Although we shared in the inspiration, I can not take any credit for being the architect for the wine tasting… that function belonged to Grapes’ owner, John Caplan. My sole contribution was to recommend the first wine, which was actually tasted last — Chateau D’Yquem. For the rest of the wine flight, I merely put at the top of a scratch pad: France, Italy, California and Spain (with a question mark).
It was John’s duty to flesh out the “dance card”.
We host a wine tasting of this magnitude from time to time… featuring an eclectic assortment of wines that are the “best of the best.” From start to finish the wines have to be great, worthy of cellaring — and also available for purchase. Well, after all, we are in the business of selling wine. But it goes beyond the simple sale. We all have tasted incredible wines… rare wines, wines that are truly hard to come by… and then reflected what a tease it had been. No. Our tasting would not be a tease… wines had to be available to acquire.
In the two weeks leading up to the tasting John busied himself calling distributors, importers, portfolio reps… cashing in on a few debts owed to him in order to secure exceptional wines.
From across the room I would hear, “Hah! Man, look what we’ve just landed!” There would be a fist pump… “Quintarelli Valpo!” This is the liquid equivalent to scoring Peyton Manning for your fantasy football team.
And that’s the way it went… two White Burgs from the ’05 Vintage, a monster Cali Cab, a gem from the Priorat… little by little the list was taking shape, ’til John had assembled a wine dream team.
Then, on Thursday June 28th, we sat down with 21 eager citizens drawn from the ranks off a list of our best customers. It would be an evening to cherish.
Our lead wine is usually a sparkling wine of some type… for our regular tastings: Prosecco or Cava; but rarely true Brut Champagne. The natural inclination for this tasting would have been for a tete du cuvee like Dom Perignon. But Dom is really no big deal… as much as I personally love it… it’s really commonplace… albeit expensive. I would have liked a Brut Rose from Billecart-Salmon… a favorite of mine… but our local distributor who has the label can be a bit of a pill… and in order to get any Rose we have to purchase an un-Godly amount of the regular Brut Champagne.
The other aperitif that would be top stuff is a Riesling or Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht. Unfortunately, the Importer and the Distributor handling Zind is changing and it will be a couple of months before Zind is in play again. But John did find another Alsatian wine that would do quite well: Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommenberg ’01. This is not your “garden variety” Riesling that you sip pleasurably during a sticky summer day. This is a wine packed with ripe fruit flavour, silky texture and length. Deeply hued, fragrant and perfectly dry… attributes that you would least expect from a Riesling. A glorious wine, still young, with years ahead to enjoy along side of impressive fare… like a Thanksgiving Turkey, an Easter Ham or a well prepared duck. The winemaker for the Estate is Jean Boxler… 31 years of age, a graduate of the most prestigious “aggie” school of France, the University of Montpelier… the son of Albert, he has quickly achieved praise for turning out wines of great character… more opulent than Trimbach or Jean Meyer; but more restrained than Zind-Humbrecht.
We followed with two Burgundies: Vincent Girardin Meursault ‘Les Narvaux’ ’05 and Vincent Girardin Puligny-Montrachet ‘Champ Gain’ ’05. After Red Bordeaux, White Burgundy is my favorite wine. For years I have proposed that White Burgundy is not a white wine… it is great wine that just happens to be white. The Meursault drew most of the attention and comment. Hints of hazelnut, smoke & minerality added complexity to the tropical nature of Chardonnay fruit. Its balance was near perfect. Someone ventured that this was a wine that you could never tire of… a wine where one bottle would never be enough. On our evening the Puligny took a back seat… its bouquet more closed, its flavours not as developed. But this is a Vintage of immense quality, and for those of us who love Burgundy we know that 3 years down the road, the Puligny will shed its awkward stage and bloom to peak perfection.
Organizing the White side of the flight was easy… the Reds would prove more challenging. We knew that any of the Reds could “anchor” a typical tasting. We began with Spain. A wine from the Priorat Costers del Siurana Miserere ’01 to be followed by a single vineyard Rioja Valserrano Finca Monteviejo ’03. I love the wines from Priorat… a tiny area in Spain, close to the Mediterranean. The region is known for its steep hillsides… vineyards that have to be terraced into its rocky, inhospitable terrain and have to be tended by hand. A region known for producing wines of great concentration… concentration derived from old vines… vines that have to struggle for their nutrients. Originally planted to Rhone varietals, Bordeaux varietals introduced more recently, this wine is an enticing blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Tempranillo, Merlot and Carignan. Aged for 12 months in French Barriques and bottle unfiltered and unfined the wine is a true gem. Beautiful depth, still a “baby”… everyone in agreement that it would cellar splendidly.
The Rioja was more typically “Spain”… 95% Tempranillo with a soupcon of Graciano and Grenache. A wine of sensuous appeal… a sexy blend of ripe dark cherry, cedar and vanilla with a plush feel on palate. I can’t imagine a better wine for marinated flank steak. Only 170 cases produced. Talk about feeling lucky to taste a wine!
Italy was next. From Veneto Quintarelli Valpolicella ’98, to be followed by Il Poggione Brunello Riserva ’01 from Tuscany. Look up “wine maven of Veneto” in the encyclopedia and you will find a picture of Giuseppe Quintarelli. His wines are some of the toughest to get from any region of the world. It was a joy to taste this wine with folks who regrettably hear “Valpolicella” and think of Bolla Wines. No. This is not a “commercial” wine. Rather a wine of tremendous richness that exhibits great elegance and finesse… a balancing act that is only achieved by the world’s greatest winemakers… winemakers like Giuseppe Quintarelli.
The Brunello was extraordinary. This caused some misgivings. How could I measure this wine against one of my true loves, another Brunello: Valdicava Madonna ’01? But here is a wine that Tanzer scored 95 points… he, the toughest grader on planet earth. Only three other wines of the Vintage scored a point or two higher. Yes, this was a terrific wine. But my Madonna? John told me to get over it. Il Poggione wasn’t “chopped liver”, it was a fabulous wine, sleek and purring like a Jaguar.
We judged the next wine to be our “soft underside”. Nevertheless, a wine that John said he had to put on the flight, although its origin never appeared on our first work sheet. It was a wine from Mendoza and it blew John away when he first tried it… Vina Alicia Malbec ’04. We have been impressed by the quality of wines coming from Argentina. Particularly at the premium level. But this wine is yet again another story. Made from vines with an average age of 95 years, and with only two clusters of grapes per vine… the resulting wine has amazing concentration; but with a European sense of restraint. This is not a fat fruit monster lacking structural support; rather a wine that combines the best of both Hemispheres. The wine that John and I thought was our “weak link” turned out to be the best seller of the night.
California stepped to the plate next. From Santa Barbara Dierberg Pinot Noir ‘Steven’ ’04. I will confess… I do not care for “our” Pinot Noirs. Red Burgundy is a different matter… some of the finest Reds I have ever tasted are Red Burgundies. But Dierberg has given me pause for thought. The Dierbergs are farmers really… they established their grape growing skill in that great wine producing State of Missouri. When they moved West to follow their dreams, they settled in Santa Barbara County where land was cheaper than Napa or Sonoma. They quickly established their reputation for knowing how to “tend vine”, and year after year they sold their produce to an appreciative wine market… Wines that received critical acclaim, huge ratings & top dollar. They got an itch to create wine under their name… and as key contracts on their vineyards came up for renewal, they decided to retain the best for their use… and so a winery was given its birth. But they knew how to grow grapes… not make wine. So they enlisted the talents of Paul Hobbs and David Ramey to help make their wine… it was like penciling in Ruth and Gehrig to your batting order. And folks, this is the best Pinot I have tasted outside of the Cote D’Or…
John loves Cabernets coming from Napa. In fact, he may love Napa Cab more than he does Pink Floyd… and boy, does he love Pink Floyd. Who was I to stand in the way of Rudd Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon ’03? Described as a vin de garde… a wine for the keeping, this wine along with the wine that followed was our most “closed”… a wine that you would have to wait to truly savor. I loved Parker’s review: “this opaque purple-colored 2003 offers sweet aromas of scorched earth, tobacco leaf, blackberries and currents. Layered, beautifully textured, broad elegant, and refreshing, this well structured, superb effort should be consumed between 2008-2020.” You didn’t have to be a “Cali Lover” to swoon at this wine… we all did.
When John said that we had a Cote Rotie, I smiled. “Thank you, John”. It’s easier to get First Growth Bordeaux than it is to get top flight Cote Rotie. So little is produced. Allocations are infinitesimal. Give up your first born and maybe you can taste great Cote Rotie… we had Guigal Chateau D’Ampuis ’01. Rated by Parker a paltry 95 points, made from the finest parcels of La Garde, La Clos, Grande Plantee, Pomiere, Pavillon Rouge and Le Moulin… this is a wine to be reckoned with. Not a wine for those who simply enjoy great tasting wine… this is a wine to study. A wine to be appreciated for its complexity and its earthiness… not just for its fruit. Even more closed than the wine that preceded it, this was the wine that was the hardest to grasp… but this the wine I sought out to re-examine after the formal proceedings were called to adjournment. My gosh is it a great wine.
Our final Red was the “problem child” of the Red portion of the flight. John and I had originally put it much earlier in the order. After our private pre-tasting of all the wines, we knew that there could be no wine that could follow Jaffurs Upslope Syrah ’04 and emerge from beyond its shadow. This Santa Barbara wine was too much of a flavour bomb. Jaffurs produces some of the best Syrah in California… their most prestigious wines hailing from single vineyards at Thompson, Melville and Bien Nacido. Upslope is the production of the finest six barrels from those vineyards and only 142 cases are produced. We had tasted this wine one other time… when we hosted a “Cult Cabernet Sauvignon Night”. The wine had been somewhat of an “after thought”… John’s idea of “let’s shake them up.” We had to take notice when the wine out performed Caymus Select and other “fancy Dan” Napa Cabs. No one was disappointed on this night either.
Hard to follow all those huge Reds… hard that is unless it’s Chateau D’Yquem ’95. I have a saying, “buy the worst Vintage of Chateau D’Yquem that you can find, because there is no such thing as the worst Vintage of Chateau D’Yquem… they don’t know how to make bad wine.” You see… Vintages that are considered to be of “lesser” quality by the pundits simply cost less… if the wine making team of Yquem feels that the vintage is not up to snuff, wine is not made… the entire crop is declassified and sold off to market. The integrity of the label is deemed more important than any year’s vintage. Regrettably, we could not secure any more of the ’94 Vintage… which was a “buy”. But we were committed to showcasing one of the world’s finest wines (it was after all my only contribution to the flight)… and the ’95 would more than satisfy.
When the dust had settled, and an appreciative group had taken their leave… John would say to me that nothing had given him a greater sense of satisfaction than watching the reaction to Chateau D’Yquem… It is a reaction I have seen before… this was not a sweet wine, not a dessert wine… it is a wine that transcended any description or category. And it is a wine that never fails to live up to its expectation.
Well… there we are. A great, great night. I can’t resist the temptation to put this to an order… a ranking. Sorta like judging Best of Show at Westminster… each of the dogs in the Show Ring already a declared Champion in it’s breed… and the final Judge having to decide the best of the best.
Alright, what the hell: Chateau D’Yquem, Chateau D’Ampuis, Boxler Sommenberg (nosing out the Brunello). And if someone in the room saw it differently… that’s OK, too.