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February 18, 2010
The Theme - Northern Rhone and Piedmont
On an unseasonably warm February day, we gathered at Greg Bunnell's office for this month's tasting. Only Howard was unable to attend - he was busy checking out new colleges for his daughter in Seattle. Also attending was retired and Past President Neal Bell, Peter Preston, and Brian Budke who pedals wine at our favorite wine shop, Vinopolis. Due to an accident on the I5 corridor, the tasting got a late start but that didn't stop those "on time" from getting through the first wines.
Greg started the tasting with a 2005 Mont Marcal Brut Rose Cava Reserva with some sushi, cilantro lime shrimp and cured barbeque pork. The sparkler, not tasted by all, was fresh and went well with some of the heat from the wasabe. While we watched some basketball we all complained about the fact that NBC was delaying the telecast of the live Olympic events.
We all made our way to the conference room and sampled (blind) three white wines. These wines included a NV Walter Scott White Wine, a 2006 Stolpman L'Avion, and a 2005 Guigal Condriue La Doriane. The Walter Scott wine was the first bottling put together by Ken Pahlow (formerly with St. Innocent) and Erica Landon (formerly at Ten 01). Only Brian had previously tasted the wine and he commented on how well the wine was showing - it's a 50/50 blend of Roussanne and Pinot Blanc. The Stolpman Roussanne, with about 10% Viognier, was enormous. It had a finish that literally lasted a good ninety seconds. The last white was the Guigal Condrieu - most picked up the age and the Old World nose - this wine is !00% Viognier. All of these wines continued to evolve and develop in the glass - they were all opened about two hours before being tasted.
We then moved into the first red flight that included a 2005 Delas Freres Cote Rotie Seigneur de Mougiron - this Syrah probably had some Viognier in the blend based on the tasting notes from the group. Typcially, the Northern Rhone reds are required to be 100% Syrah, but Cote Rotie's are permitted to blend in a tad of Viognier. We think that's just fine. The nose on the Cote Rotie was to die for. This wine just got better and more complex with the passage of time. Most picked up that the next three were different from the Cote Rotie. It turned out to be a mini vertical of A. Clape's Cornas that included the 1994, 1995 and 1996. All of these wines were throwing a fair amount of sediment. Guesses for this flight included Bordeaux blends, old Burgudy's and California Cabernet. Only Paul, Neal and Brian were close in identifying the varietal and region. All agreed that the Cornas would hold up with time but that they would not likely get much better.
With the second flight, Greg moved from Northern Rhone to Piedmont. The first wine was a 2006 Giacomo Conterna Barbera d' Alba Cascina Francia. This was followed by three Nebiollo's, a Barberseco and tho Barolo's. The group, as a whole, liked these wines more than the first flight. Everyone picked up on the huge tannins even though they had been decanted about four hours before they were poured. Most thought Greg had stayed in the same region of Rhone and only Paul mentioned Italy. Strangely, Steve voiced pleasure in these Italian wines. Typically, when he is unable to identify the varietal he goes with Italy - not this time though.
For dessert we had an Italian Almond cake with two splits of Sauternes, a 2002 Ch. Bel Air Sainte Croix Du Mont and a 2003 Castelnau de Suduiraut, the second label of Subuiraut, and a 1993 Fattoria de Felsina Vin Santo.
Wine and Food Pairings
Scoring Results
Overall, the Cote Rotie scored the highest from the tasting with a rating of 91 points, slightly less than the rating by Robert Parker. In the first flight, our average scoring matched, identically, Parker's scores on the 1996 Cornas. The scores ranged from 87 to 91 points with half of the wines scoring above 90 points. Likewise, the average scoring for each member ranged between 87 and 91 points. Peter's average scoring at 79 points fell outside of the statistical range and brought down the overall scoring for the tasting. Because of this, the group unanimously voted to ignore his scoring in the future. Seriously.
Even though Brad will be out of town next month for his regularly scheduled tasting, the group decided to put together a wine tasting at a local restaurant and invite potential alternates.
Cheers!
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