Five Wines w/Dinner (menu)

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Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
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. . . . . Pete
 
Over the years, I have tasted a significant number of SQN wines, red and white.
Almost all of the reds have been so mis-shapen, alcoholic and confected that I could not finish a glass. The whites, however, despite generally high abv, have often been palatable; some actually delicious.
Of course, none are worth the exorbitant prices charged but that’s another issue.
I don’t think I’ve tried this one but I may have and have simply have forgotten - which likely indicates my assessment of it.
What did you think?
 
Jim, I believe the SQN Lightmotif is very rare. A blend of 47% Roussanne, 21% Chardonnay, 14% Petite Manseng, 11% Viognier, 7% Marsanne, it is a marvelous wine produced by Manfred Krankl. It is probably not your "style"; however, I think you would still enjoy it (and be readily willing to finish your glass).

Being a big fan of most all Rhone wines, this clever domestic wine in the Rhone style struck my fancy (I had it with a salad since I don't eat Carpaccio).

. . . . . Pete
 
Sorry, Pete, but that sounds to me like an atrocity. I like white Rhones if they are kept within bounds. One thing sure to get them out of bounds is Viognier. Add to that Petite Manseng and the SQN style for overdoing everything and I can't see my liking it. I have only tasted SQN reds and, like Jim, I don't find them drinkable. I haven't tried this, so I could be surprised.
 
Jonathan, I hear you loud and clear.

Yes, this is a big wine but the alcohol was not conspicuous in my view; somehow(?), it was balanced out, perhaps by the generous fruit presence. Or maybe my taster or frame of mind was overlooking its effect (impact?).

. . . . . Pete
 
I have fond memories of barramundi but I think it demands a stronger prep than just a little citrus foam. That prep was 3/4" chunks of tomato, onion, and kalamata olives roasted along with the fish.
 
Probably the best course of the evening -- Australian Barramundi, Wild Caught Jumbo Lump Crab Meat Risotto, Citrus Foam, House Pickled Mustard...

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And nicely complemented by the PYCM Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chenevottes '13 En Jeroboam.


. . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Sorry, Pete, but that sounds to me like an atrocity. I like white Rhones if they are kept within bounds. One thing sure to get them out of bounds is Viognier. Add to that Petite Manseng and the SQN style for overdoing everything and I can't see my liking it. I have only tasted SQN reds and, like Jim, I don't find them drinkable. I haven't tried this, so I could be surprised.
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Jim is correct on this. The reds are abhorrent, but the whites can be all right. Not great, but decent, and without the features that make the reds so offensive.
 
Keith, for the record, I didn't and don't disagree with Jim. I was only commenting on the SQN whites and extending a comment about the Lightmotif being something he might like. I was receptive to Jonathan's firm comments.

. . . . . Pete
 
I kinda like the idea of tasting wines like these in a dinner setting. You're not obliged to drink only the wine they told you to drink with a particular course; I can't recall any dinner where a somm couldn't scrounge up another glass of something I liked from a previous course to replace a wine I don't wanna drink with the current course. I found this menu interesting in that there was a good wine followed by a bad wine followed by a good wine, etc. Or vice-versa. Or maybe the attendees liked a good wine with a particular course and a bad wine went better than the one you'd preferred to have sipped with the wine.

I don't go to many wine dinners these days. I know everything already, right? I know what I liked in the past and I'm not going to change. Except when I do. Yeah, I prefer Dom and PYC but I've often found SQN, En Remilly and their ilk to be interesting to taste and even drink (if I'm Ubering home and am not planning to operate heavy machinery the next morning). I've lately been poured some 10+ year old Saxum releases that have been really compelling. Whereas on release, they had evolutionary potential and showed okay for the critics, although drinking them soon after release was an experience as blatant as a lap dance at a bottomless tranny Saigon tequila bar while on leave in 1967. But with a decade+ of age, the same wine has evolved into the tweener their producers intended them to be, and what was once a lap dance evening has evolved more along the lines of what it's like hanging out with ballerinas at PJ Clarke's after a performance of the Nutcracker.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of “willing suspension of disbelief” comes into play here. If you're facing a bottle of Enremilly unprepared, yes you're going to hate it before the sommelier doles out the pour. But if you consider that this one is almost 10 years old and comes from fruit grown in a couple of the central coast's most established vineyards, then maybe your mind opens up like a two-dollar suitcase and you discover that it tastes pretty good alongside that charred hanger steak. Maybe you're not going to pound two glasses tonight (what is this, the 19th hole at a country club?) but one glass is not so bad, and it'll get you all lubed up and rarin' to go for the Suduiraut.

I live in a place that's the coolest-climate AVA in California, but we're maybe 20 miles away from a place where you could go weeks before you find a wine under 15% alcohol on a BTG list. White OR red. But that's the way it is. You adapt, you find the joy and the unusual where you can, and revel in it. I don't buy this stuff, but a lot of the winemakers are friends and I enjoy tasting with them. And they enjoy (and appreciate) the weirdass French and Italian and Spanish shit I bring to dinner and we all have fun. We don't talk shit about the others' preferences and we don't bomb anyone (although wtf, we've been warned that our region is potentially under attack by Iranian drones but I suspect it's more likely that one of Elon's satellite rockets will blow up at the nearby Vanderberg Space Force Base before something shows up here, all the way from Iran)

So Pete, it sounds like a fun evening was had by all (except for some of the people who read about it) and that there was something on the wine list to please all palates.

Do you guys talk about the wines? You drink some pretty groovy things, no lack of large format unobtanium types of wine, but is it this group that likes to engage in discussion over what's in the glass, or is the focus on trophy hunting, or even merely getting dizzy on good hooch? I suspect it's kind of a combination of those aims.

-Eden (I've got no kick with anyone not liking any wine, whether on previous experience with the producer/variety/region/vintage, or because they find fault with the label design, presumptive alcohol levels, political alignment of the winery principals, or the business practices of the importer or distributor. Let a thousand flowers bloom, unless you suffer from hay fever, in which case all bets are off. Drink Sutter Home White Zinfandel if it'll make you feel better)
 
It is like listening to a thoroughly whipped and tamed John Stewart read the news after a night of hard drugs and debauchery.
Let the thousand flowers bloom?
Something to please all palates?
You find joy in the unusual and revel in it?

Who the fuck are you?
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
(They) find fault with the label design, presumptive alcohol levels, political alignment of the winery principals, or the business practices of the importer or distributor.
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No one has ever better and more articulately defined my credo.
 
Eden, yours is a powerful and appreciated posting...deserving of some kind of MVP honor.

[PP] .. You mention En Remily. I couldn't get past my first taste of the Andremily and my neighbors declined my offering my glass for their consumption. Fortunately for me, the SQN Lightmotif and PYCM Chassagne-Montrachet filled in nicely...even with the steak accompaniment.

[PP] .. And, yes, I often bring prior glasses forward during the dinner to go with a subsequent course, oftentimes being a more enjoyable match.

[PP] .. You ask, "is it this group that likes to engage in discussion over what's in the glass, or is the focus on trophy hunting." Honestly, maybe a little of both in some cases. The purpose of our organization might best be described by being formed for the purpose of providing "for the discreet and refined enjoyment of uncommon wine and victuals and the companionship accruing thereto". The priority is on protecting all aspects of our camaraderie while discussing the courses, both food- and wine-wise. A different spokesman is preassigned to discuss each particular course and then followup discussion ensues. Needless to say, some pretty strong and often critical commentary might occur about a course or its makeup.

[PP] .. Hope you incur no harmful "Iranian drone attack(s)".

[PP].. . . . . Pete
 
I'm all for letting a thousand flowers bloom and recognizing that we each have our own preferences. But this bored is about registering preferences. As long as one remembers that they are preferences, I don't think we need to remind ourselves of the obviousness of the necessity of a laisser gouter policy. If Eden didn't write so well, I might actually object to his post for the self-evidence of that position. By the way, I don't know that I wouldn't like that SQN white since I have never tasted an SQN white. I was reacting to my past experience with hot, gloopy Viognier and Petit Manseng (mostly from VA, thought). I have tasted Southern Rhone wines with Viognier in them that I have found tolerable. But usually not.
 
The Viognier I've been getting in France (usually blended) is of a very different character from that I used to get several years ago. It is much more restrained and subtle.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
The Viognier I've been getting in France (usually blended) is of a very different character from that I used to get several years ago. It is much more restrained and subtle.
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I did say Southern Rhone Viognier. Obviously in cooler climes it would do better. I have tasted a couple from the Southern Rhone that were actually vibrant. But it isn’t the norm. I’m guessing that SQN would not be restrained
, but, as I keep saying, I didn’t taste it.
 
Actually, I've enjoyed a number Southern Rhône and Languedoc whites in recent years that do have Viognier in them. The biggest problem used to be Condrieu in the North. The few experiences I have with them in recent years indicates that they have toned down, too, but I'd rather drink a good St-Jo blanc or St-Peray (which have no Viognier) from the likes of Gripa, Gonon, Perret, etc. at a fraction of the price.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
By the way, I don't know that I wouldn't like that SQN white since I have never tasted an SQN white. I was reacting to my past experience with hot, gloopy Viognier and Petit Manseng (mostly from VA, thought). I have tasted Southern Rhone wines with Viognier in them that I have found tolerable. But usually not.
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Jonathan, I think you might like that SQN white more than you like the idea of it, depending on the food it's served with. I find central CA Viognier to show more northern Rhône-like (structured and elegant) than what's planted in the Southern reaches of France. Well-intended they may be, and it grows with great vigor in the heat, but it's still the wrong variety for the climate, and that's reflected in the yucky blends. More better that in your travels, you stumble across a bottle of the regular Alban Viognier and give that a try. It's grown on east-facing hillsides in the coldest AVA in CA and shows pure varietal character and some Condrieu-like minerality. Stylistically, I'd plop it squarely down in the middle between Yves Cuilleron's zaftig renditions of the wine and the more minerally, "it's gonna live forever" Georges Vernay Condrieus. I think the Alban is the equal of both of those, and it retails for about $32, and it's been 20+ years since I've bought credible Condrieu for that kind of bread. I would reckon that you'd derive far less pleasure from the Alban Syrahs and Grenaches. They're excellent, but if I may be so bold, I'd say they're "not your style". No harm, no foul.

Pete, this wine group sounds like it wouldn't be a bad idea to be strategic about whom you sit next to. I'm in a hi-fi club that's like this. Members argue whether a $2500 interconnect brings out the tympani better on a Phil Collins record (and if the streaming release is better than the LP), while another part of the group is saying that "electrons don't give a shit about what they're being sent across, and that 16 gauge zip wire sounds just as good as the $77,000 Transparent Audio Magnum Opus (for that kind of kale, what the hell are you actually listening to? They should send someone out from the factory to listen to it for you and tell you how good it is and how much of a man you are for being able to buy a set. And then you've got the attendees who just want to debate the merits of the original Parlophone pressings of the early Beatles records vs. the German pressings of the same discs, all the while shouting that the Capitol pressings suck, and that Vee Jay should have kept the rights to the band. Like stereo, like wine (and don't get me started on the car guys)

-Eden (lots of angels dancing on the heads of pins in the universes I visit in my travels. At least there are lots of flowers)
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Actually, I've enjoyed a number Southern Rhône and Languedoc whites in recent years that do have Viognier in them. The biggest problem used to be Condrieu in the North. The few experiences I have with them in recent years indicates that they have toned down, too, but I'd rather drink a good St-Jo blanc or St-Peray (which have no Viognier) from the likes of Gripa, Gonon, Perret, etc. at a fraction of the price.
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Aha, the voice of reason (and experience). I love Condrieu, but one has to sell a lot of plasma to buy a good bottle these days. Maybe I'm misreading it, but since Guigal's La Doriane entered the stratosphere of points and price, it seems to have established the benchmark for "good." Ch. Grillet is off the list, Vernay (my benchmark) is $200 as of Lyle's offering last night, and the intergalactic awareness of Chave has pushed Hermitage Blanc way out of any range rationally aspire to buy in. Marsanne is the call for sure. I find St. Joseph Blanc on closeout pretty regularly, good stuff too.

-Eden (Bacharach and David were fans-- they had a big hit with that song "Do You Know the Way to St Peray?")
 
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