Bâtard-Montrachet Blindtasting Dinner
Chez Keith, San Francisco, California
Tasted Thursday, October 21, 2010 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 997 views
Introduction
Eleven of us gathered to continue a project we started last year, blindtasting dinners devoted to each of the grand cru vineyards of Montrachet. Prior to this tasting, we started with a stunning dinner devoted to wines from the premier grand cru, Montrachet itself. Those showed exceptionally well, with not a single flawed wine among them, which managed to hook a few of our gang who weren't previously much into white Burgundy. We followed that with a dinner focused on Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, which was a lot less exciting. This time Keith hosted us, and enlisted John Ingall as our chef to create dishes that would compliment our three flights of Bâtard-Montrachet.
For this edition, we tried 11 mature or maturing Bâtards from 8 different producers out of the 27 or so principal producers from this nearly 12 hectare vineyard: Henri Boillot, Fontaine-Gagnard, Girardin, Louis Jadot, Olivier Leflaive, Morey-Coffinet, Ramonet and Sauzet. The vintages ranged from '89 to '04. Virtually all of them were good, but a little underwhelming. Bâtards are supposed to be fatter, more open than Chevalier-Montrachets, and these were that, with "a more flowery, fleshy, honeyed, spicy richness," according to Clive Coates. (Coates also writes, attempting to characterize Bâtard: "It can be four-square. It can also be blowsy.")
The flowery character and spiciness came through mainly in our first flight, which was random and blind: we bagged all 11 of the bottles, and arbitrarily divided them into flights. The '96 Olivier Leflaive, '04 Girardin and '97 Sauzet in the first flight were putting out those flowery, spicy tones that set me up for more of the same in the next flights--which showed those qualities not so much. In the second flight, our oldest, the '89 Jadot, was rather oxidzed, the '01 Ramonet showed a lot of reduction, and the '00 Fontaine-Gagnard was rich but not so flowery or spicy. Similarly with the last flight, the '95 Ramonet was rather oxidized, the '02 Boillot showed a lot of reduction, the '01 Morey-Coffinet had a little reduction, but the '99 Sauzet was singing. All in all, the greatest wines in our tasting, to which I gave 93 or more points, were, in order of greatness, the '97 Sauzet, '99 Sauzet, '99 Olivier Leflaive and '00 Fontaine-Gagnard. But I can see why Coates also writes, "Bâtard-Montrachet is a much-fragmented climat, producing wines of a range of quality from excellent to beyond the pale."
We started with some lovely Champagnes, had a foie gras course that called for Sauternes ('01 Rieussec), and ended with two lovely sweet wines, including the WOTN for me--a glorious '90 Baumard Quarts de Chaume. Amongst the Champagnes, the '98 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne easily stood out, followed by the '95 Charles Heidsieck Blance des Millénaires. John, our chef, did a terrific job of pairing dishes to the wines, and the saltimboca he prepared was a particularly good match with these rich whites. All in all, it was a fun and educational evening, if not as much of a high as our incredible first Montrachet gathering of many months back. I suspect we'll regain our awe for the greatest whites in the world when we move on to a round of Chevalier-Montrachets (assuming we don't pick up the smallest Grand Cru Montrachet vineyard, Criots, next). 
Flight 1 - Starter white (1 Note)
The Rhys Chardonnay is probably my favorite California Chardonnay at this point. My favorite is the '06, but the '07 is coming along nicely.
Flight 2 - Champagnes (3 Notes)
Flight 3 - 1st Bâtard-Montrachet Flight (4 Notes)
Bouillabase
Flight 4 - Sauternes and Foie Gras (1 Note)
foie gras
Flight 5 - 2nd Bâtard-Montrachet Flight (3 Notes)
ravioli with Bellwhether Farms' sheep's milk, mint and myrtle
Flight 6 - 3rd Bâtard-Montrachet Flight (4 Notes)
Saltimboca
2007 Rhys Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard 92 Points
USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
Very light lemon yellow color; nice creamy, lemon, mineral nose; tasty, tight, tart lemon, mineral palate with depth; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.
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