a sort of little-brother version of Clos de Mesnil.
Beautiful florals and toasty almond nose. Bit of nougat. Yellow fruited. On the palate simultaneously quite powerful, ripe and rich but searingly mineral, there is a dense lemon, salt, nougat character that is charming as hell.
2017 Egly-Ouriet BdN Les Crayeres
Beautiful color, nearly partridge eye.
Wow! On the nose nutty lees toast, maillardy caramel/toffee, yellow and ultra crisp yellow and red apple fruit. Long and sumptuous while giving no impression of weight. Extraordinary balance and poise. This was special.
Flight 2
Laherte Freres Les Vignes d’Autrefois 2014
100% Meunier from super old vines. 4 years lees 8 years on the cork.
Nuts, lightly bruised apple, orchard fruit, almond nougat. Some developed delicious cork aging character including some really amazing layered burnt sugar tones.
On the palate the wine is truly excellent, densely mineral but loaded with citrus and apple acidity plus nutty caramelized tones. Super solid, and I am usually not one that falls over for Meunier dominant blends.
Bereche Brut reserve
On the nose this is a down the middle but incredibly intensely aromatic champagne, there’s some vanilla bean and almond plus delicious apple pear and lemon fruit. Jeff calls a little anise which I buy.
On the palate this has a load of acidity and mineral cut but is at the same time all about the beautiful ripe fruit. This is an excellent nerd’s version of a down the middle NV brut with the dials just a little tweaked toward acid and mineral side. Great combo of crowd pleasing while maintaining interest.
Le Monts Fournois Valee
Bereche cousins with a negoce business, often buying shiners that they disgorge and dose.
A bit broader and richer on the nose and palate than prior, this showed a lot of toffee and nougat, ripe red apple, flowers, and nuts. Delicious and cheerful broad shouldered stuff.
Whites
Corey’s Blind White
Gotta be a chenin. Cloudy. Apple. Some VA? Overall a little bit of natty vibe?
On the palate, taut and mineral with some honeyed character, apple and chalk.
Called it a new wave SA chenin, recent vintage.
Actually, Marie Courtin Coteaux Champenois, white Pinot Noir, 2018. Amazing. On revisiting with the knowledge, why of course, it tastes like a still blanc de noir. And with Corey bringing it even as lousy a blind taster as I am should have at least remembered that they make still wines in Champagne!
2016 Morgen Long Yamhill Vineyard
My bring, was a little bit worried as two bottles consumed shortly after purchase a few years ago had been a little clunky and I didn’t love love love them. I was hopeful that some additional time sideways would sort the wine out, and had seen a positive recent note or two on CT that made me want to revisit this last bottle. And boy did this come around! (I almost wonder if I had been a little sick or something when I had the last two because it would be strange to have two off bottles and the CT notes around that same time were similarly positive.)
Popcorn reduction plus hazelnuts butter lemon oil and licorice. Intensely aromatic.
On the palate this is still pulsing with energy and densely coiled, this wine is going to go a million years. Deep, driving, long. Outstanding. Remarkably fresh and youthful, indeed fresh and youthful to the point that I am wondering if I will survive to see my 2021-23 X-Omnis reach full maturity (and I’m only in my 30s!). Seth Long bottles with what today is considered on the higher side for free sulfur, and this was under a pretty dense and long Diam (though I didn’t think to note whether it was a 30 or not), and as a result I suspect that these wines will be basically bulletproof for the very long haul.
Flight of Big Whites
22 Chateau Simone
On the nose super floral and spicy, this is really unusual and interesting.
Oily, massive palate, drinks like a red almost. Lower in acidity but the texture carries the wine. Really cool wine, would love to try one with significant age.
2014 Chapoutier La Bernadine CdP Blanc
Floral and oily on the nose, this shows a ton of spice and hair oil, some gas. On the palate thick and waxy with a ton of persistence and costs the palate. Extremely youthful at 10yo and I can’t see this tiring anytime soon. Would love to try this wine in 10 years time.
2022 Remelluri Rioja Blanco
On the nose straight beeswax and flowers, some vanilla and melon.
On the palate it’s broad and unctuous but has tons of drive and persistence with extremely well judged acidity. Very neat. Probably the closest white Rioja to the truly sui generis LdH stable that I’ve tried; this still isn’t all that similar but it bears a distant family resemblance in a way that the rest haven’t.
“And Now For Something Completely Different” Flight
2022 Elena Walch Alto Adige “Beyond the Clouds”
Chardonnay is the dominant grape in the blend but there is a significant slug of Alsace aromatic varieties.
On the nose WHOA gewurz and white Pinot hair oil florals and spice.
But then on the palate wtf?? This suddenly picks up a ton of acid and structure that carries the aromatic varieties along beautifully; this is what I wish every Alsace field blend tasted like. (So often with Alsace aromatic grapes you get a tantalizing, sumptuous, voluminous nose and then the wine is flabby and listless on the palate.) Here I suppose the alpine climate of Alto Adige and the significant Chard component are providing structure.
Really cool, really good. The next morning I emailed Jason for where to find it and bought what may be the last bottle in Houston, whoops sorry.
2022 Pataille Aligoté La Charmes au Pretres
I was behind everyone and only took a very quick taste of this, and did not get a good note down. Someone else will have to chime in with more detail, but my recollection is perhaps a bit oxidative, apple, unripe pear, quite structured with acid and chalk. Quite engaging.
Kelly’s blind white
Enormously fragrant waxy nose of salted melons and nuts, crazy deep and profound. Finish goes on for probably quite literally a minute. Have an idea right away, thinking I’m hot sh!t. This profile, plus coming from Kelly who was going heavy on LdH blanco and rosado years before they got trendy, this can only be one thing…
My call was Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Blanco, early-mid 2000s. NOPE. And this is where it gets really embarrassing! Kelly said “right track, wrong continent.” And I still didn’t put two and two together! If on a random Tuesday you asked me “hey if you called a wine an LdH blanco but were wrong, what’s your next guess” I would immediately say “well probably a Musar blanc.” But, this time, nothing.
And indeed the wine was Musar Blanc 2007, and I am a dope.
Reds
Robert’s blind red (or as it turns out “red”)
Electric clear limpid fuschia… like two shades darker than a Tavel.
Gummy bear cranberry red fruit on the nose. Bit of Brett band aid.
Only a very little bit of tannin, very high acid.
Call: I got nothing, some weird island something?
And as it turns out it is a 2025 Tiberio Cerasuolo. Technically a rose but looks and drinks a bit more like an ultra-light red. Very nice wine, and nails the theme of “red you’d drink in the Houston summer.”
Myles’s blind red no. 1
Good whack of Brett, some coniferous pinecone and eugenol tones. I’d just eaten a slice of pizza and initially thought this had pretty soft tannins, and called it Beaujolais. WRONG.
After the pizza grease got stripped out, obviously this is in fact a pretty sternly tannic wine, so I guess don’t eat when you’re blind tasting!
Very savory nose with some dark fruit; the palate is mostly savory flavors with just a bit of black fruit. Absolutely old world profile here, but Kelly notes that the wine is pretty boozy and she goes Southern Rhone, S/M dominant blend. Lots of calls for Northern Rhone around the table.
Reveal: 2022 Gust Syrah Petaluma Gap. Well I’ll be damned. Didn’t taste like any 14.5%abv Sonoma Syrah I’ve ever had, that’s for sure!
My blind red
Calls include: “beaujolais” and “carbonic dolcetto” but then bubble gummy so maybe new world, and then after about 10 minutes of increasingly bewildered guesses Robert practically leaps out of his chair: “THIS IS NOT A GRAPE WINE! THIS IS A BLUEBERRY WINE!” Whereupon Jeff slapped his forehead and immediately nailed this as the Kelley Fox/PGC blueberry wine. This was the 2022 edition; the ’23 apparently reads more traditionally vinous and would be a yet harder blind.
Myles’s Blind Red 2
My guess right off the bat: Lapierre Morgon 2023. Might be 22? But I am cheating as (1) I can see the distinctive red wax and (2) I was literally holding a bottle of Lapierre Morgon a couple hours prior while sorting through my fridge to get the blueberry wine out.
Ultra spicy, stemmy, crushed vitamin, cherry/strawberry nose. On the palate cheerful, pretty, and delicious. Red fruit and spice. Excellent.
On reveal it is the 2024 Lapierre Morgon (with sulfur). Hell, can’t even get it right when I’m cheating!
Myles as always ultra generous, with Red Blind 3
This one’s a headscratcher. Some brett stank/funk; very ripe fruit profile but some decent acid and tannin that prevent it from going from plump to fat. Can’t be Beaujolais… Southern Rhone? No. After a while Kelly observed that no one was paying attention to the pyrazines. And indeed on reflection there’s some sauteed green pepper plus some virginia tobacco. Is this a cab franc?
I called this 2018-2020 Saumur Champigny (after asking “what is the warmest part of the Loire?” and being told “probably Saumur?”). On reveal, it was a 2021(!!) Chinon from a small producer for which he says he paid about $18. I didn’t get the name or a picture unfortunately so someone will have to fill that in. {EDIT: Thanks Jason for reminder that it was a 2021 Domaine de Pallus Chinon Messanges Rouge} Total shock on the vintage for me. How’d they get it that ripe??
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Kelly also opened an Egly-Ouriet Les Premices and a Terre Nere which were delicious but on which I did not get good notes as by that point, well, I only started spitting about halfway through and was having a good time. Maybe someone else did?
All in all a fantastic night, very glad that this forum brought the group together as everyone was a blast to talk to.
