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Book Club - Grand Finale
Tasted December 11, 2016 by brigcampbell with 426 views
Introduction
This completes the forth cycle for the Book Club, incredible. Couples night always makes for a more entertaining evening of general conversation and gets us away from totally geeking out over wine.
Flight 1 (3 notes)
What a brilliant idea Steve comes up with for the pairing, 3 single varietal Petit champagnes. Petite Noir, Petite Blanc, and Petit Meunier. Got us wondering about the other legal varietals.... 7 in total.
Hasselback Potatoes with a citrus crème fraiche
Caviar Tacos
Mini Crab Cakes with herb aioli
White - Sparkling
2010 Jérôme Prévost Champagne La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines
The sparkler is barrel aged and made from 100% Pinot meunière. There's a good sourdough nose and the wine is the white gold in color. Great fruit and acidity with a medium plus mouthfeel. This is an excellent champagne, really good stuff.
White - Sparkling
2009 Roses de Jeanne / Cédric Bouchard Champagne Blanc de Blancs La Bolorée
This is 100% petite blanc, quite unusual. The nose is red apple and white flower. Palate shows very light fruit with high acid, it's quite vibrant but really shows as thin. There's a hint of sweetnes towards the finish but not enough to make up for the light body. Average but enjoyable addition to the lineup.
White - Sparkling
N.V. André Clouet Champagne Un jour de 1911...
Three vintage champagne bland. Color is light yellow and there's a very ready sourdough note on the nose with yellow fruit. Very gentle bubbles and fantastic valance. This is a classic and delicious champagne.
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Flight 2 (2 notes)
Harvest Salad - Brûlée Pear, Goat Cheese, Roasted Fairytale Pumpkin and Pomegranate
White
2010 Domaine Roulot Bourgogne Blanc
Wow this is a great wine for $35.Big flinty nose and matchbook. Really delicious flavors where the flint shows up again and there's some yellow fruit and lemon rind. Medium minus mouth feel and light colored but excellent value. Highly recommend for the price.
White
2012 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Blanc
Medium plus depth of color, yellow pushing gold. There's an interesting additional note on the nose. Taste like classic Chenin with lemon and pith. High acid, razor edge. Terrific complexity. I've had numerous ones from this producer, does this guy make a bad wine? I don't think so.
Flight 3 (3 notes)
King Salmon with Shingled Potatoes, Carrot and Turnip
Red
2007 Rhys Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard
A dirty mulch nose and soil like you just ran the tractor through the field. Dark color, very dark pushing opaque. There's dark red fruit, incense, chalk, stemmy stuff, and fine tight tannins. This was decanted but only for 30 minutes. It definitely required more time but showed very well. As for aging, looks like a winner.
Red
2008 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Marconnets
The nose has a real floral aspect to it, I'm guessing something like violets. Very good clarity, pretty looking wine. Light candied cherry and pulverized rock. Stem or oak note at the finish. I completely enjoyed this paired with the Rhys. Good company.
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Red
2015 Jean-Louis Dutraive (Domaine de la Grand'Cour) Fleurie Le Clos Cuvée Vieilles Vignes
I can understand the other tasting notes and agree. It's sweet ripe cherry and lacks the acid to add an edge. It comes off as "simple" and fruity which is probably unfair. But hey... I've never really been a gamay guy or maybe I just need to put some more effort into finding one I'd enjoy.
Flight 4 (2 notes)
Sundried Tomato and Olive Tapenade Chicken Roulade, Wild Rice and Faro Salad
Red
1999 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Blind but I was all over Cornas based on the nose. The black olive and brush, classic. Black and red fruit, thick, with lots of chalky goodness. Bright Black cherry towards the finish. Man, is this good. It's seems so young and fresh, impossible to guess a 17 year old wine, amazing.
Red
1998 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie
This showed as an older wine, unlike the '99 Cornas. Must be a vintage thing. Nice northern rhone nose with herbs and spices. Red plum was the primary fruit and it was missing some of the intensity you'd expect. Don't get me wrong, it's very nice.
Flight 5 (3 notes)
Cheeses and other fun things. 
Red
2004 Lisini Brunello di Montalcino
Rustic nose with a little horse, let's say some pony since it wasn't distracting and was kind of cute. Classic red cherry, good acidity. Tannins were rounded out. Gentle and nimble Sangiovese at this stage.
Red
2009 Antinori Tignanello
Dark, thick, and lush wine. Very modern in style, could past for a Cali blend or a ripe Bordeaux year . Lots of flavors, cassis, dried fruit and licorice. Chris really enjoyed this one as she's the queen of super Tuscans and this wine is the king. I would like this with a nice big steak.
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Comments (3)
Red
2000 Carlisle Mondeuse
The counselor pulled this one out, he does love his 'duese. So do I and this wine is becoming more rare with every cork pulled. Fresh and fleshy fruit, ripe and high octane. That's all I was able to scratch out for a note at the end of 4 hours...