Tasting with Tim Campbell CS
A friend of mine just so happens to be one of the most generous, caring and knowledgeable Sommeliers I have ever had the pleasure to meet and work alongside; his name is Timothy Campbell, CS and Wine Buyer for Geneva Wine Cellars located in Geneva, IL. Not Lake Geneva, but the small town just founded in 1887 just West of the Fox River in Illinois… a quaint and vibrant, mom and pop, hospitality minded community that I am unbelievably lucky to call home.
“Wine is this living, breathing thing and if we let it develop in the bottle and in the glass we can see the evolution of it’s life cycle right before our very eyes.” -T. Campbell
Because I respect his opinion so much, I asked Tim if he would be interested in having a tasting at the Cellar on Saturday morning before business began. The bottle was from my fathers home country of Lebanon and it’s nearly 6,000 mile journey had ended and made its way my own cellar this past fall; my father was very generous to navigate shallow dirt roads, with no GPS mind you, near the border of Syria this last year in order to collect a few precious bottles right from the Domaine. One of the bottles he brought back for me was one that I knew Tim would love to taste.
With dried apricots, parmesan cheese and a freshly baked baguette in hand I walked down the small flight of stairs into the cellar to begin our tasting of Lebanon’s first and only Biodynamic Producer of wine… Sept Winery; un vin de lieu.
Maher Harb
Winemaker and owner of Sept Winery
Sept Winery was founded by Maher Harb after he returned home to Lebanon from France where he worked as a financial consultant for several years. His desire to scale back his life and return home led him taking on the challenge of reviving his fathers land in Nehla. He turned the land into a biodynamic winery after falling in love with wine during his time in Europe. He went on to plant over 5,000 vines with his bare hands and began the process of planning for the future of Sept. Under his guidance, Sept has become a celebration of the extraordinary nature of Lebanon’s traditional and indigenous varietals such as Merweh and Odeideh.
“Sept relates a story where a land and a passion meet. With seven months maceration on its skins, the Obeideh bouquet has more complexity, hints of tamarind, oriental sweets, balanced with a surprising freshness and minerality, light tannins envelope it all with a long after taste of this beautiful indigenous grape” -Sept Winery label
The Vintage 2020 Skin-Contact Obeideh was harvested at 1,150 meters above sea level high in the city of Zahlé in the Békaa Valley. This bottle had a 12.5% ABV and was numbered 368/900… it was also bottled onsite at the Winery in the town of Nehla, Batroun.
With “Me, Myself And I” by Billie Holiday serenading us in the background, Tim and I began tasting through what might be one of the only bottles of this particular wine in the United States.
“This is just perfect,” said Tim, “…wonderfully present citrus on the nose with notes of freshly peeled yellow apple skin. What a treat!” As the wine evolved in the glass notes of candied orange peel, marmalade and white spring flowers started revealing themselves in the most luxurious of ways. It was as if you were standing in your grandmothers kitchen while a pot full of orange peels is cooking down on the stove… the window above the stove open and a gust of that warm spring air filling the entire home with that delicious scent.
We broke into the dried apricots, tearing the fruit open and exposing the preserved, sugary interior. It perfectly complimented the wines luscious fruit notes. Next we sampled the aged and crystalized parmesan, pairing it with still warm baguette. The salt in the cheese and the yeast in the bread balanced perfectly with the bright acidity in the wine making this an exemplary paring experience.
During a time when there is so much unrest in our world, it was such a pleasure to just be able to share the things you love with friends… it was a perfect, but snowy, first Saturday morning in April.
Moments later… in walks a man with a big wine related decision to make.
“So I’m having a little bit of a predicament here… and I don’t know what to do about it,” said the man in the cellar. “I have a very special bottle of wine that I have been saving for years and I’m not sure if it is time to open it.”
“Oh really? What is it?” said the Sommelier.
“A bottle of 1986 Chateau Mouton Rothschild… (imagine the sound of jaw bones detaching from one’s head and clambering onto the cellar floor), but I read recently that Robert Parker suggested that this particular vintage could be held for another 10-15 years and I’m afraid that if I open it up now it won’t be showing it’s best… so what do I do?”
The Sommelier and the student share a glance and moments later, in unison, they said… “Go for it, you only live once!” To be fair some wine can last 40, 50 or even 100 years in bottle… that wine is older than I am and although a First Growth of Bordeaux is a precious commodity to many… I believe that in order for a wine to fulfil its true destiny it must be drunk when you feel its time has come.
Just an excerpt from a conversation I had this past weekend with an old friend and a new acquaintance.