Lahaye, Texier, La Bota, Baudry

Jay Miller

Jay Miller
There were a lot of really good wines the other night at Pan de Sal but these four stood out for me.

The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

2009 Lahaye Benoit Violaine Champagne - even better than the last bottle I had. I'm not always convinced by no dosage Champagnes. If they all tasted like this I would be. Complex, changeable and utterly delightful.

2008 Baudry 'Granges' - impeccable balance, drinking really well. For me it outshined the 2011? Franc de Pied it was paired with but I've never understood everyone's enthusiasm for the latter bottling.

La Bota #37 Amontillado - my Sandy wine (a glass a night made the power outage a lot easier to deal with) this bottle is just as good, rich and complex. Perfect pairing for all sorts of pork.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:

2009 Lahaye Benoit Violaine Champagne - even better than the last bottle I had. I'm not always convinced by no dosage Champagnes. If they all tasted like this I would be. Complex, changeable and utterly delightful.

Not just non dose, but no SO2.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?

Did you perhaps misread 2010 as 2020?
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by SFJoe:
.sasha is gently suggesting that you're drinking the St.J./St.A. a mite early.

I'm a bit slow today.

I'll head off to my weekly self-criticism session now...

Don't listen to them. Let the corks fly!
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?

2025?
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?

2025?

That's what I thought, too. But maybe .sasha thinks Texier has time-travel powers and can make wine 3 years in arrears.
 
And anyway, I still subscribe to the "drink them young or drink them old" philosophy. 2010 still qualifies as young. This certainly hasn't shut down yet.

If it's much better in 12 years I may need to have a pacemaker installed before then.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?

2025?

Is that the name of a restaurant in the future, Oswaldo? What do they do with their empty bottles, incidentally?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

was there time travel involved here? Where does one dine BYOB in 2022, Jay?

2025?

Is that the name of a restaurant in the future, Oswaldo? What do they do with their empty bottles, incidentally?

It's the new George Orwell.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
And anyway, I still subscribe to the "drink them young or drink them old" philosophy. 2010 still qualifies as young. This certainly hasn't shut down yet.

If it's much better in 12 years I may need to have a pacemaker installed before then.

"Drink and hold" is always a good strategy.
 
Seeing sherry pop up in these geeky exchanges is really exciting. My friends Jesús Barquín and Eduardo Ojeda really are magicians.
 
Not a La Bota, but a Valdespina Deliciosa en Rama Manzanilla (bottled this Spring) was also really fine last night.

Mark Lipton
 
Very similar background, of course. Most La Bota... bottlings come from Valdespino, where Eduardo is chief winemaker.
 
originally posted by VS:
Seeing sherry pop up in these geeky exchanges is really exciting. My friends Jesús Barquín and Eduardo Ojeda really are magicians.

Unfortunately there was one anti-Sherry person at the table and another person who announced at that dinner that he was giving up on Sherry and selling his collection off (giving me a chance to pick up some of the La Bota 21 which I had been looking for all over).

So it's still hard to open in other than very large or very select groups. Too many of my friends won't drink it. Arnold won't drink it either.

And when Jesus visits there's the opposite problem. It seems best to open something he doesn't drink all the time.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
Lahaye, Texier, La Bota, BaudryThere were a lot of really good wines the other night at Pan de Sal but these four stood out for me.

The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

2009 Lahaye Benoit Violaine Champagne - even better than the last bottle I had. I'm not always convinced by no dosage Champagnes. If they all tasted like this I would be. Complex, changeable and utterly delightful.

2008 Baudry 'Granges' - impeccable balance, drinking really well. For me it outshined the 2011? Franc de Pied it was paired with but I've never understood everyone's enthusiasm for the latter bottling.

La Bota #37 Amontillado - my Sandy wine (a glass a night made the power outage a lot easier to deal with) this bottle is just as good, rich and complex. Perfect pairing for all sorts of pork.
Last night at the third anniversary of the Woodlot, coincidentally, we had two of your four, being the St. Julien en St. Alban, and La Bota #37 (among many others). The former provided no evidence against current consumption, and provided no evidence against consumption in 2025 and beyond. La Bota #37 provided no evidence for nursing the bottle over several nights (of power outage or otherwise).
 
originally posted by Jeff Connell:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
Lahaye, Texier, La Bota, BaudryThere were a lot of really good wines the other night at Pan de Sal but these four stood out for me.

The 2010 Texier St. Julien/St. Alban was most people's (including myself) WOTN. Gorgeously complex, wonderful fruit and earth. I added another bottle to my pending order after drinking this.

2009 Lahaye Benoit Violaine Champagne - even better than the last bottle I had. I'm not always convinced by no dosage Champagnes. If they all tasted like this I would be. Complex, changeable and utterly delightful.

2008 Baudry 'Granges' - impeccable balance, drinking really well. For me it outshined the 2011? Franc de Pied it was paired with but I've never understood everyone's enthusiasm for the latter bottling.

La Bota #37 Amontillado - my Sandy wine (a glass a night made the power outage a lot easier to deal with) this bottle is just as good, rich and complex. Perfect pairing for all sorts of pork.
Last night at the third anniversary of the Woodlot, coincidentally, we had two of your four, being the St. Julien en St. Alban, and La Bota #37 (among many others). The former provided no evidence against current consumption, and provided no evidence against consumption in 2025 and beyond. La Bota #37 provided no evidence for nursing the bottle over several nights (of power outage or otherwise).

Thank noodle Jeff Connell is back to talk sense.
 
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