Any advice for how to hold my Intro to Bordeaux tasting?

Well, there must be chemical differences across palates!

Also 70% Cocoa dark chocolate is another knockout match.

With red Bordeaux? Really? I find chocolate too sweet (70% is still pretty sweet) and/or too astringent (70% will already be decently astringent) to make any great matches with dry red wine. When I am focused, I can usually return to red wine (Bordeaux included) after a chocolate dessert. But only after significant mouth-rinsing. And I would never go anywhere near saying it is a knockout match. Unless of course you mean the chocolate knocks out the appreciation of the Bordeaux . Sorry to state this so forcefully. I wonder which one of us is the idiosyncratic one. Any other opinions?

I would also have olives and maybe celery as well..

I love olives but they have quite a strong and bitter taste and I wouldn't say they are a 'great' wine match. Especially when eaten alone (i.e. not part of a cooked dish) and especially for an analytical tasting. Nibbling on olives while sipping a casual aperitif is one thing but if the purpose is a structured tasting then I think you are much better off with crackers/bread. Although I guess it does depend on the type of olive. Maybe if you picked one of the blandest ones.

Celery is not bad, it is blandish, but still has a kick and I wouldn't recommend it as a 'great' match. Same for apples, which will also make the wine difficult to taste. Isn't the old saying 'buy on apples sell on cheese'.

Of course I may have misunderstood this event. If it is a 'party' then sure, have all sorts of nibbles around as it won't really matter. But if it is a semi-formal analytical tasting, then I would just have neutral crackers/breads to cleanse the palate and support the stomach.

I know Peter said people were eating dinner beforehand so I guess you don't want to have any of the 'proper main course' dishes that would show red Bordeaux at its best as an accompaniment at the table. But, depending how ambitious you are you could have some sort of red meat-based appetizer/dish available for people to nibble on and see how the red Bordeaux blends with the fat/meat.

With red Bordeaux? Really? I find chocolate too sweet (70% is still pretty sweet) and/or too astringent (70% will already be decently astringent) to make any great matches with dry red wine.

I teach wine classes and after the first class they are all sitting up like puppy dogs waiting for their dark chocolate or some type of chocolate dessert (dark). I have not found anyone yet that didn't appreciate it. Quite often you will see little bits of dark chocolate offered at tasting bars at a winery. And I (along with quite a few others) finish each and every evening with a square of Giradelli 72% cocoa "Twilight Delight". We were at a nice restaurant the other night and finished a wonderful meal with a chocolate mousse that was pure velvet with the last of my Magnien 1st Cru Chambolle-Musigny. To each his own, but I think you would be in the minority here. We ought to start another post about this, although I think they did recently.
With regard to the celery and olives, like Covert said, for newbies they are not going to be going crazy over the Bdx and the cheese and olives will help IMO. I personally find that green olives (and black to some extent) go with just about any wine, white or red, but probably not a sparkler. But this might be why they have about 10,000 different wines to chose from.

We were at a nice restaurant the other night and finished a wonderful meal with a chocolate mousse that was pure velvet with the last of my Magnien 1st Cru Chambolle-Musigny. To each his own, but I think you would be in the minority here. We ought to start another post about this, although I think they did recently.

I'm sure you have more comprehensive experience than I do, but I have never found this to be an interesting combination in the sense that it improved the experience. More like passable/not horrible. But, I will start a poll to see what others have to say.

I personally find that green olives (and black to some extent) go with just about any wine, white or red, but probably not a sparkler. But this might be why they have about 10,000 different wines to chose from.

The olives we buy most frequently are kalamata and eaten alone I don't think they necessarily help wine shine (at least not the Northern wines I drink). But blander olives certainly can do well.

Surprise, surprise, we're going to have 4 glasses/person!!! Looks like it wasn't a big deal to ask after all.

The bad news is that I picked a bad luck tasting date. 2 people are travelling internationally, 1 person flaked on me for an impromptu trip to NY, 1 couple has a an ongoing medical emergency in the family, 1 doc is on call, 1 person can't drink due to new medications, and I think another will sit and not drink due to early pregnancy. Yeesh. It's looking like 4 bottles for 6 people.

Steve
Actually 4 bottles for 6 people sounds alright & indeed 6 people works well for us normally, as everyone get's a good tasting measure of the wine on the 1st taste, leaving half to a third of the bottle left at the end for reassessment/free for all. We'd probably get through 6 or 7 bottles between 6 people, but over a leisurely evening, with food.

As a side note, assuming your guests bring a wide array of glasses along, it can be fun (and shockingly eye-opening) to taste the same wine from different glass shapes/sizes. If the opportunity arises to do this, it may be a fun and useful exercise.

regards

Ian

p.s. Common advice, is that a bottle can be split between at most 12 people before the measures start getting a little too small to taste effectively/comfortably. Personally when tasting at a stand up event I prefer a smaller amount, but for sit down tastings, this rule of thumb works fine for me.

I usually plan on 10-12 tastings per bottle but found at my last church fundraiser that in some cases we reached 14 tastings per bottle without restricting the pours (this was mostly a group that don't drink a lot of wine or a lot of liquor and they were maybe cautious about driving home afterwards.) If you don't have many different wines to taste, I like to have six people per bottle.

New wrinkle: someone's father is donating a 1982 La Lagune, Haut-Medoc to our tasting. I'm going to replace the 2005 Plain Point, Fronsac and save that for another day. 4 wines for 8 ppl, after dinner, cheese and crackers.

** How should I open a 1982? Since it's so old, I was thinking of uncorking it right before serving.

I don't remember having the 82 La Lagune, but good house, great vintage. I'd decant for sediment a little before serving, but I wouldn't worry about this being excessively fragile.

WTN for our Intro to Bordeaux tasting last night. I uncorked all 4 wines successfully, about 1 hour prior to tasting, and did not decant any of them. Each guest had 4 glasses. We kept tasting for ~4 hours; it was fun seeing the wines change. I went with fontina, stilton, white crackers, multigrain crackers, and mixed nuts.

2004 Lalande-Borie, St Julien - C: very dark, opaque A: very sl brett initially, then popcorn, then some lovely restrained cherry and vanilla T: starts sweet and juicy, at times sour, ending with some smokey oak. I thought it was ok, but one taster called this a bad, terrible wine. 4th place.

2001 Coufran, Haut-Medoc - C: sl pale halo A: savory with sauteed bell pepper, later more candied, then mint and fennel but not in a very good way T: leather and violets with a hugely drying finish, opened and became more luscious on the tongue, but lost it again by the end of the night. 3rd place, decent QPR

1995 Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Pessoc-Leognan - C: sl pale halo A: at first it was mod brett going into manure, thankfully it receded to black pepper (pastrami with too much pepper on it) and dirt T: sweet and smooth, sl brett, spicy, still quite a good deal of smokey oak. I thought it was the most complex but not a life changer. 2nd place, but it scored almost as good as

1982 La Lagune, Haut-Medoc - C: lighter in color, with an obvious halo A: sl brett disappeared quickly, leaving a light aroma of fruit and flowers, very restrained T: cherry juice, initially a bit abrupt with a woody end, but then got a lot smoother with a touch of fennel and light oak. Did not change a whole lot. Is it past its prime? 1st place

[Jenise]

Steve, we had a 1982 Lagune about 10 months ago; here's Bill Spohn's note (my note responded to his and indicated that I couldn't improve on his description) on it for comparison with yours: lovely mature claret nose with curranty overtones, balanced and smooth with good fruit, nicely sweet and medum long finish. Lovely Bordeaux at peak.

Was our bottle better than your bottle? Hard to tell--could be, but it also could be a frame-of-reference issue since we're more used to drinking older Bordeaux than you are.

next wine group, you can open a couple of Rocca wines, you're a winner in raffle!

WTN for our Intro to Bordeaux tasting last night. I uncorked all 4 wines successfully, about 1 hour prior to tasting, and did not decant any of them. Each guest had 4 glasses. We kept tasting for ~4 hours; it was fun seeing the wines change. I went with fontina, stilton, white crackers, multigrain crackers, and mixed nuts.

2004 Lalande-Borie, St Julien - C: very dark, opaque A: very sl brett initially, then popcorn, then some lovely restrained cherry and vanilla T: starts sweet and juicy, at times sour, ending with some smokey oak. I thought it was ok, but one taster called this a bad, terrible wine. 4th place.

2001 Coufran, Haut-Medoc - C: sl pale halo A: savory with sauteed bell pepper, later more candied, then mint and fennel but not in a very good way T: leather and violets with a hugely drying finish, opened and became more luscious on the tongue, but lost it again by the end of the night. 3rd place, decent QPR

1995 Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Pessoc-Leognan - C: sl pale halo A: at first it was mod brett going into manure, thankfully it receded to black pepper (pastrami with too much pepper on it) and dirt T: sweet and smooth, sl brett, spicy, still quite a good deal of smokey oak. I thought it was the most complex but not a life changer. 2nd place, but it scored almost as good as

1982 La Lagune, Haut-Medoc - C: lighter in color, with an obvious halo A: sl brett disappeared quickly, leaving a light aroma of fruit and flowers, very restrained T: cherry juice, initially a bit abrupt with a woody end, but then got a lot smoother with a touch of fennel and light oak. Did not change a whole lot. Is it past its prime? 1st place

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the notes. I know this will sound critical, and I will admit that it is; and I question my tact, compassion and measure of class by bringing it up to someone who is learning, trying and beginning. And it is probably more a comment on the times, my comment, and where young people's heads are today - and who the hell am I to crow that one time is better than another? It just is what it is. But "The Thrill is Gone" played in my head a bit when I read your notes, which seem (again, just to me, possibly) to be without measure of passion or pleasure. The notes ring analytical and sterile, like you were doing lab in a chemistry class.

But I get criticized, and deserve the criticism much more, probably, for going to the other extreme at times, waxing ecstatically and even comparing wine expression to women's body parts, or music, and such. So it is just Yin and Yang, I guess, - Apollo and Dionysus; it takes two to tango.

Covert

I'm in the other camp. Not every wine evokes passion. I thought Steve's notes were clear and rather detailed for a possible novice. If he feels passionate about some future wine experience, that may come through in his notes, but I would applaud him for his clarity at this tasting, recording what he smelled and tasted.

I'm in the other camp. Not every wine evokes passion. I thought Steve's notes were clear and rather detailed for a possible novice. If he feels passionate about some future wine experience, that may come through in his notes, but I would applaud him for his clarity at this tasting, recording what he smelled and tasted.

No question that they were clear and detailed. It is great that you (and I am sure many others) applaud and support Steve's style of awareness.

I'm in the other camp. Not every wine evokes passion. I thought Steve's notes were clear and rather detailed for a possible novice. If he feels passionate about some future wine experience, that may come through in his notes, but I would applaud him for his clarity at this tasting, recording what he smelled and tasted.

Ain't camping fun??? I'm with you, JC; I don't need, or look for passion every time I lift a glass. I do look for satisfying and am very pleased when an occasional "passionate" experience shows itself....Nice notes Steve.

Drew