Thanks to everyone who joined Mrs Montrachet and I this past Sat night for a Wine Potluck Christmas Party at our place. Special cudos go to Mr & Mrs Chilly Wino who traveled down from Fargo! Chilly is a CA native by the way but loves our 5 degree weather!?!? Two days before the offline he had poor Holly digging them out of 5 ft snow drifts in his drivewqay in Fargo!
Anyway, a couple from our neighborhood, one new single and six regualar wine group couples joined Nita and I for appetizers and these wines...
Kind of in the order we drank them, I think?
Piper Hiedseick NV Brut - Solid bubbles Pierre Petters NV Blanc de Blancs - My fav Narvarro Anderson Valley NV Brut - Bracing acidity & bubble but sweet 7UP finish.
94' Chauve Hermitage - #2 WOTN for me. A touch more earth, leather and iron then the CDP but still a wine with good balance, complexity and class. Still youthfull. 92+pts
96' De La Mordoree CDP - Cuvee De la Reine Des Bois...MY WOTN - Great nose of Spice & earth. Smooth as silk and near its peak. 95pts BHVineyard seems to have a lot of these gems with btl age. I'm jealous but happy he keeps bringing them to our offlines.
04' Le Cadeau - # 3 for me that night. My wife said "I want more of this". Silky tanins, nice primary notes of cherry, earth and spice. Nose a little reticent but definitely Pinot. This should be really great in a year or two. 89pts++ This came to us with no label and creating an immediate buzz. I also noticed it was the first wine we ran out of!
02' Loring Garys PN. Man this was delicious... all by itself. Major sweet dark fruit, annise, cinnamon and cola. My # 4 wine of the night. The Le Cadeau was an interesting contrast with its more charming classic profile. More fully realized tonight than the leCadeau but not as faithfully Pinot in style.
01' Fisher Coach Insignia Cab - Gone by the time I reached for it. Must have been great! Chime in!
02' Anomaly Cab - Palate fatigue setting in for me but seemed like a very classy CA Cab with balance, rich fruit and plush tanins.
03' Core Elelvation Sensation 49% Mourvedre & Grenache Blend 1% Syrah. Another tasty treat that was really fun to drink. I really like the Grenache in the mix. TASTY!!!
03' Garettson Mourdvedre - The Graosota Tasty but better tonight then Sat night.
02' Culler Syrah - My red that I didn't try Sat night but is your basic big fruit low acid CA Syrah. Not a food wine. Tasted tonight.
03' Carlisle Syrah - Pretty tight the night of the party. Tonight more open spicy nose and more structure then my Culler.
03' Prazo De Roriz Douro - Spanish red blend of Tinta Roriz, Tourga Franca, Tinta Barraca, and Touriga Nacional grapes. Its still pretty primary youthfully tight. Get a little cherry and fairly smooth tanins. Something sutle in the nose is little off but not corked? Thanks Dawn for bringing something from Spain!
03' Leitz Rdueshiemer Schloss Berg Spatlese - Drinks like an Auslese. Rich, fragrant, balanced with wonderful flavors of peach, pears, and pineapple. Delious. Tasting it for the 1st time tonight with other leftovers.
02' Joseph Phelps Eisbere Dessert wine. Didn't have an opportunity to try this one.
It was great seeing you and Mrs. M61 again. Holly and I wanted to thank you for your generosity in providing all the champagne and food and opening up your house. We had a great time, as I’m sure everyone else did. There were lots of fun wines to try. I especially enjoyed the CDP and Hermitage. I'll add a few notes as well as my top 5. Holly would also like to thank BHV for taking the scenic route back to the hotel!!
Top 5 1. 94' Chauve Hermitage (Holly #1) 2. 96' De La Mordoree CDP 3. 04' Le Cadeau (Holly #2) 4. 02' Anomaly Cab 5. 02' Loring Garys PN
94' Chauve Hermitage - The imcredible nose really stuck out on this one for me, earth, lead, leather, and spicy dark and citris fruits.
96' De La Mordoree CDP - Meaty, earth, and spice. Absolutely loved this one as well.
My new quest is to find some CDP and Hermitage with age on them. Thanks BHV!!!
04' Le Cadeau - Holly also asked me to pour her more of this one. first bottle gone. Great nose of cola, cherry, earth, and spice. Very young and it will need time.
02' Loring Garys PN - YUMMY. Loads of fruit and spice. A fun wine.
01' Fisher Coach Insignia Cab - Very good wine, but loads of tannin. This has the potential to be a great wine.
02' Anomaly Cab - Loads of dark fruits with tannins to balance it out. Complex with room to improve.
03' Core Elelvation Sensation Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Not much to add to M61's notes.
03' Garettson Mourdvedre - My first experience with Garettson. Wasn't really showing much. Needs more time.
02' Culler Syrah - Didn't get around to this one.
03' Carlisle Syrah - Upfront fruit, but no complexity. Needs more time to integrate???
03' Prazo De Roriz Douro - Similiar to the Carlise for me. Upfront fruit, but tight and not complex. Needs more time.
03' Leitz Rdueshiemer Schloss Berg Spatlese - Had a quick taste and enjoyed it.
02' Joseph Phelps Eisbere Dessert wine. Nice finish to the night. Rich and complex. Will definately get better with age.
Posts: 788 | Location: Fargo,ND | Registered: Jan 09, 2004
Thanks so much for a gracious, wonderful, and tasty evening. Such events always require both a "spark" and "a lot of WORK". Thanks for providing both.
I appreciate the notes from both you and the Chillies, and am generally agreed. A couple of tweaks from my perspective:
I liked the Chave Hermitage a good bit. Fun to drink real French syrah after the world has been taken by storm with monster Aussies, CA, OR, and WA renditions. Earth and character mixed with finesse, structure, and delicate but sincere flavors. Good stuff.
I also like the Portuguese (I think) Prazo De Roriz Douro... but you've got the bottle, so perhaps Spain is it? In either case, I thought this wine also had character, distinctiveness, unique but pleasing flavors, nice structure. Too young: needs 2 - 3 years, but I thought it had great potential.
My other favorite was the Leitz. Again, too young-- needs another 3 - 5 years to grow up, integrate, and mellow. But really tasty, and with great potential.
Just an FYI: The Le Cadeau '04 was one of three Le Cadeau Cuvees that will be offered for '04. This one will be called "Cote Est" (East Side), Josh Bergstrom was the consulting winemaker. A key feature of this wine is that it has only been in the bottle two months. If all goes as planned, it will not release until Fall of '06, and based on its heritage and prior sampling, I think it will likely put on more weight and dimension in the months ahead. In contrast, I can honestly say that the '02 and '03 Le Cadeaus were almost undrinkable at this stage after bottling, so I expect to see meaningful further evolution as it bottle ages. We'll see...
Thanks again, and great to see all the TC forumites. Welcome Dawn: Wonderful to have you as part of the group!
Thanks to Nita and Craig for a fun time and some wonderful food! We really enjoyed the party.
My favorite wines of the night... hmm.. I didn't make it through all of them, but of the ones I tried here are my top five: Mordorée CDP 1996 - seamless, fantastic wine 04' Le Cadeau - really great style. Very different from the '03, but as intriguing. 03' Leitz Rudesheimer Schloss Berg Spatlese - too early, but it was perfect to end the evening. Light and sweet, with a promise of more. 03' Prazo De Roriz Douro - incredible nose and great potential. Fun wine. 03' Core Elelvation Sensation - I really like the Core wines. They're terrific with food. The 49% Mourvedre made for an intense, earthy, sweet cherry nose.
Glad to hear that the Garretson Mourvedre showed better after a day or two... that one was a little closed at the party.
Thank you for correcting the country to Portugal for the Prazo form Douro. Hum, I kind of pride my self on my knowledge of Geo but I blew that one?
Chilly,
I need to hear more about the long cut to the hotel located 4 miles from our house.
M61
M61,
Well it depends who is telling the story. I thought it was nice of BHV to take the scenic route back to the hotel. The women on the other had threw out the "lost" word. But we all know guys don't get lost or miss turns.
CW
Posts: 788 | Location: Fargo,ND | Registered: Jan 09, 2004
... not to pass the buck... but it pretty-much started when the navigator's FIRST close-in directions were: "That was the hotel that you just passed."
This was followed by a creative right turn at the next block, with the hope that a frontage road would allow another right turn back to the missed hotel. Alas, the "wannabe frontage road" was a dead-end, so instead of being "creatively found", we were "lost"... according to the women-folk. A two-block backtrack solved the problem, and the guys were once again "brilliant"... saved from a near-death experience in the arctic north!
