| Beringer Vertical
at The Capital Grille |
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February 20, 2010 at 6:00 pm
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| The Wines
Since our last meeting featured a French horizontal, here’s something completely different: a California vertical. Group favorites were the ’90 and ’91.
Acquisitions The auction market is unfortunately becoming impossible again, but I’ve managed to snag a few wines, and found a few from cellar raiders. At the last auction I only got 1 of 20 lots, and I was bidding near and above the high estimates! Oddly, the lot I got (the BV) was one of my lowest bids.
Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple. |
2009-6 1970 Bordeaux
| 1970 Bordeaux
at The Bull & Bear
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| December 5, 2009 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The WinesIt’s been a long time since we did a horizontal. This is a fairly comprehensive tasting of Bordeaux from an interesting year, when some lesser growths produced better wines than the first growths.All of our scores were better than Parker’s. My lowest scored wine was an 84. However our scores tended to track Parker’s. Favorite wines were Palmer, La Mission Haut Brion and Latour. It’s interesting that these three wines included the two half bottles. There’s still plenty of life left in those, and I would definitely consider them good buys.
Acquisitions Purchased from Bonhams & Butterfields 11/21/09: 1949 Corton-Bressandes C. Vienot $550
Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple. |
2009-5 BYOF (Bring Your Own Flight)
| BYOF (Bring Your Own Flight) at Capital Grille |
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| September 26, 2009 at 6:00 pm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The ThemeThis is sort of a pseduo Syndicate event, with wines provided by the attendees.
Each couple was requested to bring two or three wines for a mystery flight. Good wines. Preferably really good wines. The wines should be related in some sense — year, vintner, grape, whatever — and should cause us to look brilliant or stupid, depending upon the quality of our guesses. In the end, the most important thing is that we end up really impressed by your good taste. Attendees: Ron, Bev, Susan, Bruce, Gary, Trish, Dick, Priscilla, Martin, Steve, Linda Thanks to everyone for the great wines! It was a fabulous event. Here are my ratings of the wines:
Acquisitions none. Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
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2009-4 Blind Pairs
at Luma |
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| August 29, 2009 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The WinesThis time we return to a classic theme, with pairs of wines that might easily be confused when we taste them blind. Various members will add a ringer to each flight.
Results: The Chateau “Y” was significantly more popular than the Haut Brion Blanc. My Evans Ranch Las Brisas Chardonnay was obviously out of its league. The Chambertin narrowly beat my ringer (a 1969 Mondavi Pinot Noir) that was very difficult to spot as new world in the flight. Ron’s 1992 Williams Selyem Piniot Noir won the third flight, but all three of those wines were the best of the tasting. Ron’s 1986 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon won the fourth flight. The two Cos d’Estournels were extremely similar. The Berringer won the third flight, narrowly beating Andy’s ringer, a 1991 Gainey Cabernet Sauvignon. Opinioin was very divided on the gainey, with people loving it or hating it. I loved it. The worst wine of the tasting by far was the 1992 BV GDLTPR, scoring only 1/2 point. Thanks also to Dick for a couple of excellent dinner wines including a 2000 Cos D’Estournel, and John for a great Shiraz and a really neat dessert wine from Fess Parker, that fell somwhere between Shiraz and port. Acquisitions Surprisingly, there were some good deals to be found at this month’s Bonhams auction…
I also put together an interesting horizontal from a cellar newly acquire by Cellaraiders…
Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple. |
2009-3 Decades
| Decades
at Luma |
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| June 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The WinesSome great wines from eight different decades!
A wonderful flight of wines, with most scoring in the high 90s. The Petrus was the exceptioin, and was deemed to be a fake. The 100 point Lynch Bages was eclipses by the amazingly preserved ’24 magnum of a cru bourgeois, and all the burgs. The favorite wine was the ’83 Romanee St. Vivant, followed by the ’74 BV GDLTPR. After the formal tasting it was fun to try the ’05 Gainey Limited selection Syrah next to the ’05 Evans Ranch Syrah; same area, winery and winemaker, different wines. The former was vanilla and fruit, the latter more elegant and complex. A similar contrast existed between Martin’s ’06 Blue Eyed Boy Syrah and Ron’s ’02 Pax Syrah. John’s ’05 Adobe Road Cabernet was an amazing wine, and Dick’s ’96 Mercurey was an ashy, elegant white burg. Acquisitions none Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple. |
2009-2 Bring Your Own Flight
| Bring Your Own Flight
at Capital Grille |
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May 9, 2009 at 6:00 pm
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| The Theme
Each couple is requested to bring two or three wines for a mystery flight. Good wines. Preferably really good wines. The wines should be related in some sense — year, vintner, grape, whatever — and should cause us to look brilliant or stupid, depending upon the quality of our guesses. In the end, the most important thing is that we end up really impressed by your good taste. Knock yourselves out! Results There were a lot of ties in the ratings, but the standout wine for me was Ron’s 1985 Chatea Latour. Acquisitions 1968 BV Special Label Burgundy Pinot Noir Napa 50 Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
No dues are due. |
2009-1 Young and Old
| Young and Old
at Capital Grille |
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| March 14, 2009 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Young and old vintages of the same wine. How do they age?(Of course, young is a relative term! My scores are in blue, group favorites are starred.)
Acquisitions
We really got a deal on that Bonnes Mares, which is worth twice that. Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple to the event. |
2008-5 Odd Man Out
| Odd Man Out
at Rocco’s Italian Grill 400 S Orlando Ave. (just north off of Fairbanks Ave.)
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| December 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The ThemeIt should have been easy to figure out which wine was different in each of these blind flights… right? And indeed, the second flight was easy — and superb. But the first flight proved a challenge, especially when Andy added a Williamsburg Winery Seyval Blanc that turned out to be the best wine in the flight!An asterisk denotes the most popular wines.
Acquisitions Because of the terrible economy, 18 pages of wine went unsold at the latest Morrell & Company auction. The wines were put up for sale at the reserve prices, and Ron was abl to steal these two for us:
Upcoming Events March 14
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple to the event. |
2008-4 BYOW
| BYOW
at Capital Grille
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| September 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The ThemeEach couple was requested to bring something mysterious. Good wines. Preferably really good wines. The wines should be related in some metaphysical sense, and should cause us to look brilliant or stupid depending upon the quality of our guesses. In the end, the most important thing is that we end up really impressed by your good taste. Knock yourselves out!
Here are the wines that were brought, along with mys ratings:
Acquisitions None.
Upcoming Events December 6th
Treasurer’s Report
No dues for this event. |
2008-3 Do It Yourself Blind Pairs
| Do It Yourself Blind Pairs
at Capital Grille |
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| July 26, 2008 at 6:00 pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Theme
And now for something completely different. Each couple is requested to bring a pair of bagged wines. Good wines. Preferably really good wines. The wines should be theoretically really different, but in practice hard to tell which is which. This could mean one really expensive and one really cheap, one old world and one new world, one old but vibrant and one young but complex, same producer but two very different years, same year but two very different producers, etc. Knock yourselves out. The goal is to fool everyone, but there has to be some possibility to figure it out. We don’t want to have to tell which one is from Hungary and which one is from Turkmenistan. We’ll start by trying to figure out what they are, completely blind. Then, once we tire of that, the provider will tell us what the two wines are and we’ll try to figure out which is which. The Results Thanks to everyone for all the great wines! It was quite an amazing group! A really fun event, with lots of surprises. Below is the list of wines, with my ratings:
Acquisitions Recent declines in the stock market improved our luck at the auctions:
There are several 100 point wines up there. I leave it to you to figure out which they are! Upcoming Events
Treasurer’s Report
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple to the event. |