For the second time in a row, Warren shows up with a white aperitif wine. We can get used to this. It's a 2001 du Nerthe CdP blanc and it makes me eat all my misgivings about Rhone whites: pear, tons of rocks and unsweetened almond paste make this a delightful wine, and the age gives it a noble bearing.
Then the real tasting gets underway. This is only our second get-together and it's the first of the two that's blind. Moreover, we have set no rules, so we're still feeling our way through creating The Way We Do Things. This time, we just set our bottles on a big slate shelf at the back of the room, and with no plan or discussion and no sommelier to create order, without deciding that's how we'd do it each of us randomly got up and put our bottle in play. And by jove, it worked perfectly: a stranger would have thought we'd been doing this for years, and the wines held no disappointment. In fact, a quartet of wines have to share the WOTN mantle.
First out was a bottle that I brought and expected to be tired, so I wanted it out of the way, a 1985 Les Pallieres Gigondas. Damn if Warren wasn't all over it, ID'ing it's mid-80's vintage and Giggie-ness right off the bat. It was, however, going to be his last run of luck for the night. But I digressed: nice flavors light and polished red fruit, dried orange rind with a touch of iodine, but drying tannins parched the finish. Splash decanted prior to event for sediment removal only. Not dead, but dying.
Next was a wine of Eric's: a mild brett nose blew off rapidly revealing lovely red fruit, tobacco and black figs. It showed like a mid-90's wine but was in fact an '88 Vieux Telegraphe. A wine of excellent balance and beauty that that just got more beautiful as the evening wore on and won many WOTN votes.
Next, John D. stumped us with a '03 Bois de Boursin CdP. Guesses about age ranged narrowly from 99 to 01, but no one found the obvious heat or saturated ripeness of an 03. Dark cherry and warm strawberry flavors dominated. Very good wine.
Here's Marc's wine. Beguiling plum and raspberry fruit with a warm, earthy smokiness. The finish seemed endless. Really fine, and most of us thought it was a 98 or 99. But in fact it was a 95 and another Vieux Telegraphe at that. I believe this had been decanted for about two hours? A truly fabulous bottle and another strong contender for WOTN.
At this point, I decided this was a good place for my second, more serious entry. Again, splash decanted and returned to bottle prior to event to test and remove any sediment only. Rich plummy fruit, pomegranate, milk chocolate (some said butter) and sage brush. A real poser that seemed like a very young wine at first but rapidly changed, developing sweet leather, white flowers and green olives. Guesses about age were all over the map. A fun experience with a serious wine, it was the '99 Chapoutier Barbe-Rac.
Then came Tom, a rep for Triage Wines in Seattle. Seemed very young, all primary fruit and structure with cool black cherry fruit, green tobacco and a hint of brown paper bag in the nose. Finally a 2004, we all thought, and were rather amazed when it turned out to be a 2000 Beaurenard.
Next, Chaz's wine, which was a sea change from the traditional wines we'd been drinking but in a good way. My notes verbatim: "Gorgeous, harmonious and pure, silky black currant and black cherry fruit, modern, szechuan peppercorn, exceptional fruit and balance. WOW." A North Berkeley Import, it was the 2000 Vacheron-Pouizin Le Clos du Caillou. Ensuing conversation revealed that Parker annointed it with 99 points which we all agreed was deserved. Another WOTN.
And here's another, and the one that got my 1st place vote: a big basket of red fruits, spice, fully loaded, dense but lithe, a wine neither juvenile nor old but perfectly poised between the two, traditional, leathery, balanced. For my tastes, perfection. 99 Pegau Cuvee Reserve. Thanks, Warren.
Next comes Lars' wine. Great fruit, a wee bit of horse blanket that blows off quickly, syrah-ish nose, bacon, familiar--BEAUCASTEL. This has to be a Beaucastel, and it is, the 2001, and everything that makes this wine famous and sought-after is here in this bottle. Warren bounces up and down in his chair with a smug grin and announces that he has a case of this. We sneer, jealously.
So that's it, we're done, right? NO! Eric has another bottle in his beaker and he's teaching it to hula. Okay, pour me. Peppery, a little hot, sweet blackberry, fennel bulb, lavender. Very young and svelte. Stylistically it seems modern like the Vacheron, but I drink so few very young CdP's I'm unsure if that's a fair assessment. Whatever, it's very good and finally we have a real baby: 2004 Clos St. Jean Cdp Deus Ex-Machina.
What a great evening--this is the finest array of Southern Rhones I've ever had the pleasure to sample at one sitting, and I'm very proud to be part of this group.
