So our Bordeaux-ish group (with a couple of guests, old and new) got togeth er at La Mangeoire for a Graves-themed dinner. Everyone was to bring a wine or tw o blind, whoever brought the WOTN got his/her dinner free.
Jacques and I arrived to find part of the group there, including Ben who br ought a bunch of identical bags. We tried to mix it up so no one knew where their wine was (except one visible stuck capsule). We each ordered an appe tizer and then we split 3 chickens (with salad and fries). Trying to go lig hter I went with a sauteed calamari on grilled tomato slice- maybe not idea l for Bordeaux but tasty.
As we gathered, Susan passed the 2006 Hospices Auction Group (Faiveley) Meu rsault-Genevrieres. As you might expect of a 2006 HdB wine, it was rather r ipe and oaky, but I thought some Meursault character definitely showed thro ugh. Full-bodied - approaching fat but not flabby, honied pear fruit, hazel nut, vanilla. B+/B
On to the blind reds Wine # 1- great nose right off the bat with cassis, flowers, leaves, but on the palate I found this hard and tannic. By the time we had the first 5 wi nes this was in last place for me, but when we did a revisit before the vot ing, the tannins had softened and the palate was up to the nose, and I vote d it as my 3rd place wine. B- to start, A- by end.
Wine # 2 -Smooth and round, easy drinking, dark berry fruit and earth/ B+/B
Wine # 3- Cassis and black raspberry, leather, tobacco, beautiful and balan ced. Got even better. My WOTN. A-/A
Wine # 4 -herby nose with a touch of funk, full red fruits, tobacco. My 2nd place wine. A-
Wine # 5- Ripe, full, kirsch and cassis, nice finish. A-/B+
Wine # 6 - Cedar, acid backbone. I liked more at first, on revisit there wa s a distracting ashtray note. B
Wine # 7- full, modern, some oak, big. B
Wine # 8- Fresh acids, redder fruits, tobacco. B+
Wine # 9- this had a weird metallic-meets-lactic note that I couldn't get p ast, too bad because there seemed to be a nice fruit core. C
We voted using our usual weighted system (your first place wine gets 3 poin ts, second 2, third 3), Ben got free dinner by a wide margin.
Wine # 1- 11 points, 1994 La Mission Haut Brion Wine # 2- 1 point, 2000 La Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion Wine # 3 - 18 points and an easy WOTN, 1985 Haut Brion (Ben had used anothe r bottle when he double-decanted to not give obvious clue) Wine # 4 - 2 points, 1978 Domaine de Chevalier Wine # 5 - 12 points, 1981 La Mission Haut Brion Wine # 6= 3 points 1979 La Mission Haut Brion Wine # 7 - 1 point, 2000 Pape Clement Wine # 8 - 0 points, 1979 Domaine de Chevalier Wine # 9 - 0 points, 1966 Haut-Bailly (while no one voted for this, I think everyone was stunned by vintage, it seemed weird but rather young)
Fun night, fun format.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a pa rty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivit y, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.