WTN: Drouhin, Bailly, Bersano, Heitz, St. Cosme, Chadwick....

Blind tasting lunch notes:

2005 Matua Paratai Sauvignon Blanc – grassy varietal nose, medium full body, soft – almost like there was a touch of RS, then long clean finish.

Alianca NV Tinto Bruto – a sparkling red but unlike most Aussies, a dead dry one made from 93% Baga and 7% Touriga Nacional. Fizzy, purple, dry…..that’s about all one can say.

1985 Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches – getting quite pale, elegant nose, smooth and very mature with good fruit at the end. Not for holding.

1975 Ch. Boyd Cantenac – not a big name having had an execrable 80s and 90s, but I have always found this vintage to be very presentable. Cedar and tobacco nose with a medicinal element, colour now getting lighter, and ends with acidity rather than tannin (unlike many of this hard vintage which still have pretty significant tannin, though not always enough fruit to balance it).

1988 Haut Bailly – this little Graves was delightful, showing good fruit in the nose, but lacking the solidity of this vintage, the tannins soft and length good. No rush.

2000 Tolo Asfini – a blend of 61% Sangiovese and 39% Zinfandel from Paso Robles. Mint nose, big mouth presence, very long and intense. Interesting. 16.2% alcohol but not notably hot.

2001 Bersano Generala Barbera d’Asti – unlike any other Barbera I have tasted. Caramel and fruit nose, smooth sweet and plump in the mouth with an unusual (for the area) dry extracted finish. Quite good!

1994 Heitz Napa Cabernet – Wood in the nose! Dark with good fruit and acidity but not much tannin, this regular cab is very pleasant and will hold awhile.

1999 St. Cosme Cote Rotie – I headed for the Rhone pretty quickly, and for the Northern Rhone as this seemed a Syrah based wine, but I stopped short of Cote Rotie as I was getting none of the typical violets in the nose, nor for that matter any pepper. Instead it was a mature nose with obvious old wood aromas and blackberry, the colour was fairly youthful, and it was sweet on palate. Very nice now – no rush here.

2002 Hazyblur Baroota Shiraz (Clare Valley) – this 15% alcohol wine was dark with a sweet ripe nose of coffee and cocoa. Smooth and long – no real rush here.

1990 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet – always a favourite of mine. Fairly clearly cab based with a eucalyptus nose sweet approach but not much tannin remaining. Good acidity and balance. No longer really a blockbuster, this has mellowed to a nice drinking cab with some time left but won’t improve.

2001 Errazuriz Vinedo Chadwick - this cab, cab franc and carmenere blend was very impressive. Dark and young, with a youthful chocolate and black cherry fruit nose, tons of fruit on palate, a big wine, still tannic, finishing dry and very classy. This is the one that has been blind tasted against first growth Bordeaux in several different tastings around the world and come out more often than not on top.

I really liked the St. Cosme St. Joseph AOC Wine I tried this summer., I'll look for this one, tool

[Jenise]

2005 Matua Paratai Sauvignon Blanc: cheesy nose suggests NZ. I found the midpalate a bit lacking in the citrus basket of fruit I think typical of, and attractive about, NZ wines. I didn't dislike it, but I was out of synch with the group about it's merits.

Alianca NV Tinto Bruto: nothing much to add here, except that I quite liked this little guy, but then I'm a sucker for fizz. Bet I'd like it even better after a couple years in the bottle when it picks up some secondary complexity.

1985 Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches: lovely red-orange color, unmistakeably old burg in the nose. No tannins left, but enough acidity to make it bright and interesting. My WOTL.

1975 Ch. Boyd Cantenac: your wine. You described it well, I only need to add that I liked it quite a bit. It's actually the first Boyd Cantenac I've ever had, for all the Bordeaux I drink/seek out it's just managed to escape my little grasp until now. Glad to have my first introduction with a properly aged model, thanks.

1988 Haut Bailly: perhaps the most meaningful thing I can add to your description is that we immediately pegged this incorrectly as an 85 (at least, you and I did, and the table seemed to go along with it), and that 88 was third to the last 80's vintage (84 and 81 not having been named) we thought this wine would be from.

2000 Tolo Asfini: my wine, purchased at the winery on a PR visit last September. Couldn't have been more shocked to hear the alcohol level--I spit out wine after wine there that were only 15% and tasted like Vodka to me, that this was over 16 and that I liked it? Doesn't seem possible. But the alcohol didn't show yesterday either. Interesting blend that worked very well here, producing a wine that's big but not heavy.

2001 Bersano Generala Barbera d’Asti: what you said.

1994 Heitz Napa Cabernet: Great showing for a humble "regular" wine. Instantly recognizable as California, and fairly youthful in that there wasn't much secondary development in evidence, as one might have predicted.

1999 St. Cosme Cote Rotie: lovely Northern Rhone; I'd have guessed Cornas over Cote-Rotie. No pepper, and no tire marks. Rich, supple, drinking very well now.

2002 Hazyblur Baroota Shiraz (Clare Valley): So we figured out where Baroota is, did we? Drank like a McClaren Vale--very plush, no sharp edges, a velveteen Ribena. Interesting to taste a wine with so much recent ballyhoo.

1990 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet: can't improve on your description. Seemed immediately apparent it was California or Australia, I favored the former but you went with the latter and were right. Very definite eucalyptus nose, no mint or menthol which are often mistaken for it, and yes sweet in the approach but it's still holding something back, at least compared to most Aussie wines. You know what, some wondered about this wine's placement, but I liked where Manny put it between the two other Southern Hemisphere wines where the differences were even more acute.

2001 Errazuriz Vinedo Chadwick: all the things you say and very, very, very impressive. Had no idea Errazuriz was capable of a wine of this caliber.

I checked my cellar list and I own some of the Haut Bailly, the Boyd (one more bottle), the St. Cosme, the Hazyblur and the 707, so this lunch was great fun in terms of getting to try wines one has an interest ing knowing when to drink!

I think I agree that the Drouhin was a good choice for WOTL or maybe SWOTL.

Jenise....you may remember that the 1998 Drouhin Clos de Mouche was my epiphany wine.. in fact, I shared my last bottle with you and Bob.... I don't know why I don't look for this wine again...Thanx for the memory....

It's very interesting to hear your comments on the HB. I've unfortunately only had the '88 once (I love this vintage, if you'll excuse a generalisation, and I love Haut-Bailly, but I just haven't ever seen it on sale). I did not think it was like the '85 despite both being beautifully fruity. I found the '85 less compact, more voluptious than the '88. But I do agree that the '88 does have a nice, vibrant fruitiness that belies the vintage's reputation as a hard one.

-O-

[Jenise]

It's very interesting to hear your comments on the HB. I've unfortunately only had the '88 once (I love this vintage, if you'll excuse a generalisation, and I love Haut-Bailly, but I just haven't ever seen it on sale). I did not think it was like the '85 despite both being beautifully fruity. I found the '85 less compact, more voluptious than the '88. But I do agree that the '88 does have a nice, vibrant fruitiness that belies the vintage's reputation as a hard one.

-O-

Otto, you misunderstand. I didn't say the 88 H-B was like the 85. This was a blind tasting--wine glass plops down in front of you, you must guess what it is. It could be any wine from any vintage anywhere in the world. So what we did first was zero in on Bordeaux, then the 80's, then we were hunting around for most-likely vintage, in this case, before trying to figure out which commune it came from. Based on nothing but the knowledge so far that it was Bordeaux and the way the wine in the glass tasted, both Bill and I thought 85 was the first most-likely guess which is a pretty significant indicator of the 88 of this wine is showing right now. A bit more voluptuous, to borrow your word, than most 88s.

Otto, you misunderstand.

Yup - I always try to indicate at the beginning of my notes that the wines were tasted blind (as I did this time) but Otto must have missed it.

Otto, you misunderstand.

Yup - I always try to indicate at the beginning of my notes that the wines were tasted blind (as I did this time) but Otto must have missed it.

No, no, no! All I wanted to do was to give my impression on the differences in the bottles I've tried. I did understand that this was blind. Rather my post was a stream-of-consciousness trying to clarify to myself what the differences between our bottles were. I thought - perhaps erroneously - that this thought process was of some slight interest to others. Sorry if I offended.

Let me try it in a more diplomatic way: I understand why you guessed '85, as the fruit was indeed a little abnormal for an '88. Yet I still found significant differences between the two vintages. So, though I tasted them open (not blind) I still understand your reactions, and this post has made a few things click in my mind, and I am grateful for that. I hope this is a better way of getting across what I tried earlier!

-O-

[Jenise]

Otto dear, no one was offended, and your thoughts are always of interest. In fact when I saw the bottle unveiled, you were the first thing I thought of! It's just that your sentence "I did not think it was like the '85" made me, and apparently Bill, think you thought I'd said it was.