CWD: what did you drink while traveling?

Pavel Tchichikov

Pavel Tchichikov

Pavel Tchichikov
While on extensive diplomatic tour to meet with the heads of local politburo branches in Germany, France, and the subcontinent, I have been asked to initiate a spinoff from the master "what did you drink last night" thread. "Part 2" seemed incredibly lame and disrespectful to high-ranking members particularly attached to the original. Instead, I have exploited my circumstances to justify the subject line as you see it. I would like to suggest that even taking the subway from Upper West Wide to Inwood qualifies as traveling, and your impressions from such a trip would be perfectly suitable for this space.

One of my first and most vivid impressions from the journey was a sneak peek into what's shaping up to be a brilliant 2021 vintage, at Jochen Beurer's. Among the whites in 2021, we only saw a classic nostalgia-inducing Riesling Trocken and an irresistable a.k.a impossible to spit regardless of time of day Grauburgunder. The terroir bottlings and the GGs presented were older. There is a perfect storm involving Jochen's willingness to expose the wines to some oxygen early on and the raciness of 2021; the basic Riesling bursts with energy, driven and delineated by its very stony core and brilliant acids in the finish, while managing a very user-friendly rounded and borderline floral side throughout, nose and palate. I am particularly fond of the 2013, and this seems even better.

trocken2021_1.jpg
 
What about traveling from my kitchen to the dining room table. That may bust open all the options...

Thanks for update on Beurer. Glad to hear the wines continue to progress well.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
in the meantime, where have I traveled to?

ghislane.jpg
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fun photo, but at the risk of repeating myself, I have always enjoyed les Véroilles more as an abstraction than as a reality.

Though I am quite envious of being in whichever cellar.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
There is a perfect storm involving Jochen's willingness to expose the wines to some oxygen early on and the raciness of 2021; the basic Riesling bursts with energy, driven and delineated by its very stony core and brilliant acids in the finish, while managing a very user-friendly rounded and borderline floral side throughout, nose and palate. I am particularly fond of the 2013, and this seems even better.
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that was a really good glass of riesling. energy it had.

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originally posted by Anders Gautschi:
Chez Barthod? Lucky you!
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Indeed. It was the traditional Boillot/Barthod marathon, this time with the Moulin-a-Vent + Fleurie tasting inserted as a palate cleanser between the two, rather than as the dessert course at an alternate location across town. The great lady of Chambolle has navigated this remarkable vintage (remarkable in a most overloaded sense) of 2021 with skill and insight, producing wines of great finesse that is so fitting to the territory she controls. That said, and for microclimate-specific reasons I am still attempting to grasp fully, Chambolle was notably less affected by the frosts of April. While other challenges certainly existed, at least she - for the most part - did not need to deal with insufficient quantities required for optimal vinification. That she doesn't hold land on the steeper grand cru slopes (where frost was rampant, although once again not as much in Chambolle as to the north, not to speak of the disaster that struck Cote de Beaune) certainly helped. It will be a fascinating vintage to follow if we are able to get our hands on actual bottles (a big if, given prices and quantities): certainly the first "classic" vintage in quite some time, with low-ish acids and high pH (3.6-3.8 depending on who you talk to), but often superb structure based on very fine and ripe tannins. There is a delicacy that is prompting many to bottle early to preserve freshness, and an exquisite and (if you are disorderly) refreshing balance that should facilitate ageing. I would however not bury them at inaccessible long-term storage by any means.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
What about traveling from my kitchen to the dining room table. That may bust open all the options...
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They are in different wings of the estate, no? Then this is definitely your thread.
 
18 niellon vergers. with sole. at lunch. and other stuff.

accepted that hell beckons, but we aren't quite there yet.

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drouhinwhites2021.jpg
great lineup of whites in 2021. An inevitable comparison to 2017 will be slightly unfair as the latter have the same exquisite balance with a touch more density. The humble fellow on the left ( well, not really anymore these days ) is particularly complete and is the best I've tasted. Perhaps not a coincidence, since they've now acquired the vineyards. I would be happy to own any of these.

the reds weren't bad either
 
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2022 has been a particularly historic year for Champagne in the town of N, but I am wondering if I've had one better or even as good. Everything I want in a Brut Nature - transparency that speaks loudly of place (namely montagne), purity of fruit, a perfectly measured oxidative character. Add to that an intensity and effortless handling of power and pinot ripeness that clos des goisses would be proud of, and you get something extraordinary.
 
dear politburo -
as you can see here, all attempts to spawn alternative "how i got drunk last night" threads were squashed by (what i assumed to be) a gentle imposition of your autocracy
disorderly yours
 
while traveling from one age to another - 76 clos des papes was a fine, cooly fruited bottle, dark and deep, with fine tannins still. given its age and the hot year of its birth, its finesse was a surprise (while also perhaps offering a tribute to the intentions of its maker). by contrast, 83 bosquet des papes was less structured, arguably less mannered, and no less enjoyable for all that. another well fruited, admirably preserved reminder of what was once possible in teh southern rhone.

was inspired to crack these in response to the heat that has smothered teh fatschloß of late - both were quite excellent in that context, while proving fine foils to a similarly weather inspired confit of cow with lots of garlic and rosemary.

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On a side trip to southern Quebec (Cantons de l'Est) while on vacation in Vermont: Picbois rosé 2023 from Vignoble du Picbois, in the Montérégie region.

Med salmon color, pleasant mild melon-strawberry fruit with a faint weedy-herb note a bit like Cinsault. Decent fruit and balance, short, pleasantly quaffable. Quite well done from a blend of undistinguished grapes - Geisenheim (Riesling x Chancellor), Vidal and Sabrevois (kitchen sink hybrid).
 
tonight i am, like i suspect like many of us, doing the performative tasting of fine wines in the hope that as a side effect i might make myself gently numbed in case enough of teh dumb CENSOREDS "feel like a change" that teh shit hits teh fan.

if you understand, you understand. if not, um, well fuck you.

which is to say that much has been consumed in teh hope of avoiding any travel as in teh spirit of this cwd (see teh health threads for its dubious benefits), it still seems that, even as we fear the dark, teh flashes of inspiration can occur. which is to say, hello to teh teh domaine de mont redon cndp 1976 that is currently serving as a very helpful anaesthetic.

i don't drink this kind of shit any more. because climate change. but in that context, it is at least worth noting that, as an aside, i opened this because i found a bunch in teh fat cave, and assumed it would be long gone (because it was from a "notoriously hot" vintage, when hot meant you could sit outside in some parts if europe). suffice it to say, it is not gone. far from it. after teh usual clumsy decant (to remove teh shitty 70s cork as well as sediment), it opens out with no smell of old generic wine, but rather primary hits of cherry, plum, herbs and tobacco, in the way that if you know and like this shit, you can easily imagine. only resolved and harmonious. with frankly amazingly refreshing acidity.

this is no lightweight. 13.7 booze units according to teh label, but it was delightful blast from teh past in a space the was once truly amazing.

it has disappeared in a flash. because this is what teh chateauneuf was, once. digestible, lively and moreish.

let's hope teh future is too, eh?

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originally posted by fatboy:
tonight i am, like i suspect like many of us, doing the performative tasting of fine wines in the hope that as a side effect i might make myself gently numbed in case enough of teh dumb cunts "feel like a change" that teh shit hits teh fan.
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I don't like to see "cunts" used as a pejorative on this forum. Or anywhere. No matter what.
No matter what.
 
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