Wow! Super line up all the way through, but that 73 Monte Bello is what really grabs my attention.

Monte Bello had us all excited but it didn't hold up. It was a low fill to begin with & probably wasn't stored right at sometime.

The White Burgundy Roulot was the wine of the night.

It was a 2005 Spottswood that we did blind.

Jono85 said:

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It was a 2005 Spottswood that we did blind.

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How was it?

Our lake house family vacation wines so far, with our crowd of 6 Wine drinkers who all like very different things::

2017 Justin Justification - quite good, everyone enjoyed, but not great QPR
2016 Field Recordings Fiction - universally liked
2017 - Muschen super Tuscan - fantastic, great QPR
2015 - Herold Collide - peppery, good for Malbec or zin fans

The wine was in great shape and showed very well against all those other wines.

It would drink that vintage now. I like dont like NEW World with New world winemaking after 15 years

Quick plug for Austin Hope, which I think is one of the very best wines under $100 on the planet.

MW03 said:

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Quick plug for Austin Hope, which I think is one of the very best wines under $100 on the planet.

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Agree it's a good wine under $50 (you can get it for $45 at TW). I think it doesn't hold up as well compared to wines at the higher end of the $50-100 range. They have also really cranked up production of their wines where they are now a large production shop, so I hope they manage to keep up the quality.

I've had it a couple of times recently. It's always come across as way over-extracted and over-oaked. Personally, I think there's better juice out there for the price. But to each their own.

HTownAg98 said:

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I've had it a couple of times recently. It's always come across as way over-extracted and over-oaked. Personally, I think there's better juice out there for the price. But to each their own.

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Has high residual sugar - much like Caymus, Prisoner, and Quilt. If you like Austin Hope you will probably like those 3 as well.

Did anyone bookmark that really cool site (out of Canada, I think) that showed actual RS for many wines?

Found it. Thanks to greenband for posting it. Page 198 of this thread.

https://www.lcbo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/lcbo/caymus-cabernet-sauvignon-222877#.X0K_bshKiiM

And, at least some of that style wine is actually "added sugar" as well as the more authentic "residual sugar".

From that site:

Prisoner 8g/L
Caymus 9 g/L
Austin Hope 11 g/L

Chateau Montelena (both the estate version and regular version) 2g/L
Freemark Abbey 5g/L

Ch Pape Clement 2g/L

It's pretty interesting to randomly look stuff up. Cool site.

greenband said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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I've had it a couple of times recently. It's always come across as way over-extracted and over-oaked. Personally, I think there's better juice out there for the price. But to each their own.

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Has high residual sugar - much like Caymus, Prisoner, and Quilt. If you like Austin Hope you will probably like those 3 as well.

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Makes sense because Hope worked with Wagner, so the over-extracted, sugary wine fits.
I was trying to be nice about the wine. I have tried it a couple of times and won't drink it.

Big week coming up: 2018 Pott (Napa) and Detert East Block cab Franc. The Pott is a wine we'll serve at a big party next year so I'm going long on that one (2 cases). Realm is then on deck with William & Mary not far behind.

BSD said:

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Big week coming up: 2018 Pott (Napa) and Detert East Block cab Franc. The Pott is a wine we'll serve at a big party next year so I'm going long on that one (2 cases). Realm is then on deck with William & Mary not far behind.

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Tasted the East Block with Tom last Thursday. Clearly young, but quite tasty. And he's a super nice guy.

Speaking of drinking what you like, I heard an interesting topic on a podcast today about pairings. She said there are the two schools - traditional "red with meat, white with fish", and the new school "drink what you like, rules be damned". She's more in the middle because the traditional rules are too strict, but the new school "rule" is just dumb. An example she used was drinking a bold tannic red with spicy Mexican food. The tannins react with the spices to just be painful not tasty.

Made sense to me, but my wife likes bold red with pretty much anything.

Gotta disagree w/ her on the Mexican food. I find acid balance to be more important. And "red wine" is an awfully broad category.

In my family we at pancakes with copious butter and even more granulated, white sugar. Looked kinda like a ski slope.

I can't tell you the number of people that have ridicules that.... Until I convinced them to try it.

I always thought it was high alcohol wines that you avoid with spicy food? The higher the alcohol the more spicy the food will seem.

I'm a strong supporter of drink what you like. Everyone has different tastes, who cares what some sommelier or wine reviewer likes, or even what I like. All that matter is if you like it. I do encourage people to take what they like and expand on that, though. You like california oaky chardonnays? Awesome, maybe explore some chablis or different style chardonnay and see if you like those as well, start expanding your horizons.

For food pairings, I do believe in more "strict" rules. However, I don't really buy red for meat, white for fish. It all depends on preparation. To me, for example, the sauce can be more important than the protein for a wine pairing. I believe in "what grows together, goes together" for a more general food and wine pairing rule.

cecil77 said:

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Gotta disagree w/ her on the Mexican food. I find acid balance to be more important. And "red wine" is an awfully broad category.

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That's why I mentioned "bold tannic red". But yeah, it may be high alcohol they were talking about.

Her main point, I think, is that "drink what you like" isn't very helpful for people that don't really have much experience drinking wine or don't exactly know what they like.

And I'm all about copious butter, but I prefer swimming in syrup to mounds of sugar.

Beer with spicy food, tequila with Mexican, wine with everything else. Problem solved.

Bruce Almighty said:

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Beer with spicy food, tequila with Mexican, wine with everything else. Problem solved.

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Even when I could drink, I'd typically just have water with Mexican food. I just never liked Mexican with alcohol (and I was never a tequila guy).

But with spicy Thai? Reisling all day long!

Do y'all watch *****t's Creek? Hilarious show with Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara.

They had an episode that involved "fruit wines" made with fruit other than grapes. The "wine names" were things like Rioja Riesling and Cabernet Merlot Chardonnay Syrah.

Love the show! Too cheap to pay for the last season - should hit Netflix in a month or two.

We've just started watching. How many seasons are there, and have they finished or is there more after the one you mentioned?

Six total, sixth is the final. It's on Pop, or whatever the Canadian network is. Netflix will have up soon, I think.

The thing that takes awhile to realize, is that for all the noise - they're a family that loves and supports each other. Great show.


The wine, not the label...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Stevie!! She is so dryly hilarious!!!

cecil77 said:

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Six total, sixth is the final. It's on Pop, or whatever the Canadian network is. Netflix will have up soon, I think.

The thing that takes awhile to realize, is that for all the noise - they're a family that loves and supports each other. Great show.


The wine, not the label...

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Can't think of a better scene to encapsulate that show

htxag09 said:

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I always thought it was high alcohol wines that you avoid with spicy food? The higher the alcohol the more spicy the food will seem.

I'm a strong supporter of drink what you like. Everyone has different tastes, who cares what some sommelier or wine reviewer likes, or even what I like. All that matter is if you like it. I do encourage people to take what they like and expand on that, though. You like california oaky chardonnays? Awesome, maybe explore some chablis or different style chardonnay and see if you like those as well, start expanding your horizons.

For food pairings, I do believe in more "strict" rules. However, I don't really buy red for meat, white for fish. It all depends on preparation. To me, for example, the sauce can be more important than the protein for a wine pairing. I believe in "what grows together, goes together" for a more general food and wine pairing rule.

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Glad you brought up the sauce aspect, because I'm in agreement with that. We are doing a Zoom tasting this Sunday with Left Bank vs. Right Bank Bordeaux. The protein will be the same (likely a tri-tip), but the sauces are going to be different.

I'm of the "drink what you like" mind to a point, but there are some pairings that do no service to the food or the wine.

I agree, but there are people that really like different stuff. One of the wealthiest humans I've ever known (heck his name is on where the sips play basketball) put ketchup on fine steak.

cecil77 said:

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I agree, but there are people that really like different stuff. One of the wealthiest humans I've ever known (heck his name is on where the sips play basketball) put ketchup on fine steak.

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So does this year's Super Bowl MVP.