Boerne wine club - Paris 1976 Redux...
SLC
Tasted August 10, 2014 by cos65 with 776 views
Introduction
For our August tasting we decided on a Paris 1976 Redux. Folks were instructed to bring either a California Chardonnay, a white Burgundy, a red Bordeaux or a California cabernet.
Luckily we ended up with a fairly decent mix of each. Judges included a bunch of local Texans and a few French ex-Pats... Preformed opinions were rather strong on both sides.
Wines were sent out in decanters, blind, in matched pairs: 4 sets of chardonnays followed by 7 pairs of cabs/blends.
Folks chose of favorite of each matched pair and a general score of 1-10 on each wine.
Wines were not revealed until all votes were in...
Flights 1-4 were paired chardonnay/Burgundy and Flights 5 - 11 were paired Cabernet/Bordeaux
Flight 1 - White Round 1 (2 notes)
The Group preferred the ripe Russian River Valley Chasseur over a brighter leaner Pouilly Fuisse
Flight 2 - Whites Round 2 (2 notes)
Again the ripe Rivers Marie trumped the leaner, somewhat lemony Chassagne
Flight 3 - Whites Round 3 (2 notes)
The 2005 Montelena just edged out the Puligny. Both were full of toasty oak.
Flight 4 - Whites round 4 (2 notes)
The group strongly preferred the Chassagne over the Grgich, but I think the Grgich was quite elegant.
Flight 5 - Reds round 5 (2 notes)
The Franciscan was a clear crowd pleaser over the fairly lean, elegant Bel Air
Flight 6 - Red round 6 (2 notes)
Flight 7 - Red round 7 (2 notes)
Flight 8 - Red round 8 (2 notes)
Flight 9 - Reds round 9 (2 notes)
Flight 10 - Red round 10 (2 notes)
Fantastic, light menthol, eucalyptus, cedary flavors. Perfectly mature, but holding on great.
Flight 11 - Red round 11 (2 notes)
Gorgeous! My hands-down WOTN. Seamless. Lovely silky fruit, yet completely coats the palate. Fantastic now, but seeming immortal right now.
At first whiff this seemed corked! But after about a half hour that all blew off (surprisingly) leaving a nice rich, definitely Cali cab.
Flight 12 - Intermezzo (1 note)
Fairly light scarlet. Very earthy, kind of barnyardy. with some nice cola, cranberry, strawberry flavors. Quite nice. Better with some more time, maybe a lot of time...
Closing
Where can a non-vintage US blend compete with a $500 mature Bordeaux? At a blind tasting! Palates seemed to veer fairly strongly California, with California winning 3 out of 4 chardonnay pairs and 5 out of 7 Cabernet pairs.
In most of the blind pairings, which wine was French and which was American was pretty obvious. But, not always. A 2000 Monte Bello was identified as Bordeaux by most tasters. Its side by side comparison was a 2006 Pichon Baron.
A 2004 Pavie was very forward, paired against a 2011 Newton claret which was fairly restrained.
Groups white winner was the 2005 Bruno Colin Chassagne Montrachet 1er en Remilly (and highest scoring wine overall at 8.9/10
Groups red winner was the 2006 Maybach Materium, a very Californian wine in taste and style.
I loved all the red Bordeaux (a fabulous 1996 Cheval Blanc), but these blinded American palates scored them all fairly modestly.
Our French members may suspect a conspiracy, but that's the beauty of a blind tasting.