Our 8th Blind Zoom 3oz Bottle Tasting

WINE TALK
1

I was looking for these notes, finally turned them up.

2012 Selbach Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese Feinherb “Ur” Alte Reben

A recent Benchmark purchase. The first vintage released of this wine.
Decanted for 1 hour:
Ripe yellow fruit, some citrus, some chalk, quite delicious, really long finish. I like.
Decanted for one hour and put in a 3 oz bottle for 28 hours:
The fruit has rounded out even more and the florality comes to the fore. Perfectly balanced rush of fruit and minerality. Gorgeous wine which everyone loved.


2019 Ducroux Expectatia
I think I made a mistake in splitting the wine into bottles the day before. I liked it albeit not as much as the first bottle but everyone else was pretty meh.


Don had a fun vintage theme going:
1990 Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses"
beautiful nose, autumn leaves being burned in the distance. It’s still at the peak of its form and a joy to drink.

1990 Chateau Le Gay
a bit rustic, enjoyable but not in the same class as the other two

1990 Laurel Glen Sonoma Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
ripe, elegant, delicious. I called Laurel Glen on this one though that was even more due to knowing Don loves the producer than my also loving the producer and having had many over the years.


I had a theme too! My philosophy on birthyear wines is that it’s better to drink good wine for your birthday than to drink wine that was made in your birthyear. But the concept is still appealing so I intended to repeat my 50th strategy on my 60th by averaging. But since my birthday party didn’t happen (as it’s better to not meet up with your friends than to spread a potentially fatal coronavirus) I got them in just under the wire to celebrate.

1954
Spanna di Traversagna
Podere Tre Torri
Marchesi della Traversagna
Casa Vinicola
A. Vallana & Flio
Maggiora
Piemonte
Vecchia Riserva
Eredi Conte Canonico
Parrucconi
Italia
13%
beautiful vibrant wine. Just kept unfolding new and charming petals as it sat in glass.


1966 Warres Port
in a perfect place, even better than my last bottle
smooth strawberry caramel with herbal notes
I love this but I think a bunch of people were port averse

2

Happy Bday!

The Raffault sounds pretty yum, as do the last two “average” wines. I like '66 as a vintage in port quite a bit and think it gets unfairly ignored due to '63. I’ve never had that nebbiolo producer, so thanks for sharing.

Best to you and A.

Todd

3

Thanks Todd! I was very happy for the chance to open them before the year closed out.

I owe Roy & Andy for talking up 1966 a long time ago which turned me on to the vintage.

A few years ago I got into a conversation at Leo’s with Nano about how we both love port but never drink it. The problem of course being that no one wants a high alcohol wine at the end of a long evening of drinking wine. I thought this would be a good opportunity with a limited number of wines without large pours.

But while the riesling and nebbiolo were greatly enjoyed and the gamay was roundly panned the only reaction to the Warre’s was - “you opened a port? why would you open a port? I thought no one opened port anymore.”

I suspect it was the wrong crowd.

4

I have a ‘66 Dow up and loaded for the next month. Love the vintage. I’ve been ignoring my ports for a number of years, but have tapped a half a dozen already this year (in addition to an Aussie port and a late harvest Zinfandel with port characteristics). I’m finding them very comforting.

5

A great observation. I also found it very comforting to drink and a wonderful note on which to end the evening (other than the good natured sniping for my having opened it in the first place).