2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne/ 1994 Williams Selyem RRV Pinot Noir

A wonderful night of favorites

We returned once again to our local fav restaurant, Stonehouse Restaurant, located on the property of the ritzy, world class resort, the San Ysidro Ranch.

As usual, we took one of our favorite champagnes and a Pinot Noir made by one of our all time favorite friends, Burt Williams.

While seated at our favorite table on the upper outside patio on a blue bird night, we also were treated to the extraordinary service by our favorite waiter who is Dutch and communicates with us, especially Roelanda, in Dutch most of the evening.

And then we ordered and ate some of our favorite dishes from the numerous options available from both, the regular dinner menu and the vegetarian menu.

But first, one of our favorite champagnes:

2006 TAITTINGER COMTES de CHAMPAGNE BLANC de BLANC- I`ve reviewed this bubbly so many times, as I’ve had close to 60 bottles including magnums now, and it’s pretty easy to note the various nuances for this consistently great champagne that has been fantastic out of the gate and has only gotten better with time and there’s a lot more coming; bright acidity, lovely aromas of toasty brioche and spicy citrus followed by a preponderance of fresh lemon zest and orchard fruit on the palate plus a creamy, feel good mousse and ideal balance all contribute to making this the stupendous wine that it is.

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1994 WILLIAMS SELYEM RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY PINOT NOIR- of all of the Burt Williams made wines I’ve had since the late 1980s, I can only recall a couple that were flawed and now there’s one more to add to the list; the hints of wet cardboard in the nose was too telltale of this being corked and it only got worse; swirling was out of the question as it just served to increase the off putting odor and as much as we tried to get beyond it, the atypical mineral laced mature dried red fruit just did not cut it; out of sympathy and unsolicited, our waiter brought us each a glass of a village red Burgundy on the house.

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How special to have so many favored things all in one night. Life is good.

Cheers,
Blake

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Wonderful notes Blake!

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Might look into getting that 06 Taittinger! Too much wine to buy now that I’m buying Champagne ha.

If you need any encouragement, check out many threads on this wine in this forum.

Bummer about the 1994 WS RRV Pinot. 1994 was such a good year and Burt really delivered amazing wines. The 1994 was my gateway into RRV Pinot, I loaded up on Rochioli, Dehlinger, WS and Gary Farrell. I still have a few left, it would be fun to do a horizontal.

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I really don’t need anymore than I already have ahah. How does it compare to the 08 Dom P. In case I had to decide between the 2.

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Larry, I was so looking forward to drinking this wine after many fabulous bottles before it. It is comprised of a lot of Rochioli and Allen which were both individually great wines in 94 as well. I've been blessed to have very few corked wines from Burts era = through 97`.

Zachary, they are 2 different animals. The 06 Comtes has been and continues to be stellar and bc of a bit more age, most bottles now have the toasty brioche notes that time gives rise to. The 08 Dom, IMHO, is no where ready yet and it will be stupendous when it is. It’s already one of the bigger DPs upon release that I can recall in some time including the 90 and 96s.

Copy thanks!

Had a bottle of the 2006 CdC yesterday and it continues to show brilliantly.

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Seems to be universally consistent.

Thanks for the notes, the memories and the sentiments.

Cheers.

I have both, but if forced to buy one or the other for near- or intermediate-term consumption, I’d easily go with the 2006 Comte. It’s been beautiful since release, without much shutting down. Plus, you’ll probably have plenty of opportunity to buy the DP later. IIRC, their production is about 5 million bottles annually compared to under 500K for the Comtes.

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Copy thanks for the info!

ditto all