Well done Gents. Sounds fantastic.
If there is a future Jamboree, ping. I’ll ante up some treasures. I"m SC buf still my backyard.
The rundown of the 82s sounds like a treat.
Poseurs!
Did you guys cook anything, or just sit aroun trying to look pretty?
These guys can cook! I’m pretty close to unhelpful. I’m the moral support.
Flannery NY Strip and Ribeye. Hangar steak for snacking. Truffle mashed potatoes. Mushrooms Jirge-style were unreal.
I wasn’t suggesting either of you should cook. Surprised they didn’t try to convince you the strip was filet.
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Yeah, that’s a nice wine. Bought when I could find (and afford) them.
How much moral support did KJJ need when his Longhorns lost to a team from Oklahoma for the second week in a row?
Got me cracking up
I missed that, hysterical.
Great wines, great fun - well done all of you, what larks eh! It’s about time somebody invented teleporting so Scotty could beam me over.
I’ll defer to the more prolific writers on this trip to download the day of wines, and the activities, but hard to imagine packing in more active stuff, more food, and more booze, than what we packed into one day. And one day following two already packed days. Funny enough, I felt worse after the first night than I do right now. That’s training!
The Rhone flight was the flight I honestly was most psyched about heading into this weekend. Some killer selections, and it’s not like I’m drinking Rayas and Verset with any regulatory. These are rare wines for me. While I drink and have Chave, I have not tried the 1990, and it certainly has quite the reputation.
2008 Chateau Rayas
A very Burgundian nose of wet earth, mushrooms and perfectly ripe wild strawberries. So soil to glass transfer. My iPhone corrected “soil” to “soul” and that was so apropos. So singular for a Chateauneuf du Pape. Gosh so fragrant. Medium weight to light on the palate but very lifted. Highly concentrated red fruit, strawberries, spicy red raspberries, and a broad range of earthy flavors and textures. Red licorice but not of the sweet candy sort. Some archetype Grenache spiky kiss of warmth but really quite well in check. Amazing how Rayas can pull that off so deftly. The nose just continued to soar higher on night long. (97 pts.)
1999 Noël Verset Cornas
Oh baby some Rick James funk! So feral, gamy. What a range of classic Cornas notes, iodine, rusty iron, brine, smoke, seared game meat. Green peppercorn, herbs, dry earth and minerals. Dark fruit profile. Not a polished wine. A rustic wine. But soulful. Not as deep as I would want for next level Cornas but that gamy profile really hit the the right note. So unique these days. (94 pts.)
1990 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage
This was the wine I expected to steal the weekend show. It’s Chave, after all. And 1990. Let me just say, the expectation was perhaps too high. This bottle showed well but the wine was not revelatory. Still a very beautiful expression of Northern Rhone Syrah, showing grilled meats, black pepper, iron and olives. Palate remained more on the tart side of the red fruit spectrum, with some darker tones woven in, but then never fleshed out over many hours open. Really enjoyable, just don’t know whether this wines actually deepens beyond what we are seeing in this bottle, and of course, these notes are very bottle dependent. I did peek at CT and looks like some other bottles hit much much higher notes. (93 pts.)
OK Bryson.
This Flannery was so good. This plate is ribeye and strip. They were all reverse seared, then half finished on charcoal and half finished on Blackstone. The strips were glistening with a fatty sheen. Kane and Todd killed these! Of the four ways I think I liked the flat top finished strip the best
Interesting how Rayas, at least from numerous recent reports, made such a sublime wine in perhaps the “worst” vintage of this century. I hope to be able to try it someday.
I used to have a chance to taste Verset now and again in years gone by, before most of use knew it was going to be worth its weight in gold, lol. I have a couple old notes on the 99, both have “game”, and “pickle juice” as descriptors, with medium weight, beautifully complex fruit. Verset was never a big, blockbuster wine, and I think as it ages, is definitely one of the more burgundian style Rhones.
Love the thread!
The Rayas was sooo good!
Ha! On the ride to Secret Falls we listened to Rick James, bitch!
Im so slow… here are the rest of my notes from the first day:
2011 Juge: “Wow, there’s a nose!” I said when I first smelled this wine that Robert contributed. There were amazing aromas of game meat, wild animal, green grass, dog fennel, dark cherry, black earthy soil, black and green mineral, briny olives, and lavender hints. The wine tasted great, the red and black fruit was bright and juicy, cool toned for sure, there was also a saline quality to this dark beauty, with more thoughts of olives and cooked game, and earth mineral. I loved the combination of dark color and cool toned red fruit. The finish was maybe a little short, but much later, I am told by rest of crew, it stretched out.
2007 Ruinart BdB: I think this was the last wine opened, as we were really slowing down at this point. But, man was this delicious. This wine was dry and crystalline, with thoughts of slate and stones, like trocken Riesling. This had such a lovely swallow, with perceptions of pear, lime dust, and lovely green growing things, and juicy tart citrus. I really liked this wine, and it was the last but not least of four terrific vintage Champagnes. Jorge’s contribution. 94
2002 VCC: I was very impressed with this, and wish I had a few in my cellar. These came out around the time when I just wasn’t buying Bordeaux, and was actually purging my cellar of many. So this wine was plush and generous, but not soft in any way. It had pretty dark red and black fruit, tart plum, ripe black cherry. It was very floral and aromatic, with flowers and soft spice. It gave me lovely dark soil/tar mineral thoughts as well. We pondered the percentages of fruit in this wine. It came across as pretty Merlot to me, while some others felt maybe a bit more CS in the blend for this vintage. Its a lovely wine, completely ready to drink, but with years ahead of it! Jorge’s contribution. 93
2008 Champagne Jerome Blin Les Caillasses Brut: Man this is great, and a nice wine to go with the two (so far) beauties that Kane brought with him. This 50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Munier was showing nicely. This was tart, and citrusy, with light bodied grove and orchard fruit. I detected perceptions of slaty/granite mineral, dried lime peel. Its lively, and lovely, and just a little (in a good way) age showing through. Man 2002 and 2008 are showing nice right now! My contribution. 94
2002 Billecart Salmon Cos St. Hilaire: This was the second of the 2002 Champagnes and another Kane contribution. This 100% Pinot Noir was gorgeous, and a great counterpoint to the 2002 Cristal. This wine’s cork jumped from the bottle, and revealed a wine that really grabbed my attention, like a friendly slap to the face. This wine was crisp, and lively, with many bubbles, and many facets. It combines crisp white fruit, with ever so slight red edges, a strong mineral spine reminiscent of gravelly, slaty, soil, and a lovely, tart and juicy swallow. This was my first time having this rare beauty! 95
Yea I’m pretty sure my note popped first, you were copying my playlist!
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My revelation from the trip - besides the fact that we have all built a super cool community off Todd’s foray into a wine board - was champagne. Yea I drink a fair bit, and during Covid, actually drank a lot, but this weekend packed like ten wonderful and distinct bottles that allowed you to truly appreciate the styles and stylistic differences. I cannot thank Kane and Carnes enough for these contributions. And Kane, a freaking champagne walking and talking encyclopedia. Waking up to a massive headache and no sleep on Saturday, to Kane making black truffle eggs and caviar, popping 2008 Comtes and then 2002 Krug, is certainly one way to start the day!
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You can tell folks were starting to hurt a little at this point. This was a 2007, and I think it was Jorge’s, but thought it was yours…