Boerne wine club - Paris 1976 Redux...

SLC
Tasted Sunday, August 10, 2014 by cos65 with 861 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)

  • 1996 Château Cheval Blanc

    France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

    Round 11 Blue
    Gorgeous! My hands-down WOTN. Seamless. Lovely silky fruit, yet completely coats the palate. Fantastic now, but seeming immortal right now.

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  • 2003 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Cask 23

    USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District

    Round 11 Red
    At first whiff this seemed corked! But after about a half hour that all blew off (surprisingly) leaving a nice rich, definitely Cali cab.

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Flight 12 - Intermezzo (1 Note)

  • 2010 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Rouge

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru

    Intermezzo wine between the chardonnays and the cabs.
    Fairly light scarlet. Very earthy, kind of barnyardy. with some nice cola, cranberry, strawberry flavors. Quite nice. Better with some more time, maybe a lot of time...

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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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