We had these back-to-back one night. I've been meaning to drink the Carte d'Or for a while now, since from what I understand Collard lets this stuff sit in his basement and then releases it when he sees fit, and apparently his basement is magical and the Champagne is delicious when recently released, but it might not fare well out in the wild. Um, so five years later, I get around to it. I had a few bottles back in 2005/2006, so it's been a while.
The Pomarium was a bottle-of-Champagne-fueled decision (there were three of us so I wasn't totally crazy at that point) based on me realizing I have a lot of wine but not from many different producers. Stupid wine clubs: my diamond shoes are too tight.
Anyway, I have only basic notes on these, and two haiku, but I wanted to note things here since I actually referred to my old Carte d'Or review when we were talking about it (we were trying to figure out how old it actually was) and hey, my notes were actually useful. The haiku is because I am trying to figure out some short-form wine reviews. Haiku? Twitter? Is Twitter the haiku of modern times? Is there a longer-than-haiku poetry form I can take up for reviews, since haiku are a little too restrictive? Things to consider.
So:
NV René Collard Carte d'Or - ($40) (100% Pinot Meunier) (my old notes from 2006 here:
Again, grapes from the 1992 vintage, so this is about 20 years old. It's definitely "old Champagne" at this point... it still has some qualities it had back in '06, but the sherrylike nuttiness is way more prevalent. Dark golden, with the oxidized sherry nose taking over from the earthy mushroom of the Pinot Meunier. You either like old Champagne or you don't, and 1/3 of our party was definitely in the "not much love" camp. I liked it fine, but really wished we'd had some french fries for it. Even Ore-Ida oven fries, which I will be procuring for such an emergency. To sum up:
Not vintage but old
Grapes from nineteen-ninety-two
Golden sherry-shroom
2008 Peay Pomarium - ($50) 100% Pinot Noir. I wanted and expected to love this. I love Peay, I love Pinot, what could the problem be? The problem could be too much oak. I often have this problem with CA Pinot Noir. At first I smelled it and thought, yum, delightful, but as it sat out and we drank it, the oak got more noticeable and it was just too much for me. Maybe we drank it too early and should have waited the 2/3 years they recommend, but I'd think that 2/3 years in the fruit would be even less noticeable than it was. This is the problem with wine... you have to have multiple bottles of everything. Anyway, on the nose it had red berries, mocha, forest floor, and cigar spice, and in the mouth there was some amount of berry and dark cherry, but again, the oaky/cigar/smoke took over and persisted. A little too much oak for me, at least the night we had it. For the money, I can find Pinots I like a lot more... the Williams Selyem offering from the Peay Vineyards is more up my alley (at least the ones I've had in the past have been delightful). (Peay, I still like you...I have a Roussanne/Marsanne I am looking forward to.)
Fancy Cal Pinot
Too much money for too much
oak over cherry
The Pomarium was a bottle-of-Champagne-fueled decision (there were three of us so I wasn't totally crazy at that point) based on me realizing I have a lot of wine but not from many different producers. Stupid wine clubs: my diamond shoes are too tight.
Anyway, I have only basic notes on these, and two haiku, but I wanted to note things here since I actually referred to my old Carte d'Or review when we were talking about it (we were trying to figure out how old it actually was) and hey, my notes were actually useful. The haiku is because I am trying to figure out some short-form wine reviews. Haiku? Twitter? Is Twitter the haiku of modern times? Is there a longer-than-haiku poetry form I can take up for reviews, since haiku are a little too restrictive? Things to consider.
So:
NV René Collard Carte d'Or - ($40) (100% Pinot Meunier) (my old notes from 2006 here:
Again, grapes from the 1992 vintage, so this is about 20 years old. It's definitely "old Champagne" at this point... it still has some qualities it had back in '06, but the sherrylike nuttiness is way more prevalent. Dark golden, with the oxidized sherry nose taking over from the earthy mushroom of the Pinot Meunier. You either like old Champagne or you don't, and 1/3 of our party was definitely in the "not much love" camp. I liked it fine, but really wished we'd had some french fries for it. Even Ore-Ida oven fries, which I will be procuring for such an emergency. To sum up:
Not vintage but old
Grapes from nineteen-ninety-two
Golden sherry-shroom
2008 Peay Pomarium - ($50) 100% Pinot Noir. I wanted and expected to love this. I love Peay, I love Pinot, what could the problem be? The problem could be too much oak. I often have this problem with CA Pinot Noir. At first I smelled it and thought, yum, delightful, but as it sat out and we drank it, the oak got more noticeable and it was just too much for me. Maybe we drank it too early and should have waited the 2/3 years they recommend, but I'd think that 2/3 years in the fruit would be even less noticeable than it was. This is the problem with wine... you have to have multiple bottles of everything. Anyway, on the nose it had red berries, mocha, forest floor, and cigar spice, and in the mouth there was some amount of berry and dark cherry, but again, the oaky/cigar/smoke took over and persisted. A little too much oak for me, at least the night we had it. For the money, I can find Pinots I like a lot more... the Williams Selyem offering from the Peay Vineyards is more up my alley (at least the ones I've had in the past have been delightful). (Peay, I still like you...I have a Roussanne/Marsanne I am looking forward to.)
Fancy Cal Pinot
Too much money for too much
oak over cherry
Comments