Blind Tasting via Zoom--3/9

Tasted Wednesday, March 10, 2021 by Frank Murray III with 85 views

Flight 1 (3 Notes)

  • 2012 Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Premier Cru Terre de Vertus

    France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru

    This is my final 750, decided to pour it blind for our Zoom tasting group. Last night, it had a light note of caramel and brown spice (from the wood elevage?), along with golden apple, ginger and a savory/bronzy finish. Retasting today, the ginger note seems even more elevated, with the yellow apple picking up a honeyed edge and the same dried herb/savory note from yesterday. Overall, I still read this wine as being in a good drinking window, and for me, the right flavors to enjoy before it ages any further. Still have a mag left, which I will open some time this year once the damn COVID pressures can ease and we can get some people together live.

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  • 2013 Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Extra Brut Orizeaux

    France, Champagne

    Poured this blind for our Zoom group last night. Of all three wines of the flight, this showed the most opulent, likely due to the dosage here (4 g/l versus zero on the other two wines, 2012 L-B Terre de Vertus and NV Ruppert-Leroy Bergerie). Disgorged June 2018. 100% Pinot Noir. Yesterday the wine showed flavors of mint, lemon (called lemon curd by one of the guys in our group) and minerals. Today I am retesting from the few ounces I saved overnight. The aromatics seems more leesy today. The acidity has shifted to something more lime in tone, with the same minerality of yesterday, and the emergence of some apple. This could fool me for Chardonnay.

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  • NV Ruppert-Leroy Champagne La Bergerie Brut Nature

    France, Champagne

    Damn it is hard to find info on this wine. The R-L website doesn't say anything about the cuvee, and aside from a short blurb from a retailer's website, the best we can do is (thank god for) the back label. This is a mix of fruit from the 3 R-L plots: 60% Fosse, 20% Martin Fontaine and 20% Les Cognaux, split 50% Pinot noir and 50% Chard. 2017 base, disgorged October 2019. Zero dosage. I assume that this wine fails the millesime test because it saw less than 3 years on the lees? I do enjoy this producer, and a bottle of Martin Fontaine (2015 base) last year was stunning. This is the first of three La Bergerie that I acquired. Opened last night for our Zoom group, poured blind. This is mostly still today, as the CO2 has left the wine. What's left here is a wine that has plenty of depth and intensity, both that persist well through into the finish. Lemon, some bruised apple, saline, with plenty of texture, even a bot of roundness that gives the wine a cool mouthfeel. Still plenty of grip in the finish, the saline and minerality helping it along. Apple, and even some red berry like a strawberry is finding its way into the finish, too. Really lovely.

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Flight 2 (2 Notes)

  • 2018 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Platt Vineyard

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    There are a LOT of users of this wine, yet only two previous notes, and I own one of them. Last night, I poured a bottle of this blind for our Zoom group, in part because I was pretty certain none has tasted it yet, and I wanted to see how it faired without the interference of the Gallioni score to bias what people were tasting. Of note, I saved a few ounces from last night to retaste today, to ensure I could offer the best informed note, with the wine seeing about 24 hours of air, too. In thinking about last summer's bottle, while this shows the same dark color, the flavors seem to be softening up a bit (and the 24 hours of air probably has helped, too). This remains built with a decadence of darker fruit, yet it's not syrupy or overdone like some of the Pinot Noir many of us drank in the previous decade. Think darker red fruit with a mix of purple. Lots of concentration and intensity, even a bit of iron. Finishes with a juicy yet concentrated purple kind of boysen fruit, with a touch of tar and spice. This is a good wine, and I've argued enough about the absurdity off the 100 pt scale that I'm gonna skip that here. Instead, I would suggest to the nearly 300 users of this wine to not treat this as a museum piece and put the score aside and then decide if you want to drink the wine to experience it. A bottle not opened is a bottle not enjoyed.

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  • 2017 Kutch Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch

    USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

    Opened last night for Zoom tasting, poured blind. I also chose to pair this against the 2018 Rivers Marie Platt to create contrast. The group was split between preferring the two wines. For me, I preferred the Kutch. For context, this was opened yesterday and I saved a few ounces for retasting today. What continues to stand out for me about the character of this wine is the aromatics. The whole cluster provides a perfumed note that lifts out of the glass, very floral. There is a red cherry, cranberry and red apple note, pure in tone, sitting within a medium weight palate. And even with the 24 hours of air, the structure persists, in part driven by the savory/herbal note of the stems and also a perceived mineral/tannin that gives the wine a beautiful structure. Whereas the Rivers-Marie Platt is clearly California in tone, I bet this wine could fool some palates as to origin, perhaps guessed as Burgundy. The weight, flavors and composition are all here. Finishes with a brushing of blue fruit and mineral. It's hard for me to pick whether I like Kutch Falstaff or Kutch McDougall more but in 2017, both plots really kick ass and Jamie has crafted two gorgeous wines that continue to drink well and show a long road of enjoyment ahead.

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Flight 3 (3 Notes)

  • 2010 EMH Cabernet Sauvignon Black Cat

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    Poured blind as part of our Zoom tasting night. Damn, the aromatics on this are gorgeous. It's been open 24 hrs and I have been able now to taste it twice. Just a bit of cedar and cigar leaf here, along with red fruits, creating something I just want to smell but then realize I should drink it, too! Good concentration and really no fade on the fruit at all that I can sense after a decade. Cedar, cassis, a bright tingle of acidity that has hung around well after a decade. In total, this wine remains fresh, flavorful, and most of all, flat out delicious. Probably one of the best Cabs I have had in my glass in quite some time, and seemingly cut from the old cloth of red fruit and acidity versus the tiring cloth of dark fruit and new oak. Given the freshness and pleasure that this wine delivers, my own personal preference would be to drink this wine now, although it might continue to acquire the aged qualities that some like (more than I do). This is in a really good place now. Excellent.

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  • 2014 Saxum Syrah Booker Vineyard

    USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles Willow Creek District

    Poured blind as part of our Zoom tasting yesterday. I have now tasted the wine twice, with 24 hours of air separating each. Last night, this had a crushed clove nose with some heat. The wine tasted dense, compact, tight. I decided to save a few ounces to retaste today, which is the note that follows. As I have become older (now 55), I simply have a harder time processing through wines of this heft. When I was 35, it was easier and I drank a lot of them, including Justin's wines, which I have great memories surrounding. Yet, I've grown more attracted to higher acid, lower ABV, medium weight wines, and I say this to ensure there is context for my comments. The air overnight really softened this up so a decant would be very helpful if you're going to open one, or better perhaps a decant and then slow ox several hours ahead of drinking. This is a plush, dark wine with dark berry, creosote, graham cracker, tar, licorice and dark chocolate. Purplish/black fruit are the core, with a decadent, plush quality. At 24 hours, this is very drinkable but the alcohol would break me if I had more than a few glasses.

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  • 2013 Carlisle Zinfandel Hayne Vineyard

    USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena

    Poured blind as part of our Zoom tasting. As with blind tasting, it's work and humbling, and I had guessed Syrah on this wine last night. It just had some sweet leather notes with some tar coming through the aroma. And the palate showed the same sweet leather, with apricot, blue fruit and tangy raspberry so I stayed on Syrah. Wrong. So goes blind tasting. I was able to save a few ounces to retaste today so the wine has had a good full fay of air. Maybe what the aromatics suggest is some accelerated aging? I say that because the color is just starting to show some brown on the edges, which suggests to me age is at work. Today, this seems more driven towards a hard cherry candy, with cinnamon, tar and blood orange. Given those flavors, and the more plush and juicy texture, I can see the Zinfandel guess would have been better last night, as it tastes like Zin today. This seems like a wine that is ready to go and given the way this goes across the palate and the easier nature of the wine, I am not sure more age is going to make this better.

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