Seeing out info on the latest RWC Leacock's tasting
Moderators: Glenn E., Roy Hersh, Andy Velebil
Seeing out info on the latest RWC Leacock's tasting
I know Marco was there and not sure who else that reads here might have attended. But I'd love to get a report from someone who was present and tried these beauties. I am sure there was a very different decanting regimen used this time (now that the Rare Wine Co. had experience from earlier this year) and a prolonged decant probably had a few of these showing significantly better than the first pair of tastings.
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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Marco D.
- Posts: 940
- Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 10:04 am
- Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States of America - USA
Re: Seeing out info on the latest RWC Leacock's tasting
I haven't had time to type in my notes, but the tasting was spectacular. Mannie really outdid himself for this one.
Mannie had a great hour-long formal presentation before the tasting (with slides) that delved into the life of J.P Morgan - both his buisness and epicurean side. It was especially facinating to view pages from his cellar books.
The venue, the J.P. Morgan mansion on Madison Ave, was spectacular. Exactly what you would expect from a gilded age tycoon.
The decanting treatment was slightly different. There was a shortage of decanters for the San Francisco event -- due to the two back-to-back tastings that had to be accomodated. There was no such restriction for the New York event. For New York, every wine was in a decanter for a full week (as opposed to the SF treatment of alternationg one day in decanter and one day in bottle for a week). There was less agitation of the wine; Mannie mentioned that many "old-time" Madeira connoisseurs disliked disturbing the wine as they found it "bruised" the wine.
Overall, I found the wines showed better, some showed MUCH better. The A.G. Pacheco, which I found had a bit of "sourness" in SF, was spectacular in NYC. The Borges HMB Terrantez, which I thought had a bit of "bottle sickness" in SF, was ravishing. I'm not sure it was the decanting, the fact that the wines have settled more since arriving from England, bottle variation, or just plain luck... but there was a definite sense that the bottles showed better.
There was one wine that was my favorite, the group's overall favorite, and quite possibly a wine that can challenge the 1802 Acciaioly Terrantez as my favorite Madeira of all time. I'll try to get my notes in soon...
This was not only the best Madeira tasting I've been to, it was probably the most memorable wine event I've ever attended in general.
Mannie had a great hour-long formal presentation before the tasting (with slides) that delved into the life of J.P Morgan - both his buisness and epicurean side. It was especially facinating to view pages from his cellar books.
The venue, the J.P. Morgan mansion on Madison Ave, was spectacular. Exactly what you would expect from a gilded age tycoon.
The decanting treatment was slightly different. There was a shortage of decanters for the San Francisco event -- due to the two back-to-back tastings that had to be accomodated. There was no such restriction for the New York event. For New York, every wine was in a decanter for a full week (as opposed to the SF treatment of alternationg one day in decanter and one day in bottle for a week). There was less agitation of the wine; Mannie mentioned that many "old-time" Madeira connoisseurs disliked disturbing the wine as they found it "bruised" the wine.
Overall, I found the wines showed better, some showed MUCH better. The A.G. Pacheco, which I found had a bit of "sourness" in SF, was spectacular in NYC. The Borges HMB Terrantez, which I thought had a bit of "bottle sickness" in SF, was ravishing. I'm not sure it was the decanting, the fact that the wines have settled more since arriving from England, bottle variation, or just plain luck... but there was a definite sense that the bottles showed better.
There was one wine that was my favorite, the group's overall favorite, and quite possibly a wine that can challenge the 1802 Acciaioly Terrantez as my favorite Madeira of all time. I'll try to get my notes in soon...
This was not only the best Madeira tasting I've been to, it was probably the most memorable wine event I've ever attended in general.
Marco DeFreitas Connecticut, USA