Thanks again for hosting this Jay, it was a great evening of wine geekery and a rare opportunity to try such a long vertical and see the evolution of the house style. I think the consensus was that the first James Berry flight (2005/7/8) was the best although an almost even split between the three wines, which were all excellent but quite different - the 05 brooding and Syrah heavy, the 07 with more Grenache but also lots of dark chocolate and tar on the finish, and the 08 a juicy, over-ripe alcoholic strawberry of a wine. 09-11 seemed to see more consistency in a softer, red fruited style, while 12 and 13 showed higher acidity (which I thought made them fresher and better balanced but not everyone liked).
The later wines were too young, and with 15%+ ABVs our critical skills were flagging, but the 2016 stood out to me as powerful, darker fruited and excellent.
Of the other wines, the 2015 trio of James Berry, Broken Stones and G2 was a treat, and the Rocket Block was one of the wines of the night.
The two whites (2017 and 2020 IIRC) were very nice to try, both tropical fruit dominant but decently different with the former to me showing juicier pineapple with some medicinal / herbal notes (and also being strangely hazy) and the latter with some more subtle papaya notes. Both high alcohol but not as heavy to drink as say the SQN whites.
In response to my emai to the winery about residual sugar, or lack thereof, I received the following response during the dinner, but which I did not notice until ths morning:
I texted Justin for an answer straight "from the horse’s mouth” and you are correct! He said they are all zero residual sugar…"Since we do not filter, there can be no residual sugar or the wines will go off in the bottle”.
We would love to see photos of the event when you have them!
Of the vertical, I kept going back to the first flight 05/07/08 with 05 followed very closely by 07 as my favorites. It was an amazing experience getting to taste across more than a decade of a winemaker, vineyard and wine. Thank you @J_a_y_H_a_c_k for organizing and making it happen.
The ‘15 horizontal with the G2, JBV, and Broken Stones was a fun interlude. And then late in the game coming in strong with the ‘17 Rocket Block, which was also one of my WOTN.
I created a public CT collection—The Saxum Accords here:
Great group of folks and excellent wines.
Nice to make new friends.
Aaron - thank you for your observations.
As I think about it, there was not a single dud in the lot. Each bottle was consistently good and enjoyable. It came down to a matter of preference.
Jay - Thank you for organizing the tasting and being Master of Ceremonies. It was wonderful.
I have some scribbled notes written on the back of old menus that Salvatore (server from the restaurant) gave me. Will try to post some observations when I have a chance.
What a delightfully hedonistic night. I agree with the others that these reds really show an excellent ability to age. Even the 05 had many years left in the tank. The whites seem to be better younger however, at least based off these two examples.
Thanks again Jay for putting this together, great times meeting new faces!
What a fantastic night! Was great to see new and known faces in such an intimate setting. Thanks to Jay for organizing!
Was tough to keep track of all the wine but echo what has already been said above:
It was very interesting to see the evolution in winemaking, from the more rustic and individual first flight (of which my personal preference was the ‘08) to the increasingly standardized but incrementally more complex second and third flights
The ‘17 rocket block was too young but IMO was a class above all the others
Was very interesting to pivot from the JBV vertical to the ‘15 and ‘17 horizontals
Very interesting and expressive whites! The ‘17 was a monster wine, and while for me the ‘21 edges it out with additional acidity and balance they were both fantastic
Thanks Jesse for bringing two stellar bottles of bubbles. The Bollinger was great to start and I actually preferred the citrus notes of the Roederer Estate as a palate cleanser after so much brooding dark fruit
Thanks all for a stellar evening and look forward to the next!
I got this message from “the horse’s mouth” yesterday:
*Thanks Jay, sounds like a fun night. I’ve always really liked that 05 JBV, but like you noticed, it’s a different beast being that it’s Syrah dominate instead of Grenache. *
I have always been the owner/winemaker/grower, and will be until my son Colin takes over (hopefully I’ve got a more than a few vintages left in me!!) He’s 28 now, and has been helping me out since he was 3!
There has definitely been a shift in my style of winemaking, along with our winery moving from our garage to a state of the art underground dream winery (2015 was the first vintage in the new facility). Hopefully I continue to hone my craft!! And I continue to home in on my vineyards too, bringing in new varieties and techniques.
