This past Saturday night 12 of us met atPiperade in San Francisco to send John Ogelsby off in style for his new gig working forPali Wine Co. down in Santa Barbara. It’s been a real pleasure having John in the Bay Area, tasting with him and enjoying his culinary skills. You folks down in SBC are lucky to be getting him, and I know I speak for lots of us here in the Bay Area in wishing well and every success in this new Endeavour. Not to mention, everyone at the dinner now has a guaranteed Pali allocation, right John?

The meal was, in usually Piperade fashion, just fantastic, and I can think of no better forum for this sort of event that that great “family table” in the center of the restaurant. Great food, really great people, and, not surprisingly, no shortage of wine! Here are some brief notes:

2003 Aubert Chardonnay, Ritchie Vineyard (MAG)
Another great showing for this beautiful Chard., great minerality and spice, tropical fruit, terrific acidity, long fine finish.


2004 Donkey and Goat Chardonnay, Brosseau Vineyard
Steve R. has been raving about this wine, and now I see why! To my palate this gave the Aubert a run for the money. Terrific effusive nose of lemon curd, marzipan, spice, and lime. Great balance, vibrant and powerful on the palate, really outstanding.

2004 Linne Calado Contrarian
No detailed notes, just lush, ripe, rich, and very enjoyable.

1961 Serra dei Turchi Barolo, Cascina La Traversa, La Morra
My close runner up for WOTN, I absolutely loved this wine! And wow did it pair will with a rich salty ham appetizer. Very light red in color, just a bit darker than a Rose, the wine kicks off with a great nose, perfumed and fully mature, with soft red fruits, caramel, and roses. On the palate the tannins are fully resolved, and the wine has a wonderful mouthfeel with stunningly fresh acidity. Finish drops off short, but what a delight! And it didn’t fade one bit over the couple hours it was open. Wow!

1964 Santa Sofia Amarone
A bit of a disappointment compared to the ’61, but this was nonetheless quite enjoyable. The wine was very, very dark in color, and quite brown. It started off showing quite maderized, but interestingly that aspect faded as the wine got some air – due perhaps to the fruit emerging and overtaking those notes? In any case, notes of raisins and black fruits, still fairly dense fruit up front, but the wine falls short and hollow on the mid palate, but comes back at the end to make an intriguing and tasty finish. While I would not buy this particular wine again, it was interesting to taste, and by far the oldest Amarone I have ever had.

2003 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf Du Papes (MAG)
This was a pretty good showing for this wine, much better than my previous experience, but still didn’t live up to the high scores imo. Very ripe, the wine offers a full frontal attack of deep dense fruit. Lush and broad on the palate, smooth tannins, definitely a bit ‘hot’. If pressed, I’d offer a score in the 90-93 range.


1999 Pegau Chateauneuf du Papes, Cuvee Reservee
A much more classic example of CdP, I loved this wine. Offering up wonderful aromas of dark fruits, meat, earth, and dry herbs, fine ripe tannins on the palate, complex and complete, with a fine lingering finish.

2004 John Duval Plexus GSM
No detailed notes, but a very enjoyable wine that was very soft on the palate, with dense sweet fruit.

1998 Etude Pinot Noir (MAG)
A very nice showing for this wine, classic Pinot profile, with sweet red fruit, earth notes, a touch of cranberry. Not terribly complex, but one of the better examples of Carneros Pinot (of which I am generally not terribly fond of).

2004 PAX Syrah, Walker Vine Hill (MAG)
MEAT – and lots of it! This big syrah showed dense black fruit, but mostly meaty, bacon-ey notes. Packed, with big tannins, I think this wine needs some time, but I found it quite enjoyable at this young stage.

2001 Torbreck Descendants (MAG)
Wow, one of the top 3 wines of the night for me. Sadly I didn’t take any notes on this one, but it was a hellova wine, with tremendous depth and complexity, outstanding balance, and a terrific texture.


2005 Ladd Cellars Pinot Noir (barrel sample)
Our own Eric Lundblad’s own upcoming label, this was really yummy! Spicy, lush on the palate, surprisingly very light in color! Having tasted two components of this wine so far I can tell you, this is going to be a winner! Great job Eric!

2003 Ojai Syrah, Melville Vineyard
I failed to take even the most brief note on this wine, damnit!

2001 Karl Lawrence Cabernet, Herb Lamb Vineyard
My WOTN, THIS is what young California Cabernet is all about. I was stunned how open and approachable this wine was, I would have guessed it would be shut down hard and tannic as hell – not so! Stunning Cabernet perfume on the nose is followed on the palate with a wine of tremendous purity, grace, and power. Absolutely seamless, with deep cassis and blackberry notes, superfine tannins, layered and complex, with an endless finish. WOW.


1994 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Vendange Tardive
Again, no notes, but what a great wine! Mature, but certainly in no danger of fading, the wine is sweet and pure, but not overly sweet, and maintains wonderful acidity. Classic notes of lychee and spice, this was a great finish to a memorable meal.

Best wishes to John.

Dito!!!

Best wishes to John. Sounds like a good time!

Funny, the 2001 Karl Lawrence was my biggest disappointment of the night. I thought it was rather one-deminsional and a litttle sour. I took a mouthfull and after mulling it around I spit it back into the glass and dumped without a second thought. I was either not in a "cab mood" or I had picked up something spicey or sweet in my last bite of veal cheek.

My wotn was the Descendants. I'm not all that familiar with Shiraz but I keep hearing how sweet and jammy it is. This was anything but that. It was this wine that showed me the meaty grilled lamb but... that was only one component of many including lots of black stewed fruits all stirred up in a stew of road tar. This was the only "contemporary" bottle that ratttled my snicker that night. The three "old" bottles, although in my mind pretty flawed by time, were really exciting to snizzle. Just think... I've got something in my mouth that was picked dduring my first year of college probably by some little old Italian lady that worked in the fields during harvest and the rest of the year made lots of money making smokers (well, who knows? It's fun to dream).

The Pax dissappointed my also. Yes, there was lots of chewy steak but there was also a big green veggie component (albiet the veggies were grilled). Some of it has to be in my head though 'cause my mind is so averse to this whole-cluster deal. I've tasted lots of different wines with stem inclusion but have only found two winemakers who imo have done it right. It's called "phenolics"; it is as simple as that! Greeen stems taste greeen!

Man! How can these Aubert Chardonnays be so good? Yuuuuuuuummmmm!

David, what were your thought on the Donkey and Goat?

I agree the 64 was flawed by age (but still interesting), but I found the 61 to be classic - just well aged. All a matter of preference I suppose

The '61 and '64 were exciting to be able to drink! In my memory (no notes) I thought they were both somewhat maderized but certainly not to the point of making them "bad". I really don't remember which might have had more of the nutty flavor than the other. What I do remember was that one had a really wide meniscus that went from brick to clear. Usually an older wine like that would have a narrow meniscus and no part of it would be clear.

Is maderization a flaw? Maybe not. It is just something that comes with old age. I guess a flaw would be something wrong with it that happened before it went into bottle.

Please understand that I really enjoyed both wines alot! I am a fan of sherried stuff in both red and whites (including Champagnes).

The Donkey and Goat... I loved it. That chalky feeling that sometimes overwhelms Chalone wines was muted by the wonderful ripe pear taste. You have to understand though that I am prejudiced towards wines from the Brosseau Vineyard. I have been up and down those 35 acres of vines and just knowing that it is from Brosseau puts me in a positive frame of mind.

I haven't looked but is the stuff available for purchase? I have heard it is $40 a bottle i.e. not cheap. I'd like to taste it next to the current release ofGabilan Estate Chardonnay for $20.

Davidn, no worries - I didn't take your comments on the Italians as critisism , and even if you hated 'em, it's not like I made 'em! BTW, the one with the meniscus you mention was the '64 Amarone, the 61 was farily light red/dark pink in color and rather muddled (cloudy).

I figured you enjoyed the Donkey & Goat. Unfortunately I think you're right about the price, dunno about availability.

Glad to hear you loved our 04 Brosseau Chardonnay.

If you do a side by side tasting, I suggest you also include Jeff Fink's Tantara Brosseau Chardonnay as well Testarossa's Chardonnay (made, like Gabilan Estate, by Bill Brosseau). All four are very different yet the vineyard shines through on each one.

Each April the Brosseau's host a Chalone Appelation Tasting. Wonderful event and great place to try all of the wines made by those of us lucky enough to get fruit from the Brosseau Vineyard.