Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Don, Jay, Jeff, Julie, Seth, Victor
Fer crissakes, why is this so complicated? You pour the wine from a big bottle into some little bottles and swap them with your friends. Like, duh.
But no. First there is indecision over the date. We can't pick one in September so we pick one in October which, objectively, is no better. Then this attendee can't attend so, like Go-To and Pooh-Bah, we need a Substitute. We find a healthy and happy Second Trombone. That means we can revisit the dates discussion, right?
When the Second Trombone pulls a hamstring, or whatever it is that Second Trombones pull that keeps them benched for the rest of the game, now we need a full-fledged Samaritan to redeem our malarkey planning. Bacchus finally takes pity and sends us the wonderful Julie!
In all it took 47 emails -- that's just today's count -- to pull this spontaneous(!) event together.
Good thing we're desperate drunks pushovers for some persuasive old grape juice.
In the order tasted:
Don's yellow tag// Eric Texier 2010 Cotes-du-Rhone "Brezeme", Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - 13%, rather dark red, not purple, so strong wine but not too-too young. Someone guesses cab franc (no) and it didn't strike me that way, though I see some similarity. Someone else guesses syrah, to which Don replies, "Almost." (Now that's a giveaway!) The wine does not carry the obvious markers of a big wine (coarse tannins, alcohol burn, unctuous glycerin) but it is medium-bodied and *full* of flavor.
Day 4: Like its older sib but just a bit of red-currant and just a bit shy of fortissimo. (Still yum!)
Don's blue tag// Eric Texier 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone "Brezeme", Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - 12.5%, as There Will Be A Theme, we guess that this is the same maker (yes), the same grape (yes), the same wine (yes), but it takes us a while to find the year (and only with hinting). This bottle is singing. "Pure, plain, unfussy" -Victor, "Very very very nice" -Jay (which is two more verys than he gave the 2010)
Day 4: Robust, black fruits (but not really plummy, more like blackberries without the sweetness), pure and beautiful, wow.
Jay's 1// Tement 2019 Sudsteiermark Grassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc - First sip: way OOT perfume (viognier or gewurz?) with a bitter note in the finish (so, viognier); someone else guesses riesling (say wha?) but that makes me think... and if I leave some slack for alleles and wait for a bit of air, now this tastes like sauvignon blanc. We puddle around until we finally place it in Austria but that's where we run out of knowledge guesses. At the price Jay quoted, some Googling suggets this may have been a reserve bottling but he didn't say.
Day 4: Still definitely sauv blanc but it has become rather gentlemanly now, with tangy acidity, underripe apricots with a bit of wintergreen(?) and camphor, more interesting than yummy but nice anyway
Jay's 2// Clos Roche Blanche 2014 Sauvignon Blanc - There Will Be A Theme Even If It Has To Be In Little Bitty Pieces, so we rapidly peg this as sauvignon blanc but of a different character: rounder, a touch riper, much less aggressively cilantro. We only mumble a few guesses before we suddenly recognize the lovely wine in front of us.
Day 4: So different! Softer palate but more minerally and with a snap of anise seed. Stimulating wine.
Jay's 3// Dom. Pepiere 2014 Muscadet "Clisson" - New theme: Encore Performances. This is a follow-on to wines poured at another recent VC. "That's delicious!" -Victor, "Very long" -Don, this is a complicated palate of grapefruit, pear, and salt. We eventually name the cepage, melon, but not the maker, vintage, or cru.
Day 4: About the same though the salt has receded somewhat. Yet it still calls out for briny things: my house is full of the aromas of a pot roast cooking in the oven but now, with this wine, I wouldn't mind a little Selles-sur-Cher....
Jay's 4// De Forville 1979 Barbaresco - A pair offered by CSW that tingled a good old memory in Jay so here they are. This is very old: the color of pale tea, brown sugar in the nose (for me, a marker of a very old wine). Victor thinks it's horrible. We ask if this is, like, 40 years old? (Yes.) As old as Jay? (No.) It's not foul but it's also no longer wine. Hard to tell what this once was.
Day 4: Same.
Jay's 5// De Forville 1979 Barbaresco "Montestefano" - This still has wine characteristics: "Rough and rustic... nebbiolo?" -Victor (yes), "Barolo?" -Don (no), "Ghemme" -Jeff (no), "Barbaresco?" -Seth (yes).
Day 4: This is the color of brick and starting to go translucent but it's still wine. (Montestefano is a famously tough, sturdy cru.) Taste some nebbiolo yet but its coming apart, sugar and camphor falling out.
Jay's 6// Drouhin 2008 Chambolle-Musigny 1er - This was a last-minute addition to the roster - Help Us, Lord, Yet Another Theme! - so it did not have enough decant time before being bottled up. Jay instructs us, at the beginning of the tasting, to put #6 in a glass and let it breathe some more. And here it is: Just. F'ing. Lovely. Enticing nose, clearly Burgundy, fragrant but not too young or too old. A sip: I think this is Chambolle, though someone else jumps in "Cotes de Nuits?" (yes), "Chambolle?" -Jeff (yes). For Jay, that probably means it is Drouhin, but what vintage? "2002?" -Jeff (no), a few recent vintages are guessed (no), but then Jay lets on that it is one of his favorite years, a vintage he broke his then-current buying hiatus for. I know this one: 2008. We do ask whether this is the Bonnes-Mares (no) so Jay reveals the AOC.
Day 4: None left.
Bottle shots courtesy of 'prt sc' and some drunk on Zoom:
And us:
Fer crissakes, why is this so complicated? You pour the wine from a big bottle into some little bottles and swap them with your friends. Like, duh.
But no. First there is indecision over the date. We can't pick one in September so we pick one in October which, objectively, is no better. Then this attendee can't attend so, like Go-To and Pooh-Bah, we need a Substitute. We find a healthy and happy Second Trombone. That means we can revisit the dates discussion, right?
When the Second Trombone pulls a hamstring, or whatever it is that Second Trombones pull that keeps them benched for the rest of the game, now we need a full-fledged Samaritan to redeem our malarkey planning. Bacchus finally takes pity and sends us the wonderful Julie!
In all it took 47 emails -- that's just today's count -- to pull this spontaneous(!) event together.
Good thing we're desperate drunks pushovers for some persuasive old grape juice.
In the order tasted:
Don's yellow tag// Eric Texier 2010 Cotes-du-Rhone "Brezeme", Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - 13%, rather dark red, not purple, so strong wine but not too-too young. Someone guesses cab franc (no) and it didn't strike me that way, though I see some similarity. Someone else guesses syrah, to which Don replies, "Almost." (Now that's a giveaway!) The wine does not carry the obvious markers of a big wine (coarse tannins, alcohol burn, unctuous glycerin) but it is medium-bodied and *full* of flavor.
Day 4: Like its older sib but just a bit of red-currant and just a bit shy of fortissimo. (Still yum!)
Don's blue tag// Eric Texier 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone "Brezeme", Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - 12.5%, as There Will Be A Theme, we guess that this is the same maker (yes), the same grape (yes), the same wine (yes), but it takes us a while to find the year (and only with hinting). This bottle is singing. "Pure, plain, unfussy" -Victor, "Very very very nice" -Jay (which is two more verys than he gave the 2010)
Day 4: Robust, black fruits (but not really plummy, more like blackberries without the sweetness), pure and beautiful, wow.
Jay's 1// Tement 2019 Sudsteiermark Grassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc - First sip: way OOT perfume (viognier or gewurz?) with a bitter note in the finish (so, viognier); someone else guesses riesling (say wha?) but that makes me think... and if I leave some slack for alleles and wait for a bit of air, now this tastes like sauvignon blanc. We puddle around until we finally place it in Austria but that's where we run out of knowledge guesses. At the price Jay quoted, some Googling suggets this may have been a reserve bottling but he didn't say.
Day 4: Still definitely sauv blanc but it has become rather gentlemanly now, with tangy acidity, underripe apricots with a bit of wintergreen(?) and camphor, more interesting than yummy but nice anyway
Jay's 2// Clos Roche Blanche 2014 Sauvignon Blanc - There Will Be A Theme Even If It Has To Be In Little Bitty Pieces, so we rapidly peg this as sauvignon blanc but of a different character: rounder, a touch riper, much less aggressively cilantro. We only mumble a few guesses before we suddenly recognize the lovely wine in front of us.
Day 4: So different! Softer palate but more minerally and with a snap of anise seed. Stimulating wine.
Jay's 3// Dom. Pepiere 2014 Muscadet "Clisson" - New theme: Encore Performances. This is a follow-on to wines poured at another recent VC. "That's delicious!" -Victor, "Very long" -Don, this is a complicated palate of grapefruit, pear, and salt. We eventually name the cepage, melon, but not the maker, vintage, or cru.
Day 4: About the same though the salt has receded somewhat. Yet it still calls out for briny things: my house is full of the aromas of a pot roast cooking in the oven but now, with this wine, I wouldn't mind a little Selles-sur-Cher....
Jay's 4// De Forville 1979 Barbaresco - A pair offered by CSW that tingled a good old memory in Jay so here they are. This is very old: the color of pale tea, brown sugar in the nose (for me, a marker of a very old wine). Victor thinks it's horrible. We ask if this is, like, 40 years old? (Yes.) As old as Jay? (No.) It's not foul but it's also no longer wine. Hard to tell what this once was.
Day 4: Same.
Jay's 5// De Forville 1979 Barbaresco "Montestefano" - This still has wine characteristics: "Rough and rustic... nebbiolo?" -Victor (yes), "Barolo?" -Don (no), "Ghemme" -Jeff (no), "Barbaresco?" -Seth (yes).
Day 4: This is the color of brick and starting to go translucent but it's still wine. (Montestefano is a famously tough, sturdy cru.) Taste some nebbiolo yet but its coming apart, sugar and camphor falling out.
Jay's 6// Drouhin 2008 Chambolle-Musigny 1er - This was a last-minute addition to the roster - Help Us, Lord, Yet Another Theme! - so it did not have enough decant time before being bottled up. Jay instructs us, at the beginning of the tasting, to put #6 in a glass and let it breathe some more. And here it is: Just. F'ing. Lovely. Enticing nose, clearly Burgundy, fragrant but not too young or too old. A sip: I think this is Chambolle, though someone else jumps in "Cotes de Nuits?" (yes), "Chambolle?" -Jeff (yes). For Jay, that probably means it is Drouhin, but what vintage? "2002?" -Jeff (no), a few recent vintages are guessed (no), but then Jay lets on that it is one of his favorite years, a vintage he broke his then-current buying hiatus for. I know this one: 2008. We do ask whether this is the Bonnes-Mares (no) so Jay reveals the AOC.
Day 4: None left.
Bottle shots courtesy of 'prt sc' and some drunk on Zoom:
