2020 Washington DC - Friday night

[Nicklasss]

Still trying to figure out what was the best wine in that non Bordeaux night?

So much fun. Many discussions. Everyone look great.

I had a soft spot for :

2006 Blain-Gagnard Batard Montrachet : fat, butter, ethereal fruit. Long and superb with the halibut over lobster pasta.

1989 Jaboulet La Chapelle: complete, soft, meaty barnyard, complex fruity, long. Tasty.

2015 Pillot Chassagne 1er Vergers: flintstone, fruit, half fat, creamy, apple, good now and for the next 10.

2009 Jamet Côte Rôtie: nose. Textbook but young. Blackpepper, fat meat, red berries, rasberries, herbs. Mouth is strong, not accessible but almost. No regrets.

1999 Phillip Togni: Loire cabernet on the nose, comeyely balanced cabernet sauvignon in mouth. Black currants, perfumed candy flowers.

1997 couly-Dutheuil chinon: the nicest wine to have to be rewarded, with all the cab franc vegetals, just about right rasberries and bit of dung.

1990 Olga Raffault Chinon: strong wine. Ripe, chalky mineral with ripe red berries. Another roasted fruit dimension, with vegetal purple flower and basil. Wôw.

More coming tomorrow.

Nic

P.S. i'm a bit sad as non of tbe Latricières made it for me. The 2013 Rossignol-Trapet was fresh bbut light and long. Not Grand Cru so much in my book. The 2010 Jadot was good, but heavy structured to me,, that needs more time. The 2012 FAiveleh, probably the one that i liked more, but fade too quickly for a Grand Cru.

[JimHow]

The Originals....

[Winona Chief]

Great evening. My favorites were the Champagnes and three Latricieres - elegant, light and airy. The later reds (which I only had a teaspoon or two each) were very good and had more flavor intensity but I wasn’t in the mood for that.

Chris Bublitz

[Nicklasss]

What is amazing, the wines like the people were in great shape. No corked bottles.

The 2007 White Trebbiano d'Abruzzo made also a very good impression on me.

The 2005 Bouchard Corton was again, a very nice Bourgogne, better than all the Latricières.

The 1995 Jaboulet La Chapelle was also excellent, very meaty and concentrated red berries.

The 2000 Chave Hermitage was probably the more severe or closed wine: creosote, coal , black and blue fruits.

Finally, all the Champagne were great :2004 blanc des millénaires a bit more rich, but great mouth and balanced. 2008 Pol Roger rosé, full of proudness in it dry mineral and red flowers fruit style. 2008 Cristal, salty, fruity, mineral, long, complex, just great.

Nic

[Blanquito]

Great stuff, Nic. Sounds like another epic night in our nation’s capital.

Love some of the wines you all enjoyed. Togni is one of my favorite non-French wines.

[DavidG]

A fun dinner, great to get the gang together again.

Here are the wines - I think I got most or all of them. I took no notes so brief impressions only.

Champagne
These were a highlight of the evening. First of many.

2004 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires - delicious and in the zone, excellent
2008 Cristal - nose less effusive than the bottle we had in Ft. Lauderdale a few weeks ago, but still a killer bottle. Better with some age
2008 Pol Roger Rosé - didn't spend enough time with this, excellent first impression

Whites, mostly Burgundy
Yumm, not even a whiff of premature oxidation in any of them.

2007 Valentini Rebbiano d'Abruzzo - don't recall details other than it was way different than the white burgs
2005 Daniel-Etienne Defaix Les Lys Chablis - nice crisp classic Chablis
2005 Daniel-Etienne Defaix Vaillon Chablis - similar to the Les Lys - my palate's not sophisticated enough to distinguish between them
2006 Blain Gagnard Batard Montrachet - rounder, richer than the Chablis, great balance, my favorite white of the night by far
2015 Jean-Marc Pillot Les Vergers Chassagne Montrachet - I know I tried a splash of this but memory fails

Red Loire
We don't often have Loire reds at our dinners, this was fun.

1989 Couly Dutheil Clos de L'Echo Chinon - this was excellent
1990 Olga Raffault Les Picasses Chinon - loved this, great earthy complexity, a classic, among my top reds
1997 Couly Dutheil Clos de L'Echo Chinon (magnum) - very green. I like green but this was a bit too much for my palate

Red California
Both of these were drinking really well. I was in more of an Old World mood and the bottles were buzzing by so I didn't give them as much attention as they deserved.

1999 Togni Napa Cabernet - excellent
2000 Ridge Monte Bello - excellent

N. Rhône
Been a long time since I've had a bunch of N. Rhône's at one sitting. This was a treat, and my favorite set of wines for the night. All of these wines were amazingly youthful.

1989 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - drinking really well once it was open an hour or two, right up there with the Chave and Sorrel
1995 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - also drinking really well but I had a preference for the 1989
2000 Sorrel Le Gréal Hermitage - better than the 2000 Chave out of the gate - this and the Chave were standouts
2000 Chave Hermitage - needed some time in the glass but eventually nosed out the Sorrel
2006 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - this was overwhelmed a bit by the older wines
2009 Jamet Cote Rôtie - this was huge - not overwhelmed but destined for much greater things in another decade

Red Burgundy
The other table was really into the red burgs. We got to them later and at the point where keeping track was more difficult. The standouts to me were the Faively and the Bouchard, but I didn't give them the critical attention they deserved.

2012 Faively Latricières Chambertin
2010 Jadot Latricières Chambertin
1990 Maume Charmes Chambertin
2005 Bouchard Le Corton
2013 Rossignol Trapet Latricières Chambertin

Dessert
1945 Prieuré du Monastir del Camp Rivesaltes - can't recall the last time I had an old Rivesaltes, maybe 15-20 years ago, and didn't know what to expect. To my untrained palate this was a nice cross between the sweetness of a tawny Port and savory of a Madeira.

The food was remarkable (menu posted in the other thread). The fluke crudo, lobster ravioli, lamb, and dessert were just fantastic.

[marcs]

This was an awesome evening and a terrific wine lineup. As Nicklass said, there were almost no duds in the lineup (except perhaps the three Latricieres) and almost every wine showed at an extremely high level. It was a very difficult night to spit and and almost impossible to pick a WOTN. The company as usual was terrific and the level of the cooking was very high, maybe even better than the last time we were there. The halibut over lobster pasta was an incredible match for white wines!

Some quick wine impressions (I didn't take notes):

The 2009 Jamet Cote Rotie was my first Jamet ever. The nose was already superb but the palate was still in a sort of monolithic fruity phase -- very enjoyable fruit, not forbiddingly tannic or anything, but not showing a lot of complexity yet. But from the nose especially you already got a sense of how this wine weaves together some of the opposites of Northern Rhone wines -- sweeter blackberry and violet elements along with more austere/savory notes of black pepper, metal, and meat.

2000 Monte Bello -- fantastic, showing its "American first growth" character. Beautiful notes of American oak, rich whole berry/almost plum fruit quality but still retaining those earthy leathery notes. Great balance.

As David said the Loire reds were a highlight, particularly the Olga Raffault Les Picasses which was head and shoulders above the other two which were themselves very good and typical. Guess these guys take some age! The Picasses did this trick I love which is taking that green quality and sweetening it with mellow fruit to create a rich cigar tobacco type element

Having the 1999 Togni next to the Loire reds was a serious eye-opener for me as there were a lot of parallels between the green elements of the Loire reds and the Togni, especially on the nose. But the Togni super-charged it the whole experience with California fruit, so you got a gorgeously rich mouthful of sweet tobacco, leather, a bit of green pepper, mmmmm. Sometimes Togni can take the savory quality in a black olive-y almost salty direction, this bottle was more like a big fat rich cuban cigar. If you love Sociando, Loire, the whole pyrazine experience, to me Togni ought to be one of your top wines. And because many people don't it is still much more affordable than other top-quality California wines

The 2006 Blain Gagnard Batard Montrachet was just so old school and wonderful. Medium dark golden color, rich and sweet, with a lot of banana, custard, butter, etc. Rich texture almost oily. But a subtle thread of citrus and acidity under the whole thing holding it all together and keeping it from becoming cloying or excessive in any way. FANTASTIC match with the lobster ravioli in cream sauce. Maybe have a dinner of just endless bottles of this and unlimited lobster in cream sauce? It was an old fashioned style in the sense that it didn't feature any cut-your-tongue acidic "minerality" and was kind of the platonic essence of aged white Burgundy that California Chardonnay was modeled after, but I loved it.

More later perhaps, but great evening!

[Comte Flaneur]

The Originals....

Lovely picture.

Is that Marie Claude on the left?

Is it true that she ‘wear the trousers’?

[NoahR]

Great times!

Highlights for me for white:
06 Batard Montrachet
Valentini trebbiano
08 Cristal

Of the reds, found all of the Burgs less than stellar, though the 2010 Jadot seemed the most open. Wines of the night for me were:
2000 Sorrel Le Greal
2000 Monte Bello
1990 Raffault
1989 Jaboulet

Looking forward to tonight!
Cheers,
N

[DavidG]

Marcus, the Blair-Gagnard Batard Montrachet and the lobster ravioli was my favorite match of the night as well.

[DavidG]

Great times!

Highlights for me for white:
06 Batard Montrachet
Valentini trebbiano
08 Cristal

Of the reds, found all of the Burgs less than stellar, though the 2010 Jadot seemed the most open. Wines of the night for me were:
2000 Sorrel Le Greal
2000 Monte Bello
1990 Raffault
1989 Jaboulet

Looking forward to tonight!
Cheers,
N

Very similar to my standouts. I should have noted that the 89 Jaboulet La Chapelle was up there with the Sorrel and Chave for me.

Now I wish I'd paid more attention to the Valentini.

[Comte Flaneur]

Terrific line up for last night, am a big fan of Sorrel, regret not buying more when it was more affordable, looking forward to tonight’s notes!

[JimHow]

Comte: Yes and yes.

[SF Ed]

Looks like a great evening. I would have loved the 1989 La Chapelle - that's a great wine. Also good to see love for older Raffault Chinon and Valentini Trebbiano - those are some tasty wines.

I miss being with you guys, but I have a cold today, so even if I were there, I wouldn't be tasting much.

I hope tonight will be epic!

SF Ed

[Nicklasss]

A rectification for Jim and Comte Flaneur:

MC don't wear the trousers. She remove my trousers, but don't wear them!

By the way, she confirmed to me that she liked very much the weekend, and enjoyed being back 13 years later. Disconnecting from the kids a few days is beneficial and she liked discussing of all kind of things with BWEers, that aren't wine related.

Nic

[DavidG]

Nic, so nice that MC could join us and that she enjoyed the weekend.

Regarding your trousers comment: how does that compare with the Whoopee Pie effect?

[AKR]

Lots of rarities there!

[Jay Winton]

Two known wine suspects though one pretends to be a singer.

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