the greatest tasting of my life

[Ken Gargett]

greetings all. currently on the way home from a tasting in Helsinki. long way to go for a weekend tasting wine (and a very expensive trip) but it was truly extraordinary. at the moment, downtown Doha - should be home in about 36 hours. and what is happening in Doha today? bugger all, given it was 47 C (pushing 117 F) at 8 am. and yet i have idiot mates who still rail against the suggestion of climate change.

i can't do pics from here (John, i'm sure there will be lots which will need righting - as always, many thanks). 

a few highlights - 

for me, most of all, the 1807 Moet (same year they have drawings of Napoleon in their cellars). perhaps the most extraordinary wine of my life. worth the entire trip alone.

a few others - 

1727 Apostelwein Riesling (a much better bottle than one i had a few years ago)

Louis Roederer 1915 in magnum

Moet 1911

Krug 1929 (a take me now, lord wine)

Mumm Cordon Rouge 1893

around a dozen plus reds from the 1800s

Cheval Blanc 1929 - close to wine of the weekend. 

DRC Romanee Conti 1900

DRC Romanee Conti 1923

Yquem 1876

1907 Heidsieck Gout Americain - this is the famous champagne salvaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea. fourth time i have seen it and the best bottle of the lot. 

Cama de Lobes 1789 Madeira.

the second day was mostly judging the best wines from around 2012 to today, from all over ttheworld. just mindboggling.

we also had a session with Dirk Niepoort and his wines. 

if the plane breaks down, i might just float home.

will try and do some photos and details when i get a chance (but off to Fraser Island fishing when i get back so who knows when). 

 

[JohnS]

Look forward to helping with the photos Ken, when you can. Sounds like a great time! 👍

[westg]

Amazing KG 😎🌴

[SirVantes]

Necrophiliac! 

(Astounded and beyond envious)

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, SirVantes said:

Necrophiliac! 

(Astounded and beyond envious)

only if they were dead! and very, very few were. 

i prefer to think of myself as a scorched earth drinker. why the hell would we want to leave future generations these gems? have you met any of their representatives? red bull is too good for them. 

[SirVantes]

1 minute ago, Ken Gargett said:

only if they were dead! and very, very few were. 

i prefer to think of myself as a scorched earth drinker. why the hell would we want to leave future generations these gems? have you met any of their representatives? red bull is too good for them. 

Spoken like a confirmed bachelor 😂

[BrightonCorgi]

How many people were the wines split among?  Must've been something.  What did Dirk present for wines?

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, BrightonCorgi said:

How many people were the wines split among?  Must've been something.  What did Dirk present for wines?

14 to 16. couple of the guys not well for portions of it. 

dirk was part of the normal tasting for most of it - he and i and markus del monego and christer Byklum were the panel and then about ten others - collectors, a few winemakers, judges etc. no idea why i was on the panel. 

we saw a couple of dirk's colheitas during the main part - a white colheita 1968 and also the 1900. he apparently was going to do a port from back in the 1830s which was the very first wine his family ever made but the person with it got excited and drank it a few months ago. 

for the tasting, he did 6-8 of his table wines. don't have the notebook but the one which blew me away (and plenty of others) was his Coche. i have already sent his Aussie importer, who is a mate, a note to see if i can get some. 

[BrightonCorgi]

31 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

14 to 16. couple of the guys not well for portions of it. 

dirk was part of the normal tasting for most of it - he and i and markus del monego and christer Byklum were the panel and then about ten others - collectors, a few winemakers, judges etc. no idea why i was on the panel. 

we saw a couple of dirk's colheitas during the main part - a white colheita 1968 and also the 1900. he apparently was going to do a port from back in the 1830s which was the very first wine his family ever made but the person with it got excited and drank it a few months ago. 

for the tasting, he did 6-8 of his table wines. don't have the notebook but the one which blew me away (and plenty of others) was his Coche. i have already sent his Aussie importer, who is a mate, a note to see if i can get some. 

The 1900 Colheita is well known and special.  Surprised he did not bring a Garrafeira.

 

Coche is the best white wine from Portugal I have ever tried.  Truly amazing stuff.

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

14 to 16. couple of the guys not well for portions of it. 

dirk was part of the normal tasting for most of it - he and i and markus del monego and christer Byklum were the panel and then about ten others - collectors, a few winemakers, judges etc. no idea why i was on the panel. 

we saw a couple of dirk's colheitas during the main part - a white colheita 1968 and also the 1900. he apparently was going to do a port from back in the 1830s which was the very first wine his family ever made but the person with it got excited and drank it a few months ago. 

for the tasting, he did 6-8 of his table wines. don't have the notebook but the one which blew me away (and plenty of others) was his Coche. i have already sent his Aussie importer, who is a mate, a note to see if i can get some. 

Dirk is a very talented winemaker. He’s helping put Duoro dry wines on the map, and his 2017 is certainly the best vintage port I’ve tried from this century. 

Some of those bottles are eyebrow raisers, particularly the Krug and DRC - who was the source? Did they share the provenance?

[benfica_77]

Ken your liver is going to be in a jar at a museum for processing the finest and most expensive alcohol of the world. 

 

Looking forward to pictures. Sounds like a great trip. 

[Puros Y Vino]

Wow.  I'd be happy with 1 ounce from any of those listed.  In terms of this tasting, how much was each participant poured?

[El Hoze]

Wow! 

[Drguano]

With wines of this caliber, do you spit or swallow? (Let the record show that I made no comparison to the worlds oldest profession...oh wait...)

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Drguano said:

With wines of this caliber, do you spit or swallow? (Let the record show that I made no comparison to the worlds oldest profession...oh wait...)

If I served someone any of those wines and they spit, I would dump the bucket on their head and tell them to get the hell out!

[Ken Gargett]

On 8/30/2023 at 1:41 AM, BrightonCorgi said:

The 1900 Colheita is well known and special.  Surprised he did not bring a Garrafeira.

 

Coche is the best white wine from Portugal I have ever tried.  Truly amazing stuff.

agree with that. i had seen the 1900 before. the coche streets ahead as the best Portuguese white i have seen. first thing i did was send an email to a friend who is his importer but he only gets a tiny allocation and just sold out. i put my name down for next year. 

On 8/30/2023 at 2:22 AM, MrBirdman said:

Dirk is a very talented winemaker. He’s helping put Duoro dry wines on the map, and his 2017 is certainly the best vintage port I’ve tried from this century. 

Some of those bottles are eyebrow raisers, particularly the Krug and DRC - who was the source? Did they share the provenance?

naturally, widely discussed. there were people there very familiar with rodenstock and had seen many of his wines (which were, apparently, normally extremely good - rudi not so much). he was fairly certain that none of this tasting were fakes. most he has had for quite a few decades. he was not giving out the exact sources, though we have talked about them before. i have seen old DRC from him before - a 29 Romanee Conti which remains the greatest wine i have ever seen, which i believe came from the same sources. always thought that if you could make a fake that good then the wine industry is stuffed. if the fakers can do better than winemakers, then bring on the fakers!!

it would be fairly difficult to fake old champagne with all that was involved.

he has been putting on these tastings for a long time and has seen his share of fakes (he was telling me he reckons he has seen around 300 fakes) so he would be more in tune than most. 

i guess bottom line is that it is very difficult to be 100% certain whenever you have famous old wines, but these were clean, to the best of his knowledge. 

On 8/30/2023 at 5:11 AM, MrBirdman said:

If I served someone any of those wines and they spit, I would dump the bucket on their head and tell them to get the hell out!

there were certainly plenty marked DNS - do not spit. but if you are doing over 100 wines. have not counted but i think we were doing 130 or perhaps more over a couple of days (all bar half a dozen over two days), if you do not spit some, then you are simply not going to be compos for a lot of them. for tastings like this, no one has any issue with spitting. in fact, they might if you didn't. if we were looking at 3-4 or a small number, different thing. 

[Reachcast68]

Amazing.  Thanks for the notes!

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

there were certainly plenty marked DNS - do not spit. but if you are doing over 100 wines. have not counted but i think we were doing 130 or perhaps more over a couple of days (all bar half a dozen over two days), if you do not spit some, then you are simply not going to be compos for a lot of them. for tastings like this, no one has any issue with spitting. in fact, they might if you didn't. if we were looking at 3-4 or a small number, different thing. 

Ok but did you spit any of the wines you listed in your post?

[Bill Hayes]

How was the Yquem @Ken Gargett? Such an old bottle would be amazing just to see it opened, let alone try it. Was it very dark and more rich caramel? Cheers.

[Ken Gargett]

6 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

Ok but did you spit any of the wines you listed in your post?

i don't think so from memory, although to also answer Bill at the same time, the 1876 was good, not great, and it was next to the 1918 Yquem which was spectacular. most wines were served blind so we did not know what we had when tasting, one of the advantages is that if you are swallowing some, you really focus on the good ones and not just the names. 

[GVan]

Ken, awesome experience for an awesome guy!  Amazing and humbling to know that some wines can really last that long and still be "spectacular".  Do they ever discuss storage conditions when serving these wines -- or is it all very secret?

[BrightonCorgi]

Would be curious to try pre-war Champagne.  I don't recall ever having a bottle that old.  Were they more a demi-sec style rather than brut style of today?  Any bubbles left or did they die out 10 minutes into the glass?

[Ken Gargett]

18 hours ago, GVan said:

Ken, awesome experience for an awesome guy!  Amazing and humbling to know that some wines can really last that long and still be "spectacular".  Do they ever discuss storage conditions when serving these wines -- or is it all very secret?

no secret. my friend has an excellent cellar/s. i think he keeps them at 13C, though i could be a degree or two out either way. he keeps young wines at room temp as that is his preference. uses several wine fridges for really old stuff. 

 

18 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Would be curious to try pre-war Champagne.  I don't recall ever having a bottle that old.  Were they more a demi-sec style rather than brut style of today?  Any bubbles left or did they die out 10 minutes into the glass?

fascinating stuff and apols for such a brief reply. rushing to pack for fishing. will get on to all this when back. you never find much by way of bubbles or as you say, they do not last. one exception, one of the first 1907 Baltic champagnes i saw bubbled and foamed out of the bottle like a brand new NV, but that is the exception. the other three all performed as you'd expect for that age.

the 1807 certainly had lovely sweetness. as was the style then. served blind, most picked it as an old but very good Vouvray or Sauternes, though no one got within 100 years. the others were largely after the move to drier styles. again the exception was the 1907 Heidsieck from the Baltic which was 'Gout Americain' and so a little sweeter. that was what they perceived the American palate wanted at the time. 

more in a week. 

[BoliDan]

Aww no pictures? Would have loved to see those bottles. Did any of them still have labels?

[Ken Gargett]

On 9/1/2023 at 11:45 AM, BoliDan said:

Aww no pictures? Would have loved to see those bottles. Did any of them still have labels?

you'll get them. i'm on fraser island at the moment, supposedly fishing but actually coughing up whatever gunk some tosser shared with us all on the planes, and have been all week so will get to it over the next week or so.

and yes, almost all had labels.