Organized a tasting and dinner last night for my local wine club. We have a very diverse group of palates in the club, so tried to set up to please everyone, but also open wines that would be new and interesting to people. To accommodate reasonable pours for everyone, either two bottles of the same wine or magnums were provided.
2010 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard - from two bottles, opened as a starter white, just gorgeous wine. Very fresh, balanced, not too oaky. Lemon, nice fruit, great finish. Just a killer cali chard.
First flight of reds - Old World:
1978 Gaja Barbaresco - from two bottles. very interesting, and a great example of “there are no great wines, only great bottles”. One bottle was very good, one bottle was great to outstanding. The better bottle tasted like a teenage wine, rather than an almost 40 year old wine. So much power and structure still, but a joy to drink. Flowers, red fruit, some leather on the nose. The other bottle was very good as well, with the palate being similar, but the nose was a bit less sound.
1982 Vega Sicilia Unico - from magnum, holy mother of … for me hands down WOTN. This was an epic wine. Exploded from the glass, dark fruit, some coffee notes, spice. Amazing long finish. I don’t drink much Spanish wine, but man WOW.
1986 Chateaux Margaux - from two bottles, both bottles showed similarly. Some funk on the nose but blew off as it was opened longer. Continued to evolve over the night. Very good wine, more subdued nose compared to the other two wines in its flight, but not to its detriment. Good fruit, some cedar, pencil, leather type notes. Really quite outstanding.
Such a gorgeous flight of wines.
Second flight of reds - Cali Cabs:
2005 Shafer Hillside Select - from magnum, this was my wine of the california flight. perfectly balanced. big but not over the top. everything I love in Napa Cabs. As close to perfection as I think you can get as far as napa goes. Great nose, lots of blue and black fruits. You can smell a hint of oak in the vanilla type notes, but where it feels just right. Amazing long finish. I’d be thrilled to own more of this.
2005 Harlan Estate - from magnum, I could see how this could be a great wine, but it never quite got there for me. Just felt a bit too extracted. I actually have had this before and really liked it, but felt too unctuous, bordering pruney for me this time. Others did really enjoy.
2007 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red - from two bottles, I think on its own, this probably would have been a very good wine, but it did get a bit lost in the shuffle. In this flight, I just found that I kept going back to the Shafer.
With dessert, 1977 Warre Vintage Port - very nice, not a blockbuster, but lovely wine. color was lighter than expected, but certainly packed some punch on the finish. nice conclusion to a great evening.
Some glamour shots of the bottles attached.