Seattle, WA, USA
Tasted Friday, April 16, 2004 by Eric with 2,415 views
Last night members of the Seattle Tasting Group (STG), other Seattle locals including winemaker Lance Baer, and some eager out of town guests (Nicos Neocleous and Spencer Thrall) assembled at Kaspar's Restaurant in Seattle for a delicious meal and a fun offline featuring some of the best Washington wines from traditional powerhouses (Woodward Canyon, Leonetti Cellars, Andrew Will) along with terrific wines from some awesome up and coming winemakers (Cadence, Baer). In a somewhat unusual turn, we didn't have any Quilceda wines, as we feel like we have done those many, many times over and wanted to touch on some other wines.
I'm not going to try and describe the meal, but Roy did a wonderful job of arranging a multi-course masterpiece featuring some particularly delicious seafood (the sauteed scallop atop bacon and horseradish infused mashed potatoes was a particlar favorite for me). Thank you Roy for putting together a delightful lineup and a fun evening, albeit one that was quite cozy around the 20 person table. :)
With a very cool tower of appetizers we started off with some bubbly.
The real tasting started off with a pair of DeLille wines (the planned 1995 Chaleur Estate was a no-show).
This next flight was a bit of a hodgepodge.
This next flight was my favorite with a beautful series of the Tapteil Vineyard wines from Cadence. I haven't had a chance to taste an older (1998) Cadence, and it was really nice to see how the 2000 had settled down.
We followed up with a great flight from Baer Winery, and Lance Baer had a chance to share his philosophy and his thoughts on some of his first creations (all made while he was still the assistant winemaker at DeLille). I was amazed to hear that all three of these were pure free-run, as the press wine was sold off for these. Very pure and focused, these were delightful wines.
Next we moved to Washington State's cult, Leonetti Cellars. These are lavishly wooded wines. Personally, I chased these when I first started collecting, but my palate has really shifted away from these. That said, some of the wines were admirable and worked quite well.
Some more Leonetti and an older Woodward Canyon. In the midst of dealing with one no-show Woodward, we missed an opportunity to make the flights somewhat more congruous. Oh well.
Next we moved onto the last of the Woodwards and the beginning of four wines from Andrew Will.
If there was one disappointment to the evening, it was the inconsistency of the Andrew Will wines. Perhaps we were just unlucky, but there were at least two bottles that appeared to be damaged and one showing poorly. Fortunately the Klipsun Merlot showed the true colors of these wines.
Finally we moved onto a series of overachieving dessert wines. I was tired and lazy, so I didn't score these, but most of them were very enjoyable, bordering on excellent.
Thank you Roy for putting together a wonderful evening (the beginning of three in a weekend of debauchery that is still taking shape. More tomorrow...)
NV Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs
USA, California
Pale salmon color. Simple and yeasty with a hint of dirty sweatsock on the nose.
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