Thirty years ago at a trattoria on the isle of Capri, Bill Ward had a lusty homemade red that rocked his world. Ever since this "so that's what wine's all about" moment, he has been seeking similar experiences, always aiming to approach wine with an innocent eye. He's been writing about travel, food and wine for more than a decade and won a James Beard Award in 2004 for a series on Italian regional cuisine. His column, Liquid Assets, runs every Thursday in Taste.
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Cork dorks
OK, so when a group of guys get together to sample 15 big ol’ reds made with Rhone grapes, including three 100-pointers and another that Parker rated 99+ (whatever that is), there are going to be a lotta oohs, aahs, wows and Homer Simpson yummy sounds.
So of course, the most admired item of the evening was …
A cork.
Pulled from a 10-year-old wine, the first vintage of Shafer Relentless, the cork was dark purple along the bottom – with no more than half a millimeter of color coming down the sides. No leakage whatsoever.
Must have been stored standing up, someone naysayingly noted. Nope, said the bottle’s owner, my friend Brian, who would be leaping way out of character if he had stored even an everyday wine that way for more than a few days.
For a wine geek, and most everyone there fits that description, it was a thing of beauty.
So were virtually all of the wines. The three "perfect" wines – a 2006 Charles Smith "Royal City" Washington State Syrah given 100 points by the Wine Enthusiast, and two Parker perfectos, a 2007 Saxum James Berry Vineyard blend (grenache, mourvedre and syrah) and a 2007 Domaine Pierre Usseglio Cuvee de Mon Aieul Chateauneuf-du-Pape – roared out of the gate and got even better as the hours raced along.
Parker is spot-on when he writes that the Saxum "would be an amazing wine to insert in a tasting of the most profound 2007 Chateauneuf du Papes," partially because it and they are so big and extracted, but also because the purity of fruit, balance and structure are similarly there in spades.
The 99+-er, a 2007 Clos des Papes CDP, did not show as well, but was a damn good wine. And yes, that is infanticide, but there has been some major bottle variation between the two ’07 Clos des Papes I have tried.
My friend Joe, who has bought a good bit of that wine, said he was "amazed by the lack of heat since it has been vivid in each of the other bottles" he has sampled, and pointed out that "Some have suggested big variation in Clos des Papes due to large production runs (100K bottles) and blending variation."
There were a couple of nice sleepers among the 15 wines we sampled. Dusted Valley’s 2005 "Stained Tooth" Syrah showed very well, especially considering it costs about a third as much as most of the other wines, with beautiful balance, great fruit and just enough oomph. And a syrah from Tuscany – the 2003 Isole & Olena Collezione De Marchi Toscana Syrah -- was a rustic beauty that got better with each sip.
All that high-alcohol wine, accompanied by fabulous cheese, some tasty appetizers and a weird, almost curryish chili I made – made for a raucous evening. Highlights included a spirited debate about whether Barbra Streisand or Otis Redding had more talent and the "oh no, you din’t" expressions on a couple of faces when I revealed that the chili had included some goat meat.
Among the best matches for that chili was the Relentless, which was vivid and vibrant and tasted almost as youthful as the ‘07s. Guess that shows what a good cork can do. :-)
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