Last Saturday night, my wife and I enjoyed a rare night out on the town with another couple. We opted for a BYO place in Woburn, MA. As Adam warned, La Stanza Diva was a hoot! What a fun evening, with lots of great wine and food galore. We ate leftovers for days!
My notes on the wines:
1988 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Vintage Rare . As I felt when first encountering this bottling last January, this is just plain good stuff! The bouquet here offers up sweet pears, clover honey, mineral and lots of ginger. Later, it folds in some biscuity aromas, as well. In the mouth, it starts out on the tart side but quickly fans out to show excellent presence and balance on the palate. It is medium bodied and features flavors of candied citrus and light honey. It is beautifully elegant and precise and also seemingly right in the zone right now.
1998 Poderi di Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliano. The appearance is a hazy, dark garnet color, with very little signs of bricking. Initially, it is not giving much on the nose, but with some aggressive swirling, moderate notes of dark raspberries, violets and dark earth emerge. This is a rather full-bodied effort, with abundant, big and fudgy tannins and a fine acid streak running down the middle of the chocolaty palate. It finishes with spices, bitter chocolate and a tart citrus note. Overall, it is not quite integrated yet, and actually doesn’t seem ready to drink. Try again in a year or two.
1996 Fontanabianca Barbaresco Sori Burdin. Perhaps true to the vintage differences, this is altogether more serious and austere than the 1997 drunk alongside it. It needs plenty of air to get anything going, and then offers up very distinctive aromas of green olive brine and capers to go along with dusty red currants and a touch of dark earth. It is very cool and structured in the mouth, presenting itself as a backward wine, especially when compared to the forward ’97. However, it is clear that there is excellent concentration and length to be found in this wine. It comes across as crisply-textured, very fine-knit and generally well-bred. It is elegant, yet with a solid drive that carries through right to the acid-heavy, fine-grained finish. After 2 nights in the refrigerator, the second half of the bottle offered a more perfumed and fruity nose that added in violets and fruitcake elements to augment the dusty red currant, without the olive note. The palate was a bit more open-knit, but otherwise it was still a bit tight. I would hold for 4-5 years.
1997 Fontanabianca Barbaresco Sori Burdin. The aromatics here just leap right out of the glass—featuring warm roasted red fruits, tar oil, truffles and coffee notes that feel velvety rich in the nose. It is beautifully mouth-filling, with a solidly dense mid-palate. It feels a bit more medium than full-bodied, and more elegant than blockbuster-oriented. The red fruit is juicy and well-concentrated. There are extremely fine tannins and a solid acidity that drive the finish along with excellent zip and length. This is drinking extremely well right now, in my opinion. Two nights later, it is just as good, adding in a bit of funk on the nose. My Wine of the Night.
1997 Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino Altero. The nose is quite fine in a sort of understated way--at various times offering up aromas of mixed berry torte, confectionary sugar, caramel-covered green apple, clean animal fur and notes of menthol. It is very juicy in the mouth, with warm, roasted cherry fruit. It expands beautifully in the mid-palate but then cinches up again toward the back of the palate. It is rather silky-textured, with an airy feel to it. The finish is quite long, but feels tight with its chalky, gripping tannins drying things out a bit. This is very nice, but could use a few more years to unfold.
1999 Hastae Barbera d’Asti Quorum. This has an outstanding new-world type of nose, featuring sweet raspberry coulee, dark roasted espresso, earth and spicy cedar. The next night, it folds in dusty cherries, raw leather, fruitcake and incense for a real nasal cornucopia. It is deeply concentrated and seamless on the palate, showing huge amplitude. It has plenty of unctuous blue fruits, but remains cool and fine-grained. It has a big palate presence but does not seem overdone or out of balance, though the acidity feels fairly recessive in this wine’s DNA. It has a cool, dusty, chalky blueberry and cedar finish that is very clean, with outstanding length. My runner-up on Wine of the Night.
1999 Tua Rita Perlato del Bosco Toscana IGT. Aromas of crushed red berries, tobacco leaf, green pepper and clean barnyard are evident on the nose of this 100% Sangiovese offering. In the mouth, it seems woodsy, chewy and rugged, with tobacco leaf and green pepper to go along with black currant fruit.
2001 Margan Semillon Botrytis Hunter Valley. From 375 ml. There are showy floral notes of orange blossom, rosewater, singed citrus rind, dried apricots, sticky candied pineapple, spices and smoke on the nose of this Aussie sweet wine. Flavors of apricots, gooey orange fruits and botrytis creamsicle lead to a very long, finely calibrated finish. It is rich but not overly heavy in the mouth, and offers some refreshing sweetness to end a lovely evening.
-Michael