Five of us gathered last week for a small birthday dinner. All wines were served blind, with dinner.
Flight #1:
2005 Sojourn Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. This first wine is a bit cloudy in appearance. I find the nose to be quite interesting, especially as the night progresses. There is a deep core of sweet sous bois and crushed raspberry aromas, but also notes of dried herbs, funky leafiness, root beer and those white candy cigarettes that dance around the edges. Much later in the evening, a strong milk chocolate and a confectionary note emerge—I think somebody mentioned Skittles candy shells, and I can certainly relate to that. In the mouth, it has a fairly hefty sense of weight and veers toward the plusher side of things texturally. There is also a very bright tingly pink citrus note running through the wine that makes it feel a bit awkward at this stage. If finishes with a very spicy oak accent, and there is a bit of a club soda/sparkling Pellegrino sensation that needs to be resolved with some bottle age. While a bit jumbled now, I really came to like this more and more as the night wore on, and I have high hopes for it once it settles down a bit.
2005 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir Beaux Freres Vineyard Ribbon Ridge. The color here is darker and the nose more dense than wine #1. The aromatics lean toward autumn leaves, tart red berries, decayed earth, browning apple peel and cola. There is better balance on the palate here, and the mouthfeel suggests full-ish body and plush, rounded tannins. The flavor profile features chocolate, darker berries, black cherry and toasted herbs and spices carrying through to the finish, on which I detected a faint hint of heat. This also is likely to benefit from some time in the cellar.
2004 Frederic Magnien Gevrey-Chambertin Vielles Vignes. The scent of farm animals out in the barnyard is the first and most obvious aroma that greets the nose. After a good while, it does begin to subside just enough to reveal more of a bright red cherry, light caramel, dried leaves, and leather profile. It is quite crisp and a bit lean in the mouth, with a hollow feeling through the mid-palate. The fruit is tight and taut, with dried red cherry and tea leaf flavors overshadowed by a big acidic tang. Darker, more toasted elements and more tannic sensations come in on the narrow finish.
Flight #2:
1996 Lorenzo Corino Barbera d’Asti Case Corini La Barla. This wine displays that quintessential nose of a sweaty cowboy in leather chaps getting off of his horse and stepping in a giant steaming pile of horse manure before heading into the tobacco barn to roast a green pepper. But underneath that, there is a distinct flirtation with some deep, perfumed incense, black currants and Christmas fruit cake aromas. I kind of like that crazy combination. The palate is a bit tame in comparison, featuring big doses of dark berry fruits and lots of spiciness, but also noticeable (but not especially hot-feeling) alcohol. There is a nice seamless texture, too, but most at the table just can’t get past the aromas of the cowboy in chaps and manure-crusted boots. My guess was for whatever reason an older Loire Cab Franc. Way off.
1997 Fattoria Montellori Salamartano Toscana IGT. On this night, this is definitely a step towards a cleaner, gentler style of wine. It offers a soft and approachable nose of milk chocolate cocoa powder, confectioner sugar, warm hazelnuts, red currants and sweet campfire smoke. In the mouth, it has good amplitude and volume and a pleasingly subdued level of intensity. It offers a generous mouthful of warm cherry and raspberry flavors that are ripe but not overdone or roasted. Plush tannins come in on the dark chocolate and black cherry flavored finish. This was probably the group’s wine of the night.
1991 Fattoria dei Barbi (Colombini) Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna del Fiore. When first poured in the glass, this Brunello offers up aromas of mixed berries, soft violets, red licorice rope and fudge brownie. Perplexingly, however, the bouquet fairly quickly tightens up and pretty much goes mute as it sits in the glass. Sadly, things are no better on the palate, where it is austere, very dry and highly acidic, with some mouthpuckering red fruit. The finish is a bit clipped and terse. Overall, it seems like it must be on the downside—a disappointment for a wine I was very much looking forward to trying.
1998 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. The nose shows super-rich creme de cassis, violets, and raspberry coulis at first, but with air starts to show a darker fruit profile, along with noticeable bell pepper notes. In the mouth, it unfolds with flavors of black currant, plum and more cassis, along with the green pepper note. It is bigger-boned than other wines from this flight, but has some bright acidity to keep it feeling fresh. It has a fine sense of structure and good balance, finishing clean and fresh.
In flight one, the Beaux Freres eeked out the Soujourn for group wine of the flight. In flight two, it was the Montellori getting a clean sweep, with the Spottswoode close to a unanimous second.
-Michael