Another Tuesday Night in Minneapolis (Montrose 82, 86, 89, 90, 95, 01, 03, 04)
Tasted Tuesday, August 7, 2007 by Dave Dalluge with 1,113 views
Introduction
When Scott Manlin was in town last week he gave me a Bryan Flannery steak to try. Add to this that Steve wanted to test out the TEC grill before committing to buy one and we hatched the idea for a beef taste test. Of course we also needed to find some wine to compliment that beef.
Attendees included Steve Sigmond, Brad England, his son Kevin England, and Chris Larson. Desiree and Diane joined us later in the evening.
Flight 1 - Bruschetta (2 Notes)
What's a Bordeaux tasting without some Rhones. Brad brought a bottle of the Guigal Ex-Voto to try. Most of us had never had this. It is certainly a unique wine. Desiree revisited this at the end of the night and said that it had improved considerably. We drank the Guigal with Bruschetta. I did a basic bruschetta except I added an olive tapenade spread to the crustini instead of just garlic. I poured the Alain Graillot to the group blind. Steve took one smell and said syrah. Brad took one smell and said the only place this could come from was the Rhone. Steve narrowed this down to a 10-15 year old Hermitage. Not too shabby.
Flight 2 - Lamb Appetizer (3 Notes)
The first flight of Montrose was served with a lamb loin chop appetizer. I adapted this from Rick Tramonto's Amuse Bouche cookbook. The Lamb chop was served with oven dried tomatoes, sauted chanterelles, and a three mushroom vinaigrette. The lamb proved to be a perfect compliment to this trio of great wines.
Flight 3 - Steak Taste Off (2 Notes)
The steak taste off turned out to be a disaster. The steaks were prepared with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a rosemary/thyme rub. I have been grilling these steaks for three minutes per side (all four sides) and they have tended to be undercooked. Therefore I instructed Steve to cook these for four minutes per side. As the fourth side was cooking Brad grabbed a knife and cut the extra steak to test its doneness and discovered it was overcooked. We quickly pulled the other steaks off the grill but it was too late. There was almost no pink left in the middle. The only thing I can figure out is that the grill was hotter than normal because we left it on while we were eating the lamb appetizer. The TEC burners get very hot after a 15 minute warm-up, but must get even hotter with a longer warm-up (Steve was complaining of singed arm hair at one point). The steaks were served with a braised garlic pasta. For what it's worth the Lund's steak was the favorite, but probably because it was the least well done of the steaks. Fortunately this pair of wines more than made up for disappoinment over the steaks.
Flight 4 - Dessert (3 Notes)
We drank the third flight of Montrose while finishing dinner and during a pause before dessert. Eventually we moved on to dessert -- a custard/creme brulee made with coffee and cardamom.
Flight 5 - Finale (2 Notes)
After finishing most of the open Montrose I grabbed a bottle of the 2003 Clusel-Roch Condrieu Cuvee P that I purchased at the domaine in 2006. The story is that when Clusel-Roch picked the Viognier in 2003 they had a lot of it that was raisiny from the heat. They vinified this separately as a one-time event. The result was the Cuvee P. I loved this at the winery and it showed well again last night. Surprisingly, the fruit is perfectly ripe and I didn't detect anything in the way of overripe fruit. After Brad, Kevin, and Diane left we gathered in the kitchen to clean up a little. The clean-up staff asked for one more bottle, and I obliged with a Burgundy.
Closing
The homogeneity of the eight vintages of Montrose was very impressive. The 89 and 90 are clearly at the pinacle for the last 25 years, but every other vintage tasted bore a similarity to these and showed very well. For me, WOTN honors go to the 1989 Montrose (just barely) over the 1990 Montrose. This is the second time I've tasted these side-by-side, and I hope I get many more opportunities in the future.
2003 E. Guigal Ermitage Blanc Ex-Voto 94 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
The color is a bold opaque gold. The nose offered an expressive blend of honey, apricot, and butterscotch coupled with strong floral notes. On the palate this is thick and syrupy but has great palate presence and wonderful balance. I thought the finish lingered beautifully (at least one member of the group disagreed with this). It's a real treat to taste this, and it proved to be a wonderful way to start the evening.
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1990 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage 91 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage
I forgot to take notes on this one. The color wasa rusty red. The nose was very expressive giving a slightly sour red fruit and a nice earthiness. Medium weight on the palate with excellent flavor. Maybe a touch tart on the finish. This was a fairly complex and slightly understated offering that proved to be very good.
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