| Vertical Wines From Around The World Recap |
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First of all, let me say thank you to our host and hostess,
Mitch & Liz Johnson. What an awesome job they did! The
food looked like someone had catered the event. Fantastic!
All kinds of crostini and other gourmet dishes with fine
cheeses & chocolate fondue! Holy cow! I think the food was
better than the wine! Also, thank you to Heather for helping
Liz in the kitchen.
We started our tasting with the Argentina Winery, Dominio
del Plata’s very own Ben Marco Malbec wines covering
vintages, 2001 thru 2004. It was very interesting to note that
of all the wines we profiled in this tasting, the Ben Marco’s
were the most different from one vintage to the next. I like
the 2001 for its masculine aromas of tobacco and bacon/beef,
but I think most everyone agreed that the 2003 Ben Marco
was the best of them all.
Next up on our tasting was Penfold’s Bin 389 Cabernet/Shiraz
blend or as some like to call it, “Baby Grange” since it is aged
in the same barrels used to age the previous vintage of the
icon Grange. Originally we were only going to taste three
vintages of Bin 389, but that day I found the current vintage at
Costco and figured what the heck! So we tasted the 2000
vintage thru the 2003. Although the Wine Spectator felt the
2000 was their personal favorite of the four, most of us
strongly disagreed, believing the 2002 vintage to be by far the
most superior of the four vintages.
The next winery we profiled really needs no introduction,
especially since it was their Cabernet Sauvignon that put
California wines on the world map for good! We would be
tasting the first three vintages of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars –
Artemis starting with their inaugural 2001 release and tasting
through to the 2003 vintage. I thought that the 2001 & 2002
were both really solid wines balancing the herbaceous aromas
with great red fruit and oak shadings, but the 2003 was
horrible. I am not sure what went wrong, but do yourself a
favor and skip that vintage!
The last two wines of our tasting were the 2001 & 2002
vintages of Chateau de Flaugergues Cuvee Sommelier. It is a
wine blend of up to five grape varieties in some vintages,
always containing Mourvedre, Syrah & Grenache. This
winery is relatively unknown here in the states despite being
built in the seventeenth century and having vines planted on it’
s property in the Languedoc Rousilion region in Southern
France dating back to 2000 years. Wine Spectator really
loves this $15.00 wine and it’s 2000 vintage made the Top 100
one year. Well the 2001 vintage of this wine absolutely stole
the show! The 2002 was very good too, but right now it was so
tannic it was like drinking sandpaper! The 2001 however had
begun to hit it’s stride and many people could not believe that
it retails for only $15.00. Better hurry up and get’em though,
the prices are sure to go up!
All in all I believe the wines pretty good. It was extremely
interesting to note the differences in each vintage despite
being the same wine. Some differences were subtle and some
were quite extreme. We also had a great turn out. Thank you
to all that came! And especially thank you to Mitch & Liz for
doing such a great job hosting it!
Mitch & Liz Johnson. What an awesome job they did! The
food looked like someone had catered the event. Fantastic!
All kinds of crostini and other gourmet dishes with fine
cheeses & chocolate fondue! Holy cow! I think the food was
better than the wine! Also, thank you to Heather for helping
Liz in the kitchen.
We started our tasting with the Argentina Winery, Dominio
del Plata’s very own Ben Marco Malbec wines covering
vintages, 2001 thru 2004. It was very interesting to note that
of all the wines we profiled in this tasting, the Ben Marco’s
were the most different from one vintage to the next. I like
the 2001 for its masculine aromas of tobacco and bacon/beef,
but I think most everyone agreed that the 2003 Ben Marco
was the best of them all.
Next up on our tasting was Penfold’s Bin 389 Cabernet/Shiraz
blend or as some like to call it, “Baby Grange” since it is aged
in the same barrels used to age the previous vintage of the
icon Grange. Originally we were only going to taste three
vintages of Bin 389, but that day I found the current vintage at
Costco and figured what the heck! So we tasted the 2000
vintage thru the 2003. Although the Wine Spectator felt the
2000 was their personal favorite of the four, most of us
strongly disagreed, believing the 2002 vintage to be by far the
most superior of the four vintages.
The next winery we profiled really needs no introduction,
especially since it was their Cabernet Sauvignon that put
California wines on the world map for good! We would be
tasting the first three vintages of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars –
Artemis starting with their inaugural 2001 release and tasting
through to the 2003 vintage. I thought that the 2001 & 2002
were both really solid wines balancing the herbaceous aromas
with great red fruit and oak shadings, but the 2003 was
horrible. I am not sure what went wrong, but do yourself a
favor and skip that vintage!
The last two wines of our tasting were the 2001 & 2002
vintages of Chateau de Flaugergues Cuvee Sommelier. It is a
wine blend of up to five grape varieties in some vintages,
always containing Mourvedre, Syrah & Grenache. This
winery is relatively unknown here in the states despite being
built in the seventeenth century and having vines planted on it’
s property in the Languedoc Rousilion region in Southern
France dating back to 2000 years. Wine Spectator really
loves this $15.00 wine and it’s 2000 vintage made the Top 100
one year. Well the 2001 vintage of this wine absolutely stole
the show! The 2002 was very good too, but right now it was so
tannic it was like drinking sandpaper! The 2001 however had
begun to hit it’s stride and many people could not believe that
it retails for only $15.00. Better hurry up and get’em though,
the prices are sure to go up!
All in all I believe the wines pretty good. It was extremely
interesting to note the differences in each vintage despite
being the same wine. Some differences were subtle and some
were quite extreme. We also had a great turn out. Thank you
to all that came! And especially thank you to Mitch & Liz for
doing such a great job hosting it!