Essex County Wine Society

November 2007

THE WINE PRESS

                            ESSEX COUNTY WINE SOCIETY

October 18, 2007

Dear Friends and Fellow Wine Lovers:

Since our last letter we have had our fall dinner and our first tasting of the new year.

Our fall dinner which was at The Strip House gave us an opportunity to taste several wines from our cellar. We would suggest that 1997 Tardieu-Laurent Hermitage was good but the 1998 Mas Igneus 112 from Priorat was the red wine of the evening. In addition, the 1988 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes was outstanding. Everyone who attended the evening seemed to have an enjoyable time.

Our first tasting of the year was a selection of 2005 white Burgundies presented by fellow member and past president, Doug Salthouse.  Overall, those present truly enjoyed the wines presented. We had wines from Rully and Saint Veran, a village wine and Premier Cru from each of Chablis, Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet   as well as a Grand Cru Corton Charlemagne.The sense of the group although we did not have a formal vote was Fevre Chabis AC “Champs Royaux” as well as the Paul Jacqueson Rully 1er Cru “La Pucelle” were the two best quality/price wines of the evening. The Louis Carillon Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles was probably the favorite wine of the evening. Suprisingly, the Bertrand Ambroise Corton Charlemagne did not show so well and that may have been because it has already closed down and needs 4 or 5 years of aging before being drunk.

Our next tasting on November 8, 2007 will be 2001 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

presented by Woody Waga. Steve Tanzer in International Wine Cellar (July/August 2006) says the “2001 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino has it all, healthy deep color, expressive nuanced aromas, lovely fleshy sweetness and deep fruit, harmonious ripe acidity and firm tannins that generally avoid coming off as hard or dry.” He went on to say they have “considerable early appeal owing to their sheer balance and ripe fruit but possess the material and underlying structure to support at least 8 to 10 years or more of development in bottle.”

Antonio Galloni in The Wine Advocate (December 2006)  says “the best 2001 Brunellos are characterized by rich aromatics and generous ripe fruit, with excellent structure and fine elegant tannins. Although many wines are clearly built to age I also tasted quite a few that are drinking beautifully right now.”

Both of these reports were reviewing Brunello de Montalcino Normale and we have the good fortune to taste the Reservas that are always as good and usually better than the Normala since they are in barrel for a minimum of an additional 12 months.

James Suckling in Wine Spectator (July 31, 2007) says that the 2001 vintage is better than the great 1999 vintage and probably equal to 1997.  He goes on to say that “no modern vintage from Brunello di Montacino has had such high overall quality as 2001.”

We will be tasting  9 wines from the region including Le Macioche and Collosorbo, both rated 91 by Wine Spectator (the Normale) and Sassetti Pertimali rated 93 and Capanna rated 95.

One of the great things about this tasting is that these Riservas are just being added to the inventory of local retailers and thus they should be available for purchase.

The following tasting on December 6, 2007 will be wines from Southwest France presented by Jonathan Sibley.

NOTE:  Our April tasting date has been changed from April 3 to Thursday, April 10, 2008

(Those members who have not paid their dues for the year please include a check for $75.)

The cost of the tasting will be $75 for members and $89 for guests.

 A votre sante and in vino veritas

Bob and Howard

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