Our Trip to Lake Tahoe

1996 Billecart-Salmon Champagne
Cuvee Elizabeth Salmon
$130.00
Dow’s 10 Year Tawny, bottled in 2004
$23.99
Freemark Abbey 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
35.00

Shane’s Notes
Act I – The Tawny

We drove to Tahoe after work on Friday and arrived at our room late in the evening. We pulled out the half bottle of Dow’s 10 Year Tawny (I drank the other half on the previous evening) and finished off the bottle before going to sleep. The Dow smelled of alcohol, sweetness and cream. The palate was creamy and hot. Like their 20 Year Tawny, it was dry and refined. I’m about through experimenting with tawnies: I just do not like the way that the varietal flavor is buried under the oaky creaminess. After all, I vociferously attack any wine that is over-oaked and despite their reputation as fine wines, tawnies are simply over-oaked ports.

We began the next day by taking the gondola ride to the top of Heavenly. The view of the lake from the first station is absolutely spectacular. We pondered having a glass of wine at the cheesy café at the second station but quickly changed our minds when we discovered that they were only serving Woodbridge by Mondavi.

We grabbed a bite to eat and began to worry about the $130 bottle of Champagne waiting for us back at the motel. What if the room became too hot and ruined our treasure? Saving the Champagne became a high priority, so we bought a Styrofoam cooler (with a NASCAR logo) and a bag of ice and headed back to the motel. With the Champagne safely buried in ice, we headed over to Emerald Bay for a look at the lake from the other side. After the Emerald Bay side trip, we headed back to the hotel to drink the Champagne.

Jen’s Notes
Act II – The Champagne

This otherwise perfectly lovely experience taught us the following two lessons: (1) blogging your wines means that you might have to search for a pen before opening the bubbly; and (2) at altitude, your bubbly will more than likely open itself if you neglect to do it within a nanosecond of removing the bail. This will cause you to panic and demand a glass from your darling fiancé while you try to minimize the spillage. Fortunately, we lost less than half a glass to the carpet in our room at the Tahoe Tropicana. After the dust settled, we noted the following.

This Champagne is a gorgeous, deep rose gold and very effervescent (obviously, given the explosion we just witnessed). The nose is straw-scented, fresh and minutely toasty.

The palate initially showed bright grapefruit. As the wine warmed up (our rescue mission with ice and the cooler made the wine just a touch too cold) and opened up, the slightly tart citrus flavors expanded into lemon meringue pie and fig. Though not as complex as Krug, this wine boasted unusual intensity, richness and concentration. It wasn’t merely like the taste of lemon meringue pie, it almost was lemon meringue pie, complete with a soft creaminess and mouth-filling satisfaction. Happily, the wine finished long (because who would want this to end!) with just the tiniest hint of toast.

This Champagne was an absolute delight. Shane really enjoyed its elegant structure peppered with sublime bursts of fruit, more of a Mozart to Krug’s Mahler. It was the perfect choice to initiate our Riedel Champagne flutes.

Shane’s Notes
Act III – The Freemark Abbey

We left the motel and had dinner at the Sage in Harvey’s Casino. Our dining experience was abysmal: Black Angus has better food and atmosphere for a much cheaper price. The mark-up on the wines was so high that we were forced to go with a lesser quality wine than we would have liked. However, we both usually like Freemark Abbey and fully expected their 2001 Cab to be very good. After all, 2001 was a banner year for Napa Cabs. We were very disappointed to discover that it was over-oaked: the varietal flavor was barely noticeable. Shame on you Freemark!

After dinner, I showed Jen how to play video poker, and we headed over to the sports bar to collect my winnings from the A’s game. My 25 bucks returned 97.50 as the Rangers broke their 19 game losing streak against my beloved A’s (yes, I bet against my own team – the odds were just too enticing).
We called it an evening and went back to the motel and finished the Champagne. We had a great time, but we strongly believe that Tahoe should be a national park sans the casinos, motels and restaurants.