As we are moving from the town in which we have lived since 2005, I organized a single blind tasting with wines from that year, most of which I bought soon after we arrived when I began collecting again. (Oddly, I had no ‘05’s left from CA, so I subbed in some ‘07’s). The tasting was organized in two flights, based on bottle shape and style (more modern were Flight 1, more traditional in flight two, with one exception).
All wines had been opened for about an hour, but not decanted.
FLIGHT I
Chateau Clerc Milon Pauillac Bordeaux, France 2005
(48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc)
This turned out to be third bottle of the flight. Everyone guessed Bordeaux. The tobacco leaf and lead pencil, mixed with something in a “cab space,” gave it away. At first taste, it appeared little thin, but breathed up and took on body. Someone spoke of its verticality, a kind of spine distinctive to good claret, which I recognized. Very nice wine in a very good place.
.Chappelet Signature Cabernet Pritchard Hill, Napa CA, USA 2007
This ended up being second of the flight. Also easily recognizable, with vivid red fruit, a nice mouthfeel and a decent finish, some menthol or sagebrush in the mid palate. Very good.
Toro Elias Mora Crianza Castilla y León, Spain 2005
(100% Tempranillo)
This was the first of the flight and many guessed cab, though I and a few others successfully id’d it. It was a little muted; did not show as well as previously. It threw a lot of sediment, so a decant probably would have helped. On it’s own, with time, it is a good quaff, though by no means classic and maybe best drunk young.
Luigi D’alessandro Syrah Cortona Il Bosco Tuscany, Italy 2005
This was the last wine of the flight, so it was in its place in this list. It gave some distinctive syrah indicators in the mid-palate: blue fruit, a little game. It, too, did not show as well as in the past, when it drank as a truly lovely wine.
FLIGHT II
Vincent Girardin, Pommards 1er Cru, Les Epenots Burgundy France 2005
(100% Pinot Noir)
This was the second wine we poured. In context, it confused a number of folks, but I (and a few others) got it right off. There was a bit of brett, which blew off; the wine overall had developed very nicely, gained complexity and lost some of the glossiness it had as a baby. More like classic burgundy at this stage. (I bought quite a bit of Girardin when I started buying burgundy as it was consistently clean and quaffable young; I learned.)
Arcadian Purisima Syrah Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County, California, 2007
This ended up being the last bottle of the flight and showed so well it fooled pretty much everyone and certainly me, who had it as the Clape. On returning to it on reveal, I could taste a little bit of cola in the midpalate that id’ed it for me as Santa Barbara, but that was in the midst of a boisterous blast of syrah (as Boris might say), with good animale/sauvage notes and a long finish. Great bottle.
A. Clape Cornas , France 2005
(100% Syrah)
This was also a great bottle. Very youthful and more fruit forward than I had expected, which is why, when poured first, I called it as the Arcadian. Nice gamey notes in the long finish—definitely Syrah, but less wild, less out there, less “Cornas-y” than Clape bottlings I have had in the past. Maybe the vintage?
Massolino Barolo La Morra Piedmont, Italy 2005
(100% Nebbiolo)
This was third and about half the tasters got it as Barolo. Such a lovely wine, which, even though entry level, held its own in this company. Lovely balanced, with tell-tale notes of tar, but barolo fruit, with its distinctive dark flavors, came through. No lipstick here.