Bordeaux Ringers

What makes claret so immediately identifiable when you taste it blind,
as we often do? Let me qualify that. I am talking about traditional
Bordeaux, before the influence of what some call 'Parkerisation' that
began in the 1980s. This was not through any fault of Parker the
reviewer, who I am sure had no designs to remake the wines of Bordeaux
(or anywhere else, presumably) to his ideal, he just reported on wines
as he tasted them and more importantly, gave them numerical ratings
that became the singe most effective marketing tool for wine merchants
the world over. More points = more sales, = more requests to the
producers to make wines that garnered more points.....and around it
went.


What we were aiming at was to put forward our best shot at a wine that
wasn't Bordeaux, in the more classic sense, but that might be mistaken
for such when tasted blind, and the event turned up some interesting
conclusions. First, it is bloody hard to fool dedicated Bordeaux fans
with anything else. Second, the ones that came closest to fooling you
were perhaps the ones you'd have least thought of as doing so before
they were tasted.

The dinner was arranged with everyone at a table bringing their
ringer, and there was a lot of after dinner cross-table exchange of
tastes so I was able to taste quite a few wines that evening. I found
that it was a constructive experience that focussed my mind on exactly
what specific qualities made a claret what it was for me, and
introspection is always good for the soul. Here are the notes, but
first a précis of the menu.

Albacore tuna with fennel salad, citrus vinaigrette

Quail stuffed with wild rice and chorizo, Madeira sauce

Braised short rib Cannelloni with Bordelaise sauce

Elk tenderloin, elk jerky, morel sauce

Some dessert or other.


The canapés were served with Roederer Estate NV, a pleasant bubbly
with very good mousse, clean yeast and fruit nose, and high terminal
acidity, overall a bit simple.

The fish course was accompanied by a white Bordeaux ringer, the 2005
De Lille Chaleur Banc - a vanilla oak and tuna fish ( I swear!) nose,
nice, crisp and juicy.

1997 Le Macchiole Paleo Rosso - a blend of 85% CS, 5% CF, 10%
Sangiovese (I'd suggested that I bring a 1990 Lungarotti San Giorgio,
which has similar make up, but that was rejected. I still think it
would have been interesting....) The Paleo was dark, had a ripe sweet
nose, was tannic and tight. It needs more time and was much more
likely to be mistaken for an American cab than Bordeaux.



2000 Montes 'M' - this is the upwardly mobile Chilean Cab (at much too
high a price I feel I can add, as I brought this one). 80% CS, 5% M,
10% CF, and 5% Petit Verdot. It showed a black olive nose medium
body, good colour and was still young and tannic. A good cab blend,
definitely. A claret - no.

1994 Stellenzicht Estate Wine - an entry from the Cape. Hard to find.
Elegant and a nice stone and cocoa nose, smooth on palate, with a
slightly high terminal acidity that was the only clue as to origin.
Getting closer.


1994 Dunn Napa Cab - thank goodness it wasn't the Howell! I have this,
so was interested to taste it. a Rhone nose, a bit funky, from a wine
still very dark with sweet rich fruit and enough rough tannins to
make your tongue feel like it had been sandblasted. Another 10 years
needed and it still won't show even vaguely like claret!

1985 Mas Daumas Gassac - a very interesting choice and the closest
shot yet. Sweet nose with a pine element, lots of acid and some tannin
left. The I tasted another bottle of the same wine - resolved mature
wine, medium colour, spicy nose, very faint astringency at the end,
could possibly pas as a mature Bordeaux. This Languedoc-Roussillon
wine, quite elemental and rustic in youth, had mellowed very nicely
with age.


1985 Sassicaia - this one made me glad to be sitting at this table.
One of my very favourite wines. Dark, ripe minty nose (the mint
disappeared after a few minutes), mellow with great length and huge
concentration combined with a complexity that saw a changing panoply
of flavours that went on and on as long as I had it in my glass. Not
going to fool you into thinking it was a claret, but nonetheless my
wine of the night.

1990 Torres Mas La Plana - a good try - not much nose and what there
was came fom the oak, even at this age. Soft middle, still slight
tannins at the end, and low on fruit, it struck me as closer to an
older 80s American wine than a caret.

2001 Errazuriz Chadwick - people will likely be familiar with the Don
Maximiano cab (an inexpensive bargain), but may not have heard of this
one. The Chadwick is a premium cab made with small French barriques
from 100% cabernet. You get a broad sweet nose of blackberries and a
similarly sweet entry, after which the wine swiftly closes down with
tannin. This one should give the guys in Napa some worries, but a
claret it is not.


1994 Dominus - a good call by whoever brought this as I have always
found Dominus to be about the closest American wine to the French
style. Big sweet deep intense nose you could luxuriate in for minutes,
forgetting to taste the wine. When you did, you found a well balanced
beautifully melded wine getting into prime time. I suppose this could
fool you, especially if you put it next to something like the 1990
Montrose....

1985 Stag Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23 slight mustiness, smooth and ready
to drink with excellent length, a lovely mature Cal-cab, but again, no
ringer for a claret.

1974 Mondavi Reserve - I think this wine is getting past it, certainly
judging by the last time I tasted it several years ago. Quintessential
Cal-cab, not even close to claret. Fruit definitely fading. If you
want to drink an 80s reserve, opt for the 87.

2000 Dom. de Castel - I purposely left this one for last, a 60%
merlot, 40% cab blend made in Israel in Judea. Believe it or not, this
well made wine was the one that had the lest clues about being from
anywhere BUT Bordeaux. It had good fruit in the nose, elegant and
still a bit tannic, we figured it would pass for a Lynch Bages any day
of the week. Brilliant effort and one to watch out for.

On Feb 16, 3:12�pm, "Bill S." wrote:
Bordeaux Ringers

What makes claret so immediately identifiable when you taste it blind,
as we often do? �Let me qualify that. I am talking about traditional
Bordeaux, before the influence of what some call 'Parkerisation' that
began in the 1980s. This was not through any fault of Parker the
reviewer, who I am sure had no designs to remake the wines of Bordeaux
(or anywhere else, presumably) to his ideal, he just reported on wines
as he tasted them and more importantly, gave them numerical ratings
that became the singe most effective marketing tool for wine merchants
the world over. More points = more sales, = more requests to the
producers to make wines that garnered more points.....and around it
went.

What we were aiming at was to put forward our best shot at a wine that
wasn't Bordeaux, in the more classic sense, but that might be mistaken
for such when tasted blind, and the event turned up some interesting
conclusions. �First, it is bloody hard to fool dedicated Bordeaux fans
with anything else. Second, the ones that came closest to fooling you
were perhaps the ones you'd have least thought of as doing so before
they were tasted.

The dinner was arranged with everyone at a table bringing their
ringer, and there was a lot of after dinner cross-table exchange of
tastes so I was able to taste quite a few wines that evening. I found
that it was a constructive experience that focussed my mind on exactly
what specific qualities made a claret what it was for me, and
introspection is always good for the soul. �Here are the notes, but
first a pr�cis of the menu.

Albacore tuna with fennel salad, citrus vinaigrette

Quail stuffed with wild rice and chorizo, Madeira sauce

Braised short rib Cannelloni with Bordelaise sauce

Elk tenderloin, elk jerky, morel sauce

Some dessert or other.

The canap�s were served with Roederer Estate NV, a pleasant bubbly
with very good mousse, clean yeast and fruit nose, and high terminal
acidity, overall a bit simple.

The fish course was accompanied by a white Bordeaux ringer, the 2005
De Lille Chaleur Banc - a vanilla oak and tuna fish ( I swear!) nose,
nice, crisp and juicy.

1997 Le Macchiole Paleo Rosso - a blend of 85% CS, 5% CF, 10%
Sangiovese (I'd suggested that I bring a 1990 Lungarotti San Giorgio,
which has similar make up, but that was rejected. I still think it
would have been interesting....) �The Paleo was dark, had a ripe sweet
nose, was tannic and tight. It needs more time and was much more
likely to be mistaken for an American cab than Bordeaux.

2000 Montes 'M' - this is the upwardly mobile Chilean Cab (at much too
high a price I feel I can add, as I brought this one). 80% CS, 5% M,
10% CF, and 5% Petit Verdot. �It showed a black olive nose medium
body, good colour and was still young and tannic. �A good cab blend,
definitely. A claret �- no.

1994 Stellenzicht Estate Wine - an entry from the Cape. Hard to find.
Elegant and a nice stone and cocoa nose, smooth on palate, with a
slightly high terminal acidity that was the only clue as to origin.
Getting closer.

1994 Dunn Napa Cab - thank goodness it wasn't the Howell! I have this,
so was interested to taste it. a Rhone nose, a bit funky, from a wine
still very dark �with sweet rich fruit and enough rough tannins to
make your tongue feel like it had been sandblasted. �Another 10 years
needed and it still won't show even vaguely like claret!

1985 Mas Daumas Gassac - a very interesting choice and the closest
shot yet. Sweet nose with a pine element, lots of acid and some tannin
left. The I tasted another bottle of the same wine - resolved mature
wine, medium colour, spicy nose, very faint astringency at the end,
could possibly pas as a mature Bordeaux. �This Languedoc-Roussillon
wine, quite elemental and rustic in youth, had mellowed very nicely
with age.

1985 Sassicaia - this one made me glad to be sitting at this table.
One of my very favourite wines. Dark, ripe minty nose (the mint
disappeared after a few minutes), mellow with great length and huge
concentration combined with a complexity that saw a changing panoply
of flavours that went on and on as long as I had it in my glass. Not
going to fool you into thinking it was a claret, but nonetheless my
wine of the night.

1990 Torres Mas La Plana - a good try - not much nose and what there
was came fom the oak, even at this age. Soft middle, still slight
tannins at the end, and low on fruit, it struck me as closer to an
older 80s American wine than a caret.

2001 Errazuriz Chadwick - people will likely be familiar with the Don
Maximiano cab (an inexpensive bargain), but may not have heard of this
one. The Chadwick is a premium cab made with small French barriques
from 100% cabernet. You get �a broad sweet nose of blackberries and a
similarly sweet entry, after which the wine swiftly closes down with
tannin. This one should give the guys in Napa some worries, but a
claret it is not.

1994 Dominus - a good call by whoever brought this as I have always
found Dominus to be about the closest American wine to the French
style. Big sweet deep intense nose you could luxuriate in for minutes,
forgetting to taste the wine. When you did, you found a well balanced
beautifully melded wine getting into prime time. I suppose this could
fool you, especially if you put it next to something like the 1990
Montrose....

1985 Stag Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23 slight mustiness, smooth and ready
to drink with excellent length, a lovely mature Cal-cab, but again, no
ringer for a claret.

1974 Mondavi Reserve - I think this wine is getting past it, certainly
judging by the last time I tasted it several years ago. Quintessential
Cal-cab, not even close to claret. Fruit definitely fading. If you
want to drink an 80s reserve, opt for the 87.

2000 Dom. de Castel - I purposely left this one for last, a 60%
merlot, 40% cab blend made in Israel in Judea. Believe it or not, this
well made wine was the one that had the lest clues about being from
anywhere BUT Bordeaux. It had good fruit in the nose, elegant and
still a bit tannic, we figured it would pass for a Lynch Bages any day
of the week. Brilliant effort and one to watch out for.

Wonderful experiment and I would have brought a 1989 Dominus as my
ringer. I find older vintages of Dominus to be close to Claret. It
seems that they have found a way to get barnyard and acidity without
giving up fruit.

2000 Dom. de Castel - I purposely left this one for last, a 60%
merlot, 40% cab blend made in Israel in Judea. Believe it or not, this
well made wine was the one that had the lest clues about being from
anywhere BUT Bordeaux. It had good fruit in the nose, elegant and
still a bit tannic, we figured it would pass for a Lynch Bages any day
of the week. Brilliant effort and one to watch out for.


Bill
What about Musar,? that always used to fool us.

JohnT

In message
"John T" wrote:

2000 Dom. de Castel - I purposely left this one for last, a 60%
merlot, 40% cab blend made in Israel in Judea. Believe it or not, this
well made wine was the one that had the lest clues about being from
anywhere BUT Bordeaux. It had good fruit in the nose, elegant and
still a bit tannic, we figured it would pass for a Lynch Bages any day
of the week. Brilliant effort and one to watch out for.


Bill
What about Musar,? that always used to fool us.

JohnT


I have to say that I am surprised that this could be mistaken for
claret. If it resembles anything French it must be something from
the Languedoc — and in the days before the Languedoc began to produce
anything as good as can be found there now. I do not know for sure
what the grape varieties are but, from recollection of the last time,
sadly only a few weeks ago, I had the misfortune to be somewhere where
there was no alternative to Musar, any Cabernet was overwhelmed by
more southern vines — at a guess Carignan and Cinsault, possibly
Mourvedre, though I‘m less certain of that. The whole tasted
over-extracted, hot and wholly lacking subtlety or finesse. Sorry -
just not a fan and, meaning no offence whatsoever, simply do not see
how it could ever be mistaken for Bordeaux.


Tim Hartley