Wednesday our Bordeaux group was doing one of our blind appellation tasting s, this time focusing on St Emilion. Despite Metrto-North woes, I was almos t on time to La Mangeoire. As we assembled, we enjoyed the 2005 Donnhoff Ob erhauser Brucke Spatlese. In a nice place, full and rich (Auslese-ish), wit h pear and tropical fruit, a minty herb edge. I see I have a bottle of this -think I’ll drink sooner than later. B+/A-
I started with a special of white asparagus, with poached egg and tarragon vinaigrette (ok, winekiller, but I just drank lots of water). Then we all h ad the roast chicken, fries, and salad. We bagged the bottles, rotated, and then numbered, so no one knew which win e was whose.
Blind St Emilion #1 Lean with a (nice) green streak, funky and elegant, I guessed this was a Fi geac A-/B+
1993 Cheval BlancBlind St Emilion #2 Balanced ripeness, mineral, long finish. A-
1989 CanonBlind St Emilion #3 Corked. Too bad, Paul says he feels like there is nice stuff underneath.
1986 FigeacBlind St Emilion #4 Young ripe and full. A-/B+
2000 La CroizilleBlind St Emilion #5 Mature, herby, good length. A-
1990 FigeacBlind St Emilion #6 Quite modern, dense, black plum, structured. I thought this might be someth ing like ‘98 Pavie. B/B-
2005 FonplegadeBlind St Emilion #7 Dark color, dense,young, extracted, but fairly plush on finish. B+
1998 AngelusBlind St Emilion #8 Very sweet fruit profile, cocoa, but good acids and I liked more than some others did. B+/B
1989 Troplong MondotBlind St Emilion #9 Tannic, a bit unyielding, fairly young. B
1982 Magdelaine (this was a total shocker, most of us have had several times and everyone w as nonplussed).Before we unveiled, we did our usual 3/2/1 voting (6 pts total, I actually voted 2/2/1/1) Top 3 wines
1989 Canon 1998 Angelus 2000 La CroizellePlus we had
1990 Climens (375 ml) Honied, apricot, guava, orange marmalade. Drinking well. A-/B+.With all of our blind bottles bagged on table, we attracted interest of guy at neighboring table, he generously sent over remainder from his wine and his backup bottle
2011 Montevertine Pergole Torte Young, tart, big red and black cherry fruit, tannin. B for now2009 Mica Ripe, extracted, sweet fruit and chocolate, not my style. B-/C+
Fun night, great people, very good wines. And I got free dinner for the Can on.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a p arty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivi ty, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.