TN: Jeebus at USC with Bob Semon (Apr 26, 2013)

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
attendees: Bob Semon, Kirk Wallace, Sharon Bowman, Rahsaan Maxwell, Don Rice, Cliff Rosenberg, Joe Dougherty, Jay Miller, Jeff Grossman

Bob was in town for a big barolo event at Del Posto. He's a stronger man than I, to spend two days drinking new vintage barolo (...tough on the lips, teeth, gums, tongue, throat after a while). And he's a sweetie. So we pull out the stops for him. Kirk tugged a few strings and we found ourselves in a private space at Union Square Cafe, with a fascinating menu. All courses were served family style so everyone could have as much or as little of each dish as they like:

APPETIZERS
Sardines in Saor
Wild Nettle Sformato
Spring Rapini Salad

PASTA
Spaghettini in Spicy Tomato-Anchovy Sauce
Mezze Paccheri

MAINS
Whole Grilled Orata
Braised Lamb Shoulder Della Nonna

CHEESE
Colombier (goat), Scharfe Maxx (cow), Brebirousse d'Argental (sheep, soft), Ossau-Iraty Vieille (sheep, hard), Bleu de Bocage (goat, blue)

DESSERT
Cookies, Crisps, and Truffles




Certain dishes stood out: the sformato was like Spring on a plate, so green and fresh and nettle-y; both pastas were excellent, the one rich in texture and umami while the other snapped of chives, pancetta and yogurt; the fish was firm and meaty.

We wrangled the wine station ourselves, of course:

Dom. de la Pepiere (M. Ollivier) 1997 Muscadet "Cuvee Buster" - in 2001, Dressner wrote: "This is 50 cases that were set aside from the grand 1997 Muscadet vintage and that come only from the best vineyards in the hamlet of Pépière. Unfortunately, I would liked to have sold this in ten years, but the grower and I need money."; zingy, tastes like a mineral sampler, rich mouthfeel but really only medium viscosity, nectar for the wine geek gods

The Champagne War - both single vineyard, single vintage, varietal, non-dosage

C. Bouchard 2008 Champagne Brut, Blanc de Blancs, "Roses de Jeanne", "La Bolorée" - 100% pinot blanc, disgorged 2012, bright, only a little chalkiness, beautiful wine that defies the fruit-basket vocabulary, long floral finish, I prefer this one by a hair

Larmandier-Bernier 2008 Champagne Brut, Blanc de Blancs, 1er Cru, "Terre de Vertus" - 100% chardonnay, much more 'personality' than the Bouchard, but also a slight cidre bouché quality (not the apples but that slight horse-mothballs thing)

Chéreau Carré 2007 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, "Comte Leloup du Ch. de Chasseloir", "Cuvee des Ceps Centennaires" - referred to by one wag as having a nom interminable this wine is made from a vineyard reportedly the oldest in Muscadet (nb. still post-phylloxera), it is named for the nobleman and the castle who owned it prior to the French Revolution; pretty typical for geeky muscadet

Chéreau Carré 1964 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, "Comte Leloup du Ch. de Chasseloir", "Cuvee des Ceps Centennaires" - oh!, amazingly light in color, nearly indistinguishable from its baby brother, this gives off a few odd bottle scents (underripe cherries and tomato) and then promptly shuts down; an hour later this was becoming very rich and full, a trace note of vinyl?, fascinating how long-lived this is

F. Chidaine 2009 Montlouis Sec "Les Bournais" Franc de Pied - good acidity, so dense, so much wine; also very ripe; I can see why folks like it but also why it may not be worth the tariff

Abbatucci NV Rose "Gris Imperial" - unpruned sciacarellu vines (the maker says that vines got along before humans so...), a Vin de France hence no vintage on the label but probably 2011; when first opened, tangy and vivid, but then it gets strangely spirity (at 11.5%?) and indistinct; I'm disappointed

Ganevat 2003 Savagnin Ouillé "La Combe" - jeez, who knows which grape it really was; anyway, half of the table says this is oxidized (in an unintended way) while the other half of the table finds charm

F.X. Pichler 1989 Reid Durnsteiner Kellerberg Riesling Smaragd - wow; totally dry, fresh and robust, like it hasn't aged a day

Bod. Riojanas 1970 Rioja Gran Reserva "Monte Real" - we had a few cork-handling problems and this was one; fortunately, no taint; as for the wine, all is resolved, pretty (and yummy) wine

Fourrier 2010 Chambolle-Musigny VV - consternation central: nice material (clean, pure, not too ripe) but it is not enjoyable to drink; Jay discovers that eating the lemon-scented olives helps; hmm

Rousseau 1996 Charmes-Chambertin GC - $53 well spent, lots of stuffing here yet and years of life ahead, a bit dark/brutish for pinot noir

Foreau 2002 Vouvray Demi-Sec - served with the fish, this shows very pretty but only a little sweet; this wine gets a little lost among all the other hubbub

Joguet 1990 Chinon "Clos du Chene Vert" - magnum; Joguet's site says, "Devrait être bu. Vin sur le déclin."; he's wrong; deep and dark, intensely fragrant wine, not really roasty or toasty, the tannins have melted enough to make this very enjoyable (and years of life ahead)

Ch. Giscours 1971 Margaux - cork-handling problem #2; nice enough; not OTH but the wine mumbles to itself occasionally and walks a little funny

O. Raffault 1990 Chinon - brought specifically as a companion piece to the Joguet, this wine is also pretty, ready, slightly high-toned, a whiff of sweet red peppers, dare I say à point

Borgogno 1978 Barolo Riserva - cork-handling problem #3; the wine is not corked but it is swampy with some maderization and 'tin can' twang; feh

Huet 1947 Vouvray Moelleux "La Haut Lieu" - not reconditioned; other-worldly, weightless yet a great presence, middling sweet, really there are not words for it

Dom. Montbourgeau (N. Gros) 1994 Vin Jaune L'Etoile - late-harvest savagnin under voile for 7 years; not my thing but it is very complex (unlike the Ganevat earlier)

Huet 1997 Vouvray Moelleux "Le Haut Lieu" - just sweet, tangy acidity, delicious stuff; the notes are getting weaker because this is already wine #20 and there's been 4 hours of talking, eating, and drinking and we aren't quite done yet

Tissot 2004 Arbois Vin de Paille - Bob was worried about provenance and he may be right as this has that cooked tomato taste that occurs in cooked wines

Maculan 2000 "Acininobili" - 100% vespaiola; grapes are chosen for botrytis and high sugar (appassimento is used for the "Torcolato" bottling); acacia, raisins, and the most amazing acidity that holds it all together, wow

A few pictures of us, too:

The Group:
sm_group.jpg


Additional snapshots:
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

Bob was in town for a big barolo event at Del Posto. He's a stronger man than I, to spend two days drinking new vintage barolo
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Indeed. For most of Saturday I was convinced I would need several days before even thinking about more wine. In the end I recovered enough for a modest and digestible bottle of 2011 Thevenet Morgon on Saturday night, but would never have been able to face a massive lineup of Barolo.

Otherwise, we had a great slew of wines with particular mention for me to the 1970 Riojanas, the Rousseau Charmes, the Joguet, and the 47 Huet, all of which were seductive in their own way.

I enjoyed the Pichler although wouldn't say it didn't show any age, it certainly smelled like prototpyical aged riesling. And I really enjoyed the Fourrier, the only problem was the other more aged and resolved beauties around it!

I really liked the Giscours at first, I thought it had such rippling dark, firm, and composed fruit. With air it did get a bit blocky, at least in my glass.

The Raffault was a bit past my point, at least flavor-wise, although who knows what different bottles of that will bring.

Thanks for the great post and thanks again to everyone. Perfect evening.
 
Thanks, Jeff, for the heroic work on all of these.

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

Certain dishes stood out: the sformato was like Spring on a plate, so green and fresh and nettle-y; both pastas were excellent, the one rich in texture and umami while the other snapped of chives, pancetta and yogurt; the fish was firm and meaty.
Click to expand...

So agree.

Dom. de la Pepiere (M. Ollivier) 1997 Muscadet "Cuvee Buster" - in 2001, Dressner wrote: "This is 50 cases that were set aside from the grand 1997 Muscadet vintage and that come only from the best vineyards in the hamlet of Pépière. Unfortunately, I would liked to have sold this in ten years, but the grower and I need money."; zingy, tastes like a mineral sampler, rich mouthfeel but really only medium viscosity, nectar for the wine geek gods
Click to expand...
That is a great quote from Joe. I'd forgotten that there was so little of this. Turns out I have one left. But what a wine!

The Champagne War - both single vineyard, single vintage, varietal, non-dosage....
Click to expand...

I will remain a noncombatant.

Chéreau Carré 2007 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, "Comte Leloup du Ch. de Chasseloir", "Cuvee des Ceps Centennaires" - referred to by one wag as having a nom interminable this wine is made from a vineyard reportedly the oldest in Muscadet (nb. still post-phylloxera), it is named for the nobleman and the castle who owned it prior to the French Revolution; pretty typical for geeky muscadet

Chéreau Carré 1964 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, "Comte Leloup du Ch. de Chasseloir", "Cuvee des Ceps Centennaires" - oh!, amazingly light in color, nearly indistinguishable from its baby brother, this gives off a few odd bottle scents (underripe cherries and tomato) and then promptly shuts down; an hour later this was becoming very rich and full, a trace note of vinyl?, fascinating how long-lived this is?
Click to expand...

A remarkable comparison. Thanks, Don.

Rousseau 1996 Charmes-Chambertin GC - $53 well spent, lots of stuffing here yet and years of life ahead, a bit dark/brutish for pinot noir
Click to expand...
I thought this quite robust and flavorful for a '96. Still a bit young, but good balance and not too too acidic.

Joguet 1990 Chinon "Clos du Chene Vert"
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I wonder whether this did not suffer a bit from the famous Washington retail storage conditions back in the day.

O. Raffault 1990 Chinon - brought specifically as a companion piece to the Joguet, this wine is also pretty, ready, slightly high-toned, a whiff of sweet red peppers, dare I say à point
Click to expand...

I expected this to be walked all over by the Joguet, but I thought it held its own very nicely.

Huet 1947 Vouvray Moelleux "La Haut Lieu" - not reconditioned; other-worldly, weightless yet a great presence, middling sweet, really there are not words for it
Click to expand...

Very good bottle of this, under the old plastic capsule, with a tighter cork than some. The cork still branded '1947'.
 
Jeff, you are a champ to have kept track and written up all of this, for which, many thanks.

I completely disagree with you on the champagnes and have some remarks on several other bottles, but will come back in a little bit to write them here.
 
On that front, I must say that each champagne did reveal its own merits, but the the different price-pleasure ratios were rather astounding. How many bottles of Terre de Vertus fit inside of a La Bolorée purchase?
 
Really wish that 1947 was opened before I left...

Ah well, a wonderful evening of people and wine nonetheless. Concerning the Champagne wars I will repeat what I said that night:

The Boloree was wonderful, probably my favorite Bouchard Champagne to date. Lush, rich, layered and complex. The Larmandier-Bernier was fantastic in an entirely different way - sharp, rocky, acidic. When consumed side by side the acidity in the LB made the Bouchard seem a bit flabby.

This reminds me of a dinner at Cafe Loup many years ago. Someone (Jeff Davidson?) had brought a 1971 Climens which remains in my memory as the single best Sauternes I've ever had (including later bottles of the same). Gorgeous wine. I then tried it next to a very good 1990 Muller Catoir Rieslaner that I had brought. The high-acid Rieslaner (which was not nearly as good a wine) made the Climens seem flabby. I drink some water, cleared my palate, and the Climens was wonderful again.

So my takeaway is to reinforce my opinion that there are certain wine pairings (same as food pairings) that just don't work. And yes, I know that Joe's takeaway was to never buy Sauternes.

With each Champagne on its own I definitely preferred the Boloree. Of course given the respective pricing I'm unlikely to buy it in preference to the LB.

Brad - thanks for arranging bringing those 1970 Monte Reals into the country. This was my best bottle to date.

That 1971 Giscours fell apart remarkably quickly, completely unlike other bottles. I'll refrain from decanting my remaining bottles from this source.

Don and Joe - thank you so much for the 1964 and 1997 Muscadets respectively. They were 2 of the highlights of the evening.
 
So, to explain.

Kirk Wallace, normally an actually quite considerate sort, had decided he must bring a bottle of Cédric Bouchard's "La Bolorée"--100% pinot blanc from the Aube.

Now, this wine is just plain icky, and he knows (after years of my pretending I knew his name) that I haven't a taste for it.

What could I do but parry that thrust and bring a wine with structure and chalk?

Jay evokes an unfair pairing: that was the point.

However, I do not agree with Jay's final assessment of the Bolorée's superiority. Yes, it is a pricy wine, but that has more to do with yields, quantities available--and also hype.

Terre de Vertus is usually my least favorite in the Larmandier-Bernier stable. And I wouldn't even put LB among my top ten favorite growers in Champagne. But its uncompromising austerity, its structure and sense of place all made it, Friday night, compelling. It was even less austere than I had planned; 2008 is a fine vintage.

But to get down to it, the Bolorée already elicited an "ick" from me before I was poured any LB (by the gracious Mr. Wallace).

All sweet roundness, it had no structure. "Flabby" wasn't the point; it was orb-y. And quite short on the palate.

The aromatics of pinot blanc are odd, too: prompting the question: Is any pinot blanc good?
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman: All sweet roundness, it had no structure. "Flabby" wasn't the point; it was orb-y. And quite short on the palate.
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Your point about stylistic preferences is made. But this seems like a rather extreme view. If that wine upset you so much, I hate to think what the large amount of wine further out on the round orby spectrum would do to your constitution!
 
Can you give a couple of examples? I know I have a rough time with rs (I was actually not allowed to taste a few of the wines at our table; some of the men down my side played garde-fou), but a lot of the sweet wines one finds have good acidity to offset things, no? Isn't that supposed to be an ideal?
 
Well yes, most of the rs wines would be rounder and plumper. Plus pretty much everything made in CA from any grape.

I don't drink a lot of champagne but one producer that pops to mind as further out would be Gatinois. No?
 
Plenty acidity in 2010 Mosel Riesling, even 2011. Are you a fan of, say, Schaeffer domprobst kab in either year. Or any of his or Christoffel wines in 2001?
 
.sasha, yes.

Rahsaan, I don't really agree about Gatinois. I think it's rich pinot noir but not in the same way. Rich as in vinous, not sweet.

I think a comparable low yield/powerful/sweet type of grower would be Vilmart. But he's not shy with the dosage (or oak). In Bouchard's case, all of that sweetness comes from draconian yields.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:

Jay evokes an unfair pairing: that was the point.

However, I do not agree with Jay's final assessment of the Bolorée's superiority. Yes, it is a pricy wine, but that has more to do with yields, quantities available--and also hype.
Click to expand...

I do not call it an unfair pairing so much as an unfortunate one. It's a bit like saying "that 1979 Domaine de Chevalier was terrible with my lobster! What a lousy wine." However I grant that you don't like it even without the accompaniment.

But then I'm a fan of Vilmart as well.
 
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