Patrick Stella and the '01 Sauternes Show
Count's Mannor
Tasted February 24, 2006 by Mlermontov with 1,069 views
Introduction
I must first give a HUGE thanks to Patrick for putting this together and being amazingly generous with his wines... when he first mentioned this to me i thought he was kidding... but there they were...5 little soldiers in one bag... :)
Also thanks to Bob, Doug and Reme for joining us on this fun night... it was fun right? :) !!
Flight 1 (1 note)
We started with a trio of appet. - Svetlana had fun creating this dinner :) (i hope...'cause we had fun eating it)
roasted tomatoes, roasted eggplant stuffed with feta, mushroom spread. in addition Bob brought a cheese with truffles... :)
Flight 2 (1 note)
Using Beth's recipe (thanks!) Svetlana made a venison loin stew with bacon, apple cider and dried apples... i was affraid it would be too sweet but it came out perfectly rustic and trully good!
not only was this not an "in-your-face" wine - it was almoust the opposite...we specificly had this after we were done with the brunello to not overpower the brunello...umm.. it would have matched up rather well :)
ok, to the note - nose of rhone...not a hint of Spain though :( but pure rhone... Parker mentions this is 100% grenache.... light to medium body, mineraly and garique(sp?) - but its that - in addition to blackberries and kirsh? the midpalatte is not there yet... but it has promise... thats the only minus for the wine... slightly warm on the finish but not in a distracting way. great wine... i'd throw this into a bling rhone tasting and see how it does. (NOT '03 rhones.. :) )
Flight 3 (5 notes)
we had a selection of 6 cheeses.
i think blues workes best with sauternes, but the H. Fog is an amazing cheese and it did well also. Comte was the most mild cheese and thus neither hurt not help the wines. then we had apple pie - Sveta made this last night so the crust was crispy and just yum! :)
the nose is predominantly orange and apricot, there is decent acidity. its not overly sweet and has a very long finish. more tropical with time. great QPR.
coconut, vanilla - oak - the first wine where thats noticeable, long finish. this is a heavy sweet fruit bomb... apple pie, or any other dessert will have a tough time catching up to this baby... give it some time and it will merit a higher score i think... see rieussec below..
this is pure power, caramel, orange, appricots...on the palatte it has some rough edges - it attacks you! this is built for the long haul... honey, lighsabre acidity, botrytis all mix together - give it time and the roughness will probably go away..DESSERT WINE!
this is a wine thats in a class by itself, even on the nose - it doesnt assault you with tropical fruits and botrytis, its elegant....there was something of a white burgundy on the nose... i didnt write notes last night.... there was nothing i could write down...to talk about fruit and finish would be to ruin it... you cant pinpoint this wine... its elegance in a glass... BUT i gave it 99...why? 2 reasons...1) it needms time to show all its got... its nowhere near ready. 2) i had only 1 100point wine - the moscatel from Valdespino...and i wouldnt trade that moscatel for this wine. nor would i trade a donhoff eiswein for this...
BUT this is trully a class above all the other sauternes and an honor to drink such amazing juice.
Closing
thanks again to all participating and lets do this again soon! my my.... what a night!