Mandarin Hotel, Washington, DC
Tasted Saturday, April 27, 2013 by Nutty08 with 1,034 views
First time making it to the Bassins/MacArthur barrel tasting, though I've wanted to make it for some time. Much easier driving up from Norfolk, VA than San Antonio.
One of the motivating factors for this event was to taste the much talked about EMH wines and meet Merrill. I was not disappointed. These have a unique style and expression, and certainly are more my style than most Napa-based cabs. If I had to compare them to something, it would be Corison, but I haven’t had Corison in many years but would need to try them side by side to really know for sure.
The “11’s were picked before the rains at an impressively low Brix, but my (admittedly French leaning) palate didn’t catch any unripe notes. Enjoyable enough now I had to go back for a second taste.
The other biggest reason I came to this event. I had a great discussion with Eric Baugher regarding wine making philosophy (and good bdx).
Dunn – A blend of their ’10 Howel Mountain and Napa fruit. No representative there as it was being poured by a distributer. Unclear if this would be a bottled wine or not. It was forward and soft, with a dark plum/black cherry profile. Course tannins. Fine if not unique. 89-91
’10 La Rue – Pinot – Cola, ripe black cherry. Pleasant and fruit forward. 88-90
I ended the day with Blackbird with turned out to be a fantastic surprise. I wasn't aware this was an Aaron Pott project. These wines had personality, polish, and complexity. Clearly showing vintage characteristics and terrior.
A fantastic event. The winemaker were very informative and passionate about their wines giving your a great personal relationship with each of their wines. Not too crowded and while there were too many wines to taste in the allotted time, but there weren't too many people and plenty of space.
I enjoyed the '11's that tried to stay in the style of the vintage rather than morphing it into the typical Napa style.
Great time all around, hope to make it to many more in the future.
2010 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red 93 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley
From bottle. The first taste and the reference for the evening. Quite prominent coffee and toast on the nose, with a dark red fruit profile. Oak really overshadowed the fruit, but the tannins were high quality and fruit clean and concentrated. I really like ‘90’s Pahlmeyer which has a great “minty” note. I didn’t get anything here that I thought would be “mint” later. Solid quintessential Cali cab though. 92-94
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