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WTN: Wines from a faculty social

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Mark Lipton

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WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Mark Lipton » Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:18 pm

Last night, Jean and I hosted a "social" for a faculty candidate whom we're trying to hire. For this event, we opened five wines from the cellar:

2008 Céline & Laurent Tripoz Mâcon-Vinzelles Les Morandes
nose: butter, minerals, citrus fruit
palate: crisp acidity, good mid-palate fruit, clean finish

2011 Navarro Dry Gewurztraminer
nose: lychee and minerals, a bit of ginger
palate: medium body, good balancing acidity, at the dry/off-dry border

The two white wines we'd had before, and they performed very similarly last night. I got more butter in the Tripoz Macon than I had previously, but it blew off with a bit of time.

2005 Bella Vineyards Zinfandel Lily Hill Estate
nose: spice, berryish fruit, pencil lead
palate: fresh, acidic balance, medium body

A wine purchased at the winery years ago, I had no high hopes after reading fairly distressing notes on CT, but it performed above all expectations. Avoiding the heaviness and overextracted character of many Dry Creek Zins, it came across as fresh and juicy. I guess that we knew what we were doing when we bought this!

2008 Ch. D'Oupia Minervois
nose: kirsch-like dark fruit, a bit of funk, stones
palate: medium body, good acidity

Tasted blind, I'd have said that this was a good quality Cotes du Rhone. Another fine performance from this perennial QPR winner.

2002 Luigi Bosca Gala 1
nose: red and black berryish fruit, smoke, graphite
palate: medium body, decent acidity, fully resolved tannins

A blend of Malbec, Petit Verdot and Tannat from Mendoza in Argentina, this was a gift from my research group a few years ago. Although I approached it with trepidation, it exceeded all expectation and was, all in all, quite tasty. Dunno if it was oaky in its youth, but at age 11 it has lost any trace of any oak treatment.

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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Hoke » Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:27 pm

If you were trying to weed some people out, you could've opened a bottle of Mollydooker and left it out as sort of an idiot lure.

The first professor "reception" (and here I go seriously dating myself) I went to, the Prof had one of those nifty double-dispenser contraptions made out of glass and wrought iron, with (bad) "sherry" and (even worse) "port" in the two containers. Back then, that was considered by many in academia to be the absolute height of sophistication.

We've come a long way, baby. :D
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Salil » Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:47 pm

Hoke wrote:If you were trying to weed some people out, you could've opened a bottle of Mollydooker and left it out as sort of an idiot lure.

Not that I'll defend Mollydooker, but I know plenty of incredibly smart people that enjoy such wines for various reasons - I'll enjoy socializing and conversing with them, though we may then end up drinking scotch or something else that's not wine.

Mark, that's a nice set of wines. The Navarro sounds particularly nice. (Hmm, haven't had a Gewurz in quite a long time...)
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Mike_F » Thu Mar 21, 2013 6:51 pm

Do you do so for all faculty candidates?? Where can I apply...

cheers,

Mike
Of course we must be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Brian Gilp » Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:07 pm

Nice welcome to a dry campus.
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Mark Lipton » Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:27 pm

Hoke wrote:If you were trying to weed some people out, you could've opened a bottle of Mollydooker and left it out as sort of an idiot lure.


Elsewhere, I posted those notes as "fishing for a faculty candidate." Weeding out was the last thing on our mind, I'll have you know.

The first professor "reception" (and here I go seriously dating myself) I went to, the Prof had one of those nifty double-dispenser contraptions made out of glass and wrought iron, with (bad) "sherry" and (even worse) "port" in the two containers. Back then, that was considered by many in academia to be the absolute height of sophistication.


The bad reflection of age-old traditions at Cambridge and Oxford. Based on my limited exposure to those two hallowed institutions, I can assure all and sundry that the real thing is far, far more appealing. Dinner at high table can be quite the experience with the right connections (my uncle was cellarmaster for Clare College for a good few decades late last century).

I should also point out, Hoke, that that bottle of Bella in our cellar is the result of a recommendation you made to me back in the day that took us to visit them.

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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Hoke » Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:51 pm

The first professor "reception" (and here I go seriously dating myself) I went to, the Prof had one of those nifty double-dispenser contraptions made out of glass and wrought iron, with (bad) "sherry" and (even worse) "port" in the two containers. Back then, that was considered by many in academia to be the absolute height of sophistication.


Well, the professor mentioned was a Victorian Literature specialist, so the hoary, dusty old sherry/port dispenser was perfectly understandable. He also had antimassacars on the arms of all his overstuffed chairs and called cookies "biscuits". :wink:

Bella...I remember that. Dinner at Cafe La Haye, nez pah?
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Mark Lipton » Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:19 pm

Hoke wrote:Bella...I remember that. Dinner at Cafe La Haye, nez pah?


Yup, that was almost certainly the trip, but why comment on my nose? :lol:

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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Sam Platt » Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:29 pm

Hoke wrote:If you were trying to weed some people out, you could've opened a bottle of Mollydooker and left it out as sort of an idiot lure.

Send over all the Velvet Glove you've got, Hoke. I will gladly drink away in the company of my fellow idiots.
Sam

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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:03 am

Hoke wrote:If you were trying to weed some people out, you could've opened a bottle of Mollydooker and left it out as sort of an idiot lure.

The first professor "reception" (and here I go seriously dating myself) I went to, the Prof had one of those nifty double-dispenser contraptions made out of glass and wrought iron, with (bad) "sherry" and (even worse) "port" in the two containers. Back then, that was considered by many in academia to be the absolute height of sophistication.

We've come a long way, baby. :D


My last year at Bedford and third year in 1st VIII, Mr Galbraith coach and my Latin and Greek teacher, as well as house master, used to invite me over for a glass of sherry. Always served from a nice decanter.
I visited him about 20 yrs ago and guess what he poured..... more sherry!
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by Tim York » Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:58 am

Mark Lipton wrote:
Hoke wrote:
The first professor "reception" (and here I go seriously dating myself) I went to, the Prof had one of those nifty double-dispenser contraptions made out of glass and wrought iron, with (bad) "sherry" and (even worse) "port" in the two containers. Back then, that was considered by many in academia to be the absolute height of sophistication.


The bad reflection of age-old traditions at Cambridge and Oxford. Based on my limited exposure to those two hallowed institutions, I can assure all and sundry that the real thing is far, far more appealing. Dinner at high table can be quite the experience with the right connections (my uncle was cellarmaster for Clare College for a good few decades late last century).

Mark Lipton


I can assure you that the sherry decanter as Hoke describes it was alive and well in Cambridge in the 50s in the homes of many dons. My second year supervisor, who had supervised my father 30+ years before :shock: , was then over 80 and still wore winged collars (a relic of pre WW1 days) and his sherry tasted as if it had been in the decanter since about the same time. That said, the high table used to do themselves very well as we could see from the body of the hall where we were eating much more humble fare and drinking water. C.P. Snow's novels, especially The Masters and The Affair, give a vivid picture of how fellows of a college lived and behaved in the mid-20th century.

I wonder if that tradition still survives in an era when many dons are behaving much more commercially. One of the regulars at tastings at La Vigneronne in Kensington in the late 90s was cellarmaster at Trinity and he could certainly be relied upon to chose wisely. He claimed that it was an difficult position to enjoy :?: because it was impossible to please the whole community and the dissenters were very vocal.

On another tack, I have heard that some executive recruiters set a trap for candidates by offering them wine at luncheon. The "correct" response is to decline but the manner of doing so is also important :? .
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Re: WTN: Wines from a faculty social

by JC (NC) » Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:45 am

Hamilton Mowbray spent time at Cambridge and developed a fondness for Bordeaux wine served at the collegial meal. When he returned to the USA, he couldn't afford such wines on a regular basis or find ones well aged as from the cellar at Cambridge, so he started making his own wines in Maryland for himself and friends using a former dairy barn as his winemaking facility. When the enterprise grew beyond what he and his friends could consume, he went commercial as Montbray Wines.

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