Mixed Frenchies Offline

Six of us (Alan, Kevin, Craig, Steve, Mark, and Lonny) gathered at the Craftsman Restaurant in Minneapolis as Alan Rath was in town from the bay area on business. The theme was mixed French wines that we paired with a multicourse dinner family style. This was a lot of fun and all of the wines showed quite well.

• 2000 Charles Ellner Champagne Brut Prestige 92 Points

  France, Champagne

  Light gold color. drank 2 glasses over an hour. This was pretty consistent with my first bottle. The nose has almond, pear, minerals, and a hint of tropical fruit. The palate is quite fresh and crisp with pear, apple, a little berry, minerals, subtle chalk, nice acid. I really like the clean finish on this. When first tasted it might have been a tad too warm, but after a a lttle chill it was very lively.

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• 2005 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Pale green color. Drank 1 glass over an hour. Nice nose, lemon, lime, a little tropical, seashore, minerals. The palate is fresh and light and with minerals, shells, and citrus flavors. Good balance, elegant.

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• 2009 Francois Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Medium gold color. Drank 1 glass over 1.5hrs. Nose is really open and expressive with toasty oak, apple, white fruits, citrus, and some earth. The palate shows good weight and depth of flavors with nice fruit and minerals and maintains some earthiness as well. Refreshing, clean, well balanced. 92+pts.

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• 2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Luchets 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault

  Medium gold color. Drank 1 plus glass over 1.5hrs. Interesting nose that starts off with some fusil that burns off over about 20 minutes, earthy, flinty minerals, citrus, and then developing a lovely floral note after a while in the glass. The palate has great tone, acid, nice full body, consistent with the nose, and follows into a very long finish. This evolved really nicely and was excellent.

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• 2002 Domaine Robert Chevillon Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Saint Georges 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru

  Dark red to very dark red color. Pop and pour, drank 1 plus glass over 2 hours. A stunning, perfumed nose evolves over 20+ minutes showing wonderful floral notes, black fruits first and then red fruits as well, dry spices, earth. The palate is follows nicely here with a creamy lush mouth feel, elegance with true depth, fully integrated tannins and good balancing acidity. There are layers of black cherry fruit and ripe berries, earth, and minerals. This was drinking wonderfully, exquisite. My WOTN.

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• 2007 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Medium dark red color. Pop and pour, drank 1 glass over 1.5hrs. Nose shows vanilla, red fruits, a bit of sweetness, and is a little green. The palate has a nice core of fruit and minerality, but right now it is drinking a little stemmy and the tannins and acid have not integrated and balanced. At times this seemed to even out more and then it would get that green character back. Would be interesting to see what a good decant would do here, but I suspect it just needs the time.

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• 2000 Château Bahans Haut-Brion 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Very dark red color. Not sure if there was a decant here. Drank 1 glass over 2 hours. Nose shows florals, dusty, cassis, smokey, tobacco, mineral. The palate is full bodied with prominent tannins, black fruit, bold, spicy, mineral, tobacco on the long finish.

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• 1998 Château Rauzan-Ségla 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Very dark red color, very slight bricking. 3 hour decant and aerated twice. Drank 1 plus glass over 2 hours. Nose shows tar, cassis, florals, graphite, earth, spices, coffee The palate has rich black fruits, , full body, graphite, cedar, minerals, licorice, nice depth, round tannins. Nice finish. This wine is still quite young and needs a significant decant. I would have liked to get this another couple of hours, but time did not allow. This was excellent, 92+ to 93pts.

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• 2001 Bosquet des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Chante Le Merle Vieilles Vignes 90 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark red color. Nose is fairly aromatic with spice and herbs, cherry, with some alcohol bleeding through. The palate is medium-full bodied with cherry fruit and herbs and spice on the medium finish.

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• 2004 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

  Very dark red/purple color. Drank 1 glass over 1.5hrs. The nose shines with bacon, tar, floral, aromatics, spice, dill, black fruits of blackberry and pomegranite. The palate has full body, nice concentration and grip, red and black fruits of cherry blackberry and plum, nice acid and tannins. Long finish.

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• 1999 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

  Very dark red/purple color. Pop and pour. Drank one glass over 1.5hrs. Nose has florals, black and blue fruits of blackberry, cassis, & blueberry along with herbs, earth, spice and pepper. The palate is dense and full with white pepper, consistnent black and blue fruits, tobacco, mineral, and round tannins Long finish. Very good and showing well.

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• 2009 Halcon Vineyards Syrah Alturas 90 Points

  USA, California, North Coast, Yorkville Highlands

  Very dark red/purple color. Pop and pour. Drank one glass over 30 minutes. This came last in a line of French wines and probably got short shrift. It struck me as fairly ripe on the nose with blackberry, cassis, lots of herbs, vanilla, oak. The palate is dominated by firm tannins right now with black fruits and oak. I would like to see this again with a nice decant and some extra glass time as it looks to be better yet.

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My WOTN was the 2002 Chevillon NSG Les St. George