Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Don+Melissa, Jay, Jayson, Jeff, Lisa, Seth, Victor
Jayson and Jeff pouring.
Jayson managed to stay mum but I enjoy a bit of hinting. So, before the event, I told everyone that the word for the theme is ape. And, furthermore, as that is a really confusing clue, you should get yourself a chocolate bar for later.
Of course, everyone got the chocolate bar reference but despite some good guesses no one understood that 'ape' is pronounced 'ah-pay' as it is "bee" in Italian:
[yellow]: Nusserhof 2021 Vino Bianco "Bl.te.le" - 12%, curious stamp on the top of the cork (click), beautiful gold color like the best rendered schmaltz; palate comes off as very very dry (repeated by several tasters), "tastes like it has a lot of everything: flavor and alcohol and body" -Don, I love the huge bouquet and lots of dry extract, so good; folks have trouble placing it, eventually essaying Alsace but it takes a while to find Alto Adige from there (click)...
day 5: a lot more dirt and resin, still achingly dry, terrific with every vegetable on my plate though
[green]: Le Piane 2023 VdT "Bianko" - 13%, pale gold color, Victor immediately guesses riesling but Jay says not; "it's nice and juicy" -Victor, "a little off-dry" -Don, "more complete to me than the first wine" -Jayson, "and a more complex nose" -Jay; folks immediately grok that this is mountain wine but it takes a while to figure out which mountains... the acid structure is so much better in this wine that the blatterle is immediately sidelined; long finish, too
Day 5: juicy, fruity, even fruit-cuppy, strong wine, stands up to Southwestern-style seasonings
[dots]: Cincinnato 2023 IGT Bellone "Quinto" - 13%, white wine color(!), varietal, oragnic, from volcanic soils, raised in steel with no malo;
"pear, pink grapefruit, and flowers" -Don, this is definitely a little riper than the others so folks start guessing locations in Southern Italy (but it's from Lazio so rather more central than southern), very fruity, peaches!, almost too ripe for theis ascetic bunch of wineaux, not an elegant wine but plenty tasty
Day 5: wow, lost its rustic edge, some structure has come out from under all that fruit! good balance, good presence, gotta go buy more of this one
By the way, all three of these wines are having terrific vintages. I can't recall any of them tasting this good before.
Before continuing on to the reds, we stop the bizz-buzz and instead drink from Jayson's pours.
[#1]: Thomas-Labaille 2012 Sancerre "Chavignol" "Les Monts Damnes" "Cuvee Buster" - caramelly, Jay likes the nose but the palate is oxidized; I guess 90s, Jay guesses 2002 "the year of premox"; Day 2: the nose remains a little intriguing but the palate is pretty shot; maybe you could drink it with gjetost...
[#2]: Dom. William Fèvre 2012 Chablis 1er "Vaulorent" - matchstick in the nose, "I find this delicious!" -Jay, doesn't take us long to name it Chablis, we think it's young so we guess backwards 20, 17, 14, 10... 12 -- you know, the theme -- and while pretty plush, premier cru not grand cru; Day 2: that's terrific! juicy, light texture but so much finish
Day 5: still focused, a little oak showing, but so powerful
Onward to the Red Kingdom.
[#3]: Coudert (Clos de la Roilette) 2012 Fleurie "Cuvee Tardive" - smoky nearly ashy, nettles, strawberry, "Gamay?" -Seth, and before Jayson can answer "Coudert?" -Seth and again "Tardive?" -Seth; yes, wow for Seth and wow for the wine... "aromatically explosive" -Jayson, this is so good (glad I have some in storage!); Day 2: less smoke and more strawberries, a touch of resin and earth, great bottle
[#4]: Dom. Chevillon 2012 Nuits-St-Georges 1er "Les Cailles" - this time we guess the vintage first (aren't we special?), love the nose, earthy and redfruited, but the palate is metallic; red burgundy is everyone's guess (yes), then Seth reads the man and guesses Chevillon Cailles, have I mentioned the nose is so great?
About now Don fetches a volume from his wine library and shows us a couple of pages, an advert for Roilette (click) and a map of Cailles (click).
Two more Italian b's, the eminently predictable ones.
[orange]: Produttori del Barbaresco 1999 Barbaresco - 13.5%, I could not tell, when I poured it, whether it was right so I hoped for the best; alas, Bacchus was looking the other way, pretty close to dead, but let's put the cork back and try again later; Day 2: the nose is still stinky but the palate has some fruit and earth; not a total loss
Day 5: same... stinky nose, dying but not dead berry palate, though I'm kinda finding a way to enjoy this with food
[cheetah]: Brovia 2008 Barolo "Villero" - 14.5%, nose is too stinky, palate hints at what might have been, shot
Bacchus has not been smiling on our old Italian wines lately. Sigh.
And now for the dessert course!
[flowers]: Traginer 2010 Banyuls Grand Cru - 17%, did you notice that it isn't from Italy?, pale garnet color, lots of age showing, pretty easy to recognize it as Banyuls but "not enough VA to be Dr. Parce" -Don; I guess Dr. Parce has top-of-mind but this house makes very fine vin doux, like a raspberry-scented chocolate bar, tons of alcohol in your face but yummy
Day 5: a lot of VA but the sugar is doing a good job of masking it
[#5]: Dr. Parce 1976 Grand Vin de Banyuls Collita - reaching way back to the 70s!, definitely fortified, eventually Jayson allows that it is from France (so not Port, as several of us were thinking), but there is some VA here so Don guesses the house; also very yummy, and how do you like that: fifty-plus of these events, never a hint of Banyuls anywhere, and now there are two of them in one flight!
Bottle shots:
And, for those tracking the development of corks:
Fun event, as always with good wine and good people.
Jayson and Jeff pouring.
Jayson managed to stay mum but I enjoy a bit of hinting. So, before the event, I told everyone that the word for the theme is ape. And, furthermore, as that is a really confusing clue, you should get yourself a chocolate bar for later.
Of course, everyone got the chocolate bar reference but despite some good guesses no one understood that 'ape' is pronounced 'ah-pay' as it is "bee" in Italian:
[yellow]: Nusserhof 2021 Vino Bianco "Bl.te.le" - 12%, curious stamp on the top of the cork (click), beautiful gold color like the best rendered schmaltz; palate comes off as very very dry (repeated by several tasters), "tastes like it has a lot of everything: flavor and alcohol and body" -Don, I love the huge bouquet and lots of dry extract, so good; folks have trouble placing it, eventually essaying Alsace but it takes a while to find Alto Adige from there (click)...
day 5: a lot more dirt and resin, still achingly dry, terrific with every vegetable on my plate though
[green]: Le Piane 2023 VdT "Bianko" - 13%, pale gold color, Victor immediately guesses riesling but Jay says not; "it's nice and juicy" -Victor, "a little off-dry" -Don, "more complete to me than the first wine" -Jayson, "and a more complex nose" -Jay; folks immediately grok that this is mountain wine but it takes a while to figure out which mountains... the acid structure is so much better in this wine that the blatterle is immediately sidelined; long finish, too
Day 5: juicy, fruity, even fruit-cuppy, strong wine, stands up to Southwestern-style seasonings
[dots]: Cincinnato 2023 IGT Bellone "Quinto" - 13%, white wine color(!), varietal, oragnic, from volcanic soils, raised in steel with no malo;
"pear, pink grapefruit, and flowers" -Don, this is definitely a little riper than the others so folks start guessing locations in Southern Italy (but it's from Lazio so rather more central than southern), very fruity, peaches!, almost too ripe for theis ascetic bunch of wineaux, not an elegant wine but plenty tasty
Day 5: wow, lost its rustic edge, some structure has come out from under all that fruit! good balance, good presence, gotta go buy more of this one
By the way, all three of these wines are having terrific vintages. I can't recall any of them tasting this good before.
Before continuing on to the reds, we stop the bizz-buzz and instead drink from Jayson's pours.
[#1]: Thomas-Labaille 2012 Sancerre "Chavignol" "Les Monts Damnes" "Cuvee Buster" - caramelly, Jay likes the nose but the palate is oxidized; I guess 90s, Jay guesses 2002 "the year of premox"; Day 2: the nose remains a little intriguing but the palate is pretty shot; maybe you could drink it with gjetost...
[#2]: Dom. William Fèvre 2012 Chablis 1er "Vaulorent" - matchstick in the nose, "I find this delicious!" -Jay, doesn't take us long to name it Chablis, we think it's young so we guess backwards 20, 17, 14, 10... 12 -- you know, the theme -- and while pretty plush, premier cru not grand cru; Day 2: that's terrific! juicy, light texture but so much finish
Day 5: still focused, a little oak showing, but so powerful
Onward to the Red Kingdom.
[#3]: Coudert (Clos de la Roilette) 2012 Fleurie "Cuvee Tardive" - smoky nearly ashy, nettles, strawberry, "Gamay?" -Seth, and before Jayson can answer "Coudert?" -Seth and again "Tardive?" -Seth; yes, wow for Seth and wow for the wine... "aromatically explosive" -Jayson, this is so good (glad I have some in storage!); Day 2: less smoke and more strawberries, a touch of resin and earth, great bottle
[#4]: Dom. Chevillon 2012 Nuits-St-Georges 1er "Les Cailles" - this time we guess the vintage first (aren't we special?), love the nose, earthy and redfruited, but the palate is metallic; red burgundy is everyone's guess (yes), then Seth reads the man and guesses Chevillon Cailles, have I mentioned the nose is so great?
About now Don fetches a volume from his wine library and shows us a couple of pages, an advert for Roilette (click) and a map of Cailles (click).
Two more Italian b's, the eminently predictable ones.
[orange]: Produttori del Barbaresco 1999 Barbaresco - 13.5%, I could not tell, when I poured it, whether it was right so I hoped for the best; alas, Bacchus was looking the other way, pretty close to dead, but let's put the cork back and try again later; Day 2: the nose is still stinky but the palate has some fruit and earth; not a total loss
Day 5: same... stinky nose, dying but not dead berry palate, though I'm kinda finding a way to enjoy this with food
[cheetah]: Brovia 2008 Barolo "Villero" - 14.5%, nose is too stinky, palate hints at what might have been, shot
Bacchus has not been smiling on our old Italian wines lately. Sigh.
And now for the dessert course!
[flowers]: Traginer 2010 Banyuls Grand Cru - 17%, did you notice that it isn't from Italy?, pale garnet color, lots of age showing, pretty easy to recognize it as Banyuls but "not enough VA to be Dr. Parce" -Don; I guess Dr. Parce has top-of-mind but this house makes very fine vin doux, like a raspberry-scented chocolate bar, tons of alcohol in your face but yummy
Day 5: a lot of VA but the sugar is doing a good job of masking it
[#5]: Dr. Parce 1976 Grand Vin de Banyuls Collita - reaching way back to the 70s!, definitely fortified, eventually Jayson allows that it is from France (so not Port, as several of us were thinking), but there is some VA here so Don guesses the house; also very yummy, and how do you like that: fifty-plus of these events, never a hint of Banyuls anywhere, and now there are two of them in one flight!
Bottle shots:
And, for those tracking the development of corks:
Fun event, as always with good wine and good people.
