Black Cat 101
Undisclosed Italian Location in NY, NY (The place closed in circa 2019)
Tasted May 17, 2015 by odds with 393 views
Introduction
Some time ago, few fellows who were curious about EMH black cat asked me to organized them a little tasting. Post our visit to Napa, we felt it was a good time to thank them for their hard work, and to support the vineyard by introducing people to high quality, consistent and reliable cab. One that stands well against the top calibers. We gathered in an undisclosed Italian Location in New York for the introductory course 'Black Cat 101'. More college courses should be like that. Three representative vintages that are accessible and available were picked to show different stages of a black cat. It was a purrring experience, indeed.
Flight 1 - Pre-requisites (1 note)
In order to start a good 'course' one must meet the pre-requisites, bubbles :-)
This time, we decided to put it on a solo show for starter. Goldish yellow, remains more on the bright gold side. Dry compare to other champs (which I like a lot) ,oak and fruits, or as one of the tasters said “glory in a bottle!”. Since this is the sixth time I’m having this one, I can’t really a lot more compared to previous notes, but I can certainly reinforce previous ones. Dry side champ, oak and fruits in first touch, more peach and lemon this time. Nice, long bubbles bubbles with long finish. We got few more of those in 2013, and I guess I under estimated how good this one would be because I believe we’re down to one or two bottles left, while this champagne still has years ahead of it to live and be enjoyable.
So, to sum- consistent with previous notes. Probably the most reliable champagne I can think of.
Vote by the bottle- empty bottle. Too bad we're running low on this one.
94+ rightfully earned
Flight 2 - Warm up exercises (2 notes)
To build the expectation and prepare for the full bodied cabs, we needed to start with some wines with close proximity to Calistoga, but also different and complementing to the full body cab tastes. Since Rieslings were out of the question, we decided to go creative. Something new, and something familiar
They voted with their glasses. And one of them picked the (cute) bottle as a souvenir. 500ml. Beautiful label, and I was told it will become a little flower holder.
Excellent pairing with our mixed appetizers and cheeses to start. Still has few years ahead of it, and it will keep developing. None of the concerns raised on other vintages of this one applies here.
(I voted this one constantly as 92-93 and I keep holding it. I think it will live longer than anticipated initially )
Flight 3 - Core material (3 notes)
Now we get to the important part of the day- Black Cat. If you are looking for this wine, you probably know something about it already :-)
First thing we all said “spices!” and blackberry/cherry. Very open spices, even somewhat more ‘rounded’ then last year (rounded, or balance, I should say). The tasters said “wow” on the nose, which kept developing over dinner. On the finish, the fruits give their ‘space’ to the earthy tastes, so to speak.
Food pairing-- Those who had the spicy dishes (or steak) said it complemented their meals best (better than the ’09). Those who took more ‘balanced’ main dishes (pasta, pork chops) tended to prefer the ’09 over the ’06. Both ag on this one are just wow, and developing over the dinner. A solid 93-4 for me, but I sometimes wonder if the points do justice to such multi-layer wine. Summary: Merrill knows how to make cabs that will age better than all of us :-)
Vote of the bottle status- bottle emptied, taken home by one of the tasters as a souvenir.
The earthy and spice notes get as secondary (compared with the ’06) and it provides a great ‘intro to cab’ on the nose, palate and finishing. It does need decanting but it can be easily enjoyed for several hours.
Tasters opinion: All five votes thumbs up. The ones who picked the less ‘spicy’ food voted this one as their WOTN. Restaurant’s opinion: “can we have one more taste?” (sure you can!) . I would even go as far as saying that with proper decanting, the ’09 delivers certain underlying characteristics that one has in the ’09 SS (not surprising). I think it would last longer than current estimation of CT users (~2020 at the time this note is written). I ranked it before at 94 and I keep holding it. Well done, Merrill.
Vote of the bottle status- bottle emptied, one of the people who voted it as their WOTN took the bottle.
Summary- this one will be one of the vintages that Black Cat will be most proud of, but it is young and needs time to develop the spices/herbal, and earthy notes that other black cat vintages have.
Vote of the bottle status- We left about a glass in the decanter that went to the ‘house’ for their enjoyment. I think it's worth letting the additional bottles sleep for a year or two.
Flight 4 - Extra Credit (2 notes)
No course is completed without some extra credit work, and few desserts.
IMHO, it is somewhat less balanced than the ’06 at this time. 89-90
Closing
Something about food pairing-- Those who had the spicy dishes (or steak) said the '06 complemented their meals best (better than the ’09). Those who took more ‘balanced’ main dishes (pasta, pork chops) tended to prefer the ’09 over the ’06. Both agreed that both wines were showing their best "wow", and developing over the dinner. Menu was built for six to seven and we ended up just five, so next time, we'd probably reduce one bottle from the appetizers. Great experience for all, and special thank you to our friends who enable us to open few black cats side by side for pure enjoyment, and to have good times.