Wednesday our Bordeaux group was doing one of our blind appellation tastings, this time focusing on St Emilion. Despite Metrto-North woes, I was almost on time to La Mangeoire. As we assembled, we enjoyed the 2005 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Spatlese. In a nice place, full and rich (Auslese-ish), with pear and tropical fruit, a minty herb edge. I see I have a bottle of this -think Ill drink sooner than later. B+/A-

I started with a special of white asparagus, with poached egg and tarragon vinaigrette (ok, winekiller, but I just drank lots of water). Then we all had the roast chicken, fries, and salad.
We bagged the bottles, rotated, and then numbered, so no one knew which wine was whose.

Blind St Emilion #1
Lean with a (nice) green streak, funky and elegant, I guessed this was a Figeac
A-/B+
1993 Cheval Blanc

Blind St Emilion #2
Balanced ripeness, mineral, long finish. A-
1989 Canon

Blind St Emilion #3
Corked. Too bad, Paul says he feels like there is nice stuff underneath.
1986 Figeac

Blind St Emilion #4
Young ripe and full. A-/B+
2000 La Croizille

Blind St Emilion #5
Mature, herby, good length. A-
1990 Figeac

Blind St Emilion #6
Quite modern, dense, black plum, structured. I thought this might be something like "98 Pavie. B/B-
2005 Fonplegade

Blind St Emilion #7
Dark color, dense,young, extracted, but fairly plush on finish. B+
1998 Angelus

Blind St Emilion #8
Very sweet fruit profile, cocoa, but good acids and I liked more than some others did. B+/B
1989 Troplong Mondot

Blind St Emilion #9
Tannic, a bit unyielding, fairly young. B
1982 Magdelaine
(this was a total shocker, most of us have had several times and everyone was nonplussed).

Before we unveiled, we did our usual 3/2/1 voting (6 pts total, I actually voted 2/2/1/1)
Top 3 wines
1989 Canon
1998 Angelus
2000 La Croizelle

Plus we had
1990 Climens (375 ml)
Honied, apricot, guava, orange marmalade. Drinking well. A-/B+.

With all of our blind bottles bagged on table, we attracted interest of guy at neighboring table, he generously sent over remainder from his wine and his backup bottle

2011 Montevertine Pergole Torte
Young, tart, big red and black cherry fruit, tannin. B for now

2009 Mica
Ripe, extracted, sweet fruit and chocolate, not my style. B-/C+

Fun night, great people, very good wines. And I got free dinner for the Canon.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.