Peter Pratt's
Tasted Sunday, January 27, 2008 by bsherwin with 831 views
Yet again the other tables at the great Peter Pratt's Lugeresque extravanganza fought for second place as the Bordeaux table continues to outpace the others. The Bordeuax table, #3 on your seating chart, but #1 in your heart. The poor California table #2 trying to pawn off the 1991 Mondavi as a great wine...or Keith Levenberg and Michel Abood jealously coveting the presence of our Wilfred van Gorp and trying to peel him away with promises of villages wines of the '80s. It's enough to make you cry. I have to be nice to Michel though as he had both cigars (thanks!) and a camera (doh!).
Seriously though, Mark Franks threw another wonderful event. The steaks were awesome and paired perfectly with our fantastic wines. Thanks to the wonderful human being that is Paul Jaouen for organizing the table, thanks to Bill Lawrence (as always) for his wonderful insight and to everyone for bringing such great BDX (including poor Mark Golodetz who sadly came down with food poisoning the night before the event-we certainly missed him). Looking forward to next year's event!
Yes, but only the best. Two very fine expressions of California Chardonnay, if that's your sort of thing.
...and the wines were excellent. Ah, the beauty of mature Bordeaux. The GL, a generous gift of our sick friend Mark Golodetz, had a lot of fans at the table and was quite a well-made wine. My distaste for GL being well-documented, let's just say that there were plenty of people that would happily pick up the slack in drinking that wine. The LP was probably the favorite of the table, but I had a big spot in my heart for that La Conseillante. All in, a fantastic flight and probably the most consistent.
The wine that stands out here is the '98 LMHB, so let me explain why it was in there in the first place. Rich Mavricos, Bill Lawrence and Paul (and the absent Mark Golodetz) had to suffer through a corked bottle that I brought to our LMHB vertical, so this was to make amends. The wines were so disparate that I don't think its fair to say there was a favorite.
Well, with this posting let the gleeful cries of "corked!" eminate from Paul's mouth. Wilfred honestly and Paul spitefully believed the '90 Figeac to be corked, which would carry my streak of expensive corked bottles with Paul to 2. The Angelus' were stupendous and head and shoulders above the Figeac (which I think just tasted like Figeac). Its too bad Golodetz wasn't there to mediate.
These wines suffered for being the last flight in terms of attention, but not in terms of quality. Clearly, the 1985 was the better wine today and Wilfred got a nice workout pouring from his magnum for the refugees from other tables.
We finished the night with a 1977 vintage Dow, but I have no formal notes other than "spicy." It was quite good. There were also some generous pours from the Burgundy table (especially that wonderful '01 Rousseau) and Bob Fyke's delicious 1994 Solera. Some good stuff over at the California table, but nothing rocked my world. Peace.
2001 Kongsgaard Chardonnay
USA, California, Napa Valley
This was very nice expression of California Chardonnay. The nose was quite pure with typical notes of pear and white stone fruit with a dollop of oakiness still unintegrated. It was pretty full in the mouth with good if not great acidity and nice length. I would have picked this for a younger wine and wouldn't be surprised if it needs a bit more time.
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2002 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
I found this to be a very complete wine. Great purity and freshness on the nose with a complex mingling of pear and spices knocked down a little because of a soupçon of protruding oak. It had a very sensual mid-weight palate and a gentle lilting acidity carrying the fruit to the finish. Excellent effort.
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