Big Wine Dinner and Afterparty with the

[tjaehnigen]

Below is some commentary of mine for my attendance of the first Vinocellar anniversary wine dinner in NYC this past Saturday evening followed by an 'after-party'. Don't worry, you don't need to know who I am talking about -- just check out the wines.

What a night. I was very much looking forward to this event and it did not disappoint.

jb, you arranged one helluvan evening. Thank you, vielen dank and grazi! The folks at The Mark were extremely accommadating and went out of their way to make our experience very pleasurable. The food was great, I particularly enjoyed the dessert (paired with that Sauternes!). The squab was wonderful, the lobster was great (esp the meat from the claws!) and the lamb was tasty. Thanks also to all of you for sharing wines from your cellars, it was quite amazing. The raffle was exciting, even if I didn't win anything. The Grab Bag event was also fun (even if Ant got a bottle of the Laughing Magpie (I bought 2 more to add to the two I already had at home in June) which he doesn't like as much as me (Ant, PM me and we'll work out a suitable grab bag replacement for ya! (I feel terrible dude!))) -- I got a budman entry (which reminds me, we ought to start a thread on that) which blew me away. Also, got to hand off a couple wines I'd been couriering to him from jaimetown, picked up a few bottles from LCC to give to jaimetown, and got a couple of bottles budman had been holding for me, too. Woo-hoo!

The event was winding down and so was Mrs. TJ. So, off in her Magick Pumpkin she went and I headed to spend a few more hours with y'all at the Afterparty. Got to drink even more great juice. Thanks all for those who provided the wines and the food and everything. A special thanks to whoever was keeping me balanced while I tried to ram the ceiling tile back into the ceiling after my ceiling stretch to the alarm didn't do the trick to shut it off...

Anyway, I had an all around great time. Many thanks to all of you. I hope to do it again sometime soon. But, you know, what are we going to do NEXT YEAR to top this??? :grin: :grin:

DINNER WINES

1996 Chartogne Taillet Fiacre Tete de Cuvee

I'll agree with Jimmyv's comments here where he said 'Crisp and lively, with dough and citrus. 91 pts.' I concur.

2001 Aubert Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay

Golden and cloudy, I mistook this for a Kistler upon sampling the nose (of pineapple). I moved on to more pineapple, white pepper, grystalized ginger, scorched creme brulee topping (yes I mean that and not a generic caramel), and even seaweed&bean sprout salad (yes, I know, I am weird). Long, long finish. This is one heckuva wine. 94 TJ points.

2001 Guffens-Heynen Macon Pierreclos Le Chavigne

This wine had one funky nose that took time to blow off, I think almost 15 minutes. And, it suffered because of the side by side with the Aubert. Still, it developed into a nice wine.Sulfur nose blew off to reveal some nice white fruits like pear and white peach, maybe lichi (sp?). It clearly paired better with the lobster, too. I honestly can't remember anything about the finish so it must have been average as I didn't jot down anything positive or negative. I'll go with a scraping by 90 points.

'01 Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir

Heady cherries, slate, chocolate (not overpoweringly so) black rasperry -- a shorter finish than I'dhave expected. This was a good wine, IMO, but outclassed by the Ojai overall. Worth 90 TJ points.

'99 Ojai Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir

I got a sense of a lot of, uh, interesting descriptors that eventually merged into something quite beautiful. Chocolate cherry bomb, violets, cough medecine, vanilla extract later tranmogrified into blueberris and white chocolate. A great finish. Plus, this wine went quite well with the food, especially the later tastes of the food as it opened even more in the glass. Worth 92 TJ points.

1992 Dominus

Since I am not a drinker of many Bordeaux like the rest of you, I will take for granted that this wine had a 'classic Bordeausx profile'. I got plenty of leather, ashes, graphite, autumn spices, pomegranate and decayed hay. While I think this wine is drinking really well now, I think it will be even better in several years. This wine was not as good a pair with the lamb, IMO, as the Beringer was more food friendly, particularly with this course (lamb). Nice, nice finish. I need to figure out what a cigar box smells like to keep an eye open in the future. Worth 94 TJ points

1994 Beringer Private Reserve

I thought this wine was excellent. In fact, it easily rivaled the Dominus -- but did not beat the potential that the Dominus has. But the lamb with this wine was simply sublime. This wine was drinking extremely well right now. If I had any, I would find excuse after excuse to drink it now and over the next few years. I got plenty of currants, charcoal, purple roses (like the ones in my yard) and macerated red & dark fruits. A great mouthfeel and wonderful finish. IMO, this was catchintg this wine at the right time. I think the Dominus, in a few more years, will be even more amazing than this wine was at this time. Hence this gets the ever so small nod of 94+ points. My dry WOTN (at the main event).

1990 Ch. Reiussec

I will add to my original notes on this when I had it in June. Here's what I originally said-- "But this was some great juice. After being warned we could not say 'honey' as a descriptor, we dove right in. I will use 'honey' as a color description though, because that is what it looked like. Lots of general notes here, but it was loaded with butterscotch, apricot, strawberries, gree apple (yeah), varnish, creamy chunks (maybe white chocolate?) with carmelized pineapple." -- I'll add only that this got more velvety -- perhaps because I had a much, much better dessert pairing this time. I'll amend the apricot comment and change it to apricot gelato (and I can say that because I have had the real McCoy!). This wine was even better than in June when I rated it 94 points. This was my WOTN as I gave it 95 points. My one most interesting comment on my TN sheet was 'ungodly'.

NV Buller Muscat Calliope

All I wrote down for this one was 'toffifay' -- anyone remember that candy? This was one dripping sticky concoction that was a little overwhelming and concentrated. I haven't had enough of these to really fairly rate it. I could see that it was quite complex and it could be quite awesome. I just have no real point of reference for this stuff.

THE AFTER-PARTY WINES

2000 Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vieilles Vignes

I got to taste this, too. It was supple and wonderful -- I remember saying white peach and apricot sauce or something silly. Winetex, you were standing there, what the heck did I say? I think you said honeysuckle. It was great.

2001 Shirvington Cab

Did not try

1994 Caymus

Did not try.

1998 Hartford Port

Did not try.

2001 Martinelli Pinot Noir Blue Slide Ridge

Did not try (dagnabbit! It was gone before I knew it was there!)

2000 Martinelli Pinot Noir Reseve

Did not try -- also it was quickly gone.

1998 Shafer Hillside Select Cab.

This was super, super tight. It was difficult to evaluate. I wished I had had another glass to hold it in while I moved on.

2002 Hendrys Drive Cab

Did not try.

2002 Hendrys Drive Shiraz

Good Stuff. I think the 2001 is better, IIRC, but this was great 91-92 pts.

1996 Etude

Did not try, but this was excellent in June.

2001 Oliver Taranga Shriaz

I had a tiny sip of this, I think, but for the life of me I can't remember it.

1997 Forman

This is gonna be really good in a few years. Really good. Uh-huh.

1999 Whitehall Lane

Did not try. I think I was gone by now.

1997 Arrowwood Cab

Did not try. This was there?!?! Dagnabbit!

1970 Dows VP

This was great, great stuff. No idea how to rate it since it was my first vintage Port, but it was impressive. Amazing even. Thanks, Rev!!!

2001 Muscat de Beaunes de Venise

Did not try. I think I was gone by this time.