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Subject: Large Bordeaux Tasting @ Wally's 1/20/07

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pizinah

Barrel Filler
Posts:1313

12/12/2006 2:36 AM
UGC Tasting Not the free UGC trade event, but for $59 a pretty impressive lineup of '03 and '04 Bordeaux.

tanglenet

Oakland, California

Wine Bottler
Posts:3216

12/13/2006 3:00 AM
Looks great. I'm tempted to fly down for this. Have you ever been to one? I'm curious if it is a free for all and they run out of some wines, or is it a more civilized event?

TN posted on Cellartracker "I drink no more than a sponge." François Rabelais www.tanglenet.com

pizinah

Barrel Filler
Posts:1313

12/13/2006 4:44 PM
Quote: Looks great. I'm tempted to fly down for this. Have you ever been to one? I'm curious if it is a free for all and they run out of some wines, or is it a more civilized event? I've never been to a UGC trade tasting, so I can't say how well those are organized. I have been to a number of large tasting events at Wally's and while they've been a bit of a free for all there's generally been plenty of wine to go around (e.g., Manfred Krankl has attended Wally's summer Central Coast benefit a couple times, personally pouring SQN for hours, and didn't run out). I would imagine that certain tables at the UGC tasting -- e.g., Pape Clement, Angelus, Pavie, Pavie Decesse, Cheval Blanc, Troplong Mondot, L'Evangile, Lascombes, the Leovilles, Mouton, Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande, d'Yquem, Climens, Suduiraut -- will be more popular than others, and that it could get pretty crowded and hectic trying to taste those wines. I would think the event will be pretty crowded, as it's a great price for such an impressive line-up. For me it's a no-brainer, as I live 15 minutes from Wally's. I'll go assuming there will be few wines I want to taste that I won't be able to for whatever reason -- I'm sure I'll still get to try a lot of great stuff.

tanglenet

Oakland, California

Wine Bottler
Posts:3216

01/26/2007 12:21 AM
pizinah, Did you go?

TN posted on Cellartracker "I drink no more than a sponge." François Rabelais www.tanglenet.com

pizinah

Barrel Filler
Posts:1313

01/29/2007 3:08 AM
Yup, had a great time. One disappointment was that some of the "heavy hitters" (d'Yquem, Climens, Mouton, Cheval Blanc, Pavie, Pavie Decesse, Leoville Barton and L'Evangile) Wally's had heavily promoted as attending the event didn't show up. I also found I wasn't as impressed across the board with the '03 vintage as I expected to be, and '04 didn't blow me away either. A lot of the reds were closed down and not showing that well -- I liked '03 Poyferre (though not as impressive as the hype), '03 and '04 Pichon Baron, and '03 Pavie Macquin was nice... I really liked '03 Smith Haut Lafitte, which I'd had a number of times before -- very nice wine, beautiful fruit (ususually fruity for a P-L). Larcis Ducasse, Canon La Gaffeliere, Kirwan and Pontet Canet all showed well too. Angelus (another I had looked forward to) was pretty closed up and not showing optimally. However, it was still a fantastic tasting. For $59 there were perhaps 75 chateau pouring their wines from both vintages. I'd never been to a UGC tasting before (usually they're for the trade only) and I'd pay $59 (heck $100) to go to this event every year, even with some signficant no-shows. There were unlimited pours of virtually every wine, so we could come back and revisit what most interested us. The most enjoyable aspect of the tasting for me was comparing '03 and '04 sauternes. Iposted separately about this already -- the '03s, while incredibly rich and decadent, came across as a bit heavy and ponderous, while several of the '04s (especially La Tour Blanche, Coutet and Suduiraut) were absolutely delicious (somewhat of a surprise as the vintage ratings for '04 sauternes have been pretty poor - e.g., Parker's vintage rating is 82 pts vs. 95 pts for '03...). All in all a great event for the price (and 15 minutes from my house, which made the decision easy).

tanglenet

Oakland, California

Wine Bottler
Posts:3216

01/29/2007 5:24 AM
Thanks for the report. Glad you had a great time! Wish I could have made it.

TN posted on Cellartracker "I drink no more than a sponge." François Rabelais www.tanglenet.com

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