I love the way this group is coming together--this might have been our best tasting ever. On the whole, the wines were beyond magnificent. No corkers, no prem-ox, no disappointments, and some were the stuff of religious moments.
All the wines are served blind in the format that was, when this group first formed, actually the total lack of a format and no one person wanting to impose their will on the group, But it has become a format of its own and it really works for us. No order is chosen: the bagged wines are simply staged on a nearby table. Someone selects a first wine, and it's passed, discussed and revealed. After that, participants jump up and put their wine, or one of their wines as some bring multiples, in play for Next. The order's random and voluntary, but it's fun and often creates a more informative order to be able to decide on the fly, "my wine should follow this one".
1) Great start: apple nose, honeysuckle, lemon and flowers with a steel fist. Young but ambitious. Everyone guessed Chablis, and it is:
2004 Ravenneau 1er Cru Buttreaux Chablis. 2) Young, floral and smokey, modern. A bit riper and sweeter on the palate than the first. Wasn't California-tropical or anything, but a bit of malolactic caused the thought crossed my that a west coast chardonnay could taste kind of like this. It's an
05 Girardin 1er Cru Les Folatieres.
3) Big wine, great character, lemon and orange citrus, very floral--orange blossoms bloom on the nose, honeyed sweetness, no flab, great focus and substantial complexity. Most guesses center around 2000 for vintage, but it's younger than that and the youngest of the wines I brought for tonight, the
2005 Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Monopole 1er Cru Clos de la Mocheres. Tanzer gave it 95 or 96 points, and I'm very pleased by the way it shows (and that I have another bottle).
4) Oh, here's a switch. One of White Rock Bob's wines. Amber gold, old gold. Sweet whiskey barrel, cherry wood, smoke, butterscotch, wool, shale, tangy acidity. Gorgeously mature. I guess late 80's and am close: it's a 1990. Purchased direct from the winemaker in a year gone by, it's a
1990 Roger Belland Criots Batard Montrachet Grand Cru.
5) White Rock Bob grabs another bottle: it too is dark old gold. On the nose and palate, it's almond nutty, earthy, with more fruit than the last one with a bit of bruised peach, preserved lemon, apple butter and toffee. Low impact entry gets huge, just HUGE in the mouth as what we first perceive as low acidity builds volume and turns into a profoundly eternal finish. The reaction around the table is not just intellectual but visceral. A real WOW wine, and a privilege to taste: it's a
1982 Drouhin Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet. An experience for the life list.
6) Warren, tonight's organizer, now tosses out his first bottle. Very pale wine. Pears. A fresh pear puree, syrup, and out of that the acid attacks one's tongue like petillance, but there are no bubbles on the glass and no further acid reaction in the back of the mouth. Now apples appear, and then heavy sweetened cream. The weight is unmistakeable, but I did not expect this from looking at what was in my glass. A powerful, deeply concentrated wine, and unlike any chardonnay I've ever had before. It turns out to be a ringer, but what a ringer this is:
2005 Aubert "Reuling" from California.
7) A plate of scallops covered with chopped bacon and set in a tasty broth with a dash of vinegar appears in front of us, which looks like an opportunity for another of my wines. Pale yellow, does not look it's age. Classy, feminine but in a full-figured kind of way, with apple chiffon fruit, a bit of tangerine citrus and a note that reminds me of my mom's freshly baked angel food cake. It has the limestone thing but not the steel, so though Chablis gets mentioned as a possibility there's no consensus. But it is Chablis, it's the
1995 Verget Grand Cru Valmur. Great nose on this next one, all minerals and lean acid on the palate and a wine that's obviously in need of more time. It's quite a surprise when it turns out to be a
2003, the Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru from Bouchard Pere et Fils. 9) So now Marc dives into the pile and sends this one around the table. Oh my, what an aromatic nose THIS has! Complex fruit, clean and crisp and yet not ungenerous, others go right to Chablis before I do. It's the
2000 Jean Marc Brocard Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos.
10) So I grab my last bottle. Limestone chalkiness on a sunny day, earthy, a little funk, I think 'salad', Serge says "compost bin in a good way", someone guesses early 90's, plenty of acid and lemon. It's the
2000 Gagnard 1er Cru Chassagne Montrachet "Maltroie". 11) The staging table is now empty but for one bottle. It's Warren's. I stick my nose in the glass. OH MY GOD. And this is why my notes have only this one comment, all in caps: I LOVE THIS WINE. Because I put my nose in the glass and a flood of memories come back, I remember feeling like this before. I stick my nose in that glass and ten years melts away and I'm at a friend's apartment in Halle, Belgium, and it's afternoon and for my friend I've pulled from a case of white burgs I've just bought in Burgundy where I travelled with other friends, a bottle of 1990 Etienne Sauzet plus a hunk of stinky cheese. That bottle was not a Montrachet, but still, there's an essential Sauzet-ness here at ten years old I instantly recognize.
1999 Sauzet Montrachet. WOW oh WOW oh WOW. My WOTN.
12) Now out comes the chef/proprietor's wife bearing a gift from the kitchen, a
1990 Drappier Grande Sendrée. Very youthful with persistent bubble and none of the caramel and nut tones of age.
13) And now here's another wine from Erik. It's old and complex and nutty, and though there's absolutely no primary fruit left there's good acidity and structure. Then he unveils the bottle, and there's no label. What? Turns out, it's a Washington chardonnay a friend of his made. In 1993!!!
Warren, thanks for organizing this great evening.