8 November 2005 - A Month of Mondays (catching up!)
10/17/05 - Tasted a bunch of Jeffrey Davies Signature Selections...with the exception of Puech-Haut Coteaux du Languedoc '02, all heavily oaked, tannic and alcoholic as hell. The same day, we tasted through the new wines of Domaine Lignieres, which purchased a great little property called Domaine de Baronnes on the Montagne d'Alaric in Corbieres -- seems big money is transforming a modest winery making classic, wonderful, cheap Corbieres into a fancy estate making I don't know what, the wines were so muddy and soft or overdone and harsh...what's going on out there? The day was saved by a couple of surprises: Keuntz-Bas "Alsace" Blanc '04 -- cheapest, yet best wine I've ever tasted from this mediocre producer...Laplace Madiran '01 (Domaine d'Aydie) -- a loveable Tannat (I always thought this was an oxymoron)!
10/24/05 - Vouvray madness. A couple of weeks ago I learned that Francois Chidaine was probably out of the Poniatowski picture in Vouvray. After farming some of Poniatowski's best parcels for a few years (and making some of his own terrific wine as payment), looks like Poniatowski is selling the estate to another concern with lots more money than Chidaine...sad. Today we tasted Huet Vouvray Clos de Bourg (sec) '04 -- incredible...happy.
10/31/05 - Chesapeake Wine Company's seventh anniversary! We celebrated the next evening (a deluxe Tuesday Tasting) with eight terrific wines, my favorite of which had to be Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose 1996 Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon.
11/7/05 - Which brings us to yesterday. After tasting a couple of neat Alsace wines (Dirler Pinot '02 Vieilles Vignes and Boxler Edelswicker '03), the day could have ended after Vieux Telegraphe '03 Chateauneuf du Pape -- this might be the perfect vintage for a domaine like Vieux Telegraphe, whose wines always seem sort of prettily balanced (for a place like Chateauneuf)...combine that elegance with a blazing hot vintage like '03 and you get a massively rich, nearly -- but not! -- overripe wine with wonderful balance. Sensational wine! Done.
10/24/05 - Vouvray madness. A couple of weeks ago I learned that Francois Chidaine was probably out of the Poniatowski picture in Vouvray. After farming some of Poniatowski's best parcels for a few years (and making some of his own terrific wine as payment), looks like Poniatowski is selling the estate to another concern with lots more money than Chidaine...sad. Today we tasted Huet Vouvray Clos de Bourg (sec) '04 -- incredible...happy.
10/31/05 - Chesapeake Wine Company's seventh anniversary! We celebrated the next evening (a deluxe Tuesday Tasting) with eight terrific wines, my favorite of which had to be Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose 1996 Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon.
11/7/05 - Which brings us to yesterday. After tasting a couple of neat Alsace wines (Dirler Pinot '02 Vieilles Vignes and Boxler Edelswicker '03), the day could have ended after Vieux Telegraphe '03 Chateauneuf du Pape -- this might be the perfect vintage for a domaine like Vieux Telegraphe, whose wines always seem sort of prettily balanced (for a place like Chateauneuf)...combine that elegance with a blazing hot vintage like '03 and you get a massively rich, nearly -- but not! -- overripe wine with wonderful balance. Sensational wine! Done.
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