NC Cindy Tasting. JohnR's Wake.

JohnR has said he may be leaving for greener pastures, so this tasting is Bordeaux-heavy and we hope it makes for a good send-off. We hope even more that he'll come back for future tastings.

• 2009 Mandrarossa Fiano Sicilia 88 Points

  Italy, Sicily, Sicilia

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". We began with a light white wine, just to get things started. Medium yellow in color, I've never had a Fiano before, so I had no expectations. It was not particularly viscous. The nose featured pear and chinese apple - simple, but very inviting and appealing. The light pear and apple flavors carried through on the palate, along with mineral oil and dark yellow flowers. It likely has a little bit of residual sugar, so this is just in the off-dry range. It contained the 13.5% ABV quite well, though, and while it isn't earth-shattering, this was very tasty and a really good lead-off for the evening. This is a solid summer sipper, or it would pair well with mildly spicy foods. For the under-$10 price point, this is an excellent value. A good start to the evening. Drink now, as it likely has no aging potential.

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• 1996 Château Pontet-Canet 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Dark red, with surprisingly little bricking at the edges, the nose on this wine is really nice. The first thing I noticed was black olives, but with extra depth, perhaps more like tapenade. There was also plenty of cherry, but also some green vegetal notes, with some dark loam underneath. On the palate, this was a big wine, with plenty of sour cherry but also more of that vegetal flavor and olive medley. The large proportion of Cabernet franc was pretty evident. There was a touch of stewed tomato, as well, which leads me to believe that this wine is a bit past prime. There was some fresh tobacco leaf (not cured or smoked) and a trace of bitterness on the finish, which was medium long and fairly impressive for a fifteen-year-old bottle. This is a very nice wine. The WineKnurd rating was 89*:). I liked it a bit more than that, but I'm not sure it truly delivers for $100+ per bottle.

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• 1998 Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". The cork on this wine showed significant seepage, but it wasn't clear that the seepage went all the way to the top of the cork. In addition, the wine was fairly faded and thin, like a translucent cherry juice. On the nose, there was an unusual combination of dustiness and used gym sock, along with some light raspberry. The palate showed thin sour raspberry, with some sweetness. There was very little tannin, and this wine has a very fruit juicy aspect. There were almost no secondary notes at all, which is very odd for a wine of this age. I am concerned about the seepage, but the wine doesn't display oxidation or any other characteristics that could truly be described as a flaw. After looking at other tasting notes, our experience appears to be similar, so I don't think the wine itself had any problem. I'll stick with the 84 score on the assumption that this wine is just over the hill.

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• 2001 Château Cos d'Estournel 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Decanted for an hour ahead of tasting, the wine is very dark red with only the barest trace of thinning at the edges. The nose was filled with burnt coffee, with a bit of funk and sweet cherries in the back ground. On the palate, it started out full of sour cherries, but on the whole seemed rather weak and hollow with a medium-short finish. We suspected that it just hadn't enough time with air, and we were right. After an additional couple hours in the decanter, it filled out considerably, and improved on the 85 score I would have given initially. It still didn't end up great, though, and it isn't in any way, shape, or form worth the current $115 auction price. I'm at a loss when it comes to predicting where this wine will go. It got better with air time, but it has limited fruit and I would be concerned that this wine will just continue to hollow out. I'm guessing this will never be great, but would suggest holding for another year or two to see where it goes.

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• 2002 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 93 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Bolgheri, Bolgheri Sassicaia

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Decanted for 2.5 hours ahead of tasting, this was a slightly translucent ruby in color, just a bit lighter than expected of a 90% Cabernet sauvignon/10% Merlot blend. The nose was very rustic, smelling almost like an Alaskan log cabin, with a cedary background with smoke, furs, cured meats, leather, and even apple and parsley. The nose was stunning in its complexity. On the palate, this was still quite rustic, with big tannins but a reasonably delicate flavor profile. There were Granny Smith apples, some green tomatoes, and some meatiness, along with somewhat muted red fruits. The finish was medium-long, and quite satisfying. We speculated that this would be an excellent complement to lasagna, which our host promptly provided. While it was, in fact, very good with that dish, I don't recommend serving it that way. The food hides some of the subtle complexities, and I'd rather savor the wine on its own. I think this wine is right in its drinking window. It is from a lesser vintage, and by the time more of the tannins fall away, I'm afraid the already muted fruit won't leave you with much. I'd suggest drinking this if you are lucky enough to have it in your cellar.

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• 2005 Prinsi Barbaresco Gaia Principe 87 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". A good translucent ruby red in color, right in the wheelhouse of Nebbiolo, the nose on the pop-and-pour was really not good. While there was some pretty rose petal at the the start, it quickly was overwhelmed by a very medicinal character. I don't know about you, but Luden's cough drops are not what I'm looking for in a wine. This medicinal character carries through on a palate that, while parching, is surprisingly not tannic for such a youthful Nebbiolo. We decided that it needed more time, and indeed both the nose and palate did get less medicinal over the next several hours, and added some nicer floral notes, cinnamon, and sweet tarts. Even after time, though, the official WineKnurd rating was :( -. While I think that's harsh, the 84 rating I would have given on the pop-and-pour increased only somewhat. Even at the low Searcher price of $35, this is not a wine to seek out.

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JohnR is also known as The Anti-Shill and has dissed the La Reserve series of wines by Gary Vaynerchuk, so we decided to put him to the test. We acquired a mystery wine (later revealed as the '05 Sansonnet), the '06 Sansonnet regular cuvee, and the '06 Sansonnet La Reserve, and bagged them. The person who knew what the mystery wine was opened the wines and put them in bags, then left them on the counter in another room. A second person transported the bags to the tasting table in random order. As you can see, Gary did well with blending what he had to work with, but he couldn't quite overcome the shortcomings of the vintage.

• 2005 Château Sansonnet 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Served double-blind, this was the "mystery wine" poured along with the '06 Sansonnet and '06 Sansonnet La Reserve. This was the darkest wine of the day up to this point, but was the lightest in this flight. A blend of 85% Merlot/15% Cabernet franc, the nose was filled with raisins, prunes, and it was a touch medicinal. On the palate, the raisin carried through, along with a fair amount of dark chocolate. There was very little fresh fruit, and this was fairly tannic, but it was reasonably well-balanced with a decently long finish. Overall, though, it is still somewhat medicinal and is missing freshness. We all agreed that this was different from the other two, and 3 out of 4 tasters correctly identified this as the mystery wine. This wine was the flight winner, which we attributed to the superiority of the vintage.

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• 2006 Château Sansonnet 86 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Served single-blind, this was the poured along with the '05 Sansonnet and the '06 Sansonnet La Reserve. This was the darkest of the three wines, and also had the most Old World funk on the nose. There was also some faint cherry, but overall this was aromatically challenged. On the palate, the first notable characteristic was how dry and parching this was. The second thing notable was that all of the fruit from the nose disappeared. The wine was all secondary flavors and came across as very dark and even perhaps a bit forbidding. It desperately needed food to add some primary flavors to all that secondary darkness. Again, 3 out of 4 tasters correctly picked this as the regular '06 cuvee, and all four tasters agreed that this was the least exciting wine of the flight.

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• 2006 Château Sansonnet La Réserve 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Served single-blind, this was poured along with the '05 Sansonnet and '06 Sansonnet standard cuvee. In the middle in terms of color, this was quite dark, but did show a touch of thinning at the edges. JohnR said it smelled like '06. I thought it had more fruit and smelled a touch sweeter than the '06 standard cuvee, but still had that essential darkness to it. On the palate, it was still drying, but had a bit more balancing sweetness and did bring along a little bit of fruit. There is decent depth of flavor and complexity to this, but while well-made, this was not a wine that particularly appeals to my palate. It is quite Old World. Only 2 of 4 tasters correctly identified this as the La Reserve, but all agreed that it was the middle wine of the flight in quality. With all due respect to Gary Vaynerchuk, while this was better than the Sansonnet standard cuvee, it does not approach the 93-95 score range. I think all the tasters here found the Sansonnet flight to be pretty disappointing as a whole, and none of the wines lived up to their $40-$50 price points.

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We tasted the Haut Bergeron non-blind first, then tasted the Suduiraut vintages single-blind in the hope of picking which vintage was which. As you can see, we have some work to do in our blind tasting.

• 2005 Château Haut-Bergeron Sauternes 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Tasted as the first of three Sauternes on the night, this is pretty light in color for a Sauternes, but was also the only one of the flight to come from a 750ml bottle, and it is still quite young. On the pop-and-pour, the nose was shockingly funky, with primarily moldy apricot for a not-so-appealing opening. After time, the moldy-funky characteristics did drop away, and the wine became lighter with a bit more pineapple. On the palate, this was quite light and sweet, with plenty of pineapple and apricot, but not a lot of botrytis depth of flavor. JohnR described it as cloying, and while I don't completely agree, I do think this tended toward the simple and sweet side of Sauternes. I give it an 89, which in dessert wine is not a ringing endorsement. The really good bit of news, though, is the price. At $25 for a full bottle, this is a nice budget Sauternes, if somewhat lacking in overall quality.

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• 2006 Château Suduiraut 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Tasted single-blind alongside the 2002 version of the same wine, both from splits, this was by far the darker of the two in the glass, showing a nice dark gold. This wine was also the more viscous of the two. On the nose, this showed very dusty apricots with some stewed oranges and maybe even a trace of sweet green peas. The palate was similarly secondary in nature, with lots of botrytis and dark apricot with just a hint of pineapple at the top end, but even the pineapple aspect was more like dried pineapple than fresh. Thicker and more mouth-coating than the other bottle, this had a substantial, but not eternal, finish that included a bit of unpleasant bitterness to it. Everyone at the table agreed, incorrectly, that this must be the older wine. In the end, I thought it had a bit less depth of flavor than the '02, and the prominence of the secondary flavors on a wine this young makes me wonder if this has the fruit to stand up to long-term aging. Overall, a very good effort, albeit not truly spectacular.

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• 2002 Château Suduiraut 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  NC Cindy Tasting. "JohnR's Wake". Tasted single-blind along with the 2006 version of the same wine, both from splits, this wine was the much lighter of the two, showing a nice lemony yellow in the glass. The nose was a touch funky and surprisingly muted, although the aromas were very pretty floral and pineapple-based. On the palate, bright pineapple, significant floral aspects, good citrus, and while the botrytis was evident, it was not overwhelming. I found this to have a very nice depth of flavors, although there was not yet much in the way of secondary development. There was a slight sharpness on the finish, and there was some debate at the table about whether that was due to uncontained alcohol or to acidity. I came to the latter conclusion, meaning that I think this wine is still showing quite young but has considerable aging potential. To me, the wine as it is now has a nice depth of flavor, but seems relatively light and syrupy because the secondary aspects simply haven't developed yet. Because of that, everyone at the table incorrectly agreed that this was the younger of the two vintages, though we had a split decision on which wine we liked better. It was an interesting experiment to end the evening.

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We stayed and talked politics over Sauternes well into the morning. It was a nice time with good friends, and we hope to do it again soon.