Intentionally funning with my thread title, but I’ll explain in a bit. Had some of the regular suspects over for pizza and wine last night as we slowly get back to normal. No real theme, and we had a bunch of bottles, but we somehow ended up with a nice flight of 2018 Chardonnays, two of which were served blind.
The 2018 Henri Boillot Mouchere and 2018 Walter Scott X-Novo were served blind. I knew the two wines, one taster new his wine (Boillot) and the other tasters were in the dark, though I think Oregon and Burgundy were on the mind. Mike Evans came the closest with a comment along the lines of “one of these is a white Burgundy and one is Oregon Chardonnay, but I can’t tell which is which” No kidding, the Boillot and Walter Scott were almost indistinguishable. Flinty, matchstick- elegant mineral core, and layers of depth. If you really concentrated there might be a bit more depth to the Boillot and it seemed to broaden a bit in the glass over time. Two terrific Chardonnays…followed up with another…as Mike happened to bring the Goodfellow Berserker Cuvee Whistling Ridge, and we had to add it to the mix (non-blind). It just screamed Chablis. Such cut, a touch of salinity and real verve and energy. Terrific.
Three compelling Chardonnays was a good way to start our Wednesday night.
Horribly corked 1995 Chevillon Roncieres was a terrible way to end the night, but that’s another story
Dennis, thanks for the hospitality, the pizzas, and for posting the notes, it was a great evening. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how similar the Boillot and Walter Scott were. The promise of Oregon Chardonnay is very real.
So the sulfur was under control with the Boillot? This is the problem I have had with these (and other Boillot) wines, which is another argument for letting them rest in the cellar…
IMO- Yes. I used to drink a good bit of Boillot Mouchere, and the sulfur in this 18 was not what it can be with these wines. I also have a higher tolerance for it, fwiw.