Welcome to the first week of this year’s Virtual Tasting for Charity.
Theme: Whatever!
There isn’t a theme! Just post a note, story, or picture about the holiday with friends and family and maybe a little wine. It’s that easy.
Donation : I will donate $5 for every post with a note, story or picture to charity.
Everyone can participate. Don’t write tasting notes? No problem. Then post a story about your family gathering. Person of few words? A picture is worth a 1,000 words.
Charity: You pick your favorite charity!
Well, I’ll have my wife choose the post which she likes best and I’ll let that person pick the charity of their choice and I’ll send them money. That’s easy too!
For those that might be new to the scene and are wondering “what’s the virtual tasting thing you’re talking about” there’s lots of information and history in the Compendium.
Celebrated our anniversary night with Delamotte BdB 2012 from magnum. Medium plus body, medium-medium plus acid. Unripen pears and peaches, charred lemon, brioche bomb on the nose. Tasted like a brioche filled with creamy lemon curd and salty, zesty lime glaçase miroir. Long chalky oyster shelly finish. Could use another 4-5 years in this format.
My first of 6 mags so technically I’ve never tried this wine before
Ok. My charity will be Second Chance Foods, an organization that collects surplus food from supermarkets and farms, and then uses it to cook healthy meals for the needy, freeze them, and distribute them to the hungry. I volunteer to assist in food prep on Thursday mornings. We make about 300 meals every cooking shift.
As to what wines? Rebecca, my two sons, my DIL and my not-drinking 11 year old grandson will join me for a Thanksgiving meal featuring roast beef and jerk chicken. I can open some unique stuff that no one else here owns, and probably none of you have ever heard of. Stay tuned for TNs.
We’ve been working through a batch of homemade rabbit barbacoa the last few nights. This really calls for a crisp white or bubbles, but the weather here really calls for a hearty red. The best compromise I could come up with was a BdN - 2016 Marie Courtin Efflorescence. Delicious. Cheers to Brig and the OC folks this Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately sometimes the holidays are touched with sadness. We lost our kitty Deus today, and so Thanksgiving is going to be a little somber. Deus loved turkey (he once stole a big slice directly from my plate), but mostly he loved his people. I was thinking about a glass of wine for tonight and thought I needed some liquid joy. That almost always means something from @H_Wallace_Jr and so I popped open a precious bottle of 2020 WineCo YEAH! Evangelho Vineyard Mourvèdre. Still so young, but all the thunderous bass (cue Phil Lesh opening The Other One) is there, underpinning lively red fruit that is twirling and waving its hands in the air. Brings an instant smile to an otherwise gray and gloomy day.
Chateau Pitray 2019
I buy several cases every year. It’s a Bordeaux from a less hallowed terroir hence the price, somewhere between $12 and $15. The best vintage so far was the 2016, a wine which is comparable to almost any red wine in the $30. The 2019 is pretty close, the tannins smoother, but with the same easy complexity and a surprisingly long finish.
2016 Patricia Green Balcome 2A, Mortimer Cooke Memoria - take 2
This is my second bottle from a six pack. The first bottle was almost exactly five years ago (Dec. 10th 2020) in which I said “This needs at least five more years.”
Linked here, followed by comments by Jim Anderson.
My wife brought home one of those Maple Leaf Farms cooked half ducks for dinner which turned out to be pretty damn tasty along with homemade butternut squash soup… Duck will always be linked in my head to PGC after a rather confused and amusing exchange I had with Jim in which he was talking about Pekin Duck and I was talking about Peking Duck.
Anyway, the wine origin is explained in the link. This particular one called to me this year as I lost my closest family member just a few months ago and the idea of a commemorative bottle felt right.
I decanted this to get the wine off a small amount of chunky sediment and then dove right in and drank it over several hours. First, it is super tasty. Almost as if an Oregon Pinot wanted to be a Barolo, but without the tar, leather, and VA. Rather, it had deeeeeeep dark cherries, blackberries, moist humus soil, and a bunch of other tasty stuff, along with rosemary, other herbs, and a bunch of other tasty stuff along with burly, drying tannins, and perky acidity. Secondly, this needs at least five more years.
2024 Sleight of Hand The Magician Evergreen Vineyard - USA, Washington, Columbia Valley (11/26/2025)
Stony mineral grapefruit nose, lemon lime, grapefruit, citrus pith, crushed rocks, hint of petrol. Bracing acidity, mouth puckering, a bit creamy but that is halted by the wet stone minerality and bitterness of the citrus rind. Finish is bittersweet, tart and lingering.
My friend ambushed me with a 4 pack of Balletto’s 5+5 BdN 2012 as a surprise friendsgiving gift. Young sparkler with green apple, underbaked croissants and lots of acid and minerality. Zero typical BdN characteristics, drink like a vinous and savory chardonnay. Disgorged in Dec 2022, could use another few years.
2015 Patricia Green Notorious Pinot Noir - Popped and poured at cellar temp. Quite dark burgundy color, showing no signs of age. Assertive nose of black cherry, sandalwood and white pepper. Lovely black cherry fruit on the palate, with plenty of structure and great balancing acidity. My sense is this is just starting to enter its drinking window and will pick up some complexity with age. Lovely companion to the Thanksgiving meal.
Enjoying a 2020 Dupuis PN while grilling the bird. Very nice wine.
Bitter sweet because Wells Guthrie is a homeboy from Newport Beach and an important influence with FMIII, myself, and others in the socal Pinot fan club.
Taittinger Comte Rose, gorgeous. Lots of appetizers and worked with everyone.
Beychevelle 1982 corked
Thierry Glantenay Volnay Santenots 2010
Woken up after the Beychevelle failure, so grumpy and dour. An hour later great.oyster shell minerality, great fruit and solid finish.
and I was talking about Peking Duck. 
