Early in November I decided to see if I could post weekly through the end of the NFL season.  I had a habit of going months or years between posts.  So starting November 6^th, 2023 I started posting every week.  I made it all the way to the Super Bowl, but almost didn’t get one in for the week after.  I’m posting the Saturday after, so I just barely made it.

I spent the last week driving back & forth to Napa for the Masters of Wine study program seminar.  There were some fun bits like visiting wineries, having great dinners there, & trying some older wines.  I will write about those soon.  Most of the days were spent doing blind tasting.  4 days during the week we arrived early & had 2 hours & 15 minutes to identify 12 wines & write essay responses to questions about what grapes were used, from what region the wines were, how do they fit into the marketplace, and/or how were the wines made.  I drove in each morning so that we could start a mock exam by 9:00 AM, then have a debrief where our answers were put on a screen for everyone to see (often a humbling experience), then blind tasting to teach us more about vintages, or wine regions, then a trip to a winery.  I would get home late, crash for a few hours & get up & do it again.

I enjoyed it most of the time, but it didn’t leave time to post anything.  Anyway, better late than never.  Next week I will write a bit more about some of the winery visits.

It was an interesting Super Bowl that was dominated by the defense until the offenses got on track late in the game.  Here are the players that stood out to me.

Nick Bolton Chiefs

Bolton led the Chiefs in tackles with 13 tackles including 5 solo tackles & 1 tackle for loss.  He also had 2 quarterback hits on Brock Purdy.

Harrison Butker Chiefs Kicker

Butker’s 57 yard field goal broke the record for longest successful field goal in the Super Bowl, which was set by Jake Moody earlier in the game.  He hit all 4 field goals he attempted & the 1 extra point, which is why he’s on the list & Moody isn’t.  It’s also arguably why the Chiefs won the game.  I think the Chiefs might have gone for it & won the game in regulation if a field goal hadn’t been enough to tie it, but either way, Moody’s first extra point miss in his career couldn’t have come in a worse, more high-profile spot.

George Karlaftis Chiefs defensive end

He shared a sack with Justin Reid & led the team with 3 quarterback hits. He also recovered a rare fumble by Christian McCaffrey to end the first 49’ers drive.

Trent McDuffie Chiefs Cornerback

McDuffie was fantastic!  The receivers he covered were only targeted 7 times, & only 2 of those were completed for a total of 9 yards.  His pass breakup in the end zone of a pass to Deebo Samuels was crucial.  He also blitzed & had a quarterback hit to end a 49er’s drive in the 4^th quarter.

Patrick Mahomes Chiefs Quarterback

Mahomes was the default MVP of the game.  This was mostly because the Chiefs won & the quarterback is usually the MVP.  Mahomes did a great job on the final drive of the game & got the win.  It’s hard to see his performance as a truly amazing one though.  Mahomes fumbled twice & threw an interception.  His QBR rating of 75.8 is the worst by a winning quarterback in Super Bowl history, edging out the previous worst, a 78.1 in 2019 when he also won the MVP as the Chiefs won the super bowl.  Here’s a link to the data on Stat Muse that doesn’t yet include this year’s game.

His scrambles were important though.  He actually averaged more yards when he ran than when he passed (7.2 per pass, 7.3 per run.  He gained 66 yards on 9 carries & was the Chiefs’ leading rusher.

Jauan Jennings 49’ers Wide Receiver

I think that if Purdy  had been able to get the ball out to Jennings in time in the 4^th quarter that Jennings would have been the MVP.  His receiving yards weren’t amazing, he has 4 catches for 42 yards, but he caught a touchdown that required some hard running to drag himself across the goal line. & then on a trick play, he hit Christian McCaffrey for a 21-yard touchdown as well.  I think had he had a better chance at that throw from Purdy, they might have won the game & he would have had a hand in all 3 touchdowns.  It didn’t happen though & his solid performance was wasted.

Christian McCaffrey 49’ers Running Back

McCaffrey did his best for the team.  He led the 49’ers in rushing with 80 yards on 22 carries & he also led the team in receiving with another 80 yards on 8 catches, including the touchdown from Jennings.

My favorite wine of the week was…

Château d’Yquem Sauternes 2016 $400 13.9% ABV

75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc

135 g/l of residual sugar.  Aged in new French oak.

I tried a ton of excellent wines last week.  There were some great Australian wines, some cool Rieslings, & a ton of 2016 vintage Bordeaux.  This was an easy pick though because d’Yquem is arguably my favorite wine & I don’t get to drink it very often.  When I try to explain my love of this wine to people, it can be difficult.  The closest I can get to how I feel about it is that I believe that this is the wine that God drinks.

French writer Frederic Dard was onto something when he wrote, “I do not call Y’Quem a wine because there are an infinite number of “wines” as such, but Y’quem is unique. I prefer the word nectar- the drink of the gods-and if I found one that was more noble, I would be less ashamed of our restrictive vocabulary so poorly suited to superlatives.”

D’Yquem is a botrytis infected wine.  I wrote about another botrytis influenced wine from Tokaji last December.  One of the differences here is that this wine is a blend of Sémillon & Sauvignon Blanc & it is made in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux.  Grapes for this vintage were picked over 4 separate attempts (called “tries”).  Workers went through the vineyards & picked bunches of grapes that had been infected by botrytis to concentrate sweetness.  This is a natural occurrence, but it happens a bit at a time.  They only pick the best clusters & leave the others for later.  Everything is done carefully by hand.  Some years the crop isn’t sufficient to produce wines of the caliber that they expect, so the entire crop is sold off anonymously & no Sauternes is produced by the winery that year.  The most recent example of this was in 2012.

The winery has been around since at least 1711.  The technique for making perfect botrytis wines wasn’t known at that time.  When Thomas Jefferson was the US Ambassador to France, he proclaimed it the best white wine in France & bought 250 bottles of the 1784 vintage for himself with additional bottles shipped to the United States for George Washington.  At that time the wine was sweet but wasn’t made with 100% botrytis grapes.  By 1811 if not earlier, they had this figured out.  1811 was a comet vintage where a comet was seen over the vineyard prior to harvest.  When Robert Parker tried an 1811 vintage in 1996, he gave it a perfect 100 rating.  These are long lived wines!

When Napoleon the 3^rd had vineyards in Bordeaux rated in 1855, Château d’Yquem was rated Premier Cru Supérieur.  It was the only white wine to receive this rating.  The respect in which the wine is held has not diminished since then.

So, what does it taste like?  This vintage seems fairly classic to me, although the acidity might be a tad lower than some older vintages.  The aromas leap from the glass with honeysuckle, peach, apricot, & ginger notes.  Those same flavors are on the palate with beautiful citrus & tropical fruit notes.  The wine has a rich texture to it both from the ripe, almost thick fruit & honey notes and from the backbone of French oak that provides vanilla notes.  Without the bright & crisp acidity, this kind of wine could be heavy & over the top.  However, the acidity seems to lift all the flavors up & keep it from ever seeming cloying.

There are other producers of Sauterne & I love several of them, but the depth of flavor to Château d’Yquem & the characteristic acid lift make it my favorite.  This is a wine that lingers both on the palate & the memory.  It is always an experience.

While this wine is sublime by itself, it is even better with blue cheese or pâté.  Try it both with & without food.  The wine is ready to drink now but will improve with age.  It should remain drinkable for the rest of your life, so there’s no bad time to open a bottle.