Essex County Wine Society

WINE PRESS

                          ESSEX COUNTY WINE SOCIETY

March 12, 2009

At our March tasting, Gary Schwarz led us on a blind tasting through a set of matched pairs of 2005 Bordeaux – one appellation at a time – where one wine was the second label of a well-known winery, and the other wine was the first label (“grand vin”) of a somewhat lesser known winery. For each pair, we voted on the preferred wine and then voted again to try to guess which was which. The results follow:

First flight (St. Emilion):                     Favorite wine #1: 29

#1 – Virginie de Valandraud                          Favorite wine #2: 29 (tie with #1)

#2 - Sanctus                                        Think #1 wine is the second label: 28

                                                            Think #2 wine is the second label: 25

Second flight (St. Julien):                   Favorite wine #3: 25

#3 – Clos du Marquis                          Favorite wine #4: 31, the first label wins by a small margin

#4 – Branaire Ducru                           Think #3 wine is the second label: 26

                                                            Think #4 wine is the second label: 17

Third flight (Margaux):                       Favorite wine #5: 40, the first label wins overwhelmingly

 #5 - Lascombes                                  Favorite wine #6: 17

 #6 – Pavillon Rouge du                     Think #5 wine is the second label: 24

           Chateau Margaux                     Think #6 wine is the second label: 22

Fourth flight (Pauillac):                       Favorite wine #7: 34, the first label again wins

#7 – Pontet Canet                               Favorite wine #8: 22

#8 – Les Forts de Latour                      Think #7 wine is the second label: 26

                                                            Think #8 wine is the second label: 25

The favorite wine of the evening was Lascombes, with 28 votes, followed by Pontet Canet with 19 votes, and Les Forts de Latour with 9 votes.

So, from this small sampling of eight wines, the group preferred first label (grand vin) wines over equivalently priced second labels (except for the St. Emilion tie).  However, even though there were some individuals who were able to distinguish every first label from every second label (including Dick Murray and Rae Cohen, among others), the results as a group were quite evenly split in three out of four cases, indicating an inability to make this distinction. 

Our next and last tasting for this year will be of 2006 white Burgundies, on April 2^nd.  It will be led by our former member and terroirist extraodinaire, Alan Saroff. He will lead us through a series of 2006 white Burgundies from Chassagne Montrachet and Puligny Montrachet in the Cote d’Or portion of Burgundy.

In the opinion of a number of wine writers 2006 may be a better vintage than 2005 for the white wines of Burgundy. Alan Meadows a/k/a Burghound, the leading Burgundy wine critic, says that quality became very dependent upon when the grapes were picked with the earlier pickers doing much better (3^rd quarter #31).

Alan will be doing this as a blind tasting and will be showing us the difference in wines as a result of the difference in the terroir between Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet. Often it has been said that one can pick out the Puligny because it tends to be tighter, more floral and have a higher level of acidity while the Chassagne is weightier, more rounded and has stronger fruit. Obviously this is somewhat dependent on the producer and we will be tasting wines from two of the best, Bernard Morey and Paul Pernot. As a special treat in the tasting we will have two of the finest grand cru white Burgundies that are produced: the Batard Montrachet by Bernard Morey and the Bienvenue Batard Montrachet by Paul Pernot. Both vineyards are contiguous to the most famous vineyard for white wine in all of Burgundy, Montrachet, but because of the slightly different terroir in each vineyard, they taste differently with the Batard having greater power and richness and the Bienvenue having more finesse. It will be interesting to see if we can pick out these two wines.

The cost for the tasting will be $79 for members, $94 for guests.

Our next event will be the Spring Dinner, at Café Panache in Ramsey on May 3, 2009.

De gustibus non disputandum est,

If a life of wine, women and song becomes too much, give up the singing.

~ Anonymous

Alcohol, if taken in sufficient quantities, can give one the illusion of drunkenness.

~Oscar Wilde

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