WTN: SOBER at John's: Burg, Cali, Rhone, Ruwer, etc

John hosted SOBER last night, and as usual did an excellent job with wine and food. We were greeted with the 2008 Marguet “les Crayeres” Champagne Brut. John said this was a producer who had really picked up his game recently- I certainly liked this. Fresh and bright, minerally, green apple and lemon, chalk, fine beads. Elegant. A-

A nice assortment of cheeses on the table, as we started the blind wines

Flight #1
I started a pattern of guessing the wrong wine within the flight(I thought #2 might be Fourrier).

#1 -more closed, full, some tannin, nice balance but mostly coiled underneath. 1999 Fourrier “Champeaux” Gevrey-Chambertin 1er B+ for now

#2 -much more open, expressive/explosive nose of red fruits, sandalwood, fresh, no apparent tannins, delicious. 1999 Truchot “Combottes” Gevrey-Chambertin 1er A-/A

Flight #2
#1 Some controversy here, but I think most came along to idea of corked. If not corked someone snuck some chlorine from their swimming pool in. Fruit scalped. Too bad, I’d love to try the 1981 Ch. Latour Haut-Brion
#2 Bretty, red fruit, plenty of soft fruit but balance isn’t bad (others liked less). 1981 Diamond Creek “Red Rock Terrace” Cabernet Sauvignon B+/B
#3 Replacement for #1. My favorite of flight- earth and tobacco over warm red fruit, balanced. Mark got 77 Napa quickly . 1977 Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon B+

Flight #3 (with a delicious and beautiful melon/cuke/pepper soup with crab)

#1 - gorgeous, wonderful acid balance, citrus and herb, long. I guessed Saar and John said no Ruwer, so then I got MG, Cathleen got ‘88. 1988 Maximin Grunhauser (von Schubert) “Abtsberg- Fuder 67” Auslese A-
#2 = petrol, ginger, clean, spicy, a little drier than flightmate. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a 79 German before, this was very nice indeed. 1979 Karthauserhof Eitelsbacher Auslese. B+/A-

a break for a non-blind 1990 Dom Perignon. Full, rich, bread dough and caramel, very mature, some debate over oxidized vs just 1990 character. Interesting but I didn’t love. B/B-


Flight #4 (with John’s great beef stew)
Bob called Northern Rhone immediately
#1 Floral, zesty, fresh, lovely. 1999 Verset Cornas A-/B+
#2 Sweet fruit (some thought candied, I didn’t) pepper, smoke (oops, I guessed this was Verset) 1995 Chave Hermitage B+

Flight #5
I thought these were Bordeaux at first!
#1 Meaty, full, fleshy , nicely balanced. 1993 Drouhin “Clos des Mouches” Beaune 1er B+
#2 Slightly roasted dark fruits, big, brawny, maybe hint of heat. 1990 Jadot “Clos des Ursules” Beaune 1er B

Fun night, great food, wide assortment of good to great wines.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

[David M. Bueker]

Wonderful set of wines.

1988 is a great vintage for Grunhaus. The Herrenberg Auslese is a stunning wine.

That's great to hear, as my only 88 Grunhaus is ....a lone bottle of Herrenberg Auslese

[Jenise]

As usual, I drooled. Did you make the soup?

As usual, I drooled. Did you make the soup?

No- though it was very similar to the Jenise/John Ash recipe I love so much. John said it was from a late 90s Gourmet. He used diced yellow and red peppers rather than the tomato and avocado in the Ash recipe.

[Jenise]

That would be an excellent switch--the sweetness of crab resonates with sweet colored peppers. The last version of that soup I made, I put in a localized version of a southwest dinner (same one the buckwheat cinnamon bread recipe I just posted on the food board was served at). I used orange melons instead of honeydew because I had them surplus at the time, which had the unintended but preferable effect, when combined with cucumber, of making the soup a dull green similar to avocado, and then liberally spiking it with a fruity bright yellow mango-habanero hot sauce instead of Tabasco, which was as good a choice for color as it was for flavor. With the avocado in the crab mix, the flavor and presentation really did read very southwestern.

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting on the soup. I have generally found that any kind of bell pepper (green, red, yellow or what have you) overwhelms the delicacy of crab meat.

[Jenise]

Interesting on the soup. I have generally found that any kind of bell pepper (green, red, yellow or what have you) overwhelms the delicacy of crab meat.

Like anything, you can overdo it, but peppers are great with crab. Wolfgang Puck has a stellar recipe for crab cakes in which yellow and red peppers are not only in the cake itself but the principal ingredient in the sauce. And I never make crab cakes myself without diced jalapeno. So even green peppers work well (but they wouldn't so much in that soup).

[David M. Bueker]

Like anything, you can overdo it, but peppers are great with crab. Wolfgang Puck has a stellar recipe for crab cakes in which yellow and red peppers are not only in the cake itself but the principal ingredient in the sauce. And I never make crab cakes myself without diced jalapeno. So even green peppers work well (but they wouldn't so much in that soup).

We'll have to agree to disagree on that. I consider peppers in a crab cake to be a sin worthy of a special place in hell. My wife would respond in a fashion not unlike ISIS.