The joy of double blind tasting… there’s nothing like it to really make you question exactly what you’re smelling, how the wine tastes and what you think of it.  A hefty dose of humble pie is normally thrown in for good measure. This month the theme for the Fort Collins group was a loosely defined “Truth or Dare” scheme.  This involves all wines served double blind with the person bringing the wine writing on the bag (or announcing prior to unbagging) the name of a wine… It’s then the taster’s job to either agree with the declared wine… or cry BS.

I arrived late and the 2005 Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Gris Les Princes Abbés had already made its rounds on the table. The pretty floral and slightly honeyed notes paired with some sweetness and minerality on the finish had me guessing Chenin Blanc… err, negative ghost rider and a big swing and a miss…strike 1.

The bag on the next bottle claimed 1999 Monbousquet… and it was a good lie.  The wine was deeply colored with ripe cassis and plumy fruit mixed with chocolate and spice notes on the nose.  The palate was integrated and had a smidge of maturity with beautifully integrated oak and just enough earth and meaty notes to have the right bank Merlot label seem feasible… The 2001 Paloma Merlot is a stunning bottle of wine but for the life of me, I can’t remember what my guess was… I seriously considered the right banker though.

The group’s Italian lush produced the next bottle… so of course the wine screamed Barolo. Seriously… tar, lots of dirt and dusty notes…  If I tried, I could have conjured up rose petal aromas… with air however, this original thought slowly bit the dust as the wine fleshed out to show graphite, cassis and mature Cabernet notes.  At one point I even called this the 1988 Montelena (after being told it was an ‘88) but then changed my guess to a Super Tuscan right before the bag came off… Damn! Fantastic showing by the 1988 Chateau Montelena Estate and even better than a previous bottle a couple months ago.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the 2003 Château Pipeau. Sporting ripe and lifted aromatics (and a little VA), this seemed slightly candied and while it showed nice ripeness, it lacked mid-palate depth and came across as hard and angular. Certainly good but I’d drink these sooner rather than later.  I did not think this was Bordeaux…  strike 2… or 3… who’s counting.

The fully mature 1978 Miguel Torres Gran Coronas Reserva Black Label was impressive! I guessed mature California Cabernet… and Rob had even told me he was bringing this bottle earlier that week… Another swing and a miss but this is a unique 100% Cabernet from Spain so while I’m only 4000+ miles off on the region… I did get the variety… small victories right… Beautifully mature and nuanced, this still showed noticeable oak and vanilla paired with ripe (although fading) fruit. A slight hint of mint and eucalyptus lead me to Cali but the palate was rich, smooth, completely integrated and long. A treat to drink but this bottle seemed on the downward slop and owners should drink up.

The next brown bag labeled Penfolds screamed high end California Cabernet to me. Decadent and simply stunning with dark fruit, cassis, earth and chocolaty oak leading into a perfect, full bodied palate, I was in love and thought it was an ’03 or ’04 high end Cali cab… even mentioned Foley’esk…so was happy to see this turn out to be the 2004 Robert Foley Claret.  Despite the size of the wine, there wasn’t a hint of heat and it was polished, balanced and incredibly long.

The 2005 Château Pipeau was an interesting twist and was billed as a duplicate ’03 Pipeau. Very similar aromatics between the two but I thought this was better than the ‘03 on all accounts. Smokey with spicy oak and ripe dark cherry and cassis fruit paired up with a medium to full bodied, concentrated, tannic palate that showed nice acidity, I thought this was a modern Tempranillo from Spain… swing and yes, another miss.  Regardless, a beautiful bottle of wine.

Unfortunately, the 2005 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois wasn’t showing at its best due to inadequate decanting… the blame lays squarely on me as I’ve had numerous bottles of this… Screaming good the next day, this was a wee bit disjointed and showed a hint of alcohol and serious tannin on the blockbuster finish. I’m nit picking though as even though this wasn’t showing its best, it’s still one stunning bottle of wine. The closest guess was an ’05 Janasse VV and my billing it as an ’03 Leoville Poyferre fooled more than one person… and if I hadn’t brought the wine, probably me as well.

A great group of people and another monthly tasting in the books!

Thanks for reading!

- Jeb

Wines:

Wine	Rating
2005 Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Gris Les Princes Abbés	NR
2001 Paloma Merlot	95
1988 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate	93
2003 Château Pipeau	86
1978 Miguel Torres Gran Coronas Reserva Black Label	92
2004 Robert Foley Claret	97
2005 Château Pipeau	91
2005 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois	95

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Random Notes, tasting notes, wine events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.