San Francisco offline at Bizou

San Francisco, CA
Tasted Tuesday, February 1, 2005 by Eric with 1,258 views

Introduction

I was coming down to San Francisco for a few meetings, and I made sure to schedule and evening to try and do an offline with Squire's board folks. I was blown away by the demand, but really, after meeting this crew, I think they were just looking for a good excuse to get together. ;)

Paul Homchick was very kind, fair and patient in assembling the list of folks, picking the restaurant, and coalescing the flights and the meal. I think everyone agreed that the venue was very friendly, the food was absolutely fantastic, and we all felt like we got a very fair deal in terms of the overall cost. Here is a huge thumbs up to Bizou and to Paul!!!

Flight 1 (2 Notes)

I was about 15 minutes late coming across town and a bit out of sorts as I finally made it into the restaurant. Within moments of greeting me and starting to be introduced, the waiter handed me a warmup glass of 82 Salon, OK, that's a nice way to settle in. :)

Flight 2 - Bubbles (1 Note)

With a nice plate of dungeness crab, celery root and house made steelhead caviar.

  • 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon 96 Points

    France, Champagne

    Oh my, such vinosity and grip on the unmistakeable and stunning young wine. This is my fourth taste of this gorgeous beauty, and I am so glad for my ridiculously silly 18-bottle purchase recently. It is simply that great!

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Flight 3 - 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (3 Notes)

Oh what a lovely flight to enjoy with a delicious plate of Rock Island black bass with bacon, currants, pine nuts and escarole.

  • 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape 96 Points

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

    This was my co-WOTN with the 1989 La Chapelle. On opening, this was a serious "whoa Nellie" wine with, for me at least, a huge blast of horse. For me this is a good thing, an the wine easily handled the funk. Bramble, cherry, licorice on the nose with loads of sweet, pure fruit on the palate. Perhaps the best part was the long, long, leathery finish. This was perhaps the most advanced of the 1990's we tasted, yet that was a good thing. Mmm, this is really everything I want in a great Châteauneuf-du-Pape!

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  • 1990 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 91 Points

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

    This wine came out on the bottom of the flight, although it was still a very pretty wine. The nose was dense with forbidding notes of black fruit. The palate was brooding and tight with a bit of imbalance where the tannin and acid seemed to be too far ahead of the fruit.

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  • 1990 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée 94 Points

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

    The initial nose was ripe, ripe, ripe with somewhat out of place notes of cassis and roasted plum. However, with a bit of aeration the band-aid, iodine white pepper and sweet cherry came into focus. This is still surprisingly young, pure and primary with loads of sweet cherry fruit on the palate. Glorious.

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Flight 4 - Hermitage (4 Notes)

Hands down this was the best flight and the toughest to pick favorites amongst, an embarassment of riches. This was served witha finger-licking good breast of squab with a potato leek galette and copious blakc truffle. Yumbo!

  • 1982 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 95 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    This gets an OMFG for the nose and the first taste, a benchmark Hermitage experience. Totally resolved yet still loaded with plenty of backbone. Black olives and roasted meat are redolent on the nose. The palate is like a silk glove, wonderful mouthfeel, with a streak of surprisingly sweet fruit. This did seem to fall off noticeably after it was poured and then rebounded in the glass a little whole later. A terrifically enjoyable wine.

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  • 1988 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 94 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    This was probably the best nose of the night except for perhaps the Beaucastel. Cracked black pepper, roasted meat and lots of gently wafting sweet, black fruit. At first the palate seemed less forgiving, very acidic and somewhat tough and chewy. However, with time and food this relaxed quite a bit and became more approachable. Massive notes of bacon eventually came out on the nose and palate.

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  • 1989 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 96 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    At first I was a bit put off by a very clear scent of caramel that seemed to suggest there was either some oxidation or a lot of wood to still integrate. However, with air this integrated and the nose moved more to beef blood. The palate provides a HUGE mouthful of structure and bright, vibrant acidity. This is drinking crazily young and with more air the palate gained a remarkable ripeness. Awesome, awesome, awesome, co-WOTN for me.

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  • 1994 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 92 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    This is a promising, young La Chapelle. The nose shows smoky charcoal with black pepper and some matchstick scents. This is big, black and loaded with primary fruit. So young and delicious.

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Flight 5 - Young Bruisers (3 Notes)

With a fantastic and distinctive dish of oxtail ravioli and broccoli di rape, we enjoyed this aptly named flight.

  • 2002 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard 95 Points

    USA, California, Central Coast, Edna Valley

    Deep, black in the glass, nearly opaque in the somewhat poor lighting, but even a candle right behind the glass shows it to be opaque at the center. The nose screams of tar with loads of coffee and oak that is easily swallowed by the dynamic layers of black fruit, roasted plums, beef blood. This is an amazingly black, powerful, brawny and forboding young wine, but if I owned any I would be dipping in now. It is absolutley terrific stuff!

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  • 2001 Sine Qua Non Midnight Oil 93 Points

    USA, California, Central Coast

    I have had a fleeting taste of this wine once before, and I recall it being a bruiser. However, next to the 2002 Alban Reva it was light in color and much more delicate in style. This wine also had the toughest time opening up. At first whiff there were pleasing notes of pine and telltale caramel, but then a pretty heavy streak of alcohol came forward and made this wine a bit disappointing for a number of tasters. However, after half an hour this came around, integrated the alcohol and showed a spicy, tight, intense core of beautiful Syrah. I would be patient with this one.

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  • 2001 Michel & Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie 92 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    There were fears that this wine might be swallowed up by the flight, so I made a point of enjoying this with the food (amazing oxtail ravioli!) and before dipping into the Cali-Syrah. This was a beautiful and promising young wine with pine, graphite, mineral and licorice. Wow, this has such precision and focus and is so very pretty and enjoyable even at a young age. This is going to be a beauty in 8-10 years.

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Flight 6 - The Unannounced ones... (3 Notes)

And then a few more bottles appeared that were not in our original plans. These went very nicely with a cheese plate featuring Pont L'Eveque, Cave Aged Gruyere and a tangy Fourme d'Ambert.

  • 1995 Domaine La Millière Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 89 Points

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

    This was also tossed into the flight at the last minute. It would have been at home with the 90 CnDP we enjoyed earlier. Licorice and loads of garrigue. It doesn;t quite have the depth and intensity of a great Châteauneuf (and admittedly it was tough to taste it in the context we did), but this is also very enjoyable.

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  • 2002 Saxum Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard 83 Points

    USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles

    Hot, clunky and searing with black raspberry. Others who have had this wine before suggested it was not a representative bottle. The only clunker of the night.

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  • 1998 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard 89 Points

    USA, California, Central Coast, Edna Valley

    This was surprisingly old-world on the nose with spice and leather. On the palate this is plummy with ripe fruit and spice-cake. Compared to the 2002 Reva this is somewhat understated, but this is at a very enjoyable point right now.

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Flight 7 - Dessert (1 Note)

Finally, with wine poached pears with pistachio and creme fraiche we enjoyed a delicate beauty to end a wonderful evening.

  • 1986 Château Climens

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac

    Light color. Peach, creme brulee and still a fair amount of vinyl/shower-curtain. I didn't get a chance to take detailed notes on this one, but it showed very nice acidity and was relatively light and precise.

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Closing

It was wonderful putting so many faces to names and sharing such delicious wines. Thanks everyone for a terrific time!

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