TN: Beefsteak & Burgundy Club Dinner 16/7/07

[n4sir]

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to sit in on a dinner of the Walkerville Beefsteak & Burgundy Club dinner at Soho. With a Bastille Day theme in mind, all of the wines were served double blind with the usual high standard three-course meal by Bradley and Peta. My thanks to Duane for the invitation and the rest of the gang for making me feel very welcome to the group sharing these interesting wines.


1998 Pol Roger Vintage Champagne: Medium straw/gold colour, with a steady, fine bead. Crusty Bread/yeasty nose with a hint of orange and aldehyde, then grass and the whiff of baking bread. Zingy/plush entry followed by some nutty strawberry and then lime characters, finishing dry and mineraly with some oyster on the very end. In comparison to the bottle at the Champagne blind tasting this was either "one out of the box”, or just looked so much more impressive away from the other bubbles. Most guessed it was vintage champagne, but thought it was a much higher priced/regarded version.

2000 Montee de Tonnerre Chablis Premier Cru: Pale yellow/straw colour. Interesting nose at first of wet limestone and vegetable peelings from the trashcan, then flinty with lime, aniseed and perfumed blossom characters. Buttery entry followed by a very dry/spicy and mineraly mid-palate, finishing long and a touch smoky with a little citrus. Most guessed it was Chablis, although the vintage was a bit of a surprise to me.

2004 Guigal St Joseph Rouge: Dark, blood red. Gorgeous, perfumed, sweet nose of vanilla, cinnamon sticks, ripe red cherries/cassis and tea, then a little varnish and pepper. Sweet entry of mid-weight cassis and black tea followed by a massive hit of chalky tannins mid-palate, which flow through to the finish with some sweet cherry and vanilla/malty oak. With the clean cassis characters, medium weight & tannic structure I was thinking of a modern Loire Cabernet Franc blend, although someone picked it as a 2004 Guigal.

2001 Chateau d’Armailhac Grand Cru Classe: Dark red/crimson. Perfumed and slightly floral nose of earthy cassis with a hint of game/truffles, then pepper and talcum/bath salts. Seriously intense and tannic palate at first, gradually revealing some feminine blackcurrant/strawberry and mineral characters with just a little pepper, the length fabulous and elegant. I thought it was a little gamey and had maybe a greater percentage of Merlot than a Pauillac, and guessed a St. Estephe wine.

1998 Chateau Bouscasse: Very dark red/crimson. Damp nose with dirty earth and some dried flowers, slightly gamey and metallic with breathing but always dusty. Tart, dry, gum-draining palate, the fruit jammy but always second fiddle to the monstrous tannins – on this form Tannat isn’t a grape I really warm to, and I don’t think anyone else was that impressed either.

2004 Carmes Du Rieussec (375ml): Bright straw with a hint of olive. Coconut slice and flowers/blossom at first on the nose, then some funky household/machine oil and lifted apricot. Similarly the palate opened with very obvious coconut oak, followed by very sweet apricot fruit, finishing long and extremely dry. Very young and oaky at this stage, but it still delivers quite a bang for the bucks.

1992 Stanton & Killeen Vintage Port: Very dark red/garnet. Raisins and some tomato at first, then some chocolate and rather burning varnish and nutty/fireplace char characters; chocolate/vanilla entry followed by ripe raspberry ripple and some orange brandy characters, finishing minty with some obvious alcohol. I wasn’t as critical as the rest of the table although I also think it was surprisingly advanced.


Cheers
Ian

[mgbridges]

2001 Chateau d’Armailhac Grand Cru Classe: Dark red/crimson. Perfumed and slightly floral nose of earthy cassis with a hint of game/truffles, then pepper and talcum/bath salts. Seriously intense and tannic palate at first, gradually revealing some feminine blackcurrant/strawberry and mineral characters with just a little pepper, the length fabulous and elegant. I thought it was a little gamey and had maybe a greater percentage of Merlot than a Pauillac, and guessed a St. Estephe wine.

Interesting - did you get the impression that this wine would continue to develop? I would have thought that the '01 is still quite young. I'm interested because I have a couple of bottles of the 1998 which I was thinking would be about ready to try.

Cheers,

Martin

[Lincoln]

Who made the Chablis?

[n4sir]

Who made the Chablis?

I'm still trying to find out.

When the bottle whizzed past I thought I wrote down all the major details, but I missed the producer - as an old-world newbie I still find it amazing that appellation takes precedence on the label over who makes the stuff more often than not.

It was purchased from one of the major grocers for a reasonable price for a Premier Cru (about $60) - I had a surf and thought it may have been a Jean-Marc Brocard but found out it wasn't that, or Fevre or Chablisienne either.

Cheers,
Ian

[n4sir]

2001 Chateau d’Armailhac Grand Cru Classe: Dark red/crimson. Perfumed and slightly floral nose of earthy cassis with a hint of game/truffles, then pepper and talcum/bath salts. Seriously intense and tannic palate at first, gradually revealing some feminine blackcurrant/strawberry and mineral characters with just a little pepper, the length fabulous and elegant. I thought it was a little gamey and had maybe a greater percentage of Merlot than a Pauillac, and guessed a St. Estephe wine.

Interesting - did you get the impression that this wine would continue to develop? I would have thought that the '01 is still quite young. I'm interested because I have a couple of bottles of the 1998 which I was thinking would be about ready to try.

Cheers,

Martin

My gut feel is it's still young and developing - I think a lot of people were surprised when this was unveiled, for the right reasons. Most were guessing 1998-2002 but I think a much higher status wine - when it's identity and price was revealed most thought it was very good value for the $62/bottle paid.

Cheers,
Ian