Forget the Super Bowl, book season was kicked off with a wine gathering at my house to intro the aforementioned mistake-riddled galley. This meant I was cleaning for 10 days and now have to do a discovery around the 660 square feet to find whatever I squirreled away. If you weren't invited I have to beg your apology, because even though it was in my space, I wasn't in charge of the invite list and who showed up at the door was a complete surprise. What I was in charge of? Enlisting Melissa Clark for the food. Many thanks! Her great Fondue story was in the Times on Wednesday and while she should have been raking in the congratulations for a really terrific piece, she was slaving over smoked trout on potato chip and other delicacies.
(foto courtesy of Jeremy Parzen)
Oh yes, I was also in charge of the wine.
To get this done I had to do the unseemly and hit up some importers for specific donations. I hate this. I really do. But, they came through. Wines were kindly donated by Polaner, Louis/Dressner, Jenny & Francois, David Bowler, my private stash and one lone purchased bottle of Yellow Tail which was way too expensive at $9 + change.
All of the wines have starring (Lopez de Heredia, Clos Roche Blanche, Dard & Ribo) or supporting (all the others) roles in my book, were tasted blind. The line up was:
Welcome White: 2005 Cascina degli Ulivi Filagnotti (Gavi, Piemonte)--comments? It tastes so much better than it smells. There was a touch of oxidation and nuttiness. A great start and won a lot of fans.
#1- 1999 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia $28
Grapes: Tempranillo Garnacho, Mazuelo and Graciano
Rioja, Spain
(wasn't showing particularly well, however, I was happy with is lots of folk identified spice and dill.)
#2- 2005 Fontedicto Pirouette #5 $15
Grapes: Carignan
Languedoc, France
(for some reason, this one, which was rich and sunny and fruit forward wasn’t a smash hit. Personally I found it delicious, gritty and licorice-like. I think the grit was misjudged)
#3-2005 Clos Roche Blanche Cot $19
Grapes: Cot (malbec)
Touraine, Loire
(a crowd splitter. But when I prompted this as my antidote to Californian wine, as a wine with 'the absence of fruit, and gave some folk the permission to view a wine this way, they came around.)
#4-2005 Catherine & Pierre Breton Nuits d’Ivresse $24
Grapes: Cabernet Franc
Bourgeuil, Loire
(“love this,” was overheard. Ripe red pepper and thyme, kind of like piccalilli. Texturally plush.)
#5- 2004 Olivier Cousin Pur Breton $15
Grapes: Cabernet Franc
Anjou, Loire
(one of the nights winners! With this and #4, we made fun of the fact that Robert Parker is a guy who doesn't like the CF grape.)
Flight Two: All Syrah all the Time
2005 Edmunds St. John Bassetti Vineyard $45
San Luis Obispo
(My editor particularly liked this one. I put this in because recently Parker assailed Steve: +++What Steve is doing appears to be a deliberate attempt to make French-styled wines. Of course California is not France and therein may suggest the problem. If you want to make French wine, do it in France…Edmund St. John’s current releases all possess good aromatics, but…’where’s the beef? Robert M. Parker Jr, On Edmunds St. John, From Parker’s Wine Advocate +++
I'm going to get more articulate on this one but when it was first opened, it was shy, with some fruit fowardness and not that much animal syrah character. After people left, when the wine had been open for six hours it burst out of itself and showed amazing intensity. Beef? Where's the beef? It had piercing blueberry and some great horse dander and sage with a finish that lingered. )
2005 Dard & Ribo Crozes-Hermitage $30
CR, Rhone
(It was austere and gorgeous. Not as much breeding as their St. Joseph but a fascinating dance between tart acidity and animal and blueberry.)
2002 Domaine Bonnefond $45
Cote Rotie , Rhone
(I put this in as a wild card. I hadn’t tasted it since a cellar visit in 2004 when I hated them and regretted owning any. This was a perfect example of misguided winemakers who think they are making ‘modern’ wine, new oak with plenty of toast. That in addition to added yeast, destemming and extended cold maceration? It all equals a wine with a dead middle and finish. A gold fish belly up in the tank. In fact, it was so bad, the disgusting Yellow Tail which followed didn't look quite as bad to some as it should have.)
2006 Yellowtail Shiraz $10
Anywhere Australia
(I forced Christine M. who was in attendance to taste it, she grimaced. It really was like burnt vanilla sugar water. If you told me there were no grapes in the wine I would believe.)
2005 Hervé Souhaut St. Epine $45
St. Joseph Rhone
(and the winner is...........what a showcase wine. Gorgeous. I think part of the reason was that there was a somewhat deeper element in here; maybe it's because of the special terroir of St. Epine? There was that touch of Pacalet-like cinnamon, but the whole package sang with baby powder, horse in a rich background of mineral fruit layers. A terrifically complex wine and showed beautifully.
The blind part was fun, it stripped the evening of palate polluting preconceived notions. One thing I learned is that I really am expected to talk about the wines. But what do people want to know? Do they really want to know the method of vinification? More often than not I find myself saying things, for example, like the winemakers Stefano Belotti of degli Ulivi, he makes wine in the Gavi region, grape is Cortese, this is from his finest plots and is barrel fermented. He is one of the first--if not the first--biodynamist in Italy, he could use a better haircut, and is one of the most gentle, sweetest people imaginable and he makes terrific wine. In retrospect, this doesn't seem technical enough, but is it enough?
Now that I think of it, one of the best comments as a guest walked out the door was 'the wines were very different." And that comment made me very happy.
(and this just in: the event was covered by Ron Hogan of GalleyCat in video. Cut and paste the link, it should work.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/party_hopping/scene_the_blind_tasting_for_wine_and_love_75763.asp#more)
