WTN: Mish Mash

[Jenise]

1986 Château Haut-Bages Libéral Pauillac
Brown and swampy. And adding insult to injury: corked! So I went back to the cellar and got:

1994 Château Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend
In a GREAT place right now--last of the four bottles I owned and the best by far. PnP'd. Lovely perfumed nose with plums, cedar and cassis, long finish. Pure class. Wonder where I got these--price tag on the bottle says $102 (average CT price is about $250), and my inventory says I bought them in Huntington Beach in 2005. Since HB didn't have any wine stores of the caliber that would have carried something like this, especially at 11 years past vintage, I'm scratching my head!

2016 Teutonic Wine Company Pinot Noir Rosé Laurel Vineyard Chehalem Mountains
One of the prettiest roses I've ever seen--a neon shade of light red. Wine has intense, complex notes of strawberry and cherry (with stems) and a clean, dry finish. Going to order a case.

2001 Château du Tertre Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend
A better bottle, or better showing, than last August's. Bigger in the glass without fading, that is; and enough fruit to pair well with pork verde.

2009 Château Haut-Brisson La Grave St. Émilion Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend
Fairly closed right now. Let them sleep.

2013 Wind Gap Wines Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
Oxidized!! And this was at Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco. The somm offers to bring me another bottle of it, but I'm guessing their entire stash is affected and rather than waste time on that I order this instead:

2014 Liquid Farm White Hill Chardonnay
And it was it's usual lovely self. Cool thing about it was that my brother had joined us for dinner. He typically likes riper, fruit bomb style wines and I was trying to show him wines that downplayed that side of California wine and gained a lot of class in the process.
His initial reaction was a noncommittal "It's okay, I don't dislike it" but by the time he enjoyed it through two courses and got to his last sip, he was totally smitten.

I recently picked up a bottle each of the 2013 White Hill and Golden Slope Chards to try, it sounds like a producer I'd like!

Was Boulevard as good as ever? I have fond memories.

Re: Wind Gap. Odd. We drank a bottle recently and it was quite lovely. By "their entire stash" did you mean the restaurant's or the winery's?

[Jenise]

Re: Wind Gap. Odd. We drank a bottle recently and it was quite lovely. By "their entire stash" did you mean the restaurant's or the winery's?

The restaurant's. The cork was tight; the most-likely scenario is that the entire box got cooked somewhere in the chain of custody.

[Jenise]

I recently picked up a bottle each of the 2013 White Hill and Golden Slope Chards to try, it sounds like a producer I'd like!

Was Boulevard as good as ever? I have fond memories.

I'm confident you'll love the Liquid Farms--will be interesting to see which you like best, they're very different vineyards. And yes Boulevard was flawlessly wonderful. Chris and Bob each ordered a starter and a main, but the starters were the most thrilling and my dinner consisted of three: a truffle and burrata salad, soft shelled crab, and porcini agnolotti.

My impression, based on reading a couple of reviews, was that the Golden Slope might be richer and broader, and the White Hill more taut and focused; in fact, I chose them with that contrast (or at least the sense that there might be SOME contrast) in mind, to get a sense of the range.

Glad to hear Boulevard is still on their game. My aunt (who, incidentally, just moved to your neck of the woods!) is friends with Nancy's sister-in-law, if I have the connection right, which is how it first got to be a family favorite...

[David M. Bueker]

My impression, based on reading a couple of reviews, was that the Golden Slope might be richer and broader, and the White Hill more taut and focused; in fact, I chose them with that contrast (or at least the sense that there might be SOME contrast) in mind, to get a sense of the range.

That's pretty much the score, though the Golden Slope is not exactly Beringer Private Reserve.

[Jenise]

My impression, based on reading a couple of reviews, was that the Golden Slope might be richer and broader, and the White Hill more taut and focused; in fact, I chose them with that contrast (or at least the sense that there might be SOME contrast) in mind, to get a sense of the range.

Glad to hear Boulevard is still on their game. My aunt (who, incidentally, just moved to your neck of the woods!) is friends with Nancy's sister-in-law, if I have the connection right, which is how it first got to be a family favorite...

What David said. I like them both and while I prefer the White Hill, the Golden Slope was the best fit with a tropical seafood lunch on the patio of a very good restaurant in Maui. IOW, it has its place.

I have a soft spot for broad, rich Chards, if well-made. (That soft spot is usually at about 2 o'clock to a crab cake or a lobster roll.)

[Jenise]

I have a soft spot for broad, rich Chards, if well-made. (That soft spot is usually at about 2 o'clock to a crab cake or a lobster roll.)

Me too. I just love chardonnay--only thing that screws it up is too much toast, too little acidity, or too much ripeness. I'm pretty good with just about everything else, though Chablis has my heart most of all.

Hmmm...am making a maitake mushroom risotto for dinner tonight. Was going to go with a Graillot white Crozes-Hermitage, but maybe I'd rather have Chablis....

[David M. Bueker]

Opened up my last bottle of Liquid Farm today, the 2013 Bien Bien. It’s nice, but still too oak driven for my taste. I would rather have Ramey Hyde for a similar price, as the Ramey handles it’s oak better.

Thanks for the notes! Fun read with all the ups and downs.

2016 Teutonic Wine Company Pinot Noir Rosé Laurel Vineyard Chehalem Mountains
One of the prettiest roses I've ever seen--a neon shade of light red. Wine has intense, complex notes of strawberry and cherry (with stems) and a clean, dry finish. Going to order a case.

I have never had this. Sounds delicious. Olga and Barnaby are 2 great characters on the Oregon wine scene.

Jason

[Jenise]

Haven't met Olga but had Barnaby over for dinner one night because the distributor he was palling around with is a good friend. He got to choose whatever we opened from the cellar, and surprised me by going for aged Bordeauxs. Doesn't get too many of those in his circles, I guess. After that I spotted them a loan to help build the Portland tasting room, and they've been sending me wine in repayment since. I'm not a fan of wine clubs but he makes such a variety of cool stuff that I kind of love opening those boxes to see what the heck's in it. And the names--who else would name a wine Foil Cucumber?

Haven't met Olga but had Barnaby over for dinner one night because the distributor he was palling around with is a good friend. He got to choose whatever we opened from the cellar, and surprised me by going for aged Bordeauxs. Doesn't get too many of those in his circles, I guess. After that I spotted them a loan to help build the Portland tasting room, and they've been sending me wine in repayment since. I'm not a fan of wine clubs but he makes such a variety of cool stuff that I kind of love opening those boxes to see what the heck's in it. And the names--who else would name a wine Foil Cucumber?

That is awesome!

And I believe in some circles there is still a debate as to whether or not it was actually a zucchini https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAargSCXQaQ

J

[Jenise]

Definitely a cucumber! (Fun to watch that again, though.)

Oh, btw, I re-read my post about Barnaby and realize I sounded more heroic than I actually am. I was one of many who forked over $1K and accepted repayment in 'free' wine.