It’s now official. I had the number 2 spot. And here is the complete list of wines in the competition:
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2001 Chateau Grillet
2007 Dauvissat Chablis Vaillons
2003 Meo Camuzet Nuits st Georges 1er Cru les Argillas
1999 Chateau Haut Brion
1997 Ridge Monte Bello
2000 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee
1999 Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Brunello di Montalcino
2010 Chateau L’Evangile
The only guess I’m embarrassed about is calling the 1997 Montebello (my favorite wine of the competition) as a Chambolle Musigny. Everything else was either close or could be justified. My other favorites were the Haut Brion (which I thought was a much older Bordeaux than it was) and the Brunello (which I called as a Barolo).
Here was our lineup from June. I managed a second place finish with a meagre 255 points (guess I’ll see you in Vegas, Jay!). Honestly, I don’t think the wines showed well, and a few bottles seemed to be unrepresentative.
2007 Maison Leroy Meursault 1er Cru Bouchères- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru
Served double blind. There was lots of nuttiness and wax on the nose, and this was one of those wines where I got mixed up between chardonnay and Northern Rhone. To be fully honest, if this were chardonnay, I was unsure about whether or not I’d call this totally sound. Even though the acidity on the palate was definitely of a chardonnay character, I found the palate’s waxiness and the nutty qualities to be a bit more in line with what I remember from the 1990 Chave a few years ago (so I guessed that). (93- pts.)
2013 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
Served double blind. The light red colour and red fruit had me going straight to Burgundy and pinot. There seemed to be a large amount of stem inclusion here, as well as some pyrazine qualities that pulled me to 2011 right away (also, yuck). The tannins and earth tones here had me thinking Gevrey, and the light touch had me going to Bruno Clair (though I couldn’t remember whether he keeps the stems or not). Picking the vineyard to me is mostly a parlour trick, and I guessed CSJ. As a postscript, I’m shocked that this wine showed so green and stemmy. It certainly didn’t have the dark Dujac spice or anything remotely resembling what I like from the house. (93 pts.)
2004 Château Léoville Barton- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Served double blind. The nose on this seemed to draw me to Pauillac right away, because of a fairly generous amount of pencil shavings, but swirling seemed to kick up a bunch of brett. That palate was reasonably open and the wine seemed ripe, and the pyrazines seemed to point to this being left bank. There was quite a bit of tannin on the palate, which seemed to indicate some relative youth, and the dustiness that I picked up in combination with the somewhat plush, riper body, sent me to 2000 Cos d’Estournel. (93 pts.)
2002 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos des Porrets St. Georges- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru
Served double blind. There was a moderate amount of bricking on the wine here, with a slight bit of barnyard. Some moments, I picked up earth and red fruit, others, I got lots and lots of tannin and a nice savoury quality as well. This seemed difficult to make heads or tails of, and my default action in that case is to list the first Tuscan wine I can think of. So 1999 Tignanello it was. As a postscript, I really didn’t pick up any pinot character here at all. It was all sort of a muddy mess, in hindsight. I need to reevaluate the value of having Gouges in my cellar. (93 pts.)
2009 Roberto Voerzio Barolo La Serra- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Served double blind. The real giveaway in this wine for me was the tannic structure on the palate, coupled with the acidity, which had me going straight to Barolo. The nose wasn’t as nice, as this seemed to be contaminated by an extreme amount of VA. There was a slight bit of stewiness, and it was either a richer, riper wine, or an older incarnation of a Barolo Boys wine. I guessed 1989 Sandrone Cannubi (which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best guess as the fruit profile here was a little redder than Sandrone). As a postscript, this tasted far, far older than what it actually was. I’m wondering if this bottle was cooked, for if it were sound, this is trash-tier wine. (93- pts.)
1998 Château Pavie Macquin- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Served double blind. There was a lot of pyrazine on the nose here, and the ripe black fruit profile put me in Napa right away. A bit chunky, but the acidity was quite high here, despite the black fruit. I guessed this to be an old-school Napa cabernet from a good but not super ripe year, and put 1993 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard. (93 pts.)
2001 Alain Voge Cornas- France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
Served double blind. Oddly, there seems to be a slight touch of carbonic on the nose of this still, despite its age. Clearly briny and olivey, and somewhat lean, so I set to thinking this was a cooler year. Despite not being too black in terms of the fruit, I went to Cornas because this seemed to be fairly clasically styled, with no oak, and definitely on the more rustic side. I guessed 1991 Michel Geynale. As a postscript, I should have guessed this as Voge – I was looking for an older average-quality producer and blanked on any names, so I literally just pulled the first Cornas name I could think of that wasn’t Verset, Clape, or Allemand. (93 pts.)
2001 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon- USA, Washington
Served double blind. Oak/blueberry milkshake. Modernist crap, with only the high extract and oak clearly discernible. Coconut is not a good taste in red wine. I guessed 2006 SQN Raven (syrah), but who really cares? I nailed the style and it doesn’t matter what’s on the label after that. Garbage-tier. As a postscript, I really regret labelling this as SQN. SQN is generally better than this shit. (93 pts.)
I thought (as far as generalizations are concerned) that 09 was the big, ripe juicy vintage and 10 the more classic one. I didn’t buy a lot of either but more of 10 than 09. Maybe I should dip a toe in as you suggest.
As far as l’Evangile, the 97 vastly over-performed. Not a great wine certainly, but a v good one in context
When ‘09 came out, it measured the highest levels of alcohol, acidity and dry matter ever recorded, only for 2010 to come out even higher. In 2010 this proved too much for the wines of the Right Bank to get ripe grapes and still keep alcohol levels in check, hence even traditional wines such as Canon and Figeac endedup unbalanced. 2009 were just about ok, although I suspect John will argue with me.
As an aside, I should mention I had a photograph of John tasting the 2010 Pavie, which somehow got left behind when I changed computers. The look of absolute horror as he tasted it was classic; think Munch’s Scream and multiply it by 3, and you are pretty close.
Finally the 2008 consistently produced really good classic wines, but to me the ‘09s and left Bank 2010 are better wines although a little less consistent.
When I page back through my posts here, I have had only two from this estate. The chuckling part is that they were 60 years apart. The 2014 was decent, when I thought back to my UGC tasting I compared it to, I would have put it in the top third there. The other was a 1955 that Francois generously poured for me, my dad and my friends at a dinner in Paris some years ago. It was a wonderful example.
Monday, October 30, 2017 - Really fun wine to drink. Seems to be just entering into a good window for drinking. The nose really stands out, with my first thought being Lafite. Cigar box and tobacco and tar on the nose. Long finish, with a lot going on but plenty of balance. Looking forward to watching how this develops over the year. Decanted for 4 hours before consuming with dinner.
I gave it 97 points. Looking forward to the balance of the case.
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