WTN: Bollinger, Pegau, Muga, Katnook, Fonseca

Tasting notes from Good Friday lunch.

Bollinger Special Cuvee (nv) – for a young wine this was showing a bit of colour and some nice yeasty apple notes in the nose, rich on palate with slightly more residual sugar than many Bruts and a slight nuttiness in the crisp finish.

2010 Le Secret de Grand Batteau – a white Bordeaux made from excess sauvignon blanc from good chateaux (a secret first growth, supposedly). Lime in the nose, good acidity on palate, clean and crisp but with plenty of character. Bargain. 100% sauv blanc.

2004 Damien Laureau Savennieres les Genets – now showing some colour, with clean light fruit notes in the nose and a slightly oily mouth feel, this is ready to drink now, at a perfect age.

2002 Tyrells Vat 47 Chardonnay (Hunter V.) – medium colour now, with marked sulphur in the nose that slowly blew off, and slight oxidative notes, but all in all an excellent interesting nose, decent length and finish.

2009 Hollywood Hill Pinot Noir – well made pinot that had us thinking definitely American, but from CA or Oregon. This Seattle area winery did well with this one – pleasant varietal fruit nose, balanced in the mouth with medium length. Quite good. $35

2003 Alain Javine Lirac Clos de Sixte – made by Grand Veneur, this dark ripe offering was slightly tannin on entry and has a slight bitterness in the finish, as well as a hint of anise. Very pleasant and at peak now.

1995 Dom. Pegau Cuvee Lawrence CNduP – excellent wine that had the rest of us shaking in our boots hoping we weren’t going to follow immediately after with our wine. Big fruit in the nose, ripe with a stony component, and excellent concentration of flavour in mid palate with good length. No rush on this one.

1996 Muga Prado Enea GR (Rioja) - good deep colour, fruity nose with a very notable coconut component, mild tannins, good concentration and medium length. Should hold.

2004 Dom. de Saumarez Aalenien (Languedoc) – a winery established by British financial industry members. Blend of syrah and Grenache, the nose had leather, anise and cherry. Ripe fruit with good length, I liked this better than some others did.

Ensemble Cellars Release #3 – this Washington state wine bottle looked like a gilded bathroom ornament – definitely for the designer crowd, but the wine inside it was decidedly more serious. A multi vintage blend (2004, 2005, 2006) of Bordeaux grapes, it showed lots of sweet toasty oak in the nose, and, I swear, a hint of oyster sauce! Warm mellow fruit, not too sweet, and medium length. Very decent. Would be easier to take them more seriously if they fired their label designer…..because the wine quality is there and deserves better.

1998 Katnook Odyssey – this top notch Australian Cabernet had a very Bordeaux nose – so much so that we were thinking that’s what it was until we tasted it and saw the up front sweetness. The only give away was the oak, which was American, but otherwise the wine was much more controlled and better balanced than many in this big ripe vintage. Smooth and long.

1978 Guimarens Port (Fonseca) – colour now showing medium pale, a nice warm nose with candied fruit and cocoa, finishing slightly acidic. Pleasant Port.

2004 Damien Laureau Savennieres les Genets – now showing some colour, with clean light fruit notes in the nose and a slightly oily mouth feel, this is ready to drink now, at a perfect age..

Thanks for this. You don't see a lot of notes on Laureau wines, but I always wondered how they would age. I don't remember if they were changing a lot from year to year in this mid 2000s era, but I think of them as generally rich when young, so this sounds interesting and somewhat like what one might expect.

I haven't had the opportunity to try the Hollywood Hills wines, but I'm familiar with Steve Snyder, the proprietor, as he posts on another website I frequent for wine makers and grape growers. I'll tip him off to your review.

[Jenise]

Bill, no time to transcribe notes right now but will blaze through my remembered impressions.

Bollinger Special Cuvee (nv) – YUM.

2010 Le Secret de Grand Batteau – This was so fricking good I came home and ordered two cases.

2004 Damien Laureau Savennieres les Genets – *

2002 Tyrells Vat 47 Chardonnay (Hunter V.) – *

2009 Hollywood Hill Pinot Noir – one of my wines. And it wasn't just a Seattle area winery, but Seattle fruit that went into this. So, a rare thing, and fun to bring to lunch. Glad everyone liked it.

2003 Alain Javine Lirac Clos de Sixte – The nose on this was very odd to me with, by turns, candied notes and yet weedy tones that segued into that bitter finish you mention. I couldn't warm up to it.

1995 Dom. Pegau Cuvee Lawrence CNduP – What you said. Wow, wow, wow. Outstanding.

1996 Muga Prado Enea GR (Rioja) - Copper Tan nose and not subtle either. Big and unavoidable--which is why it was so slap-onesself-on-the-side-of-the-head obvious, once we found out it was Spanish, that Spain should have been our first thought (it wasn't). That blew off quickly though and turned into something quite lovely. Really enjoyed this.

2004 Dom. de Saumarez Aalenien (Languedoc) – IMO, heading downhill fast. *

Ensemble Cellars Release #3 – What you said.

1998 Katnook Odyssey – What you said. A complete delight.

1978 Guimarens Port (Fonseca) – Again, you capture it for me.


*We've got to talk about oxidation, Bill. I've noticed in other instances what I'd call differences in our threshholds, but you and I don't seem to agree on what it is as you mention it in regard to one wine that I found no trace of it on, where two wines that IMO deserved that descriptor didn't get it. That is, I didn't find any oxidation on the Tyrell's. A bit of sulfur at first, and all the flavors associated with a chardonnay that's aging very very well, but no maderization. However, it was all over the Savvy--not to the point of being completely unpleasant, but still, it was there enough for me to pronounce it, were it mine, heading over the hill. Your 'perfect' is my 'too late'. And your Languedoc? Pruney. Not enough tannins or acidity to preserve it, so heading downhill fast. When I open bottles from my cellar that present me with that same evidence that I overestimated their holding power, they become camellia fertilizer. Need to discuss this on Fanatic and see what others present thought. One of the two of us needs some palate calibration.

Come on Jenise, he's a man, a guy for god's sake! You have to concede oxidation recognition to Bill, for God's sake!

On the other hand, you're a moderator. That always wins over gender.

[Jenise]

Come on Jenise, he's a man, a guy for god's sake! You have to concede oxidation recognition to Bill, for God's sake!

On the other hand, you're a moderator. That always wins over gender.

Hey, Bill has vastly more experience than I do so where that counts, I would normally cede to Bill. He's a talented taster (even if he is a man ). But this mystifies me, as our different reactions say it's clearly not a matter of degrees as I had previously thought.

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting note on the Pegau, as their '95s have been reported as tired/dried out (and I always find the Laurence to be a bit dried)).

Jenise - on oxidation.

On the Languedoc first, as that wasn't really an oxidation issue. You didn't like the pruniness, I didn't mind it as much. End of story.

On the whites, I was picking up some of the mature notes that come from oxidation in the bottle over a long time and add complexity, in the Tyrells wine (some winemakers even expose their juice to air briefly to try and promote some of this earlier in the life of the wine than it would normally appear).

In the Savennieres, I noted maturity and the complexity in nose and on palate that comes with this, and while that complexity is often a partial byproduct of slow oxidation (as well as other chemical reactions) it wasn't so pronounced (i.e. borderline objectionable) as to warrant specific mention.

We may have to write this off as a difference in priorities - I like my whites older and more mature than you generally do, and some things that aren't even notable to me seem to jump out at you. Reminds me of a couple of other tasting issues - sulfur and TCA. Some people sniff a wine and manage to detect a whiff of TCA that I have to really look for, and won't even taste the wine. Others are totally blind to it and dive right in, making ultimately misleading notes on what is essentially a wine that has somewhere between a miniscule and a whole lot less fruit left than unaffected bottles do.

On the sulfur, similarly it puts some people right off. I am closer to that camp - I get a strong whiff of sulfur and I wait to see if it will blow off, because in the end, if it doesn't, it is going to lessen my enjoyment of the wine over what it would be if it were unadulterated (and sulfur IS an adulterant). Others just ignore it and can wind up giving the wine an excellent review, not even mentioning the sulfur (you know a couple of the white Burg fans I mean).

With me, I tend to mention qualities in a wine that I do not expect to see, like lack of fruit or excessive oxidation by products, or VA, and ignore them (often not even mentioning it, as in the Loire, where at that age slight oxidation is de rigeur) if the level is acceptable in the type of wine being tasted, or even expected.

One man's bitter almond finish that makes him slag the wine can be just an interesting addition to the finish for another taster. I also tend to mention in passing the qualities of a wine that require quantitative assessment - how tannic is it, how hard are the tannins, does the cab franc introduce a big hit of green or a 'normal' amount, what is the balance, that sort of thing.

I tend to save up my old chards for another taster that likes them that way - popped a 1998 Aussie chard awhile back that I expect you'd have hated but that he loved.

[Jenise]

Interesting note on the Pegau, as their '95s have been reported as tired/dried out (and I always find the Laurence to be a bit dried)).

As you can tell from Bill's and my reactions, this one was definitely not tired or dried out. A superb bottle; maybe the best Laurence I've had, in fact.

[Jenise]

We may have to write this off as a difference in priorities - I like my whites older and more mature than you generally do, and some things that aren't even notable to me seem to jump out at you. Reminds me of a couple of other tasting issues - sulfur and TCA. Some people sniff a wine and manage to detect a whiff of TCA that I have to really look for, and won't even taste the wine. Others are totally blind to it and dive right in, making ultimately misleading notes on what is essentially a wine that has somewhere between a miniscule and a whole lot less fruit left than unaffected bottles do.

On the sulfur, similarly it puts some people right off. I am closer to that camp - I get a strong whiff of sulfur and I wait to see if it will blow off, because in the end, if it doesn't, it is going to lessen my enjoyment of the wine

Yeah, I do get all that. Good example mentioning the Sulfur issue: your sulfur is my oxidation. If the latter's there, it's going to be an issue for me. Oxidation can blend in and be quite acceptable to me within limits, as was actually the case with the Savvenieres. Perhaps the real difference between us, beyond your greater tolerance, is that you regard it as a natural part of a linear progression where to me it's an uh-oh kind of thing, a warning that the wine has turned a significant corner and that's something I should include in a tasting note to warn others who own that wine. Anyway, I'm not picking on you, I just wanted to understand better. I've learned more from you than just about anybody else I have ever tasted with, and so when you see something differently than I do I tend to stop and ask myself what I'm missing out on.

Have I ever opened a bottle of the 1993 Beaucastel Vielles Vignes Roussanne for you? A real 'vin jaune' but also delightful unless one hates that sort of thing. If not, maybe I should....

Bill, find a nice Jura Savignin for Jenise too!

[Jenise]

Have I ever opened a bottle of the 1993 Beaucastel Vielles Vignes Roussanne for you? A real 'vin jaune' but also delightful unless one hates that sort of thing. If not, maybe I should....

You have, and there's an example of oxidation I liked in spite of myself. It was pale peachy colored and definitely much closer to sherry than most--and oddly, for someone not into oxidative flavors, I like sherry a lot. Go figure.