By: AJ McClellan
We decided to go for a double blind tasting here at Graileys to replicate the tasting of Paris, putting Bordeaux and Burgundy up against California Cabernet and Chardonnay. The tasting was a pure delight and a lot harder than I expected it to be…
2001 Vincent Girardin Puligny Montrachet – Slightly oxidized in style with white roses, honey suckle, and a touch of honeyed peaches. This wine was obviously old world with a pronounced limestone minerality and faded secondary fruit.
2001 Kistler Dutton Ranch – Pure popcorn on the nose with lemon zest, toast, and nice spice. This wine was on the fence between Old and New World. The fact that there was tons of oak on this wine without having a high minerality and a moderate acidity combined with the slightly high alcohol level made me think of New World for this wine.
2000 Bouchard Montrachet – A little thin on the palate which is interesting because I thought this would be the best wine of the night. Showing muted apricots and pairs with a nice slate and schist minerality and crisp acidity. Once you got into this wine it was without a doubt Old World but it was hard to tell at first because of how muted it was. On a side note I tasted this wine the following day and it was drinking great…
2002 Marcassin Three Sisters – Another disappointing wine… In my experience Marcassin always needs several hours to open up and I had opened these bottles two hours prior to service to allow plenty of time for the wine to start drinking. When we tasted the wine the only thing that was showing was the buttery oak with muted fruit. Again the big oak with big fruit showed this wine to be New World. As a side note we tasted this wine again several hours after the tasting and it had bloomed into a fantastic wine…
After we finished the whites we tallied up the scores and announced the winners. Fourth place was the Marcassin followed by the Bouchard in third and the Vincent Girardin in second leaving the Kistler as the champion in first place.
Now it was time for the reds. We all took a breath exhausted by the challenge of the white wines and got ready to dive into the reds. At first I thought the whites would have been the hardest and the red easiest but I was in for a big surprise as these reds were very difficult to tell apart.
1997 Havens Bourriquot – showing loads of earth and a slightly oxidative character. There was a touch of big Washington apple followed by smoke and purple flowers. This one was difficult for me and I had to set it aside and come back to it. After making the rounds I decided to call it New World because of the slight mint and iron that I typically get out of New World wines.
1990 Chateau Le Gay – New World or Old? Next to the Havens this was a challenge. There were notes of sandal wood, plums, and ripe cherries. There were some notes of earth as well which really confused me because I was all set to call this a great old Cali Cab. Fortunately after tasting the next wine it helped me to call this one Old World.
1986 Beringer Private Reserve – This bad boy fell on its face. I think there was some heat damage and the wine showed of stewed tomatoes. I have had this wine several times before and it had always been excellent, unfortunately this one was done for. It was easy to tell that it was New World because of its over oaked natured that was highlighted by the flaw. This wine helped me to narrow down some of the other wines that I was having problems with.
1990 Beychevelle – Massive on the nose and palate but classic Bordeaux. Graphite and big earth on the nose with dusty dark fruits on the palate followed by more forest floor and barnyard. This was my easiest call of the Old World bunch.
1999 Tertre Roteboeuf – Humm… old or new? This wine and the Rubicon were a tossup. Both were different but excellent and each showed big ripe New World fruit followed by dust, earth, and a pleasant funk. I flipped a coin and called this one Old World because of a lower alcohol level.
1996 Rubicon – Another tough wine. This was the last bottle that I called waiting to narrow down all the others so I had a better idea of what I was dealing with. If I didn’t know that there were 3 Cali and 3 Bordeaux I would have probably called this Bordeaux. But as things were I narrowed it down to a great Cali Cab.
After we all finished with the reds we tallied up the numbers to see if California could squeak out another victory. In last place we had the Beringer followed by the Havens and then the Le Gay, next was the Beychevelle and then we had a surprise tie for first place between the Tertre Roteboeuf and the Rubicon. So how about dem apples…. I guess we will have to have a rematch to see who is the best next time around…
