Fete du Bordeaux 2014 – Year Six

On February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 By Bob WattIn FranceLeave a comment

Authored by Christina

As previously noted, this was the first year I attended the annual Bordeaux dinner in Seattle alone, as my husband had to be out of town. Alas, I wasn’t entirely left to fend for myself, as good friend Bill Schallert from Young’s Market Company made a great stand-in date (thanks Bill!).

Bill Schallert from Young's Market Co., Nancy Rugus, representing Chateau Suidaraut, Jean-Charles Cazes from Chateau Lynch Bages, Christina Watt, and Damien Barton Sartorius with Chateau Leoville Barton. — Bill Schallert from Young’s Market Co., Nancy Rugus, representing Chateau Suduiraut, Jean-Charles Cazes from Chateau Lynch-Bages, Christina Watt, and Damien Barton Sartorius with Chateau Leoville-Barton.

One of the highlights of the evening is always hearing from the representatives from the various estates whose wines we’re tasting – we appreciate their efforts to be here. We were pleased to welcome Jean-Charles Cazes again from Chateau Lynch-Bages and Chateau Ormes de Pez, as well as Damien Barton Satorius, from Chateau Leoville-Baron and Chateau Langoa-Barton. The dinner was held on the day of the Seahawks Victory Parade that brought out over 700,000 fans into the streets of Seattle. Ever mischievous, Jean-Charles had a little fun with the theme, bringing Seahawks “Lynch: Beast Mode” jerseys to describe the Lynch-Bages wines.

Damien is the grandson of Anthony Barton, who has visited for dinners in the past. Damien’s mother Lillian has also joined us on a few occasions. Damien is currently finishing up his Masters Degree in International Business, and this was his first trip to the United States and second wine dinner in which he was asked to provide remarks on behalf of the estate, which he did very well. You can certainly see the resemblance to his very gracious grandfather, and we look forward to hearing more from Damien in the future.

Chateau Montrose was notably absent in representation again this year, citing ongoing construction work that kept them from attending. Here’s hoping they get that construction done soon – it’s always nice to hear from the Chateaux themselves at these events. Nancy Rugus did a nice job explaining their wines, however, and also those of the venerable Chateau Suduiraut, whom she represents and who makes exceptional Sauternes.

Just a few things to taste through... — Just a few glasses to taste through…

This was the year we tasted the 2011’s, coming off of the major hype of the ’09’s and 10’s, and even the very good year of the ’08’s.

Here was the line-up:

2012 Blanc de Lynch Bages
2011 Chateau Tronquoy Lalande
2011 Chateau Ormes de Pez
2011 Chateau Langoa-Barton
2011 Chateau Lynch-Bages
2011 Chateau Leoville-Barton
2011 Chateau Montrose
2000 Chateau Langoa-Barton
2005 Chateau Lynch-Bages
2005 Chateau Montrose
1990 Chateau Lynch-Bages
1990 Chateau Leoville-Barton
1998 Chateau Montrose
2003 Chateau Suduiraut

Now let me preface my remarks by saying that in general, my wine of the night has typically always been one of the older vintages, which makes perfect sense, right? Well, in 2010, I actually prefered the 2010 Chateau Montrose as my wine of the night – there was so much potential there, but you could still get an immediate sense of the power and complexity. (I tend to prefer the 10’s to the ’09’s, though I wouldn’t turn any of them down!)

Which is my long-winded way of saying that while the 2011’s are admittedly young, honestly, I struggled to differentiate between them in any meaningful way, and to my taste, they seem to be wines to drink sooner, rather than aging for later. This was the general opinion of my tablemates as well, though we all admitted to not having a crystal ball! At the end of the day, we decided it’s not a bad idea to have a few bottles of good Bordeaux to drink now rather than later anyway. I will say that the 2011 Chateau Lynch Bages had a nice earthy nose and seemed to have some good potential, and the 2011 Chateau Montrose, though very tight, had some of the characteristic earthiness and complexity I’ve come to associate with these wines – it would be interesting to come back and taste this wine again once it gets a little age on it, as it appears to have some good structure behind it.

1990 Chateau Leoville Barton. Was a crowd favorite.

To that end, I struggled a little with the older wines to pick a definitive wine of the night – there were some nice wines there. The 2000 Langoa-Barton particularly stood out, but perhaps especially because of the shift to a significantly older wine after the 11’s! It was a good, round, earthy wine with a great nose, and a nice pairing for the roasted loin of Ostrich we had for that course.

The final three wines of the night, the 1998 Montrose, 1990 Chateau Leoville-Barton and 1990 Chateau Lynch-Bages were all drinking well. The 1990 Lynch-Bages was probably my favorite of the evening – it was still a little tight, but the nose was dreamy – green bell pepper and barnyard – one of those that I could just sit and smell and not even drink and be happy! The 1990 Ch. Leoville-Barton was also very good – I heard several of my tablemates claim it as their favorite. Really, I wouldn’t turn any of those wines away.

The chef also did a masterful job of pairing the 2012 Blanc de Lynch Bages with a seared sea scallop dish – the wine and the briny flavors of the scallops worked really well together. Of course, I’m a huge fan of this white, and I know from this summer that it also pairs well with charcuterie and just about anything else you can think to nibble on. They’ve done a nice job with the consistency of the profile year over year, peachy, earthy, grassy – just green enough, but still a round, full wine with a crisp finish and good minerality – it’s one of my favorite whites these days. (That’s typically code for, okay, honey, you can buy more if you can find it!)

Which, at the end of the day, is always the fun of these dinners – tasting things you may have in your cellar to see how they are drinking now, and deciding what to add and age for later. Me? I’m happy that I usually have help making these decisions, but no matter, the discussion and company is always fun while you’re forming an opinion!

Looking forward to next year…

Summer Champagne Evening

On August 23, 2013February 4, 2014 By Bob WattIn ChampagneLeave a comment

My wine group got together last night for our annual summer evening of Champagne. Our location was the house of good friends Ed & Joan, on their deck over the waters Lake Samammish – a perfect setting for tasting a lot of wonderful bubbles. The wine group of 8 guys meets about 10 times per year, and we generally do Champagne in the summer. This is the one time of year that all of our significant others join us. My wife is always happy about it, because she loves Champagne.

Most of our wine tastings are blind, but not this time. Ed and Joan made a wonderful flank steak with green beans cooked in some sort of bacon fat – and the most amazing potatoes cooked in duck fat! It was the perfect pairing for the Champagne and an excellent way to kick off the pending trips to France that three of the couples are planning this fall.

Everyone agreed that the line-up of Champagnes this year were all excellent – here are the wines that people brought:

NV Guy Charlemagne – Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) – Champagne, France: Very nice toasty nose of bread and ginger spice. Medium to full-bodied with baked apples and bread, with a nice medium – long finish. This is a very nice bold masculine-styled Champagne, especially for the price range of $45. (91pts.)

NV Besserat de Bellefon – Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) – Champagne, France: Nice subtle nose of lemon and yeast, medium-light bodied with clean Chardonnay fruit and lemon in the mouth. Medium lemon/apple finish. My wife liked this more than I did. It was more feminine in style and around $35. (89pts.)

NV Aspasie – Cepages D’Antan – Champagne, France: This is Aspasie’s high-end wine and they are owned by the Champagne house Ariston. Exotic nose of ripe lemons and blood oranges, combined with smokey wood notes. Medium-full bodied with spiced baked apples and lemon, good acidity and a medium-long finish. This is a very nice Champagne that will age well over the next ten years, $100. (93pts.)

1998 Taittinger – Comtes des Champagne – Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) – Champagne, France: This is the high-end wine for Taittinger and it was an absolute beauty tonight. Big, zesty lemony fruit on the nose. Full bodied in the mouth with lemon, baking spices and intense electric acidity. There was great minerality pouring through on the very long persistent finish. This was the best showing I have had with a Taittinger Champagne in a very long time and it was the surprise of the evening. This wine is feminine in style and still needs another 10 years to reach maturity. Once it gets there it will be a show stopper, wow. $185. (96pts.)

1996 Egly Ouriet – Grand Cru – Champagne, France: Smaller producer and not easy to get, but Egly Ouriet makes some great wines in all price ranges. This was Egly Ouriet’s high-end wine. Big, rich toasty apple and lemon fruit combined with ginger and baking spices, like nutmeg. This wine is a big masculine styled Champagne, that just begs you to have food with it, not a delicate sipping Champagne by any means. Very long, rich, spiced green apple fruit finish, beautiful $125. (95pts.)

1996 Pol Roger – Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc – Champagne, France: Big, bold spicy lemon fruit nose that carries through to the palate. Nice long spicy fruit finish with very good acidity. This is a Pol Roger middle end wine and they consistently make a great Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc in a masculine style $85. (94pts.)

1996 Bollinger – Grand Annee – Champagne, France: Very nice ginger bread and lemon nose. This Champagne is full-bodied and very smooth in the mouth. You get baked apples and lemon, combined with again ginger bread and very nice acidity on the very long finish, great wine and getting better $125. (94pts)

1996 Krug – Champagne, France: Big, strong nose of baked bread, apples and lemon. Very masculine in style, huge, bold whole grain bread combined with spicy baked green apples and lemony acidity. This wine is very smooth in the mouth, but with huge body. The extremely complex finish of bread, spices and fruit, is incredibly long. The finish stays in the mouth long after you have swallowed it. The 1996 Krug is definitely a Champagne to have food with and is one of the best Champagnes that I have ever had. It is still young, but has a long life ahead of it. It is hard to imagine, but this champagne will get better with more time in the bottle. In ten years, the 1996 Krug will be an absolute rockstar $350. (99pts.)

When we have people over for dinner, we generally start the evening off with some Champagne. Most people think of Champagne as something you open for a special occasion. I say Champagne is great for any day of the week – life itself is enough of a celebration, and we certainly proved it last Tuesday night! Thanks Ed and Joan!

My wife, Christina, with good friend Bill Schallert from Youngs Market Co. at the champagne tasting.

Fete de Bordeaux 2009 – Year One

On February 19, 2013February 4, 2014 By Bob WattIn FranceLeave a comment

In 2008, one of the members of my wine tasting group, Bill Schallert, a fine wine importer/distributor with Youngs Marketplace, alerted me to a new Bordeaux dinner that he was helping to host in Seattle. It didn’t take much arm twisting for us to join the dinner.

In the first year, January 19, 2009, the dinner was held at Seattle’s Columbia Tower Club, and the guests of honor were Jean Charles Cazes of Chateau Lynch Bages, and Lillian Barton of Chateau Leoville Barton and Langoa Barton.

The focus that year was the new release of the 2006 vintage. Unfortunately, my memory doesn’t serve well enough to recall my wine of the night or any specifics about the wines, but for the record, these were the wines that were served: