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sat in with an established tasting group that was sampling 2002 White Burgundy this month. After all had arrived at the home of Loren Sonkin, the wines were bagged, had their corks pulled, and in a short while were poured. This group employs 8 glasses per person so that all wines can be sampled and revisited in the same interval. There are plenty of stems on the table, but it really is a nicer way to examine the wines versus a number of different flights.

Starter Wine -- This sparkler seemed pretty obviously a Champagne, and a very good one at that. There was a steady stream of small bubbles darting through lightly copper toned wine. It has a very smooth mouth feel, and good weight from front to back. It had a lightly sherried quality about it, but not to its detriment... interesting really. Toast and notes of roasted nuts, match stick and lime zest; it seems somewhat mature. It is delicious as well as engaging.

NV Krug Champagne (purchased from Premier Cru in 2003, but there was not a clear idea as to when it was bottled). Find this wine

On to themed wines of the night . .

A -- Lighter wooden notes become more prominent with time -- smoke and toast. Roasted apples and bright lemon are major features on both the nose and in the mouth. Juicy, full force fruit meets some balancing acid in the center...light earthy tones as it closes.

This was the group's overwhelming favorite -- 4 first place votes, 3 seconds, and my third place tally. It was quite good, but I found the smoke, etc. notes a bit distracting.

2002 Vincent Girardin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrieres Find this wine

B -- This wine has a higher tone and a more multifaceted olfactory presentation -- guava, pineapple, anise, powdered stone and beeswax. It had a lovely glasslike texture and a smooth, elegant mouth feel energized with acid, but finely balanced throughout. Peach, dried herb, and a nice assortment of stone are all well received on the palate, but some late arriving smoke and char slightly distract from an otherwise delicious sip.

This was my choice for #1. It was well thought of by the other tasters, too.

2002 Vincent Girardin Corton Charlemagne Find this wine

C -- It was initially "clean and fresh," but rapidly adopted a popsicle stick persona and fragrance....lanolin and cola, as well. Tropical flavors persist, but they do not overwhelm leaving room for tart apple, herb and stones. I wanted to call it soft, but over the long haul it was reasonable in its structure. Largely it was uninteresting...not bad, just not that compelling. It does not seem especially reluctant or closed -- an hour and a half in the glass offered little change.

2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru Find this wine


D -- This wine had the most fruit filled bouquet -- "grapey," passion fruit and lime. Tomato skin and chalk eventually round out the nose. The initial flavors feature crisp apple and zingy lemon, but these seem to lose intensity through the center. It seems rather dilute to me for one interval, but than began to fill out a bit more with time steadily adding more minerals. It seemed like a Chablis to me.

2002 La Chablisienne Chablis 1er Cru Grande Cuvee Find this wine

E -- The nose was shy at first...seeming too cold. With time, it was chock full of stones, apple and lime. It has a good heft in the mouth and features both sweet and sour fruit flavors up front...more juicy and round at the center...then turning more lean, but focused at the close. This was easily the "most mineral" award winner of the night. I liked it very much...had I waited just a bit longer before offering my ballot, I think this would have been in first position, rather than the second slot I assigned it. It is a truly excellent wine.

2002 Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru La Forest Find this wine


F -- At first the nose seemed like freshly turned dirt, but in moments it took on a "shaved wood" persona that was there to stay. In general it was reserved, even having our friend Ken Bement wondering if it may be afflicted by a touch of TCA. Where I could understand this notion being introduced, I never saw it fully manifested. The flavors were better -- ripe cantaloupe persisted through the center...more green apple and slate at the close. Many seemed to actively dislike the wine, but it inspired no great emotion for me in either direction.

2002 Jean Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume Find this wine


G -- I found this very high toned, with a penetrating chemical edge. This sensation persisted for the entire time in the glass, to the point of creating a piercing sensation in my sinuses. Talking it over to my favorite Wine Scientist, Roland Riesen, he guessed that it might be a sensitivity to SO2...perhaps unique to me at the table, as nobody else seemed bothered. The piercing aside, there were many unique scents -- "pink urinal cake," lemon zest, green apple, and pine branches. It is somewhat soft, though also pleasantly smooth. The palate featured lots of green apple, just a bit of stone and lightly toasted wood. This was much better received by the others at the table.

2002 Vincent Giradin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Truffiere Find this wine


H -- This was another high toned wine, but more along the lines of volatile acidity
(VA). It is both floral and ammoniated...some intense tropical notes, then a little nail polish remover essence to wrap things up. The VA problems aside, it showed nice citrus character on the palate, seeming both sweet and tart at varying intervals. It was picked at the bottom of just about everyone's score card for this bottle's obvious flaw.

2002 Jean Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Mineral Find this wine

A few dessert wines -- also served blind.

Dessert #1 -- This seemed like a young Sauternes, but not an especially dense or "serious" model. It features apricot and orange fragrances, with just a hint of vinyl as it trails off. Some thought this might be a Rieussec because of its very sweet, candied quality, but I did not think it had the weight or density to fit the bill. Some thought it lacked acid, but I thought it had enough to maintain order. It achieves no heights of excellence, but it is a fun sip. When it was stripped of its bag, we learned it was about $30 for a 750ml...as Sauternes goes, that seemed fairly reasonable as to its quality.

2002 Chateau Doisy-Vedrines Sauternes Find this wine


Dessert #2 -- This was a wine of a different color -- brown. It had an attractive, lightly sherried nose offering lots of caramel, roasted nuts and milk chocolate...a touch of shoe polish and smoke, too. Loren called it a "Snicker's bar." Where some might bristle at the descriptor, I found it quite apt. Once sipped, an initial bit of dark chocolate is replaced with a significant wash of alcoholic heat. This was served with a "musician's tart" that had plenty of dried fruit and caramel. It turned out to be a fine match as the sweet fruit filled the void that the alcohol left in its wake, as well as tempering the late burn. An interesting wine to be sure, even if the alcohol (listed at 20% alc.) was a bit much for me.

1938 Moreira Colheita Porto Find this wine

LM

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