Essex County Wine Society

THE WINE PRESS

                        ESSEX COUNTY WINE SOCIETY

Dear Friends and Fellow Wine Lovers:                                     March 15, 2007

Since the last Wine Press we have had two tastings, wines of the Taylor Fladgate Partnership on February 15, 2007 and 2004 Pinot Noirs from Oregon on March 8, 2007.  Port wines of the Partnership were presented by Robert Bower, a seventh generation family member of this firm.  Initially tasted were the wooded ports, Fonseca Bin 27, Croft Distinction, and the Taylor Late Bottled Vintage(LBV) 2000.  The LBV was favored (of the three) by the group for its solid fruit and nice finish.  Mr. Bower then had a Power Point presentation of the history, geography, and vinification of port.  The reach of the river Duoro defines the area of the vineyards. The expanse of the slope, composition of the soil (mostly “schist” – from the Greek meaning divided or split into irregular plates), and the vineyard/fermentation practices determines the wines.  The production of the vintage wines continue the long-standing practice of manual crushing of the grapes (by indigenous feet) while producing the other wines uses special techniques, available only to the Partnership, of handling the grapes to extract the potential wine.  The additional wines tasted included two aged tawnies, His Eminence’s Choice 10 year tawny and the Taylor Fladgate 20 year old tawny.  They both were excellent examples of the genre.  Four vintage ports were poured, the Fonseca 1983 and 1997, and the Taylor Fladgate 2003 and the Croft 2003.  The 1983 hardly showed its age with good fruit and finish.  The 1997 was quite young but very promising and the 2003 ports were great examples of that excellent vintage.  Mr. Bower favored the Croft while some members, by a narrow margin, favored the Taylor.  An additional bonus of the tasting was the quite suitable presentation of chocolate supplied by Susan Fine of the Chocolate Path in Montclair to accompany the port.

On March 8, 2007 we had a tasting of eleven 2004 Pinot Noir wines from Oregon led by (in alphabetical order) Howard Menaker, Ron Schwartzman, and Henry Strauss. Travis Scott of the Burgundy Wine Company of New York also participated in the discussion.  As was mentioned from the Connoisseurs’ Guide, September 2006, “while almost anyone can love a great Burgundy it has always eluded us [the authors] why the same folks cannot love great California or the Oregonian version of the grape”. Well, all present  enjoyed the tasting and appreciated the Pinot Noir from this not too rainy Northwest state.  After the aperitif wine, the pleasant and age-worthy 2004 MacCallum Williamette Valley, we had two wines from each of three producers.  These wineries were Cristom, St. Innocent, and Shea.  We tasted the Cristom Mt. Jefferson Cuvee and the Cristom Sommers Reserve, the St. Innocent Seven Springs and the St. Innocent Ander and the Shea Estate and the Shea Wadenswil.  At least one of us felt that the St. Innocent wines had a certain kinship of softness on entry and more evident oak.  The Shea wines were from different Pinot Noir clones, the Estate from Pommard clones and the Wadenswil from a clone of the same name and some members felt that these were bigger wines with persistent finishes.  The next three wines were interesting in that they were all from the same vineyard although made by three different winemakers.  They were Le Cadeau Cote Est (by Josh Bergstrom), Le Cadeau Diverstie (by Sam Tannehill) and Le Cadeau Rocheux (by Harry Peterson-Nedry).  All of these wines left a rather big blueberry impression, according to one observer, and, as in some of the other wines of the evening, an impression of alcohol.  The last and rather singular wine was the Lemelson Thea’s Selection which was nice, fruity and the most accessible of the tasting.  A vote for the favorite of the night was taken and the Lemelson was voted as the favorite and the Shea Wadenswil the second favorite although many of the other wines received votes as well.

Our next event on April 5, 2007 will be a vertical tasting of Pichon-Longueville. Baron, a second growth from Paulliac in Bordeaux, and will be conducted by long-term member, Dennis Roland.  According to Clive Coates, in the past twenty years the wines of this chateau have been superb.  The first wines of the initial estate were planted in the late 17^th century near the wines of Chateau Latour.  When Louis, Baron of Pichon Longueville, died in 1850 this estate was divided.  Two-fifths became Baron and three-fifths went to three sisters and eventually became Pichon Longueville, Comtesse Lalande.  During the 1970s and early 1980s the wines of Pichon Baron were “maddenly inconsistent” (Coates).  The vineyard was sold in 1987 to AXA-Midi, the second largest insurance company in France.  AXA invested millions of dollars in the vineyard, chai, and chateau under the direction of Jean-Michael Cazes of Lynch-Bages.  Cazes retired in 2000 and Christian Seely is now the administrator.  Robert Parker says that since 1986 “the estate, often referred to as a ‘super second’, performs above its official pedigree. . . this chateau has proven to be one of the great superstars of the 1990s.  This is routinely one of the Medoc’s most majestic wines” (in Bordeaux - Simon and Schuster 2003).  We will be tasting the1988 “one of the most successful wines of the vintage (Parker) and “deliciously full and fleshy . . . sweet, rich (Michael Broadbent – Vintage Wine Harcourt, Inc, 2002)”, the 1989 “massive . . . considerable extraction and richness” (Parker) “ a big, ripe, fleshy wine”(Broadbent) and the 1990 “a fabulous effort” (Parker) “very deep and very sweet . . . easy style”(Broadbent).  We will also taste the 1995 “stylish, elegant . . .restrained”(Parker) and the 1996 “well endowed. . . classic Paulliac”(Parker) “good fruit, well-balanced”(Broadbent).  The wines of this century we will taste are the 2000, 2001, and 2003 and perhaps the 2004.  The 2000 is described by Parker as “spectacular . . . profound” and the 2001 as medium full-bodied . . . potential to turn out outstanding”. The 2003, according to Parker, is “ripe, dense. . . silky” while the 2004 is “elegant, medium-bodied . . . outstanding purity” (Parker Wine Advocate #165, 158).

The Spring Dinner is planned for May 6, 2007 at Vine (the former Tre Vigne/Giraffe) in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  Details will follow.

The Barbara Prosser Memorial Dinner will be held on June 10, 2007.  Again, details will follow.

The cost of the tasting will be $79 for members and $94 for guests.

In vino veritas and a votre sante,     

Bob and Howard

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