I felt that a couple of the Williams Selyems were great microcosms of the whole Burt Williams era and style and I’m grateful for that.
The whites and bubbles people brought were awesome and no two were alike.
93 RRV, 96 Allen were great examples of delicious WS wines. Hedonistic three dimensional.
94 Allen and 96 Rochioli were world class sneaky perfect acidity, Europe lookalike, great wines.
Last night was a blast! Thanks for organizing, George!
I agree 94 Allen and 96 Rochioli were the highlights out of the WS flights. Super interesting and educating tasting through all of these wines!!
Here’s a list of wines for anyone who’s interested, please add/correct if I missed anything:
Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 160eme
2002 Pommery Champagne Cuvée Louise Brut
2000 Nikolaihof Riesling Vinothek
2002 Karthäuserhof Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg Riesling Kabinett
2002 Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains
2010 Littorai Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2013 Kistler Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard
2015 Copain Chardonnay Dupratt Vineyard
1979(?) Hacienda Del Rio Winery Zinfandel Sonoma County Hillside Vines
1991 Williams Selyem Zinfandel Russian River Valley
1978/1979 Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir
1997 Dehlinger Pinot Noir Reserve
1993 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
1997 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
1994 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard
1995 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard
1996 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard
1995 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Rochioli Vineyard
1996 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Rochioli Vineyard
1995 J. Rochioli Pinot Noir West Block Reserve
The only thing I would change next time is the venue. It was pretty crammed (even with only 12 people) and food was expensive for what it was…
Andreas thanks for the list.
Yes, besides the wrong sized crowded table which irritated me as soon as I arrived, I was especially disappointed in the corkage. Common courtesy to me means we should have been charged $150 less than we were. But Mike, the guy who has always hosted me, with great kindness, at the restaurant and with whom I organized the dinner, showed up only at the end with some serious family issues and was out of it. Instead we dealt with the manager whom I have never met, or spoken to, before, in several trips to the restaurant. He showed some inappropriate attitude before the dinner (but then got friendlier). I’m not hosting a wine dinner at that restaurant again. But Los Gatos seems too far for most of the group.
But it was a ton of fun. Thanks Sean for driving me home.
George -thanks so much for pulling this off. It was great to meet some of the folks from the board and pop some corks. Very impressed with everyone - from the wines they brought to the fact that there always seemed enough to go around.
The list above missed the 1992 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate that we had in the second flight.
Yes, thanks so much, George! All the Allen wines were terrific (1994 was a total wow! wine). Also, loved the '93 RRV and '96 Rochioli! The '01 Zin was quite a surprise, too! 15.5% alc and there’s no way it seemed that high. Great balance on that wine.
Ian, thanks for the tomatoes! Only thing I had to do was take Sandi out for dinner as a bribe so that she’d process all those.
Yes Ian thanks, I get to eat real tomatoes for a change.