Impressions from Saturday Night Wine Soiree

On Saturday, we hosted a wine soiree at our humble abode and invited 20+ of our friends and Austin’s wine afficionados. I didn’t take formal notes as I wanted to enjpoy the evening and company, but I am listing the lineup below and some brief impressions.

Token Whites
2000 Monbousquet Blanc
2006 Doennhoff Riesling Spaetlese “Oberhaeuser Bruecke”
2003 Saxon Brown Semillon Casa Santinamaria Vineyard

Reds
1979 Chateau Belair
1989 Olga Raffault Chinon “Les Picasses”
1990 Olga Raffault Chinon “Les Picasses”
1998 JL Chave St. Joseph
1998 E Guigal Cote Rotie “Brune et Blonde”
1999 E Guigal Cote Rotie “Brune et Blonde”
1996 Pesquera Crianza
2000 Vietti Barolo Ravera
2003 Janasse Chaupin CdP
2005 Clos des Papes CdP
2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova
2002 St. Innocent Pinot Noir “Shea Vineyard”
2003 Pavie Macquin
2000 Lopez Heredia Bosconia Reserva
2000 Numanthia Toro Termanthia
1999 Rafanelli Cabernet Terrace Select (did not taste)
2000 Clos du Marquis (in magnum)
2007 Vieux Donjon CdP (did not taste)

Wine of the night:

Hard to pick one wine from a lineup a good as this one, but I will go with the 2005 Clos des Papes. Textbook CdP that showed extremely well after being audouzed for about 7 hours. Soft yet structured, and with plenty of elegance and finesse. Just lovely. As good as the Clos des Paepes wa, the bottle of 2003 Janasse Chaupin was not far behind, and neither were the two bottles of Olga Raffault Chinon “Les Picasses”, which showed beautifully. Amazingly, the 1990 showed much younger and greener than the 1989. Either way, these four wines were my favorites. I did not get to taste the 07 VD, but hope to rectify this situation very soon.

Dud of the night:

The 2001 Casanova di Neri is a good wine, but not nearly as good as has been maintained by the wine press. One thing in particular that bothers me about this wine is that as tasty a it is, it doesn’t speak of its place. The fact that CDN is implicated in the Brunellopoli scandal is not surprising to me as this wine just doesn’t seem like it could be pure Sangiovese…but what do I know. Either way, $200 for this wine is frankly insane, and if you can get some Guidalberto or Serre Nuove from a better vintage, you can have a nearly identical drinking experience for far less money. YMMV.

Surprise of the night:

In this category, I see a tie between the 1998 Chave St. Joseph and the 2003 Pavie Macquin. I thouht the Chave may show over the hill, but nothing could have been further from the truth. It drank at peak, and was a lovely mix of pepper, bacon fat, and earth. What a great wine for the money. The 2003 Pavie MAcuin, I expected to show overblown and roasted, and again, it wa a very nice, layered wine with plenty of fruit, but also some retraint. To me, this wine performed as well as any of the critics’ reviews. Glad to have one more in my cellar.

QPR of the Night:

This award has to go to the 2000 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia that was purchased on wines.com in Austin by a friend for less than $9 per bottle. This wine is stupidly good to begin with, but at 75% off retail, this wine is just a laughable deal. Back up the truck.

Fake of the night?

I know many of you will think it’s impossible, but I believe the bottle of 1998 Cote Rotie from Guigal was a fake. I looked at the label and cork, and found nothing suspicious, but this wine, which I have had on three occasions, and which has shown 100% consistent, tasted nothing like Cote Rotie. As a matter of fact, it tasted almost exactly like an inexpensive Southern Rhone from CdP, Gigondas, or Vacqueyras. No bacon fat, no pepper, far too much funk…the 1999 we drank side by side with this showed completely typical and only heightened my impression that the 98 wa a fake. I had purchased the lot on K&L a few years back, so it’s hard to believe it would be a fake.

As is usual with these evenings, there was even more wine that I didn’t taste and don’t remember. Among them was a Le Cadeau Pnot from Oregon, a Vilmart Champagne in Magnum, an obscure, dry white Bordeaux in screwcap, and other gems I may have missed.

Thanks go all my friends who made this evening fun and brought all the delicious food.

One last word, and unfortunately a sad one…my father, Werner Pelz, passed away somewhat unexpectedly on Friday after a short bout with heart disease. The tasting and these notes are dedicated to his memory and his life. I will post my thoughts on his passing in a separate thread once I’ve had a chance to collect all my thoughts and turn them into a coherent hommage to the man that influenced my life so much.

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Steffen, condolences on your loss. I hope your father would have appreciated the impressive lineup in his honor.

Steffen, I’m so sorry for your loss.

I’m surprised anyone would go to the effort to fake a Guigal Brune et Blonde since it’s not a very expensive bottle, but the ones I’ve had have always had such unmistakable bacony Cote-Rotie character. What a bummer! It sounds like there was plenty of nice wine to make up for the disappointment.

My condolensces as well Steffen. To celebrate in such a noble fashion pays hommage as well as we can as mere men. Best wishes,

Faryan

Sincerest condolences on the loss of your father. I am sure he would approve of your line-up and appreciate it as much as you did.

Thanks for the condolences everyone. The evening was great, indeed, and he would have loved to participate had he had a chance to.