2001 Domaine Roger Sabon, Le Secret des Sabon

Six years ago, I visited one of my favorite wine
producers in the world, Domaine Roger Sabon, in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, in the southern
Rhone.
The consulting winemaker to this property, Alain
Benquet, who is a longtime friend, secured the tasting appointment for me with
owner, Jean Jacques Sabon, who has since deceased.
Backgrounder about this wine
Robert Parker scored the 2001 vintage of Roger Sabon’s
top cuvee, Le Secret des Sabon, a
perfect 100 points on every occasion he has tasted it.
I have been fortunate to experience this wine on
several occasions.
In 2004, at a business dinner, I ordered this
wine at The French Laundry, in Yountville, and rated it 100 points. It was a
perfect wine.
In 2006, I tasted it again, this time with Jean
Jacques, the owner, and with Alain, who made it, at the winery and again, it
was a perfect 100-point wine.

And now, six years later, last night, I opened
my only cellared bottle (which I purchased at the winery) and it was as
impressive, still easily a 100-point wine. Maybe more.
The wine exhibits a core of very ripe, black
fruit, predominantly black cherry and blackberries. There is a backfill of
grilled steak flavors, with a faint echo of white birch sap. (Trust me - it's
there.)
There is more than wine in this bottle; upon
pouring, one senses an essence, a spirit of wine, which is more than just juice.
Thrilling, complex, complete.
1990 Vieux Donjon

I enjoyed this bottle with Stefan Blicker, of BPWines, St.
Helena, who brought the 22-year-old Chateauneuf-du-Pape to lunch at one of my
favorite local restaurants, Market.
I’d had 12 bottles of the 1990 vintage from a case I’d
bought as a pre-arrival and everyone of the bottles from that case was a
perfect 100-point wine.
I asked Stefan to share his only bottle of the 1990 Donjon,
acquired with the contents of a wine cellar purchased from a California collector,
with me. It was, like the 12 bottles before it, a perfect 100-pointer. And one
of my best wine experiences of the year.
We paired it with the immaculate pepper-crusted filet
(served with truffled shoestring French fries), on the small plates list at
Market.
The wine, upon being opened, exhibited scents of cedar,
white truffles, anise seed, garrigue, licorice, herbes de provence, and kirsch.
Earlier in the year, I devoted an entire story to this one
bottle of wine. Go to:
http://www.napaman.com/napamancom/2012/05/how-can-a-wine-be-this-good-13-times-.html
2003 Domaine
Serene, Grace Vineyard

I have long been a fan of the sensational, fleshy but balanced,
Pinot Noirs coming out of the Willamette Valley, in Oregon.
These are my Go To Pinots when I want freshness, balance,
food friendliness, and no fear that I’m going to find over-zealous alcohol or
wood (a failure of too many California Pinot Noirs) or hints of dirty barrels
and tired winemaking (too many Burgundies).
Of all the Willamette houses producing Pinot Noir, the ones
I treasure the most are Domaine Serene, and Arterberry Maresh.
In June, served at home with Carol’s perfectly broiled,
center-cut filets of fresh Atlantic salmon, I opened an eight-year-old Domaine
Serene classic, the 2003 Grace Vineyard Pinot Noir.
It was still young, gorgeously balanced, filled with fresh
and candied versions of black cherry, gobs of sweet, ripe red cherry and the
alcohol and wood elements were so integrated, they were unnoticeable.
Quite a wine. Easily a 98-point experience. Nice work, Serenistes!
2006 Arterberry
Maresh Pinot Noir, White Rose Vineyard.

This wine was one of my top wines of 2008, and I thought
that was the end of the accolades.
Then, in July of this year, I opened my last bottle from a
case I had bought and, as every bottle before, it was a perfect, unctuous,
syrupy rich, delicious, wholly balanced, Willamette Pinot Noir.
I said the following about this wine four years ago, and
every word I wrote about it then, is still true today:
“I could write a
sonnet, a book, an encyclopedia about my love for this extravagant, balanced,
elegant, mature, brilliant Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
I have now opened and
shared many bottles from the case and every one gets a forehead-slapping, “I
can’t believe how good this wine is!” comment from Napa Valley winemakers, and
knowledgeable sommeliers for whom I have poured it.
The Dinner,
Wine-tasting and Social Event of the Year,
featuring three of
the year’s very best wines

Barry and Patricia
Brown, my Toronto dinner hosts
What they served with an exquisite home-cooked dinner:
1944 Marques de Murrieta, Ygay (white)
1935 Marques de
Murrieta, Ygay, Carta Blanca (red)
Imperial Corrigedor (a
Non-Vintage Sherry that is not less than 63-years-old, and partially 130 years
old)
Served by very good, very close, and very dear friends Barry
and Patricia Brown in their condominium overlooking the “Mink Mile” of Bloor Street,
in Toronto.
1944 Marques de
Murrieta, Ygay (white)

Barry Brown, who is president of the Spanish Wine Society of
Canada, knows more about Spanish wines than any North American I have ever met.
Name a vintage, a Spanish winemaker, a region – the guy knows them intimately.
Barry has a taste memory of every Spanish wine he’s ever had;
he could fill the shelves of a large LCBO (Ontario wine store) with the empty Spanish
bottles he’s had in his lifetime. Got the picture?
A day after my birthday, in July, I visited Barry and
Patricia in Toronto and they threw a birthday feast for me that eclipsed just
about every wine I’ve experienced at any table the entire year -- in age,
complexity, and sheer enthusiastic enjoyment.
The white 1944 Marques de Murrieta Ygay, made largely from
the Viura grape (93% Viura, 7% Malvasia, aged in a succession of old oak tanks,
then smaller oak barrels) was 68 years old. A
68-year-old white wine! Yet the wine still showed youth, vigor, complexity
and verve!
The wine was the color of apricots; initial tastes were of
camphor, cedar, clover honey, almonds, and leather. Patricia described the wine
as “pretty,” Barry said that it was the oldest dry white wine he’s ever had. Me
too. And one of the best.
One hour after being opened, this wine still exhibited
vibrancy, complexity, and crisp acidity on the finish. Patricia said that among
long-lived Spanish whites, this was a “templar” (knight) of wine. I totally agree.

That’s me, Patricia
Brown, and the two oldest wines tasted this year
1935 Marques de
Murrieta, Ygay Carta Blanca (red)

As good – and astonishing -- as the 68-year-old white Ygay
was, there was more magic to follow. Barry opened and decanted a 77-year-old,
red Marques de Murrieta Ygay – from the 1935 vintage.
The wine, about half
Tempranillo (the remainder being
Garnacha, Mazuelo & Graciano – which sounds like the name of a Spanish law
firm), was a gift, given to Barry by the cellar master of the winery in 1985.
It was the oldest, and only, bottle in his cellar, and he chose to open it for my
birthday. Which itself made this a special wine.

Barry Brown and the
1935 Marques de Murrieta Ygay, Carta Blanca
Upon opening the bottle, we found
ourselves slapping our respective foreheads; this 77-year-old wine was like the
most intense Merlot-Cabernet Franc wine I’ve ever tasted; dark plums, dark
cherries, and red raspberries rushed from the glass; there was a ton of bright
acidity, a vibrancy suggesting a much younger wine – and yet this wine was made
and bottled before the Spanish Civil War!
I have three pages of notes and a
brace of exclamation marks describing this wine; cherries, cinnamon and
blackberries are noted multiple times in my notes. Patricia said that the wine
was “like a sunset – filled with romance, warmth and the promise of a perfect
tomorrow.”
Barry said that of all the 60- and
70-year-old Spanish reds he’s ever had, this bottle was the youngest tasting of
any he’s had.
Imperial Corrigedor (a
Non-Vintage Sherry that is not less than 63-years-old, and partially 130 years
old)

Who’d a thunk you
could top these two wine experiences the same evening? Barry went to his
Spanish-stocked cellar and pulled out a wine, which the great cellar masters of
Spain believe is one of the greatest
sherries ever made.
Barry says that
Sandeman, the producer, only ever made three barrels of the rare, Imperial
Corrigedor Sherry. The young wines used to refresh the solera in which this
Sherry was made, were Sandeman Very, Very Old Olorosso and Pedro Ximenes Viejo,
themselves 30-years-old when added to the solera.
According to
records, the solera, which produced this sherry, was started in 1882.
The Corrigedor Olorosso
has dark chocolate colors and flavors, and also tastes of rum, mahogany,
coffee, tangerine and treacle.
Patricia insisted that this sherry
MUST be tried with tart Spanish clementines – to bring out the bright orange
acidity in the wine. At first, I thought this would destroy the wine – pairing fresh fruit with such an old wine to
supposedly enhance the wine’s flavor? But I followed Pat’s suggestion and
SHE WAS 100 PERCENT RIGHT! I ate a few segments of clementine and then tasted
the sherry – the fruit pulled out the blood-orange notes of the wine and
accentuated them! Patricia was right – this was a perfect food and wine pairing
experience!
In a lifetime, to
have the occasional, perfect 100-point wine is something. But to be invited to
someone’s home and to be served wines that are older than you – and to have
each of them score a perfect 100 points – now, THAT’S the definition of a memorable
wine evening!
Addendum:
Worst Wine Moment of the Year
We visited our favorite French wine region in July,
Chateauneuf-du-Pape, to check out the 2010 vintage, which was just being
bottled and to see dear winemaker friends.
We couldn’t believe the pathetic, offensive and unfriendly
reception we received at Vieux Telegraphe.
I have been buying this wine for more than 20 years from
Kermit Lynch, one of my most trusted wine merchants in California. Not only
does Kermit sell the wine, but he’s also the importer of Vieux Telegraphe.
We did not book an appointment at VT (as it’s colloquially
known in the trade) because the firm has a proper drop-in tasting room, much as
you find in Napa Valley.
We pulled up to the winery at 11.59 am, having traveled
6,000 miles to visit one of our favorite wine houses; the tall, young, rude and
offensive clerk was just coming out; he told us that he was going for lunch and
was locking up the tasting room.
We pleaded, told him that we had just come 6,000 miles to
just have a quick sip of the 2010 vintage and then we’d go. The tasting room
staffer didn’t give a hoot and told us so. He then proceeded to lock up,
walking off with a crusty French baguette for lunch. Les maudits visiteurs!
This kind of reception does NOT happen in Italy, it does NOT
happen in Napa Valley, or other California wine regions; hospitality is the
name of the game and if someone walks into a tasting room at 4.59 pm, despite
the official closing at 5 pm, no tasting room employee would throw out a
potential future customer, someone who might spend $600 a case for 20 years (=
$12,000), as I have for VT
Basically, we were told in a crude, rude and unfriendly
fashion to piss off, “I’m going to lunch.”
Well, here’s my response: VT, I’ve bought the last bottle
I’ll ever buy and I will do my utmost to convince friends and readers that
there are far better Chateauneufs-du-Pape to drink, ones that are filled with flamboyant
aromas, not flaming arrogance.
Best New
Restaurant Discovery of the Year
Hands down, it goes to Frank’s Kitchen, a sensational
artisanal effort in Toronto, where I had the good fortune to dine twice this
year.
Frank Parhizgar and his wife Shawn Cooper run this sensational,
small, restaurant where everything is made in house. And I mean everything.
Including the ceramic platters on which the appetizers are served.
I enjoyed a sensational dish of Lamb Prepared Several Ways
on my most recent visit; the large rack of Ontario lamb was perfectly cooked,
the Merguez sausage, made with lamb, was ethereal, a word I’ve never applied to
sausage in 35 years of reviewing restaurants. The dish had great taste, great
texture, and all the flavors were liaised with a delicious reduction.
Shawn, who looks after wine purchases, has done a masterful
job of finding fairly priced wines that complement Frank’s dishes; not easy to
do in Ontario where the monopolistic LCBO unreasonably marks up wines and then
makes restaurants buy them at virtual retail prices. As a result, Napa Valley’s
modestly priced Cakebread Cabernet turns up on Toronto menus at $200.
On future visits to Toronto, I will book my first night of
dining at Frank’s Kitchen; as much to reacquaint myself with Frank’s
sensational cuisine as to set the bar high for other restaurants I will visit on
my trip.
Frank’s Kitchen, 588 College St. (at Clinton), Toronto. (416) 516-5861.