Champagne Tasting -- 12/21/2007

Last night, the usual folks got together to taste Champagne and a few reds. I didn't take formal notes, so excuse the brevity of this post. I do think that there was a great amount of information that can be gathered from this tasting.

Champagnes

We had so many Champagnes that I can't remember all of them, but the noteworthy ones were:

My Champagne of the Night: 1996 Deutz "Cuvee William Deutz" -- great blanc de blanc flavors of yeast and brioche with amazing freshness and purity. This was an eye opener for me.

My runner-up: 1990 Dom Perignon -- great freshness and depth with a little nuttiness and toast. Really something special.

Runner-up: 2000 Jean Milan "Terre de Noel" -- Another fantastic blanc de blancs from all Grand-Cru fruit. Apple and fresh cut grass and flowers. What a treat.

My 3rd Runner-up: 1993 Taittinger "Comtes de Taittinger" -- Remarkably good wine from a less than outstanding vintage. Drank fantastic and has some life left in it.

My 4th Runner-up: 2000 Launois "Cuvee Maxime" -- My second bottle of this, and it once again performs excellently. Beautiful bead and amazing freshness and purity.

Disappointment of the night: 1989 Krug -- I think this wine must have been stored less than perfect. It was very low on mousse and slightly madeirized. Not horrible, but one expects more from Krug. Just seemed tired.

Red Wines

After we were finished tasting through the Champagne, we tried a few reds blind. The highlights:

Wine 1: Served non-blind. 2004 Grivot Clos de Vougeot. Pretty nice, but way tight and really primary right now. Needs bottle age to gain weight and shed baby fat. Tough to evaluate. Good news is that oak is not recognizable despite low fruit levels right now.

Wine 2: Smells like Burgundy. Looks like aged Burgundy. Reminded me of a bottle of 1996 Clos des Lambrays. I guessed Burgundy. It was a 1998 Broadley Pinot Noir from Oregon. I was in shock. This is the best Oregon Pinot I've tasted yet. Outstanding.

Wine 3: Smells like talcum powder. Cab or Merlot. Seemed like Washington would be a good guess. That's what I went with. It was a 1993 Woodward Canyon Special Selection (70-some % Cab with 20-some % Merlot and 5-or so % of Cab Franc). Outstanding wine.

Wine 4: I brought a bottle of 1995 Pesquera (Ribera del Duero, Spain) and I didn't bag it. In my opinion, a fantastic wine, but it lacked a proper food companion (like lamb) to really shine at its peak. Certainly drinkable now, but may be better in 1-2 years.

Wine 5: Served non-blind. 2001 Vatican CdP "Reserve Sixtine" -- a remarkable wine. Very savory, very iodine dominated, very high dry extract, very earthy, very blackberry fruit driven. This will go the distance, I believe. Terriffic food wine right now, especially for salty dishes and game meat I would guess. I can't say enough good things about this.

Wine 6: Weird nose of burnt blueberry. My first guess...Quilceda Creek. I peeked and I was right. It was the 2002 Quilceda Creek Merlot. I wouldn't have been able to guess Merlot in 100 years. This was so weird and spoofilated that it only validated my prior experiences with Quilceda. Not a fan.