What Would You Bring If Instructed "Best White In Your Cellar" ?

This month for the Boys Night Out tasting/dining group, the wine theme was to bring a first growth Bordeaux and “the best white in your cellar.” The whites serve as reception wines and then are taken to the tables, once we are seated, to accompany the first course. And then we proceed to the reds. Boys Night Out has been meeting monthly for about 18 years, and we rarely spend time with formal tasting protocols. But there are many first rate cellars among the group…

So what white wine would you bring to this shindig?

One funny thing: a friend and I shared a taxi for this event, as it was 35-45 minute drive from our homes. As it turned out, we both brought the exact same Bordeaux - 1989 Haut-Brion - but our whites were completely different.

I don’t have any truly “great” whites, maybe the best stuff I have would be some white Burgundies. I think there’s a Corton-Charlemagne kicking around somewhere in the cellar though, a 1995 or something.

Austrian Riesling, something with at least a decade of age. But most people would interpret this as mandatory Burgundy. Unfortunately.

Dauvissat Les Clos 2008, no question about it.

I have a 99 Leflaive Pucelles, that’s the most valuable one on the balance sheet. Maybe the Rhys chardonnays (2006-10) and an 04 Latour Corton Charlemange next. And a number of bottles of Dagueneau Blanc Fume de Pouilly probably after that.

I have some bottles of d’Yquem, too, but I assume you mean dry whites, or at least dry whites + riesling.

Especially now with the uncertainty of aging white Burgs, I don’t keep many ultraexpensive whites lingering in the cellar.

Yikes. Nothing I’d want to sacrifice as a reception wine.

1983 Clos Ste. Hune

+1

Our whites suffer from lack of attention. But, with the limitations of my cellar…A Rhys with a couple years of age on it. Or a Kistler, again with age. More predictable performers than most Burgundy in my cellar. If it was an eclectic group, I’d probably dig through some Rieslings and Alsatian stuff. If I had a Huet with decent age on it, that’d be a possibility as well, but mine are all quite young.

If it wasn’t premoxed, a '95 Corton-Charlemagne would be a great choice. Sadly, the '95 CC that did show up was premoxed.

I agree about the reception comment…but the best whites in my cellar are 99 Raveneau Blanchot and 04 Bouchard Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Both were still quite young the last time I had them.

My best whites have bubbles in them.

Not sure I understand your 2nd and 3rd sentences, Alan, but that Austrian would have been very welcome. We didn’t get any, but the '96 Alsace was a hit. (Weinbach)

I was just about to remark about there not being any Champagnes mentioned. It seems an obvious and welcome choice. Actually, only one bottle showed up, 2003 Dom Perignon. Didn’t have much to say, perhaps wrong vintage, perhaps too young.

Pretty tough choice between one of my Ravenau or the 1987 Pat Paulsen Refrigerator White.

This wine would completely overshadow most of the Bordeaux, IMO. Nothing wrong with that! Unfortunately, I last bot was consumed recently.

Oddly, and sadly, not a single bottle of Chablis was on the table. I would have expected several.

Hmmm. To meet up with a longstanding group of friends, wine lovers all, and share some tastes of wine together, and discuss the wine and other topics, and then sit down to seared tuna… That strikes me as an odd concept of “sacrifice.” Would a formal, double-blind wine autopsy complete with Cellartracker notes be more appropriate?

I had the same vision of “reception” as Hardy did. In a different thread, I posted my thoughts on “autopsy” tasting groups…which I don’t particularly care for. But a mix and match set of “best whites” at a socializing reception struck me as perhaps being the other end of the spectrum, at least as I’m envisioning the dynamics of the typical “reception”. But thinking about it, a lot of my reaction is that I have scant few “best whites”. If the question had been “best red”, I would probably have had a different reaction.

Well, this is my only bottle. $40 was a lot of money for a bottle of wine back then. I’ve had the 1983 Frédéric Emile VT a couple of times and it was great. Might be time for the CSH before long.