Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Don, Eden, Jay, Jeff, Lisa, Marty, Victor
Lisa and Seth pour.
Before we begin, Lisa issues "a serious warning" about the vinous experience she has placed before us. Of course, it is too late to flee so this is merely that time-honored tradition of tormenting your friends. (If not your friends, then who can you torment?)
We begin with the two Yellow-tagged bottles:
Victor dashes to the top of a nearby anthill and plants the flag: "They're both red!". (Yes.)
Yellow #1 - "Pyrazines!" -Marty; "Rubber!" -Jeff; "Bottle sweetness, therefore mature" -Don; "Brighter than #2" -Victor; we eventually place the wine in South Africa and soon after peg it as pinotage; the group likes the earthy, meaty aromas while I just can't get past the factory floor taste of it - Kanonkop 1997 Pinotage
Yellow #2 - "Brothy" -Melissa; and cloudy, with some dark chocolate in the finish; this is recognizably Cotes du Rhone (Yes.), nobody guesses Cairanne (does anyone know CdR that well?) and is surviving way past its expected lifespan - Dom. Rabasse-Charavin (Corinne Couturier) 1997 Cairanne, Cotes du Rhone Villages, "Cuvee D'Estevenas"
Next up: The first Blue-tagged wine, but not the second (due to the opaque demands of theming).
Blue #1 - "Sweet nose" -Marty; "Juicy-Fruit or Band-Aid in the nose" -Melissa; I agree that there is a whiff of brett in the nose but it is very faint. We get the place and cepage pretty quickly, despite Lisa's best efforts to lead us astray ("No, really, guys, I think there's grenache...") - Joel Taluau 1997 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil VV
Seth's themes must be a little less convoluted as we follow the obvious path and open A and B together, then C and D together.
Tag A - "Bark" -Melissa (Woof.), this is vaguely unpleasant, whatever it is; kinda flat, aromas and flavor somewhere between an old leather slipper and laundry detergent; others confirm a 'hints at soap' aspect to the wine - Dom. M. Gaunoux 2003 Pommard 1er "Rugiens"
Tag B - well, this couldn't be more different: this wine smells like after-shave, maybe mixed with a little amaro or quinine; I guess that's some serious barrel-program talking (sufficiently tannic for Don to ask "So tannic, is this a black wine of Cahors?") - Dom. de Courcel 2004 Pommard 1er "Grand Clos des Epenots"
Seth says these are both pinot noirs from Burgundy! Yikes. Hm. We take the tannic roughness seriously and start guessing in Pommard (Yes.). We eventually get the vintages and we think that might explain the after-shave: that's what the Green-Meanies turn into!
Moving on.
Tag C - 14%, tired palate, mildly oxi, but a huge finish; in fact, an incredible finish - Paul Pernot 2005 Puligny-Montrachet 1er "Les Pucelles"
Tag D - a whole lot fresher, "Minty, fresh, and light" -Victor - Dom. H. Boillot 2005 Puligny-Montrachet 1er "Les Pucelles"
We guess chard pretty quickly and we're even reasonably sure this is White Burgundy but none of us is an admirer of the type so it takes a lot of guesses to get our collective butts into Puligny.
Retrying these the next night, the Pernot has gotten a lot more aromatic, and there is now plenty of acidity and the whole flavor profile is brighter (still a little oxidation in the finish) but much improved. The Boillot is about the same as it was, not so grand as the Pernot but stylish with a good-not-great finish.
OK, nothing left but hardcore theme wines and sweeties. Diving in.
Lisa admits that her 1997 theme does not extend to the Red-tagged bottles. Their theme is this:
Ah, I see. Lisa says the right-hand one should go last of all so we'll intermix Lisa bottles and Seth bottles:
Red #2 - I know I have had this wine before! It's a funky pink wine so I first guess Cotat, as one does. (No.) Let's look more closely. The wine is cloudy. More a pinky-red than just pink. Really, really sulfury. (Spotlessly clean of bacterial problems, therefore.) Acidity is robust and kinda tweaky... wait a sec. I guess "Poulsard?" (Some.) "Poulsard and Trousseau?" (Yes.) "Overnoy???" - Overnoy 1993 Arbois-Pupillin
I tried it the next night and it was unchanged. If you had this much sulfur stirred into you, you wouldn't be changing, either.
The previous sighting of this bottling from this source (Coad's sister's basement): click
That was 7 years ago. No wonder this label looks like it does.
Next:
Blue 2 - Yah, it's chenin blanc from 1997. Takes three tries to guess Foreau (no prizes for knowing what the first two guesses were). The wine is lovely, delicately sweet and floral in the nose, not sweet at all on the palate; so that's a Demi-Sec. - Foreau 1997 Vouvray Demi-Sec
Tasted the next day, this is still so good: the floral nose is enticing, then there's sturdy acidity and, I'll say it, dryness on the palate. I bet this is a great pleasure at the table.
Tag E - 9.5%, "Wow!" -Jay. "Riesling" -Victor. "Fantastic!" -Jay. This is a beauty: tons of acids, green grapes and oregano, might be a sweet Spat or a not-too-crazy Auslese; someone says the acidity is like eating Kool-Aid powder as a kid; we guess MSR pretty quickly and von Schubert, too, but we miss the vintage; "clearly 1990, the pine needle and menthol make it distinctive" -Seth - Maximin Grunhaus (C. von Schubert) 1990 Herrenberg Riesling Spatlese
Red #1 - Chenin? (Yes.) Vouvray? (No.) Coteaux-du-Layon? (Yes; it's so nice to have Specialist Don around for these occasions!). Baumard? (Yes; Jay is good at it, too). A little dark, a little caramelly, not quite the guts (structure, minerality) that a similarly sweet Vouvray would have but I'm not spilling it out of my glass... - Dom. des Baumard 2000 Coteaux du Layon "Le Paon"
Thank you to everyone for a fun evening.
PS. Go back and click on the picture of the tatty bottles to see what the labels should look like.
Lisa and Seth pour.
Before we begin, Lisa issues "a serious warning" about the vinous experience she has placed before us. Of course, it is too late to flee so this is merely that time-honored tradition of tormenting your friends. (If not your friends, then who can you torment?)
We begin with the two Yellow-tagged bottles:
Victor dashes to the top of a nearby anthill and plants the flag: "They're both red!". (Yes.)
Yellow #1 - "Pyrazines!" -Marty; "Rubber!" -Jeff; "Bottle sweetness, therefore mature" -Don; "Brighter than #2" -Victor; we eventually place the wine in South Africa and soon after peg it as pinotage; the group likes the earthy, meaty aromas while I just can't get past the factory floor taste of it - Kanonkop 1997 Pinotage
Yellow #2 - "Brothy" -Melissa; and cloudy, with some dark chocolate in the finish; this is recognizably Cotes du Rhone (Yes.), nobody guesses Cairanne (does anyone know CdR that well?) and is surviving way past its expected lifespan - Dom. Rabasse-Charavin (Corinne Couturier) 1997 Cairanne, Cotes du Rhone Villages, "Cuvee D'Estevenas"
Next up: The first Blue-tagged wine, but not the second (due to the opaque demands of theming).
Blue #1 - "Sweet nose" -Marty; "Juicy-Fruit or Band-Aid in the nose" -Melissa; I agree that there is a whiff of brett in the nose but it is very faint. We get the place and cepage pretty quickly, despite Lisa's best efforts to lead us astray ("No, really, guys, I think there's grenache...") - Joel Taluau 1997 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil VV
Seth's themes must be a little less convoluted as we follow the obvious path and open A and B together, then C and D together.
Tag A - "Bark" -Melissa (Woof.), this is vaguely unpleasant, whatever it is; kinda flat, aromas and flavor somewhere between an old leather slipper and laundry detergent; others confirm a 'hints at soap' aspect to the wine - Dom. M. Gaunoux 2003 Pommard 1er "Rugiens"
Tag B - well, this couldn't be more different: this wine smells like after-shave, maybe mixed with a little amaro or quinine; I guess that's some serious barrel-program talking (sufficiently tannic for Don to ask "So tannic, is this a black wine of Cahors?") - Dom. de Courcel 2004 Pommard 1er "Grand Clos des Epenots"
Seth says these are both pinot noirs from Burgundy! Yikes. Hm. We take the tannic roughness seriously and start guessing in Pommard (Yes.). We eventually get the vintages and we think that might explain the after-shave: that's what the Green-Meanies turn into!
Moving on.
Tag C - 14%, tired palate, mildly oxi, but a huge finish; in fact, an incredible finish - Paul Pernot 2005 Puligny-Montrachet 1er "Les Pucelles"
Tag D - a whole lot fresher, "Minty, fresh, and light" -Victor - Dom. H. Boillot 2005 Puligny-Montrachet 1er "Les Pucelles"
We guess chard pretty quickly and we're even reasonably sure this is White Burgundy but none of us is an admirer of the type so it takes a lot of guesses to get our collective butts into Puligny.
Retrying these the next night, the Pernot has gotten a lot more aromatic, and there is now plenty of acidity and the whole flavor profile is brighter (still a little oxidation in the finish) but much improved. The Boillot is about the same as it was, not so grand as the Pernot but stylish with a good-not-great finish.
OK, nothing left but hardcore theme wines and sweeties. Diving in.
Lisa admits that her 1997 theme does not extend to the Red-tagged bottles. Their theme is this:
Ah, I see. Lisa says the right-hand one should go last of all so we'll intermix Lisa bottles and Seth bottles:
Red #2 - I know I have had this wine before! It's a funky pink wine so I first guess Cotat, as one does. (No.) Let's look more closely. The wine is cloudy. More a pinky-red than just pink. Really, really sulfury. (Spotlessly clean of bacterial problems, therefore.) Acidity is robust and kinda tweaky... wait a sec. I guess "Poulsard?" (Some.) "Poulsard and Trousseau?" (Yes.) "Overnoy???" - Overnoy 1993 Arbois-Pupillin
I tried it the next night and it was unchanged. If you had this much sulfur stirred into you, you wouldn't be changing, either.
The previous sighting of this bottling from this source (Coad's sister's basement): click
That was 7 years ago. No wonder this label looks like it does.
Next:
Blue 2 - Yah, it's chenin blanc from 1997. Takes three tries to guess Foreau (no prizes for knowing what the first two guesses were). The wine is lovely, delicately sweet and floral in the nose, not sweet at all on the palate; so that's a Demi-Sec. - Foreau 1997 Vouvray Demi-Sec
Tasted the next day, this is still so good: the floral nose is enticing, then there's sturdy acidity and, I'll say it, dryness on the palate. I bet this is a great pleasure at the table.
Tag E - 9.5%, "Wow!" -Jay. "Riesling" -Victor. "Fantastic!" -Jay. This is a beauty: tons of acids, green grapes and oregano, might be a sweet Spat or a not-too-crazy Auslese; someone says the acidity is like eating Kool-Aid powder as a kid; we guess MSR pretty quickly and von Schubert, too, but we miss the vintage; "clearly 1990, the pine needle and menthol make it distinctive" -Seth - Maximin Grunhaus (C. von Schubert) 1990 Herrenberg Riesling Spatlese
Red #1 - Chenin? (Yes.) Vouvray? (No.) Coteaux-du-Layon? (Yes; it's so nice to have Specialist Don around for these occasions!). Baumard? (Yes; Jay is good at it, too). A little dark, a little caramelly, not quite the guts (structure, minerality) that a similarly sweet Vouvray would have but I'm not spilling it out of my glass... - Dom. des Baumard 2000 Coteaux du Layon "Le Paon"
Thank you to everyone for a fun evening.
PS. Go back and click on the picture of the tatty bottles to see what the labels should look like.
