2009 La Conseillante; children and wine; blind tasting
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:35 am
My stepmother -- who appreciates wine and always lavishes praise on my wine in a plot to get me to bring out the very best when she visits -- was visiting this weekend. Showing the success of her strategy, I brought out a 2009 La Conseillante to go with a lamb dinner. I had intended the 2005 but my storage facility pulled the wrong bottle.
Anyway, I bought this 2009, which I cannot really afford, after attending a sensational Conseillante vertical a few months ago (http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/ ... nte#p69590) and it lived up to my memory. Just gorgeous, at the very beginning of its drinking life and still young but (as is often the case with good 2009s) the beautiful fruit wrapped around and enveloped the structure in such a way that the structural elements in no way inhibited enjoyment of the wine. The deeply balanced and harmonious quality of this wine helped too. One was left with a sensation that the wine would soften and unfold many complexities with time but that one had not lost anything by drinking it today, just traded one kind of experience for another. Unfortunately I have just one more bottle of this wine and given the price cannot afford more. I do however have several 2005s still waiting!
Several observations from this evening. First, we all waxed rhapsodic about this wine in tasting it, and I gave in to my inner Jeff Leve and started saying things like "beautiful dark chocolate mixed with intense blackberry, some caramel but enough minerality to keep it from being cloying, etc. etc." -- it is a young wine that is not yet expressing your gamier aged flavors, it's all imposing but elegant sweet grace right now. Anyway, I had a six year old at the table and after hearing a couple of rounds of this he started to get agitated and demand a taste, on the grounds that "I LOVE chocolate daddy! I LOVE blackberry ice cream! I LOVE brown caramel! It's a yummy kids drink and I want some!". Besides being a demonstration of the fundamentally juvenile nature of your dessert-based delicious-ness talk in relation to wine, this leads me to think I may need some ickier descriptors for my home-based wine tasting from now on. Truffles, dirt, and olives, anyone?
Second, in reference to a discussion some time ago regarding this frequently repeated bullshit internet claim that wine expertise is just snobbery, all wines taste kind of the same, cheaper wines are actually just as good, etc. I demanded that my stepmother blind taste me on the Conseillante vs a current vintage of Apothic Red. That is, she brought out two identical glasses, one of Apothic Red and one of the 2009 Conseillante and asked me to determine which was which. I not only picked the correct wine, I did it in literally less than two seconds simply by sniffing the two glasses, not even having to taste them. The Apothic Red was a blend of over the top artificial vanilla/oak flavorings and a limp soda pop sweetness that was reminiscent of nothing so much as a flavored Starbucks drink, while the Conseillante seemed to be from a different species of drink altogether. I'm not sure that really justifies the 15-fold price difference, certainly not if all you want is a sweet purple drink that will get you drunk, but is at least reassuring that we are getting something for our money!
Anyway, I bought this 2009, which I cannot really afford, after attending a sensational Conseillante vertical a few months ago (http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/ ... nte#p69590) and it lived up to my memory. Just gorgeous, at the very beginning of its drinking life and still young but (as is often the case with good 2009s) the beautiful fruit wrapped around and enveloped the structure in such a way that the structural elements in no way inhibited enjoyment of the wine. The deeply balanced and harmonious quality of this wine helped too. One was left with a sensation that the wine would soften and unfold many complexities with time but that one had not lost anything by drinking it today, just traded one kind of experience for another. Unfortunately I have just one more bottle of this wine and given the price cannot afford more. I do however have several 2005s still waiting!
Several observations from this evening. First, we all waxed rhapsodic about this wine in tasting it, and I gave in to my inner Jeff Leve and started saying things like "beautiful dark chocolate mixed with intense blackberry, some caramel but enough minerality to keep it from being cloying, etc. etc." -- it is a young wine that is not yet expressing your gamier aged flavors, it's all imposing but elegant sweet grace right now. Anyway, I had a six year old at the table and after hearing a couple of rounds of this he started to get agitated and demand a taste, on the grounds that "I LOVE chocolate daddy! I LOVE blackberry ice cream! I LOVE brown caramel! It's a yummy kids drink and I want some!". Besides being a demonstration of the fundamentally juvenile nature of your dessert-based delicious-ness talk in relation to wine, this leads me to think I may need some ickier descriptors for my home-based wine tasting from now on. Truffles, dirt, and olives, anyone?
Second, in reference to a discussion some time ago regarding this frequently repeated bullshit internet claim that wine expertise is just snobbery, all wines taste kind of the same, cheaper wines are actually just as good, etc. I demanded that my stepmother blind taste me on the Conseillante vs a current vintage of Apothic Red. That is, she brought out two identical glasses, one of Apothic Red and one of the 2009 Conseillante and asked me to determine which was which. I not only picked the correct wine, I did it in literally less than two seconds simply by sniffing the two glasses, not even having to taste them. The Apothic Red was a blend of over the top artificial vanilla/oak flavorings and a limp soda pop sweetness that was reminiscent of nothing so much as a flavored Starbucks drink, while the Conseillante seemed to be from a different species of drink altogether. I'm not sure that really justifies the 15-fold price difference, certainly not if all you want is a sweet purple drink that will get you drunk, but is at least reassuring that we are getting something for our money!