{"id":565,"date":"2017-05-02T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2017-05-02T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T01:38:09","slug":"the-100-point-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=565","title":{"rendered":"The 100-Point Taste"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we go wine tasting, we tend to visit the better wineries in the regions we visit.\u00a0 What\u2019s the point of travelling such long distances just to sample the ordinary wines we might find at a store back home?\u00a0 But even the best wineries are reluctant to open bottles of their most expensive, rarest wines for casual visitors, and we are not accustomed to buying the highest priced bottles. So we hardly ever get to taste the wines with top scores granted by Wine Spectator<\/em>, Wine Advocate<\/em>, or Wine Enthusiast<\/em>, and certainly nothing rated 100.\u00a0 So here\u2019s how we got to try a 100-point wine.<\/p>\n

In 2002, we were visiting Bordeaux at the vendange<\/em>, or harvest time. Wine tasting there is a lot different than Americans are used to.\u00a0 We may be used to names that are Chateau This-or-That, but in Bordeaux the famous wines are really grown in the estates surrounding actual castles.\u00a0 They do offer tastings, but not to just anyone who happens to be driving by.\u00a0 There are \u201cappointment only\u201d wineries in the US, but if they have an opening, most will accommodate the casual visitor.\u00a0 Not so in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

So if you plan to visit, make appointments months in advance or use a broker.\u00a0 These brokers charge a hefty fee just to get you into the best-known chateaux.\u00a0 We used one on our trip, and she spread out our visits around the region: Macon one day, St. Emilion the next and then Sauternes.\u00a0 The latter is probably the world\u2019s best known producer of dessert wines, named after the village of Sauternes.\u00a0 What most people don\u2019t know is that there is only one winery, Guiraud, that is actually in the village.\u00a0 The others are in the outskirts or in another nearby village, Barsac.\u00a0 Even with France\u2019s strict appellation rules, wines from Barsac are allowed to use the name Sauternes.<\/p>\n

After a memorable lunch at a relais<\/em> in the village, we pulled up to a winery in Barsac named Doisy Daene, where the broker had arranged a tasting.\u00a0 This was no grand castle, but a working facility.\u00a0 \u201cOkay\u201d, we thought, \u201cwe have an appointment so let\u2019s go in\u201d.\u00a0 There was only one person in the winery, a rather elderly gentleman.\u00a0 We introduced ourselves and he immediately recognized Lucie\u2019s Quebecois accent.\u00a0 \u201cNous adorons votre accent<\/em>\u201d, he told her (We adore your accent).\u00a0 This was amusing because the French are usually rather proprietary about their accents, so Lucie was pleased to hear him say it.<\/p>\n

It worked out that he was the former winemaker, now retired, and he was filling in for his son, the current winemaker that afternoon.\u00a0 He took us for a tour and let us try some white table wine right out of a fermenting tank.\u00a0 Because it was the harvest, the grapes had been pressed only a few days previously.\u00a0 It was horrible, and we two visitors looked at each other disappointedly.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t visited Bordeaux to drink lousy white wine.<\/p>\n

Then he took us into a small room to sample what we had come for, their dessert wine.\u00a0 This was no tasting room, just a little office off the barrel room.\u00a0 First he offered us a 2000, which was very good but still a bit young.\u00a0 Then he poured some Sauternes from the 1990 harvest, known to be a millesime<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 This was a really excellent wine, amber in color, round in the mouth, deliciously sweet.\u00a0 Finally he opened a little refrigerator and took out an unlabeled half bottle, with no cork but a piece of aluminum foil on top. \u00a0This was the as yet unreleased, unbottled 2001, just a year from its harvest.\u00a0 He told us that he was offering us this special treat parce que vous <\/em>\u00eates Canadienne<\/em> (because you\u2019re a Canadian girl), with what might have been a wink at Lucie.<\/p>\n

With the first sip, fireworks went off in our mouths.\u00a0 This was the most magnificent Sauternes, in fact any dessert wine, we\u2019d ever tasted.\u00a0 (It still is.)\u00a0 We wanted to buy some, but since it wasn\u2019t even in bottles yet, how would we get it home?\u00a0 Sadly, we let the opportunity slip.<\/p>\n

As you might have guessed, when the wine was released a year later, Wine Spectator<\/em> gave it 100 points.\u00a0 You never know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we go wine tasting, we tend to visit the better wineries in the regions we visit.\u00a0 What\u2019s the point of travelling such long distances just to sample the ordinary wines we might find at a store back home?\u00a0 But even the best wineries are reluctant to open bottles of their most expensive, rarest wines … Continue reading The 100-Point Taste<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}