Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Don+Melissa, Jay, Jayson, Jeff, Lisa, Seth, Victor
No, we have not stopped meeting like this. We just had an amazingly successful run of predicting the day of the next blizzard. If only there had been a way to procure snow shovel futures or perhaps some options on calcium chloride.
Seth and Victor pour.
Having been so long deprived of each other's company we very cheerfully gather in the zoom room, ready to chat up a storm. And how about that? Victor is already thirsty:
V1. Albert Boxler 2023 Sylvaner - high alcohol for a white or, at least, it's showing; good acidity; Jay immediately places the wine in Alsace; "pink fruit, almost like a pink grapefruit" -Don and Jayson; "tastes like candy: sweet and tart" -Melissa; of course we guessed all the usual Alsatian grapes first
Day 3: gently ripe, white fruit-unripe peach, medium-weight, long finish with some minerality; riesling-adjacent but without the razor-sharp cut.
Day 4: no change
V2. Trimbach 2021 Alsace Grand Cru Riesling "Schlossberg" - 12%, another intense wine; "uncompromisingly dry" -Jayson; great acidity; waxy and full in the way that wines from Alsace are... Jay and Jayson ratatat Alsace (yes), Riesling (yes), Trimbach (yes) but we have to ask Victor for the reveal to get the vineyard
Day 3: Far more floral, bit of Pez, juicier, showing green grapes and even green olive; fuller on the finish though similar in weight.
Day 4: fading, developing a lacquer-y finish
S1. Juliane Eller Weine ("Juwel") 2019 Alsheim Fruhmesse Riesling (Rheinhessen) - 12.5%, 11 20, this is obviously German riesling (yes), "quite dry" -Jayson, so likely a trocken; apple blossoms and apples, "juicy" -Victor, "very long" -Jeff, more pineapple than peaches, Jayson places it in Rhinehessen but we get no further on the id
Day 3: clearly riesling: brisk acid, floral but less showy than the Trimbach, with a distinct herbal streak. Very dry, lean, pineapple is an understandable call if not obvious.
Day 4: finally opening up, good promise here
S2. Kientzler 2016 Alsace Grand Cru Riesling "Kirchberg" - even nicer than the Juwel, also riesling but not German, Austrian, Finger Lakes, Australian... we finally get around to Alsace; we spend a lot of time guessing but nobody's heard of it before; apparently it's brought in by Panzer
Day 3: beautifully integrated nose from the extra bottle age, also dry, good sweet-tart balance, rich texture, and a chalky/white-earth finish; slightly heavier and more luxurious overall.
Day 4: fading, becoming monotonic acidic with no charm
V3. Ch. La Tour Haut Brion 1985 Graves - Jay emits a low Old Bordeaux Chortle. Victor says it is screaming what it is, and that only three wines have this smoky signature: Haut Brion, La Miss, and this wine. We zero in on 1985 Graves pretty quickly; "medicinal" -Seth, "texture is silky" -Melissa; it's beautiful wine but we need Victor to do the reveal.
Day 3: Slight mustiness that reads more like old Bordeaux- cedar, gravel, fading purple-red fruit. Gentle structure with resolved tannins, a touch of sandpapery grip at the end, and lovely complexity, though delicate enough that food might overwhelm it.
V4. Ch. La Mission Haut Brion 1985 Graves - Very similar to the La Tour but here is more substance here: lusher, fuller, more intense, more present, the La Tour is beautiful but this is rush. (Leave it to Victor to pour La Miss on a Monday.)
Day 3: Cleaner nose, slightly darker color. Distinct smoky overlay on gravel and forest tones; more presence and able to stand up to food. A strikingly beautiful mature Bordeaux.
S3. Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2021 Barolo "Acclivi" - 14.5%, whoa, what a contrast! lots of jagged alcoholic heat, "candied, like some Pacalet gamay" -Jeff; "in the new style of nebbiolo, hot and sweet" -Victor. We have a lot of whiplash trying to taste this further and give up soon. (Seth is tasting us on the new release.)
Day 3: Yes, let's be fair and taste these before the older Graves. Pale Nebbiolo color; nose like red candy or a high-end fruit punch, sweet and enticing. However, on the palate the structure explodes: massive tannins, a powerful wine that is far too young to show its full shape.
S4. Canonica Giovanni 2021 Barolo "Paiagallo" - 15%, also hot but there is more substance here to buffer it; probably another too-young nebbiolo and really hard to drink at this stage.
Day 3: Darker-toned nose, black raspberry, plum, earth, less confectionary than the Burlotto. More substance, hints of roses, primary fruit, and wet earth; still extremely young but perhaps ready sooner than the Acclivi.
Day 4: working its way through its bonds, breaking free slowly, worth following I think
S5. Willi Schaefer 2017 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese - 7%, 05 18, the mavens are all over it... riesling, Mosel, spatlese; practically clear; this is in an amazingly beautiful place and we have trouble picking the vintage.
Day 3: Low-alcohol, sweet but not incredibly so (maybe 60g rs?), youthful but not viciously primary: Meyer lemon, lemon blossom, a hint of kumquat; medium-plus weight and beautifully judged balance.
S6. J.J. Christoffel 1996 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese** - 05 97, dark gold and *lots* of botrytis, again we are fast to call auslese and Mosel, but we are a little surprised at the vintage because this is in very fine shape: yes, it's older but the acidity is good, it isn't faded or rotting, great bottle.
Day 3: quite the nose!, noticeably more botrytis and significantly higher sugar (maybe 160g rs?), rich, heavy, long, ripe nectarines, peaches, apricots in syrup, lifted by a faint leafy note, very very long finish
----------
I have written the day-of and Day 4 notes, above, by hand, as I always do. The Day 3 notes are also mine but via a technological path:
As I re-tasted the wines I had Windows transcribe my voice. It produced about a page of text. It got almost every name wrong ("I'll say some" for Alsatian, "Schaefer Crocker Dumb Props") and it faithfully scribbled down all the hemming and hawing and connecting words ("OK, that's it for the dry whites").
Then I handed the transcript to CoPilot and gave it instructions to condense it down to one or two sentences per wine and to make it sound polished and intelligent. It did a fair job of losing the noise and putting together some English that I could touch up (which I did).
But I had to laugh as it then offered to write other versions of my notes: more literary, more technical, or more minimalist. I reviewed those three. The literary style sounds like schnooking, the technical style kinda resembles what I write on paper (and then augment from my sense memory when I write it up), and the minimalist style is just a few nouns and adjectives separated by commas.
It then offered to rewrite them in a Baroque style, a "brutally clinical WSET style", a satirical style ("e.g., if David Foster Wallace wrote tasting notes"), and a style that mimics a specific critic (Jancis, Galloni, Schildknecht).
Then it offered to imitate a few more wine critics.
And haiku.
And then more Japanese poetry forms that I've never heard of.
All very droll.
No, we have not stopped meeting like this. We just had an amazingly successful run of predicting the day of the next blizzard. If only there had been a way to procure snow shovel futures or perhaps some options on calcium chloride.
Seth and Victor pour.
Having been so long deprived of each other's company we very cheerfully gather in the zoom room, ready to chat up a storm. And how about that? Victor is already thirsty:
V1. Albert Boxler 2023 Sylvaner - high alcohol for a white or, at least, it's showing; good acidity; Jay immediately places the wine in Alsace; "pink fruit, almost like a pink grapefruit" -Don and Jayson; "tastes like candy: sweet and tart" -Melissa; of course we guessed all the usual Alsatian grapes first
Day 3: gently ripe, white fruit-unripe peach, medium-weight, long finish with some minerality; riesling-adjacent but without the razor-sharp cut.
Day 4: no change
V2. Trimbach 2021 Alsace Grand Cru Riesling "Schlossberg" - 12%, another intense wine; "uncompromisingly dry" -Jayson; great acidity; waxy and full in the way that wines from Alsace are... Jay and Jayson ratatat Alsace (yes), Riesling (yes), Trimbach (yes) but we have to ask Victor for the reveal to get the vineyard
Day 3: Far more floral, bit of Pez, juicier, showing green grapes and even green olive; fuller on the finish though similar in weight.
Day 4: fading, developing a lacquer-y finish
S1. Juliane Eller Weine ("Juwel") 2019 Alsheim Fruhmesse Riesling (Rheinhessen) - 12.5%, 11 20, this is obviously German riesling (yes), "quite dry" -Jayson, so likely a trocken; apple blossoms and apples, "juicy" -Victor, "very long" -Jeff, more pineapple than peaches, Jayson places it in Rhinehessen but we get no further on the id
Day 3: clearly riesling: brisk acid, floral but less showy than the Trimbach, with a distinct herbal streak. Very dry, lean, pineapple is an understandable call if not obvious.
Day 4: finally opening up, good promise here
S2. Kientzler 2016 Alsace Grand Cru Riesling "Kirchberg" - even nicer than the Juwel, also riesling but not German, Austrian, Finger Lakes, Australian... we finally get around to Alsace; we spend a lot of time guessing but nobody's heard of it before; apparently it's brought in by Panzer
Day 3: beautifully integrated nose from the extra bottle age, also dry, good sweet-tart balance, rich texture, and a chalky/white-earth finish; slightly heavier and more luxurious overall.
Day 4: fading, becoming monotonic acidic with no charm
V3. Ch. La Tour Haut Brion 1985 Graves - Jay emits a low Old Bordeaux Chortle. Victor says it is screaming what it is, and that only three wines have this smoky signature: Haut Brion, La Miss, and this wine. We zero in on 1985 Graves pretty quickly; "medicinal" -Seth, "texture is silky" -Melissa; it's beautiful wine but we need Victor to do the reveal.
Day 3: Slight mustiness that reads more like old Bordeaux- cedar, gravel, fading purple-red fruit. Gentle structure with resolved tannins, a touch of sandpapery grip at the end, and lovely complexity, though delicate enough that food might overwhelm it.
V4. Ch. La Mission Haut Brion 1985 Graves - Very similar to the La Tour but here is more substance here: lusher, fuller, more intense, more present, the La Tour is beautiful but this is rush. (Leave it to Victor to pour La Miss on a Monday.)
Day 3: Cleaner nose, slightly darker color. Distinct smoky overlay on gravel and forest tones; more presence and able to stand up to food. A strikingly beautiful mature Bordeaux.
S3. Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2021 Barolo "Acclivi" - 14.5%, whoa, what a contrast! lots of jagged alcoholic heat, "candied, like some Pacalet gamay" -Jeff; "in the new style of nebbiolo, hot and sweet" -Victor. We have a lot of whiplash trying to taste this further and give up soon. (Seth is tasting us on the new release.)
Day 3: Yes, let's be fair and taste these before the older Graves. Pale Nebbiolo color; nose like red candy or a high-end fruit punch, sweet and enticing. However, on the palate the structure explodes: massive tannins, a powerful wine that is far too young to show its full shape.
S4. Canonica Giovanni 2021 Barolo "Paiagallo" - 15%, also hot but there is more substance here to buffer it; probably another too-young nebbiolo and really hard to drink at this stage.
Day 3: Darker-toned nose, black raspberry, plum, earth, less confectionary than the Burlotto. More substance, hints of roses, primary fruit, and wet earth; still extremely young but perhaps ready sooner than the Acclivi.
Day 4: working its way through its bonds, breaking free slowly, worth following I think
S5. Willi Schaefer 2017 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese - 7%, 05 18, the mavens are all over it... riesling, Mosel, spatlese; practically clear; this is in an amazingly beautiful place and we have trouble picking the vintage.
Day 3: Low-alcohol, sweet but not incredibly so (maybe 60g rs?), youthful but not viciously primary: Meyer lemon, lemon blossom, a hint of kumquat; medium-plus weight and beautifully judged balance.
S6. J.J. Christoffel 1996 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese** - 05 97, dark gold and *lots* of botrytis, again we are fast to call auslese and Mosel, but we are a little surprised at the vintage because this is in very fine shape: yes, it's older but the acidity is good, it isn't faded or rotting, great bottle.
Day 3: quite the nose!, noticeably more botrytis and significantly higher sugar (maybe 160g rs?), rich, heavy, long, ripe nectarines, peaches, apricots in syrup, lifted by a faint leafy note, very very long finish
----------
I have written the day-of and Day 4 notes, above, by hand, as I always do. The Day 3 notes are also mine but via a technological path:
As I re-tasted the wines I had Windows transcribe my voice. It produced about a page of text. It got almost every name wrong ("I'll say some" for Alsatian, "Schaefer Crocker Dumb Props") and it faithfully scribbled down all the hemming and hawing and connecting words ("OK, that's it for the dry whites").
Then I handed the transcript to CoPilot and gave it instructions to condense it down to one or two sentences per wine and to make it sound polished and intelligent. It did a fair job of losing the noise and putting together some English that I could touch up (which I did).
But I had to laugh as it then offered to write other versions of my notes: more literary, more technical, or more minimalist. I reviewed those three. The literary style sounds like schnooking, the technical style kinda resembles what I write on paper (and then augment from my sense memory when I write it up), and the minimalist style is just a few nouns and adjectives separated by commas.
It then offered to rewrite them in a Baroque style, a "brutally clinical WSET style", a satirical style ("e.g., if David Foster Wallace wrote tasting notes"), and a style that mimics a specific critic (Jancis, Galloni, Schildknecht).
Then it offered to imitate a few more wine critics.
And haiku.
And then more Japanese poetry forms that I've never heard of.
All very droll.