When the slow smoked steak was ready, my husband opened up this 1995 Ridge Montebello. It is now 20 years old and the label on the Montebello says that now will be the appropriate time to drink this wine.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
1995 Ridge Montebello
Our friends are safely home from an 11 week journey down under! We invited them over for dinner and they shared with us another one of their 2009 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes. My husband made a very slow smoked filet mignon on our grill. It took 2 hours. While we were waiting for the steaks, we sipped the wonderful Burgundy with Les Clarines and aged manchengo and listened to tales of white water rafting and Tasmanian devils.
When the slow smoked steak was ready, my husband opened up this 1995 Ridge Montebello. It is now 20 years old and the label on the Montebello says that now will be the appropriate time to drink this wine.
The wine is a blend of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc from the Santa Cruz mountains. Some of us smelled aromas of a nice Cuban cigar mated with red raspberries and sour cherries. Still holding on to it's fruit but with perfectly mellow tannins, it was the perfect foil for the filet mignon that was smoked to a cuts-like-butter perfection.
When the slow smoked steak was ready, my husband opened up this 1995 Ridge Montebello. It is now 20 years old and the label on the Montebello says that now will be the appropriate time to drink this wine.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Recapping Our 2015 Season
Today, I spent a little time compiling a few of the shots that we took over the 2015 season. This was the first season that we had bloom! Along with our first bloom, we had fruit set and then our first harvest. I thought that it would be cool to put it all together so that years from now, we could look at our first harvest and have a few chuckles.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Shipwrecked Champagne Update
Since we are still within shouting distance of the New Year, I thought I would blog about Champagne.
Back when I was taking the U.C. Davis online certification course in viticulture and enology, we learned about a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea that contained what this July 2010 article in The Guardian was calling Champagne found at sea turns out to be world's oldest vintage. The champagne was thought to be from 1780 so the class had a lively discussion about whether the champagne would be any good at all. The divers that found this stash tasted their booty and found it to be "sweet, tobacco and oaky tasting".1
A follow up article published in The New York Times mentioned that the cargo numbered 172 bottles of Champagne, four were broken, but 168 others were intact.2
On May 30, 2012 the SHIPWRECKED CHAMPAGNE IN HISTORIC TASTING was reported by the Drinks Business. This article clarified that there were 145 bottles retrieved from it's watery storage. All the champagnes were tasted by expert tasters, and of the 145 bottles, 79 were assessed as “drinkable” and re-corked. 3
The branded engravings on the corks revealed that the champagne came from the houses of Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin, Heidsieck and Juglar (later known as Jacquesson).4
On April 20, 2015, The Los Angeles Times provided an update on the sunken Champagne in an article called 170-year-old shipwrecked champagne much like bubbly today, study finds. Professor Philippe Jeandet and his colleagues at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France published the results of their analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. They compared the chemistry of three samples from the shipwrecked champagne, which is believed to have been produced around 1840 or 1841, with three samples of modern Veuve Clicquot from 1955, 1980 and 2011.5 The research team found the Baltic wine had 140 grams of sugar per liter. In contrast, only about six to eight grams per liter are found in champagne today. Put in perspective, a one liter bottle of modern popular cola contains approximately 108 grams of sugar. The bottles also contained ‘unexpectedly high’ levels of iron and copper likely originating from copper sulfate, which was used to protect vines against fungal diseases.4
I suppose if you like cola, you would like these 170 year old still drinkable champagnes!
References:
1. The Guardian, Champagne found at sea turns out to be world's oldest vintage, July, 2010.
2. The New York Times, Buried Treasure in Baltic Has Vintage Taste, DEC. 14, 2010.
3. the Drinks Business, SHIPWRECKED CHAMPAGNE IN HISTORIC TASTING.
4. Ancient Origins, Sunken Treasure: Scientists Taste 170-Year-Old Champagne Found in Shipwreck, April 21, 2015.
5. The Los Angeles Times, 170-year-old shipwrecked champagne much like bubbly today, study finds, April 20, 2015.
A follow up article published in The New York Times mentioned that the cargo numbered 172 bottles of Champagne, four were broken, but 168 others were intact.2
On May 30, 2012 the SHIPWRECKED CHAMPAGNE IN HISTORIC TASTING was reported by the Drinks Business. This article clarified that there were 145 bottles retrieved from it's watery storage. All the champagnes were tasted by expert tasters, and of the 145 bottles, 79 were assessed as “drinkable” and re-corked. 3
On April 20, 2015, The Los Angeles Times provided an update on the sunken Champagne in an article called 170-year-old shipwrecked champagne much like bubbly today, study finds. Professor Philippe Jeandet and his colleagues at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France published the results of their analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. They compared the chemistry of three samples from the shipwrecked champagne, which is believed to have been produced around 1840 or 1841, with three samples of modern Veuve Clicquot from 1955, 1980 and 2011.5 The research team found the Baltic wine had 140 grams of sugar per liter. In contrast, only about six to eight grams per liter are found in champagne today. Put in perspective, a one liter bottle of modern popular cola contains approximately 108 grams of sugar. The bottles also contained ‘unexpectedly high’ levels of iron and copper likely originating from copper sulfate, which was used to protect vines against fungal diseases.4
I suppose if you like cola, you would like these 170 year old still drinkable champagnes!
References:
1. The Guardian, Champagne found at sea turns out to be world's oldest vintage, July, 2010.
2. The New York Times, Buried Treasure in Baltic Has Vintage Taste, DEC. 14, 2010.
3. the Drinks Business, SHIPWRECKED CHAMPAGNE IN HISTORIC TASTING.
4. Ancient Origins, Sunken Treasure: Scientists Taste 170-Year-Old Champagne Found in Shipwreck, April 21, 2015.
5. The Los Angeles Times, 170-year-old shipwrecked champagne much like bubbly today, study finds, April 20, 2015.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
2013 Guiberteau Samur
We paid $28.00 for this wine and it turns out that we were really fortunate to be able to get this wine because it is highly sought after. Domaine Guiberteau makes wines from Chenin blanc and Cabernet franc. Romain Guibert is the winemaker.
References:
1. Candid Wines Domaine Guiberteau.
We are home bound today, waiting for storm Jonas to pass. This reminded me of the snow storm that we had in 2015 which I blogged about as: Champagne to Weather an Epic Snowstorm on January 28, 2015.
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