Essex County Wine Society

Our Fall dinner was held at Basilico in Millburn on September 17, 2006. We usually comment on the wines presented. The wine accompanying the appetizer was an Italian sparkler, Ca’ del Bosco (nv), and it was crisp with tiny bubbles and a mineral overlay. The pasta course wine was a very good 2004 single vineyard Pra Soave Monte Grande. The wine demonstrated excellent body and some finesse. For the fish course, branzino with black risotto, we had two 1997 Barbarescos from La Spinetta (Giorgio Rivetti), Vigneto Starderi and Vigneto Gallina to compare. Contrary to Robert Parker’s review in 2001 when he described the Starderi as more backward, some thought the Starderi was more accessible than the Gallina. Both wines showed great fruit and a full body and clearly had a future. For the meat and cheese courses we presented two Brunello di Montalcino, Altesino and Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova. Both had impressive texture and depth. According to one observer, the Casanova di Neri was the wine of the evening. The Italian wines presented had a good life span ahead of them. As a wine tasting group, serving wines perhaps early in their maturation when they might be available in the market is appropriate. The dessert wine accompanying the biscotti, gelato, and chocolate cake was the 1997 Vin Santo Fattoria Viticcio and it had light sweetness and a slight bitterness in the Italian manner.

The first tasting of are 2006-2007 year was a look at the wines of Spain and it was a great success. Doug Salthouse presented a series of wines reflecting seven regions in Spain. We tasted wines from Jumilla, Toro, Manchuela, Campo de Borja as well as the more familiar Priorato and Rioja. The wines were interesting in that some were drinking very well currently but some of the wines (in our opinion the better crafted wines) appeared to need more time in the bottle. The favorite wine for current drinking was the 2003 Clio whereas the consensus of the group was that the 2003 Termanthia and the 2001 Torre Muga were wines for the cellar. We finished up the tasting with a superb sweet wine, the 1927 Pedro Ximenez solera from Alvear. It was great to have Doug back with us leading the tasting after a ten year sabbatical and based on the attendees comments at the tasting we hope to see Doug conduct additional tastings in the upcoming year.

Our second tasting of the year will be 2003 Bordeaux and will be led by Joel Mitchel. Joel is a long standing member, a wine retailer in Bergen county and has run many wine tastings for his customer base as well as for the Essex County Wine Society. The 2003 vintage in Bordeaux is one that is somewhat controversial. Many critics have suggested that the vintage is a great vintage (though probably not up to the level of 2000 or 2005) while some critics have suggested that it is too extreme a vintage to be considered outstanding.

Some of you probably read the Wall Street Journal and saw Dorothy Gaiter and John Bresher’s wine column of September 22, 2006 where they stated they thought the wines (first growth) were “the best group of first growth Bordeaux that we have ever tasted and takes us back to the 1995 vintage”

Steve Tanzer in the International Wine Cellar (May/June 2005, Issue 120) suggests that even the Bordeaux winemakers are generally lukewarm on these wines. Tanzer goes on to suggest that extreme caution be taken in connection with these wines but also says there are some great 2003 wines with the best being “monumental”.

Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate (4/29/05, issue 158) suggests that although the vintage is incredibly irregular, one of the positive aspects of the vintage is the number of “surprisingly big, seriously endowed, full throttle wines from lesser terroirs.” Nonetheless Parker says that some of the 2003 Bordeaux he has tasted are among the greatest Bordeaux he has ever tasted.

The obvious question is how can a vintage in Bordeaux be this confusing. Well, as many of you know the 2003 season was one of the most extreme, in terms of weather since 1947. The heat was so severe that the wines had extremely high PHs, high alcohol and low acidity. This is a vintage that cannot be generalized about and we are fortunate to have Joel lead us through some of the better wines of the vintage at the affordable and more serious levels.

We will be tasting among other wines the Pichon Baron which Tanzer gave a 92-95 and says it is a first growth quality. We will also taste the Smith Haut Lafite from the Pessac Leognan appelation which Parker rated 90-93 and says is one of the bright shining stars of Bordeaux since the mid 1990’s. The Clos Fourtet, which is also in our tasting, is scored 92-95 by Parker and 90-92 by Tanzer.

Joel is also going to run a little experiment. He has picked three outstanding wines from one appellation and we will taste them blind and determine if we can pick the appellation.

The cost for the tasting will be $62 for members, $76 for guests.

The following tasting will be of Southern Italian wines led by Mike Aria on December 7, 2006.

In vino veritas and a votre sante

Bob and Howard