A few notes from the Heritage Blind Wine Tasting Finals in Las Vegas

J

Jay Miller

Jay Miller
I pretty much crashed and burned with 150 points but the event was fun even if they were not choosing wines with my palate preferences in mind.

1982 Haut Brion Blanc
I forgot my second rule of blind tasting. If I have no idea what it is and am not particularly fond of it guess white Bordeaux. It was all right if you like that sort of thing but IMO pales next to the older Domaine de Chevalier whites I've had.

2014 Coche Dury Puligny Les Enseingeres
The strong matchstick nose immediately called Coche to mind and this was the only producer I correctly identified. Well meaning friends continue to inflict their wines on me. Please stop.

2011 Roumier Bonnes Mares
I am only a little embarrassed to say I had no idea what this was. I remembered my first rule of blind tasting but was positive it wasn't grenache. As hard as you would expect young Bonnes Mares to be, not delivering a whole lot of pleasure yet.

1982 Chateau Petrus
This was one of the two glasses with which I could have spent all night. Magnificent. I guessed Latour, most people guessed Mouton. Only my second Petrus.

1968 Vega Sicilia Unico
Really very, very good and showing quite young. The winner correctly identified this wine but since I've only had Unico twice before (one of those times it was a corked bottle and the other was 20+ years ago) I had no idea. I wrote something random down.

1997 Harlan Estate
Much better than I would have expected had I seen the label beforehand. I guessed Dunn Howell Mountain due to the tannins which is a compliment in my book.

1996 Guigal La Turque Cote Rotie
Absolutely captivating nose. I could have smelled this all night. Generally the only wine other than older Chave which does that to me is Burgundy so I guessed DRC. Delicious as well but the nose was the star. Loved this.

1989 Rayas
Damn. I liked this too much to guess Chateauneuf even though I had no idea of what it was.

The Petrus and the Guigal were my clear favorites with the Rayas and the Vega in a clear second tier for me.

Some generous offerings at the BYO dinner which followed even if wasn't the best audience for most of them (Pavie, SQN, ...).

I can't recommend the food at Jean Georges Steakhouse though service was excellent and we had a lovely private room. The steak was way oversalted, tough, not much beef flavor and on the medium side of medium rare rather than the rare I had ordered. Also, the caeser salad was served ice cold. I got the molten chocolate cake dessert as a tip of the hat to Jojo which originated it. That was very good though not as good as I remember it from all those years ago when I suppose it had the benefit of novelty.

The Aria hotel was nice enough though like all the area hotels it suffers from having lots of strange machines with flashing lights and beeping noises in the lobby. Not sure what that's about. Dalek invasion? Had a surprisingly good and unsurprisingly overpriced breakfast in the Aria Cafe.
 
Thanks for the report, Jay. What a bunch of big names and years. I note that extraordinary wines are just as many standard deviations off normal -- and therefore hard to guess -- as dubious wines.

Not surprised at the food reviews. When I see articles about how the food has really gotten quite good in LV, no, really, it has... I think about all those envelopes that arrive in the mail that say "Important" on them.
 
It is been a long time since I’ve had the ‘97 Harlan but in the twenty or so times in the past, the VA was way past my limit. But I have also heard from others with experience that not every bottle shows it. Hard to understand but there it is . . .
Unico makes me wish my great grandfather had left me his cellar.
And I have no use whatever for Haut Brion Blanc. ‘Like sucking wine thru an oak tree.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
It is been a long time since I’ve had the ‘97 Harlan but in the twenty or so times in the past, the VA was way past my limit. But I have also heard from others with experience that not every bottle shows it. Hard to understand but there it is . . .
Unico makes me wish my great grandfather had left me his cellar.
And I have no use whatever for Haut Brion Blanc. ‘Like sucking wine thru an oak tree.
Best, Jim
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As an avowed Musar fan VA doesn't frighten me nor am I overly sensitive to it. But there was none that stuck out to me. It seems like a good, well made, too young Napa cab to me. The fruit was a bit too dense for my taste but I would have been happy to drink it if nothing better was on the table. Solid B/B+ wine.
 
Years ago, at a blind tasting of California Cabs, I had the same reaction to a Harlan (I don't remember the vintage). Given all the hoo hah going on about it, I was surprised when the bottle was revealed since it had been a nice, though not especially wonderful wine. To be able to make a properly biased judgment, I tasted it again, knowing what it was. Still the same perfectly nice, insufficiently objectionable, California Cab. And, no, I don't remember when this tasting was or what the vintage of Harlan it was. The only Harlan I ever tasted.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Florida Jim:
It is been a long time since I’ve had the ‘97 Harlan but in the twenty or so times in the past, the VA was way past my limit. But I have also heard from others with experience that not every bottle shows it. Hard to understand but there it is . . .
Unico makes me wish my great grandfather had left me his cellar.
And I have no use whatever for Haut Brion Blanc. ‘Like sucking wine thru an oak tree.
Best, Jim
Click to expand...

As an avowed Musar fan VA doesn't frighten me nor am I overly sensitive to it.
Click to expand...

Were that the only defect in Musar wines. (Though for some of us VA alone is a deal breaker).
 
VA tastes less objectionable in an oldish Musar than in a young whippersnapper from downundah, so it may not be a sign of less sensitivity.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
VA tastes less objectionable in an oldish Musar than in a young whippersnapper from downundah, so it may not be a sign of less sensitivity.
Click to expand...
You joshin’ me or do you just like old Musar?
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
VA tastes less objectionable in an oldish Musar than in a young whippersnapper from downundah, so it may not be a sign of less sensitivity.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but that is also because the brett is somewhat integrated in the older Musar.
 
the innaugural "what wine is this, really" column in 'art of eating' was jamie goode expousing the wonders of chateau musar. needless to say, he loves the wine.

to paraphrase his summation of the wonders of chateau musar, it is a wine with every flaw and every flaw in perfect balance.
 
I absolutely love Musar with age. In the last 3 months I've has '78, '85 and '91: feral and sexy and brilliant, each and every one. For the record, VA doesn't bother me one bit....
 
originally posted by scottreiner:
I absolutely love Musar with age. In the last 3 months I've has '78, '85 and '91: feral and sexy and brilliant, each and every one. For the record, VA doesn't bother me one bit....
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We all have our passions.
Last time I had an aged Musar I spit it out. Immediately.
Different strokes . . .
Best, Jim
 
Thanks, Jay. This was a fun read. I've only had that '68 Unico once too -- albeit it was a friend that opened 4 or 5 bottles for Thanksgiving 20 or so years ago, and I was one of the few guests drinking; I noticed no significant bottle variation. :)

It was superb but super young then; not surprised that it still seems young. I understand Fla Jim's point about great grandfather's cellar when it comes to the super great vintages of Unico. it is not a wine for your children and maybe not even your grandchildren.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
VA tastes less objectionable in an oldish Musar than in a young whippersnapper from downundah, so it may not be a sign of less sensitivity.
Click to expand...
You joshin’ me or do you just like old Musar?
Best, Jim
Click to expand...

I was trying to save Jay from his self-proclaimed insensitivity to v.a.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by scottreiner:
For the record, VA doesn't bother me one bit....
Click to expand...

Tsk, tsk, it's spoilage, so it's like sayin' that the decomposition of corpses doesn't bother you one bit.
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One could say that any fermented product is spoilage, O., such as yogurt, cheese, pickles or sauerkraut. That’s a dangerous road to go down.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by scottreiner:
For the record, VA doesn't bother me one bit....
Click to expand...

Tsk, tsk, it's spoilage, so it's like sayin' that the decomposition of corpses doesn't bother you one bit.
Click to expand...

One could say that any fermented product is spoilage, O., such as yogurt, cheese, pickles or sauerkraut. That’s a dangerous road to go down.

Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

Every human being is slowly dying, but that's not the same as having a fatal disease.
 
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