We had quite a party in August but we’re getting old as are our friends. Used to be if you had 80 people, you needed 80 bottles of wine. Needless to say, at our age, we barely hit the halfway mark. So Alice thought, “why not have a wine tasting with some of the best leftovers”?

As I looked at the list of what we had not consumed at the party, a potentially interesting tasting emerged. Why not compare a flight of 2011 West Coast wines with another flight of 2013? So, that is the basis for the tasting. In each flight is a Rhone varietal plus three Bordeaux style consisting of a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot and a blend, Meritage or otherwise. For the warm-ups and finales, I simply chose a few interesting wines that were among the many party leftovers. Of course, the entire tasting was double blind. No one except me knew what wines were poured and Alice knew the theme but not the specific wines. During the tasting, no one guessed either the theme, varietals or the vintages. Here is what we tasted in the order in which they were poured. The prices listed are current retails. I have no idea what I paid for them.

WARM-UP BOTTLES:

2019 Shaya Verdejo REUDA / Spain (13% abv) $14 is a wine I purchased at Mega Bev not too long ago for about half of the normal retail price. Something about Verdejo gives the wine even when young a complexity and almost sherry-like sense of maturity. This wine is bright, fresh, clean, fruity and dry and yes, somehow embodies something of a sherry depth to it. It was generally liked by all. 2016 Cedar Creek Gewurztraminer AMERICAN (WI) (10% abv) $11 was a leftover from not only our party in August but originally leftover from a Tasters Guild event about eight years ago. I wondered if it was going to still be drinkable. No need to worry. Everyone loved it!! The fact that a Wisconsin winery labels it “American” says two things. One, it is not bottled in the state where it was grown and possibly, it is not made from grapes but rather grape concentrate or what home winemakers call “kit wine”. Either way, not what one would expect to show well but that it did. The aroma was just perfectly varietal with emphatic peach/apricot accents and although seemingly sweet, actually finished crisp, clean and dry. A fine bottle to start our tasting.

FIRST FLIGHT

2011 Ancient Peaks Renegade Rhone Blend PASO ROBLES, CA (13.9% abv) $23 is rich and complex but not elegant or fine yet satisfying. There is a roasted pork / bacon component in the nose with mouthcoating rich fruit throughout. One taster felt it was corked. My score 7/10. Group score 6.9/10, 7th (last) place TIE. 2011 Duckhorn Three Palms Vineyard Merlot NAPA VALLEY, CA (14.5% abv) $110 continues to be one of my very favorite wines. It has it all. It is elegant and fine yet rich decadent and composty. Napa finesse though a tad less aromatic than I remember past bottles. The texture and finish are huge. My score a perfect 10/10. Group score 7.45/10, 3rd place. 2011 Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignin Tench Vineyard NAPA VALLEY, CA (14.2% abv) $100 surprised me with how open and accessible this wine has become. Like the Three Palms Merlot it is fabulously rich and composty with nuances of tobacco and condensed fruit. It is overall very similar to the Three Palms Merlot structurally too with a mouthfeel completely off the charts and a long long finish. Though I preferred it to the Three Palms Merlot, there is no better score than 10/10 so that’s it, another perfect wine. Group score 7.35/10 4th place. 2011 Mad Hatter (Dancing Hares) Bordeaux Blend NAPA VALLEY, CA (14.8% abv) $80 to me possessed an odd unpleasant herbal, medicinal smell that stayed with the wine to the finish. Other tasters found it bitter. Flawed? My score 4/10. Group score 6.9/10, 7th (last) place TIE.

SECOND FLIGHT

2013 Ken Volk Mourvedre LIME KILN (in Monterey County), CA (15.3% abv) $35 may not be over the hill but it is starting to show old age. Though hearty, rustic and multilayered, it is becoming a bit volatile. We let this one get away from us. My score 6/10. Group score 7/10, 6th place. 2013 Duckhorn Decoy Merlot SONOMA VALLEY, CA (13.5% abv) $17 may be the same winery as the Three Palms Merlot in the first flight, but it is really unfair to attempt to compare them. We’re talking about the winery’s top Napa vineyard compared to purchased fruit from a different county offered mainly as an affordable quality alternative to restaurant house wine. At least, that is my perception of and the purpose for Decoy. Yet, it is a fine classy wine still with loads of fresh pure youthful black fruit at eleven years of age. It struck me as a wine that could be great with a few more years of aging. My score 8/10. Group score 7.3/10, 5th place. 2013 NxNW (King Estate) Cabernet Sauvignon WALLA WALLA, WA (13.5% abv) $40 was a bit of a chance. The last one I opened about month ago was corked. Not this one! It is CLASSIC Cab with a capital C. Fine aromatic red fruit liquor up front with an airy red fruit surprise in the middle. It is both settled, complete and balanced while at the same time fresh, edgy, and lively. An awesome wine. My score 8.5/10. Group score 7.85/10, 1st place TIE. 2013 Robert Mondavi Maestro 50th Anniversary Bordeaux Blend NAPA VALLEY, CA (14.5% abv) $50 is a fitting conclusion to this tasting in memory of one of the best fine wine marketers and visionaries. Like all of the wines bearing his name, this wine is precise, deeply complex, exotic and shows its origins. The length and richness of the texture is quite amazing. This is very concentrated yet, the first word in my mind is “fresh”. This is an extremely appealing wine. My score 9/10. Group Score 7.85/10, 1st place TIE.

FINALES

2009 Glen Carlou Black Label (Petite Verdot/Tannat/Petite Sirah) PAARL, So. Africa (14.5% abv) $11 was by far the least expensive wine of the bunch, but, I think it would have held its own had it been in either of the flights. It was still vibrant and fresh with a huge mouth coating texture. I’m impressed*. 1982 Gräf Eltz (by Pieroth) Hochheimer Daubhaus Spätlese RHEINGAU, GER (8.2% abv) $12 is still a remarkable wine. Showing age but no signs of decline, it is fine, complex, textbook Rhein, sweet and rich. WOW! This is way more intense and layered than I could have expected from a Spätlese. Several of the tasters guessed it was a Sauternes for good reason. What a wine and still alive and well at age 42.

Thanks to Ed Cox for his diligence in capturing and tabulating all of our scores and ranking the wines. From what I can glean from the scores is that for me, as one who is noted for his preference for inexpensive mass produced wine, that wines from the very best sites made by the best winemakers do stand out and rise above the others. But, I would say that wines such as the Decoy or even the Glen Carlou for that matter, appeal to me more than the big fruit forward globby wines selling for big bucks masquerading as fine wine that inhabit two thirds of the store shelves. I would also say that my old adage that “the older the winery the better the wine” still stands. Among our group of tasters that on this occasion consisted of about half of our usual Rude Tasters and half guests, clearly preferred the younger tasting wines. Two years doesn’t sound like much between the 2011’s and the 2013’s but they were very different vintages. The 2011’s are definitely mature though very much alive and will hold for a decade while the 2013’s (except for the Ken Volk Mourvedre) are just hitting their stride and will probably continue to evolve positively for five to ten years then hold for quite a while after that. The 2013’s are still very fruity and youthful. Most of the tasters preferred the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet-based blends to the others while the Rhone blends didn’t seem to score well with most of the tasters though from the score sheet, it appears that I was the only one who found the Mad Hatter flawed. I’m surprised that the Three Palms and the Nickel & Nickel Tench didn’t win hands down. But, they tasted like great thirteen year old wines while the NxNW and the Mondavi are still very fresh and young.

Enjoy in Good Health!

A Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner

*see “What does Post COVID-19 Look like” dated October 16,2022 and scroll down to “Tasted 7/4/2021” for previous tasting notes. I guess it was not our last bottle!