Boerne wine club - Paris 1976 Redux...

SLC
Tasted Sunday, August 10, 2014 by cos65 with 773 views

Introduction

For our August tasting we decided on a Paris 1976 Redux. Folks were instructed to bring either a California Chardonnay, a white Burgundy, a red Bordeaux or a California cabernet.
Luckily we ended up with a fairly decent mix of each. Judges included a bunch of local Texans and a few French ex-Pats... Preformed opinions were rather strong on both sides.

Wines were sent out in decanters, blind, in matched pairs: 4 sets of chardonnays followed by 7 pairs of cabs/blends.

Folks chose of favorite of each matched pair and a general score of 1-10 on each wine.

Wines were not revealed until all votes were in...
Flights 1-4 were paired chardonnay/Burgundy and Flights 5 - 11 were paired Cabernet/Bordeaux

Flight 1 - White Round 1 (2 Notes)

The Group preferred the ripe Russian River Valley Chasseur over a brighter leaner Pouilly Fuisse

Flight 2 - Whites Round 2 (2 Notes)

Again the ripe Rivers Marie trumped the leaner, somewhat lemony Chassagne

Flight 3 - Whites Round 3 (2 Notes)

The 2005 Montelena just edged out the Puligny. Both were full of toasty oak.

Flight 4 - Whites round 4 (2 Notes)

The group strongly preferred the Chassagne over the Grgich, but I think the Grgich was quite elegant.

Flight 5 - Reds round 5 (2 Notes)

The Franciscan was a clear crowd pleaser over the fairly lean, elegant Bel Air

Flight 6 - Red round 6 (2 Notes)

Flight 7 - Red round 7 (2 Notes)

Flight 8 - Red round 8 (2 Notes)

Flight 9 - Reds round 9 (2 Notes)

Flight 10 - Red round 10 (2 Notes)

Flight 11 - Red round 11 (2 Notes)

Flight 12 - Intermezzo (1 Note)

Closing

Where can a non-vintage US blend compete with a $500 mature Bordeaux? At a blind tasting! Palates seemed to veer fairly strongly California, with California winning 3 out of 4 chardonnay pairs and 5 out of 7 Cabernet pairs.

In most of the blind pairings, which wine was French and which was American was pretty obvious. But, not always. A 2000 Monte Bello was identified as Bordeaux by most tasters. Its side by side comparison was a 2006 Pichon Baron.

A 2004 Pavie was very forward, paired against a 2011 Newton claret which was fairly restrained.

Groups white winner was the 2005 Bruno Colin Chassagne Montrachet 1er en Remilly (and highest scoring wine overall at 8.9/10

Groups red winner was the 2006 Maybach Materium, a very Californian wine in taste and style.

I loved all the red Bordeaux (a fabulous 1996 Cheval Blanc), but these blinded American palates scored them all fairly modestly.

Our French members may suspect a conspiracy, but that's the beauty of a blind tasting.

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