03.18.08 /RGWD 2003 Le Cigare Volant

To close out the evening, we had one of Randall's signature wines, Le Cigare Volant, of the famed 2003 vintage. He said it was his homage to Chauteauneuf de Pape with a 5 grapes blend of Grenache, Mouvedre, Syrah, Cinsault and one other grape. I did not like this wine as much as everyone else seemed to moon over it. I found it to be a little acidic and featured a lot of sweet cherry and pine flavours. I did not order any for the restaurant, even though our sales person really wanted us to put it on our list.

9.14.07/ 2003 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape and 2003 Domaine Tempier Le Tourtine

Ugh, what a horrible experience tasting this wine. Colman brought the bottle and was very pumped to open it (that is him in the picture marveling at how bad it was). The Donjon is one of the classic examples of CdP but this showed very poorly. It was disgustingly sweet - almost as if it had been cooked. Mealy in the mouth and just plain awful. The nose was outstanding though.

Colman claimed that 2003 had just been an off year for Southern Rhone but even in a bad year, a good producer can make a fine wine. To prove my point, I grabbed a bottle of 2003 Dom. Tempier Le Tourtine - a single vineyard Mouvedre/Cinsault blend - and cracked it. It was fragrant and tannic. We decanted it for about 45 mins (drank a different wine) then came back and it was heavenly compared to the Donjon. Possibly too young, but it was our sample bottle, so we had to try it for the list!

Still tannic, but mellowed into dry dark fruit, notes of dried apricot, roasted plum, not juicy but delish.

4 of 5 glasses!

10.16 TNS 2005 Rhone Tasting

Looking at my last posts, all you would think I drink are Itals! There was a monthly tradition started by the Fountainhead guys and their friends about seven or eight years back called TNS - Tuesday Night Sappers. Jamie and I joined about 5 years ago and hosted at BONDA - cooking up sausages that Mark would get from Philly, broccoli rabe, peppers and onions, etc... Good grub and fantastic wines. About 10 - 15 of us, all into wine or in the industry.

Last Tuesday was the first TNS in a little over a year and we featured 2005 Chateaunuf-de-Papes and Southern Rhones. About 12 people showed, with four or five newbies as most of the old timers dropped out at the last minute. Mark organized it in Fat Cat Joe - the coffee house adjacent to the Fat Cat Pizza Pie company - since Jamie was busy and didn't want to attend, plus I did not want the responsibiliy at the restuarant by myself.

It was a fun crowd, however the wines pretty much all sucked. Unfortunately I cannot find my notes, but I will look for them to add to this post. 11 wines in total - the Vieux de Telegraph, which is always one of my favorites, was corked. Will fill you in on the rest once I find the notes. Hopefully they are not in the wash!