Home > Wine Features > 2011 Wine in Context: Your Turn (1)

2011 Wine in Context: Your Turn

2011
Wine in Context Awards

Part 1: The Roederers
Part 2: Visit of the Year
Part 3: Tasting of the Year
Part 4: Wines That Mattered

Your Turn

Richard, Rich & Kris
Alex, Ralph, Frank & Bob
Mark & Jan
David & William

I'm delighted that this year as last year, Winedoctor readers have been sending their favourite wine in context moments of 2011, and the first batch is reproduced here.

If you aren't sure what Wine in Context is all about, think of it as your favourite wine-related moment of 2011, but where instead of focusing on an intrinsically great wine, we look at the synthesis of life and wine. So it's not about those magnums of 2000 Le Pin and 2001 Yquem you knocked back with last Saturday's burger and fries, it's more about that bottle of Touraine Sauvignon which just sang with your little pyramid of Valençay goat's cheese, as you lay stretched out on a blanket on the sandy banks of the Vienne, or perhaps the time you spent with good friends, old or new, over some special bottles. Maybe you made your own wine for the first time? Or maybe the wine was there to lubricate some great celebration? Whatever it is, it's about context, not just the wine.

Why not send me yours?

So here goes with the first batch of 2011 submissions, with stories of fine dining in the Rhône Valley, making a personal wine discovery with a 2005 Moulin-a-Vent, and two stunning tastings from Belgium, where many great wines were drank, and I'm sure many new friends were made. (29/12/11)

Richard Scott, USA

A couple of years ago I bought three bottles of Olivier Merlin’s Moulin-a-Vent 2005. (My partner is especially fond of Moulin-a-Vent.) We opened the first soon afterwards. What a disappointment, slightly sharp, not so much that you instantly pour the rest away but just enough to tempt you to drink on without any real pleasure. A couple of months ago having finally got our 3-year old to bed, with some trepidation, we opened a second bottle. Settling into the sofa I took a sip. I must have pulled a strange face as my partner asked what was the matter with the wine. I wasn’t quite sure what to say at first as I couldn’t quite think of the right words. I’ve heard it said that Beaujolais can have a touch of 'merde' about it and have encountered this once before and found it strangely beguiling. There was a touch of this I think at first but it quickly transmuted (hence my hesitation) into something utterly, utterly wonderful. I have a very poor sense of smell (due, I think, to an incautious sniff test in the lab while reading chemistry at university) which affects my sense of taste but this was one of those occasional wines that seemed to shine through the mist. And then it struck me that the taste was lingering on and on. The finer points of wine-tasting are lost on me unfortunately but was this what’s called ‘a long finish’? Had this wine magically given me an insight I thought I’d never have? It had certainly given me something special and the memory of it still lingers on. I just hope the third bottle proves to be like the second and not the first.

Thanks Richard, a great submission, and a superb wine discovery too. It has reminded me of some of that early wonder you can get from wine, when you experience flavours and sensations for the first time - if only we could all recapture some of that! I hope that the third bottle is just as rewarding as the second - Chris.

Rich Pastor, USA

Thanks very much for a great website, and best wishes for 2012. Here is my submission for 2011:

Northern Rhône whites were among my least favorite wines. That changed in June 2011, when my wife and I had dinner at Le Mangevins, a small restaurant in Tain-l'Hermitage with an exceptional wine list and the local specialties. When I picked a bottle of Côte-Rôtie and ordered the Raviole du Royans as an entrée, the owner basically said: "You can't do that. The Raviole is garnished with boutargue (dried fish roe, called bottarga in Italy) and needs a white wine." He then suggested the 2010 Domaine Gripa Les Pins St. Peray and 2008 Chapoutier Chante Alouette Hermitage Blanc which were available by the glass. We ordered both. The slight oiliness of the wines complimented the saltiness of the roe, and, for the first time, I appreciated Marsanne. We continued with wines by the glass and had one of the most enjoyable meals of our vacation. When in Rhône....

Thanks Rich - sounds like a great dinner. Having spent a day and a half in Tain l'Hermitage earlier this year, visiting Michel Chapoutier, I can attest to the quality of Northern Rhône whites - including the 2008 Hermitage Chante Alouette - Chris.

Kris Ghijselinck, Belgium

I have to select two wine-moments in the last year, I hope this is allowed?

I’m a very active member (+1500 posts) on a Belgian wine forum, from time to time we saw some tasting notes of beautiful top-level bottles that are € or £-wise out of reach to drink at home. There were also some reports of lucky ones who had the opportunity to drink a great wine at a family dinner or at a work dinner. I had the desire to experience once the true greatness of wine, so I put a post on the forum asking for fellow wine enthusiasts to come together and make it happen: the idea was to organize a tasting with nine tasters, each bringing along a high class bottle with a minimum value of €100. The idea was a success and we soon held the first tasting of this kind. These are bottles that you almost don’t dare to open at home, but now with an entry-price of €100 we could drink nine bottles of top wine and we could drink them blind, so making it even more interesting and more fun. I must admit that I already enjoyed the search for the perfect bottle, you do want to offer something special and I searched for maximum quality without going too far over budget. It was a new experience for me: I had never searched for bottles in that price-range but it opens a window to a lot of good stuff of course, after a while I saw a bottle of Pichon-Baron 1989 on sale on the internet and I thought that that could be a good choice.

In January we held the first tasting and it was even better than I could have hoped for : there was a special atmosphere around the table and the wines were treated with a lot of respect. This is the list of the wines that were drunk blind with the average score of the nine tasters:

It was such a special tasting that the memories will last a life time. Scoring was a bit of an issue, most of the tasters weren’t used to drinking this high standard of wines, so you should see the scores of the wines in relationship to each other and less as an absolute value I think. There were two main highlights for me (only a personal opinion of course) - the Pichon-Baron and the Artadi: I can even recall my emotions drinking them. The Pichon-Baron was the best wine I’ve ever drunk and as a Bordeaux fan I was glad that a Bordeaux had given me that pleasure, I was also relieved that this wine was well received by the other tasters, I found it very important to offer a wine that would please the tasters. But the Pichon didn’t stand a very long time as "best wine ever" the Viña el Pison offered something special and made me wonder if this was the highest level that wine could reach: it had everything: a beautiful nose, an interesting and complex midpalate and a long finish: a wine close to perfection. I will always cherish my memory of this glass of wine.

Soon after this tasting the idea grew to do a second edition, and a couple of months ago the second tasting with wine-crazy people of the forum took place. The first one was already of a very high level but the second one exceeded by far our expectations: the concept was almost the same, this time we specified a wine of at least €100 on ebay/idealwine.com, so a slight increase on budget and I also arranged two bottles of which the price was split into nine (the first two bottles on the list). I wanted to offer something better than the Pichon-Baron 1989, so I’ve made my life difficult having put that challenge to myself. I’m a Montrose fan so that was my starting point: the 1990 is WAY over budget, so not an option, the 2000 is still very closed, so the 2003 came to me as the best option, it is of course over budget so I was looking to find a bottle at an acceptable price and luckily I found one. The time spend in the carafe was an issue for me, so I asked some help (thank you Chris!). This is the list of the second tasting:

The Latour was my first premier cru experience (not blind for me), unfortunately it was over the hill (storage issues I think), the Troplong-Mondot was also a disappointment, way too young but we don’t think it will deliver the high scores it has received and is enormously overpriced. But from the third bottle on the tasting resumed its usual concept and we were treated with some top acts. It came to a surprise to me that I liked two Bourgogne wines! The Montrose 2003 was a bit young for most of the tasters, I really loved it: the midpalate was never-ending and full of substance, followed by a huge finish, I’m glad I’ve tasted this wine in this stage; it has a very promising future. The Sassicaia 1998 was also fabulous, nobody identified it as Italy. Then came something very, very special, most likely the best wine of Spain and one of the best in the world: Vega Sicilia. My tasting note was very short: "this wine is made in heaven". I wonder if I will ever drink a better wine, I hope so of course, but it will be challenging to find such a wine. The Penfolds was a big surprise and showed that Australia can produce top level wine. I must admit that I was the only taster that didn’t like the Clos des Papes a lot, for me a bit young and I’m not a fan of the Rhône region, even blind (so no bias) it couldn’t convince me. The last bottle was fun, an extra entry to celebrate "soon becoming a dad" from one of the tasters and the Reignac approached the quality of the 3- to 7-times more expensive bottles.

I’m very pleased and grateful that I’ve found a wonderful group of tasters that helped me to achieve my goal and I’m looking forward to the third edition.

Congratulations Kris - these are two very memorable tastings and you and you peers worked hard to find some great bottles there. I'm looking forward to hearing what you and your new wine buddies drink next! Well done - Chris.

Wine in Context moments don't have to concern only great or expensive wines to qualify, it's the context that I'm looking for! So send me your best wine moments of 2011, and I will post them online (I am assuming your consent for that!). Email them to me here.