I decided to start a new thread specifically on tasting notes from this wine and poker event last Sunday. There is another post by Peter C called "Label bias or I dumped a 100-pt Quilceda Creek" that gets into some discussions more broadly about that particular angle on the event. These are just the notes, ma'am.
Starter wine:
2005 Garretson Wine Company Roussanne The Limóid Cior (USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles). I had a chance to taste this both before and after the main tasting, and it had a very interesting evolution over the course of that time. Initially, the nose is dominated by floral honeysuckle aromas and by notes of citrus peel. Later, the nose gains quite a bit in richness--bringing in strong honeycomb and apricot/mango elements, along with faint notes of botrytis and brass. In the mouth, it is decidedly oily-textured, especially as it warms. It stays crisp and dry, though it feels like there should be an element of off-dryness to the weighty plump fruit riding underneath for some reason. Flavors are very much in the yellow citrus fruits arena, with honey and vanilla. It is an interesting wine, if not exactly what I want to drink most of the time.
All formal flights were served double blind.
Flight 1:
2002 Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Theurons (France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru). This is a fairly pale and somewhat cloudy ruby-colored wine. It shows off a pretty nose of dried red berry fruits, dusty earth and faint leather, and later on brings in some red cherry candy notes, as well. In the mouth, it offers up a medium bodied, somewhat feminine profile, with seemingly miniaturized tannins that sneak up on you slowly over time. Red berry fruits and some chocolate powder flavors are nice, with tangy acidity running throughout. It dries out a fair amount on the finish, especially with some time in the glass.
2001 Lavradores de Feitoria Douro Grande Escolha (Portugal, Douro). This wine initially smells dirty and rustic up-front, with a big blast of cow shed and dark dirt evident, before mellowing into notes of leather and allowing the sweet warm fruits to pop to the fore a bit. It is surprisingly silky in the mouth despite its full bodied profile. It offers a savory mix of flavors accented by abundant blackberry fruit and a good tangy thread. A hint of alcoholic warmth mars the finish a bit, but this wine came around quite a bit from that initial impression from the first whiff. My guess was Chateauneuf du Pape.
2004 Real Companhia Velha (Quinta dos Aciprestes) Reserva (Portugal, Douro). Melted licorice, bicycle inner tube and warm blueberry cobbler aromas are all evident on the fairly open and effusive nose of this wine. It is on the heavy side in the mouth, but with a seamless continuity of texture throughout. The blackberry and licorice flavors are accompanied by a gripping acidity and lots of oaky, spicy tannins that clamp down pretty hard on the finish, which still manages to have decent length. My guess was young California Syrah. I understand this is a sub-$20 wine, which has to be considered a very good QPR.
Flight 2:
2001 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta (Chile, Central Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley). I wrote down that all three wines in this flight are essentially the exact same dark opaque color. The 2001 needs a lot of air, but after a while it offers up a very distinct green pepper note to go with cool, almost aloof aromas of black currants, black beans, forest greens and a hint of sweet earth way underneath. It is medium-bodied and taut, but still luxuriant-textured on the palate. It has fine, dark fruit in a dry and somewhat linear package, with just the beginnings of some layering starting to show, and it finishes up with some dusty crushed lava sort of notes. This seems to be showing pretty young. My guess was maybe young left bank.
2002 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta (Chile, Central Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley). This is also initially tight on the nose, with some sweet blackberry fruit accompanied by earthier tones of fern and bark. Coming back to this at the end of the day, it shows more of a dried plum and roasted fruit profile, along with notes of moss and less obvious green pepper accents. It is somewhat exotic in the mouth, with a softer, more rounded profile than its predecessor, at least on the entry. It sports plenty of chocolate and confectioners’ sugar flavors in the mouth to go along with blackberry and dark plum fruit. More structure and soft yet drying tannins emerge toward the back of the palate. Still, the wine has a very long black-fruited finish. My guess was a young mountain-fruited Cabernet from Napa Valley.
2003 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta (Chile, Central Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley). The third wine in this flight is more open on the nose right from the get-go, offering up exotic notes of mahogany, Christmas fruitcake, cassis, warm cherry pie and faint balsa notes in the background. As it sits, this wine, too, begins to show a whiff of green pepper, along with some charred campfire wood. On the palate, it has a classy texture that feels limpid in the mouth, and it feels fine and dusty overall, with lots of soft spices running up and down it. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic to me is that the finish is just slathered with something I described in my notes as mocha paste. That finish also features some boysenberry fruit and lots of spice and shows good length. I gave a wild guess (Priorat) that was nowhere near the mark and I don’t think I would connect this wine conceptually to the two that came before it (though I could sense after the fact a fair number of similarities between the 2001 and 2002).
Flight 3:
1997 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate (USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena). The nose offers primarily fruity aromas like rhubarb and cherry syrup, with some sweet earth and stemmy elements underneath. In the mouth, I find it to be pretty bright and lithe, yet with a big kick of fruit and spice. There are not a lot of tannins at first, but they grow, as does the finish, with a bit of time in the glass.
2002 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (USA, Washington). This wine has a very extroverted bouquet featuring lots of brambly elements, including sweet blueberries, ripe plums, chocolate Necco wafers and purple flowers. There are some soft vanilla oak accents, but also some earthy white pepper sprinklings. It is fleshy, precocious and rather mouth-filling on the palate, with a veritable cabinet full of spices along for the ride. It is dark, yet decidedly sweet-fruited through the middle and finishes out with sweet smoke, vanilla and dark-toasted oak. The acidity shows late, but manages to keep the finish tingly and moderately fresh. I marked this as my WOTN (before I even tasted it) immediately after Peter declared it undrinkable and dumped his. In the end, it was in fact my WOTN, but not in a landslide.
2005 Audelssa Estate Winery Summit (USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley). There is a soft, candied sense to the nose, which also features smoky notes and black currants in a fresh, lifted profile. The entry is plush and spicy with tons of chocolate-covered cherry flavors that turn toward sappy red fruits through the mid-palate. There is a solid, chalky finish with good staying power. It is a nice wine that was in my top 3.
Flight 4:
1999 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape (France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape). This wine is more savory than any in the previous flight, offering aromas of smoke, patent leather, black beans, dark earth and some dark murky fruit. It is showing tight and cool, carrying along in a narrow beam of chiseled dark fruit. It is not too tannic and overall seems a bit too placid, like a politician playing it safe. I’m not sure this was a representative showing (based on an outstanding experience with this wine 14 months ago), but an interesting one given the double-blind nature of this. Perhaps its placement in the tasting had an impact, too.
2004 d'Arenberg Grenache The Derelict Vineyard (Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale). Right off the bat, the nose tells you this is going to be a pretty extracted wine, as plush scents of dark cherry, soft leather and warm earth rise from the glass. Indeed, on the palate, it shows a huge amount of extraction, with a very rich, deep core of red and black berry fruits, tomato paste, cassis and raspberry cotton candy flavors. It is hard to find any secondary flavors here—this is all about the fruit and the rounded, lush mouthfeel, though there is an interesting ashy element on the finish.
2005 McPrice Myers Grenache L'Ange Rouge (USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County). Super-bright notes of concentrated raspberry, bing cherry, soft incense and white pepper greet the nose on this overt wine. It is actually a bit darker-fruited in the mouth, but it is again boisterous and even a bit showy with its enormous extract and sappy texture, but also bright acids. There are some chalky tannins hanging around, but they don’t get in the way of the obvious pleasure this wine seeks to impart on the taster. Along with the ’02 QC, ’05 Audelssa Summit and ’03 Clos Apalta, this was in my upper echelon of wines of the day.
Other wines:
2005 Domaine des Croix Bourgogne (France, Burgundy, Bourgogne). My notes on this wine are very sketchy since I hit it only briefly at the end after all these other wines, so take with a grain of salt. Light and leafy nose with bright fresh cherries. Light to medium-bodied in the mouth, showing some spice and dried wood notes to go with refreshing fruit. I did find it to be a bit austere or drying on the finish, but it otherwise seems like a decent drink.
2004 Penascal Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon (Spain, Castilla y Leon). I never got to try this. Others will have to chime in.
1990 Marchesi di Barolo Barolo Millennium (Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo). There is some fading color here and the wine is throwing a ton of sediment (at least in my glass). The nose has faded flowers and dried red cherry notes. In the mouth, it is dominated by mouth-puckering, austere acids that completely dry out the tongue. Soon, it is vinegary and I have to declare it DOA. This is definitely an off bottle.
2005 Château Au Grand Paris (France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Contrôlée). Tom wanted to break into this $10 or so offering, as he had like 2 cases of it sitting there ready to go out to the trunk of his car. So, we stragglers said “what the heck!” Popped and poured. The nose offers notes of soft inner tube, dusted cherry, somewhat gobby black currant jam and some green pepper accents. It is cool-fruited and makes a big palate impression for a wine at its price point. It is pretty tannic and otherwise tightly-coiled, so no hurry on these. Solid QPR.
-Michael
It wasn't offensive, just indescribable!