Binny's Bordeaux Tasting

Thursday night was a disappointing evening. The Cubs gave some false hope early on, and it was all downhill from there.

Fortunately for me, my evening was saved by a wine tasting at Binny's Chicago. I mentioned in my last 'Highlighting Some Upcomming Events' post that Binny's was doing a Bordeaux tasting. I also alluded to the fact that there might be some blockbuster wines on the list. I had no idea what might actually be in store for the evening, but the writeup and the price of the tasting led me to believe that Binny's would pull out some interesting wines for the evening. Turns out I was right.

Most of the wines ranged from $20-$60 late vintage run of the mill Bordeaux. There were several great wines and even a couple treats thrown in. I'll start with the "good stuff". A pair of '86s (Angelus, Latour) were the old men at the tasting. I don't get exposure to a lot of older vintages, and these were an interesting departure for me. Both of them seemed a little over the hill to me. There wasn't a lot of weight left on either of them, and any subtleties that may have been in these wines were too far gone for my inexperienced senses to detect. On that same table were a pair of Younger stars, '99 Mouton Rothschild, and an '03 La Mission Haut-Brion. Both were very good and very young. I swear Every vintage of Mouton Rothschild I've ever had has the exact same nose. I suppose that is one of the defining characteristics that make it a great wine. Rounding out the "Ticket Only Table" were a pair of Sauternes including an '03 D'Yquem. I've never cared for Sauternes, but given that this si one of the most famous wines in the world (and most expensive) I had to give it a sip.

The rest of the tasting saw a peppering of '00-'04 wines spread all across Bordeaux. 21 wines in all. Most of them had a unique character to them, and overall this served as an education in regional character, and vintage quality.

One of the interesting points in the tasting came when I ran into a trio of '96 wines (Calon -Segur, Duhart-Milon, Pontet-Canet). All of these wines were stellar. I was amazed that 11 years on these wines still had so much flesh and weight to them. I would be interested to
know if 10 years from now these wines were as delicate as the pair of '86s from the other table. I was amazed by the profile of the Pontet-Canet, and despite its steep price tag, I had to pick up a bottle for Christmas Dinner.

Overall it was a great tasting. Lots of good wines, and the pourers were full of knowledge on the wines they were pouring. I can certainly say that I came home significantly poorer than when I arrived.

Raising a Glass (Of Beer?) for the Cubbies

Living in Chicago has tested my baseball loyalties. I grew up a Braves fan. I've been following the Braves since the abysmal 80s, and celebrated while watching the Braves win 15 straight division championships. Through all of that my love of the team has not wavered.

When I moved to the Chicago area, I found a group of passionate fans who loved their losers, the Cubs. Its hard not to get swept up in all that passion. So I've become a closet Cubs fan. Sure I'm still watching the Braves every chance I get, and that will never change, but I've grown attached to this city, and by proxy, their teams. I'm a Bears fan, and a Cubs fan. If the Blackhawks would ever come on TV I might turn into a fan of them as well. Sorry Bulls, I'm never gonna love the NBA enough to care about you guys.

So tonight has me stuck in a dilemma. Its not a dilemma about who to root for, as you can rest assured I'll be rooting for the Cubs, its a dilemma about what to drink...As much as I love wine, and drink it every excuse I get, I just can't see myself watching a baseball game and drinking wine. Baseball, and more importantly PLAYOFF baseball, calls for something more sacred: Beer!

The natural beer choice is Old Style, but here is one of those times when I'm glad I wasn't born a Cubs fan. Call me crazy, but I prefer to taste my beer, and for my beer to taste good. Choosing a good tasting beer gets harder and harder every day. I think the micro/craft beer market is more crowded than the wine market these days. Fortunately it is October, and that really only leaves one choice as far as style: Oktoberfest!. I really don't think it is a coincidence that Oktoberfest and the playoffs are in the same month. Oktoberfest seems like the perfect pairing to a good baseball game, so tonight a trip to Sam's Wine is in order to pick up a six pack. So like a kid in the candy store, I'm headed out for some good baseball beer.

Wish me (and the Cubbies ) luck.

Highlighting Some Upcomming Events

Here are a few events coming up in the next few weeks that sound interesting:


LUSH wine tasting at Sacred Art in Roscoe: Oct 4. More info here. I'm not really sure what to expect from this, other than it sounds interesting. Sounds like a portion of the proceeds go to underprivileged kids. Drink wine and help kids, what could be better?


Binny's Bordeaux Night Wine Tasting: Oct 4. Binny's Downtown Chicago. All I can say about Bordeaux is mmm. I think I'm hooked. Should be a good selection of the good stuff. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Sam's Private Tasting - Rewards members Only!: Oct 10, 17, 24. One at each Sam's location. Just got an email about this. (One of the 50/day I get from Sam's, but I'm not annoyed). Looks like Sam's is doing a Bordeaux tasting for their members. Free, Free, Free. More bordeaux, are we noticing a theme here? I don't know if this will be 5 of 50 wines, but its free Bordeaux, who can complain. See their website for more info.

Oktoberfest Wine & Beer Tasting: Oct 12. Binny's Niles. Bordeaux not your thing? Something for everyone here. German Beers, German Rieslings. Wow I love that country, and $5 to boot.

Binny's Bordeaux Tasting: Oct 13. Binny's Buffalo Grove. Enough Bordeaux Already. Better believe I'll be at this one too. Will I see you there? Binny's says 25 wines. Tough to know if these will be the big ones or the $10 bottles, but I'm not sure I care.

Lots of good stuff coming up. There are even more events listed at localwineevents.com. Be sure to check at least one of these out.

Domain Migration Complete

So I'm officially up and running on the new domain. www.thirdcoastwine.com. I'm still trying to figure out how to get plain old "thirdcoastwine.com" working. If you are getting this in your rss reader, it means you are subscribed through feedburner, and you don't need to do anything at all. If you aren't subscribed, well you should be. Just click on the little rss symbol, and away you'll go. The old blogspot address will forward to the new domain, so that shouldn't be an issue either. Basically, if you were finding me before, you should still be able to find me.

Hopefully in the next few months, the domain will allow me to provide some new features around the blog. I have some ideas on how to provide content about wine in Chicago outside the blog. Look for that in the near future.

As far as posts, I'm planning on a trip to the city this weekend, so look for a review of a wine bar somewhere down there.

Third Coast Wine is Growing Up!

I'm starting to get a small amount of regular traffic, and so I think it is time to grow up a little bit. Ultimately I would like to get off the blogger platform and onto something better. The first step in this process is a new domain name. I've successfully acquired the thirdcoastwine.com domain, so very soon I'll be moving there. Unfortunately as part of the move there may be some service interruptions. I'll do my best to keep it to a minimum, and hopefully you can bear with me. Stay tuned for updates.