Playground , Santa Ana, CA
Tasted Friday, April 26, 2013 by clayfu with 562 views
This was a night organized for three reasons.
1) J. Wei's birthday. Turning 22 I think. Congrats. ;P
2) Taylor was moving out of sunny So. Cal to Washington D.C. to head Total Wines BD side of things. (Washington D.C. drinkers cool guy to hang out and drink with!) so we wanted a little good bye dinner.
3) I just need an excuse to organize a burgundy dinner ;D.
Once again we went to the Playground in Orange County. Great food, great service and zero corkage!
We did a series of blind wines for fun then got into the baby killin. The oldest burg we had was the 95 Leroy and the next older was 2001. We did have a 1978 La Mission Haut Brion to make us appreciate all the fruit in the burgundy ;).
The Selosse wasn't blinded, but included it in this flight.
Out of the blind ones, the Rhys was INSTANTLY picked out as CA by everyone. A pity, I keep trying to trick people but no one ever tells me it's burgundy. The Rivers-Marie I guess oregon pinot, someone guessed burgundy and one person guessed CA.. the rest abstained. Finally the Ramonet was very obviously Ramonet because of the mint. All were a good drink. ALways fun to guess among good wines.
It was really fun to taste the 01 Vogue and Roumier BM side by side. The contrast of styles were so different but both very enjoyable. In the efforts of baby killing, you unfortunately end up with bottles that have so much potential but just need time. The 07 Dujac Chambertin and 04 PYCM Monty were the most obvious examples of them. The 95 Leroy got snuck in and wasn't a baby, that extra 7-12 years it had on everyone else was so apparent (and delicious!). Also a bordeaux made its way in! I'm never going to say no to LMHB, my favorite chateau in Bordeaux.
WOTNs for me:
1) 1995 Leroy Beauxmont
2) 01 Roumier Bonnes Mares
3) 07 Dujac Chambertin
NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Exquise Sec
France, Champagne
way too sweet and ripe for me. It was round and obvious without any acidity.
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2005 Domaine Ramonet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Canet
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
round and tropical on the palate with that very clear Ramonet mint. A bit short and a bit ripe but a nice drink for the vintage.
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2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Swan Terrace
USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
Decanted for three hours, bottled back up and drank it two hours after that. Served blind to burghounds.
Really obvious sweet purple fruit on the get go. This palate was roaring and ready to go. It had density but it had that sweetness that only comes from CA fruit. Well balanced. Most of the people at the table guessed "a very balanced and nice CA pinot". Can't trick anyone nowadays. ;)
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2008 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Summa Old Vines
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
a little bit of fizz on the first taste, but it picked up orange peel, blue fruit and this really dry extract that was almost like under ripe tannin. I enjoyed the fruit but that tannic flavor needs to integrate in with time.
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