So I was in Seattle on business anyway, and my wife decided she would join me and we'd get the old gang together, a group of friends who used to have some damned fine wine dinner parties when we used to live up there.
Having just come from Portland, where I had found the most amazing wine shop...which is actually a butcher shop...I had brought a few treasures with me. It turned out to be a great night for wine.
The wine shop/butcher shop is one of those fine entrepreneurial places wine lovers dream about. Phil's Meat Market is a small specialty butcher shop in the NW area of Portland. Unprepossessing exterior, in a small mini-strip, it has some spectacular meat on display (Kobe All Beef Franks, anyone?). Unfortunately, I couldn't buy any meats as I was on the road; if I lived there, I would definitely shop there, though. I could tell the owner was a wine guy, because he had some decent wines displayed and stacked around (well, there was the stack of Silver Oak, but I can forgive him for catering to the crowds, I guess).
The rep I was with suggested I go downstairs. I did. My eyes began to widen, and I stumbled from one rack to another in this little cellar cellar. Wow! Row upon row of Sauternes and Barsacs. Lovely tobacco-brown Yquems and Rieussecs and such. Bin after bin of Oregonian Pinots. Bordeaux. Burgundy. Rhone. Barolos and Brunellos.
Phil joined us. This is a man who became passionate about wine, so he started indulging that passion; he buys it mainly because he likes it and wants to, and sells enough of it to keep it profitable. But mostly he likes wine, wine and food, and wine and people.
I held up a bottle and Phil said, "Ha! You found the Ken Wright!! Good for you." He had a 1995 Ken Wright Canary Hill Pinot Noir. For $45. I asked if he was sure he wanted to sell it for that price, as I would understand if he wanted to mark it up a bit more. He sold it to me for $40 instead. Got a bottle of Ponzi 2004 as well. Then he handed me a bottle of Sokol-Blosser Redlands 1990! And said, "Here. Take this one. Gratis. If it's good, enjoy it. If it isn't, pour it down the drain."
Fast forwarding a couple of days, and we are at dinner. Lightly seared Ahi Tuna Nicoise. Pinot is served.
Ken Wright Canary Hill Pinot Noir, Willamette, 1995: Superb wine, fully aromatic with crushed cherries and spices. Medium-full in the mouth, silky textured, good acid grip, soft tannins. Succulent, seductive, but not in any way over-the-top of gobby. A clean sweet-fruit style of west coast PN with plenty of vigor and years to go before it even begins to peak.
Gevrey-Chambertin, Phillippe Naddef, 1989: A good sturdy well made commune Burg. Bit questionable at first because the cork was not in the best of shape and there was funk in the bottle. But operating on the sound premise that PN is the very last wine you want to make hasty assumptions about, we swirled and waited. Ahhh. What was funky became earthy and mushroomy. The fruit had topped out, but the tertiary qualities were coming on strong, and the wine was a lovely match for the ahi. Wet leaf, mushrooms, saddle leather---the usual suspects; but the surprisingly sturdy and highly acid structure was the marvel here. What began as a questionable and suspected weak bottle kept coming on stronger and stronger and stronger....
Sokol-Blosser Redlands PN, 1990: Light in color, compared to the other two, but still holding forth. Surprisingly good fruit, albeit showing some fade. Still, the flavor and succulence was there, just muted a bit. Not so much old as well-toned and elegant, this was a wine that requested attention...and got it, gladly. For folks that don't think the new world wines, and especially new world pinots, don't age well----think again!
Oh, yeah, we had a couple of Champagnes to start out the night, so I should comment on them, I suppose.
Delbeck Brut Reserve 1999: Very consistent throughout the several bottles I've had. Good, classic, old style champagne; the stuff the big marques are doing less and less of these days.
Veuve Clicquot, La Grande Dame, 1995: I confess I drink almost no Veuve any more, since I think the quality has gone downhill commensurate with the expansion of the brand. But this Widow lived up to its other nom: big; really, really big. Full, expansive in the nose and on the palate, with lots of toast and fresh baked bread, even a little butterscotch. This is a umami champagne. Nice to see that not all has degraded in the house of the Widow.
