Year-End Wine Salon (December 2009)

Our last Wine Salon of 2009. The MO was to have each participant taste three flights of wines with 4 wines per flight together with 3 other tasters. Impressions were recorded on the fly and presentations given from each team on each flight. Food was outstanding, and so were the wines. Kudos and props to Michael Villim of Mirabelle and Brian Owens for organizing and picking the majority of the wines out of his cellar. On to the wines.

Flight #1: Cabernet Franc

• 1989 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  Pretty nose, leafy, very tannic, sour cherry, tobacco, earth, floral, and rustic. This was a good bottle of a very good wine. My favorite wine of the flight, although it started out very rough and angry. With air, it mellowed and the fruit plushed up.
  


• 1998 Le Petit Cheval - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
  Very oaky on the nose. Good blackberry fruit, cracked pepper, road tar, espresso bean, and floral. Was a decent drink with the food, but seemed a little odd when tasted on its own. Very technical wine.
  


• 1992 La Jota Cabernet Franc - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
  Truly a wow kind of wine. Beautiful, soaring nose, tobacco leaf and black cherry. Shows more alcohol than the previous two wines, but that's to be expected. Spectacular wine and only a smidge behind the Raffault for me.
  


• 2001 Le Macchiole Paleo Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT
  Oak, turpentine, primary fruit, classic Italian wine funk, briary underbrush and rosemary stem. Violets, charred earth and oak. Certainly not terrible, but too oaky and cloying for me to find it exciting.
  

Flight #2: 2002 Mosel Riesling Spaetlese

• 2002 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
  Flower petals, honey, green apple and early ripeness peach. Still slightly spritzy, but flat out delicious. My kind of Spaetlese.
  


• 2002 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
  I immediately disliked this wine. Very flat, boring, cloying, one-dimensional, oddly off-putting nose. Lacks definition, and was marred by very sweet, muddled fruit. Like drinking a wine cooler. I wonder if something was wrong with this bottle.
  


• 2002 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
  A much better wine than the preceding Selbach-Oster. Had that youthful spritz, definition, focus, orchard fruit, and lively acidity that the preceding bottle so desperately lacked. Lovely wine.
  


• 2002 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
  Orange zest, petrol, ripe app;e and cheese rind in a long-haul package that will reward ageing. My favorite and most complete wine of the flight.
  

Flight #3: Four vintages of Montelena Estate

• 1976 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Velvety texture. Slightly raisiny flavors, low acid, leather, a tad vintage port-like. Still tannic. Smoke and meat juices, dark cherry, and a smidge of Brett. The wine was fun to drink, but it's definitely on the downslope.
  


• 1992 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Not very good. Spice, cherry, cedar, hollow on the mid-palate and an almost Gluehwein-like flavor on the palate. To me, this was not just unexciting, but disappointing.
  


• 1996 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Savory spice, cherry, blackberry, leather, tobacco and licorice. This wine had it going on and showed great balance.
  


• 2001 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley
  My favorite of the Montelenas. Cherry and blackberry with licorice, and all that tobacco and leather goodness that I found in all the Montelenas in varying amounts. Lovely wine and there's no way that this could have possibly warranted 69 points from Wine Spectator, even if I did taste some Brett like I did in most of the prior vintages.
  

Dinner Chez Rob & Lauryl

DINNER CHEZ ROB & LAURYL - (5/30/2009)

We were invited to eat and drink at our friends Rob and Lauryl's place last night. Food was amazing, and so was the company. Lovely wines, too.

Champagnes

With Hummus dip and tuna tartare in cucumber slices.

• 1999 Eric Rodez Champagne Grand Cru Brut Millésimé - France, Champagne, Ambonnay, Champagne
  Fantastic Champagne. Clearly from a cool site with nice layered fruit and some brioche. To me, the Chardonnay dominated in this wine, despite the fact that the blend is 50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Lovely wine that is drinking great right now.


• N.V. Krug Champagne Grande Cuvée Brut - France, Champagne
  Second bottle of Champagne last night. Mighty big wine that has just a ton of flavor. Maybe a little nutty and has some nice fruit. No need to hurry drinking this, but I don't know what the disgorgement date was. I loved it.

Reds

With lamb chops, sweet potatoes, and spinach.

• 2005 René Bouvier Marsannay Ouzeloy - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Marsannay
  Maybe a little too warm at first, but it showed very well overall. Extremely sappy and mouthwatering, this is drinking great. Some crushed berry, tobacco and earth, and the fruit is still pretty primary. Lovely Pinot that can be cellared for some time, I'm sure, but I liked the way it was drinking.


• 1978 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
  Great bottle as well. Took a few minutes to clean up after it came out of the bottle. Started really funky, but after it shook off the funk, the fruit was round and soft, and the tannins were barely there. Great freshness, and leather, cigar box, and a lot of minerality were all there. My runner-up WOTN last night.


• 1998 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Best Pegau Laurence I've ever had. This wsa just loaded with garrigue and like the Cuvee Reservee, this also has loads of cherry juice / kirsch liqueur. Another taster said black pepper, and I can definitely see that in this wine, too. Spice and a touch of licorice. Phenomenal wine that is in no danger of decline anytime soon. It is drinking at peak though in my opinion, so no need to hold off further. My WOTN.


• 1999 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Just like the day before this was a very Burgundy-like CdP with berry fruit, spice, good minerality and solid structure. What I am missing here is a little more depth of flavors. Very good but not outstanding. Like the 1998 Pegau Laurence, I think this is drinking at peak.


• 2001 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
  Started out rough for me. Very primary still, and was in a weird place initially. After it had some air for an hour or two, this began to shine though. Classic pencil shavings, tobacco, earth, and some floral notes. Despite being medium bodied, this has very nice flavor intensity, and it ends in a good finish. Although it was delicious with the food last night, this will get much better with time. A definite winner.


• 2002 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  This wine is still so tannic and acidic that it was a shock to drink after the wines before it. Just massive structure despite low extraction. Has the funk that Olga Raffault is famous for. As with most of her Chinons, this is a finesse wine that has some serious green bell pepper and vegetable notes, so those who can't tolerate that will hate this wine. I predict this will be an amazing bottle of wine in 10 more years. Really not a wine to consume right now. The rest of my bottles go to the long term underground storage.

There were two stickies for dessert, but I barely tried one. I was done with wine and had moved on to coffee. Thanks to Rob and Lauryl for outdoing themselves last night, and thanks to all others for bringing some great wine.

Posted from CellarTracker

2005 Château de Coulaine Chinon Clos de Turpenay (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

• 2005 Château de Coulaine Chinon Clos de Turpenay - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (5/24/2009)
  Do I hate it when I mess up with my inventory...I thought I had three left, forgot that I had already had one, and now, I am down to only one bottle of course. Well, at least this was an amazing wine. Dark, brooding, and ferocious right out of the bottle, this smoothed out over the course of a day or two and the blackberry and currant fruit really fanned out on the palate. Earthy, tobacco, a hint of green bell pepper and crushed rock taste. And of course a little baking soda flavor when the wine was first opened, which I find typical of very young Chinon. This has the structure and fruit to go the distance. I don't think this will drink at peak for at least 10 years and it'll keep for many more years after that. What a great wine.

Posted from CellarTracker

2005 Château de Coulaine Chinon Clos de Turpenay (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

I was looking for something interesting to drink last night and settled on this. Infanticide for sure, I thought. Surprisingly, this wine was wide open last night with nice, velvety, ripe tannins, amazingly sweet fruit, charcoal, earth and tobacco. Nary a hint of green streak. I put half the bottle back in the cellar overnight, and tonight, this has coiled up and closed down hard. The sweetness of the fruit has disappeared and the texture has become more chunky. Tannins are not as hard as one may think, but everything that was so accessible last night is walled up behind the structure of this wine tonight. On the nose, I am getting black currant and tobacco with a dose of green bell pepper and gravel tonight. Palate is tannic and dominated by austere black currant and garbed leather flavors. This has the raw ingredients to be a great wine, but it needs to be popped and poured right now or forgotten about for about 10 years in my opinion. Very intellectual excercise to drink this wine right now. Purchased for $27 and Alc. 13.5% by Vol.

2005 Jean-Maurice Raffault Chinon Clos des Capucins (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

Not nearly as serious and age-worthy as the Breton Perrieres I drank a couple of days prior, but no less an exciting wine. Amazingly soft and balanced for such a young wine, this shows terrific, suave fruit and acid melted together into one fine wine with superb finesse and elegance. Does not have the brawn and power of the Breton Perrieres, but it's a "prettier" wine that deserves its place in my cellar. I imagine that since it's drinkable already, it'll last for 5-10 more years, but I don't think I'd age it beyond that. Will pair better with poultry, foul, and game, while the Breton is more of a steak wine. Highly recommended.

4th of July Blowout

Last night, we were invited for a 4th of July party at a friend of ours and it was the usual blowout. The notes I took covered only the wines I tried, but there were literally a dozen I never even tried. I also tried some wines I don't remember because I forgot to take notes on them.

Champagne and Whites

• N.V. Marguet Père et Fils Champagne Cuvée Réserve Brut - France, Champagne, Ambonnay, Champagne
  This bottle was much better than the last one. Not as tight, and wonderfully fresh, floral and open with some nice apple and citrus peel.


• 2007 J. Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc Estate Grown - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
  Really nice wine. Very mellow and in typical grapefruit and lemon zest style with fantastic freshness. Long dry finish. No sweetness and no extreme lemon grass notes which I find typical of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. Recommended.


• 2000 Château Monbousquet Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Contrôlée
  For me, the star of the whites. Amazingly rounded and polished with a slightly aged nose and palate, but what a treat. Somehow, this pulls of the plushness and softness of a CA chard with the minerality and raciness of a Loire white.

Pinot Noirs

• 2006 J. Rochioli Pinot Noir Estate Russian River Valley - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
  Not bad. Definitely lighter and more interesting than the Kosta Browne served alongside it. Clean fruit and good freshness, but it's definitely not profound and somewhat one-dimensional. I liked it, but I think it's a poor QPR.


• 2006 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
  I dropped off the mailing list with vintage 2006 and I am glad I did. Still very big in style and comments from other tasters were "pancake syrup", "over extracted" and the like. And I agree. Just too much power for a wine that should be all about finesse. Only good news is that it didn't taste hot and disjointed...balanced wine, but for those who like to drink the candied big style of CA Pinot.


• 2004 Littorai Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
  The only Pinot I really liked in last night's lineup. Great laser focused fruit with layers of complexity. Awesome freshness. Can't say enough good things about this wine.


• 2003 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Vista Verde - USA, California, Central Coast, San Benito County
  Pretty good stuff here. Only deduction was for the Central Coast candied flavors in the background, but the wine had good freshness, flavor, funk, and texture. I think this was close in quality to the Littorai Savoy.


• 1990 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvée DD - USA, California, Sonoma County
  Interesting wine after the other Pinots. Very tart and acidic. That being said, this was infinitely better than the Pinots before it and with some air, it got even better. Lacks the complexity of a Burgundy at the same age, but it is more "burgundian" than anything else produced today save a few exceptions. Fruit was good and color was solid, so this is nowhere near decline.

Big Reds

• 1984 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
  What a great wine. Bordeaux-like on the nose with black currant and graphite and an intriguing menthol/eucalyptus note that I have often found in 80s Napa Cabs. Great finish, and another bottle in awesome shape from a cold cellar. Shows no signs of decline. Drinking perfectly right now. Serve this with a nice grilled steak.


• 2001 Château Canon-la-Gaffelière - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
  Great wine here, as well. Imminently drinkable but enough structure to suggest this is 5-10 years from peak and another 10 years away from decline. Shows very fruit driven now, but the espresso and truffle is lurking underneath all that plum and black currant goodness. Will be a great wine down the road. Glad to own a few.


• 1989 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  This bottle was more closed and tight than the previous one. Still a profound wine that shows leafiness, truffle, earth, and plum and currants wrapped into one exceptionally structured package. This bottle needed another 5-10 years to drink at peak. What a great wine and at the current rates (if it can be found), it is one of the finest values in the wine world. One of my favorite reds ever.


• 2004 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five - USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District
  Oh boy...didn't like this at all. Searing acidity and weird roasted flavor profile. Did not seem over-oaked, but it was disjointed and completely out of balance. This is what I don't like about so many CA Cabs these days. What were the Shafer's thinking? (I've had a number of HSS wines and they've all been very good).


• 1999 Turley Zinfandel Pringle Family - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
  Can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the first Zin I've liked in a while. More classic profile of pepper and velvety red and black fruit. Not over-extracted, completely balanced, and with enough structure to suggest there is no need to hurry drinking this. For me, this was a revelation. Great food match would be smoked baby back ribs with spice rub and bbq sauce.


• 1982 Les Forts de Latour - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
  Excellent bottle. Cassis, cedar, cigar box, funk. All the flavors and aromas you'd expect. Showed very young and fresh. Incredible texture and silkiness. Hard to believe this is a second wine.

2005 Philippe Alliet Chinon (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

Alliet might just be the king of barnyard. This has a terrific nose of horse manure, tobacco, bell pepper, and blackberry. Not as stuffed as some of the other SVD Chinons I've recently had, but lots of balance and elegance combined with great structure. I would not be shocked to find this wine in great shape in 10 years or more. For the price, this is a no-brainer for me.

Dinner with Loire Wines

Tonight, I sipped on a bit of 2005 Luneau-Papin while preparing dinner, which I duly followed with the left-overs of the 2005 Bernard Baudry Chinon "Les Grezeaux" while eating a pan-fried grass-fed NY Strip steak with a nice port wine reduction sauce.

The Luneau was singing as it has been, and the Baudry went terrifically well with the steak. The saltiness of the steak crust was a great complement to the minerality, structure, and iodine notes of the Chinon. What a great pairing.

I am so excited about Loire wine, it's hard to put into words. I'll try to drink a non-Loire wine this week, but it'll be tough to break this Loire habit.

2005 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

Popped and poured and aired in the glass for a little while. Dark opaque garnet to purple color. Painfully young right now, but what great potential. Nose is steeped in blackberry, black currant, and tons of tobacco and pencil shavings. Stern structure, but really nice sweet fruit paired with a salty dryness and some sous-bois. Lovely wine that has many, many years to go until maturity. Went tremendously well with NY Strip Steak tonight and roasted beets. Can be had for $15.99 at the Wine Exchange right now, and a laughable tariff for a wine of this quality.

2004 Couly-Dutheil Chinon Clos de l'Echo (France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon)

Dark opaque garnet red color. Powerful nose of tar, green pepper, eucalyptus, and black currant. Powerful palate presence that shows tons of structure and good balance. Finishes great with some dark (80%+) chocolate. Still feels primary, but seems to have the stuffing to improve for many years and hold for another many. Given my only recent experience with Chinon, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with providing a definitive drinking window, but based on my experience with other areas, I'd say this is 5 years minimum from the early part of the drinking window and should hold for at least 10 years.

DINNER CHEZ PELZ - (3/23/2008)

Casual dinner at our house with another couple.

With fresh gulf shrimp in Spanish tapas style:

• 2006 Pierre Sparr Riesling Reserve - France, Alsace, Alsace AOC
  Was good again tonight, although with noticeably more fruit than the Luneau-Papin. The fruit had almost tropical elements to it but stayed in the apple and pear spectrum afterall. Was another great food match tonight.

With little neck clams Portuguese style (with dry chorizo and white wine broth)

and

Fresh Bluefin Tuna Sashimi:

• 2005 Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Le L D'Or - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine
  Amazing wine. Great minerality, great delineation, great finesse, great acidity, great roundness and no hard edges. To describe this wine in terms of fruit, misses the point of this wine, IMO, so I won't attempt. It is very floral, racy, zingy, and fun. Paired as well with the food tonight as any food/wine pairing I've ever tried. At the $16 I managed to snag this, this is a case buy.


• 2000 Domaine Ste. Michelle Luxe - USA, Washington, Columbia Valley
  This was not good. Very course bead, almost like one dropped a tablet into fizzy water. Very bitter on the finish and hollow on the mid-palate. We all tried and poured our glasses, and ultimately the bottle, down the sink.

With Ham and green beans

and

Veal shank provencal style:

• 1989 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  Popped and poured. A slightly browning edge at first, but with air, the color becomes solid dark garnet red. The aromas of this leap out of the glass and I swear you could smell it from feet away. Leafy mushroom, earth, truffle, and cassis wrapped into a round, fully mature body that leads into a long, long finish. Just a joy to drink and although I think this has many years left in the tank, it is drinking positively stunning right now with all the secondary and tertiary flavors one could wish for. This is a benchmark wine for me. Not only for Chinon, but in general. One of the best wines I have ever tasted. Goes without saying that at less than $50 per bottle, this has to be one of the finest wine values in the world.

Assorted Cheeses and Easter Cake:

• 1998 Patrick Lesec Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Galets Blonds - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  I suspect this wine was minimally corked. It was so subtle that the fruit was completely unaffected, but the nose was in my opinion. With that said, it still drank nicely and we almost finished the bottle. Definitely a more old-school wine in flavor profile that seems to emphasize the Grenache component very much. Very ripe year though, so viscosity was high. Plenty of underbrush/garrigue to match the kirsch notes this wine showed. Nowhere near over the hill. Was a great match for the cheeses.