A night together with lots of friends, and some bottles of wine.
We arrived home, put the whites in the refrigerator, and started with a couple of bottles of 2005 Texier Côte du Rhône Brézème. I was impressed to hear that a few of my friends have been buying this regularly as a Go-To wine, and many of us enjoyed the fresh pure fruit. One person found it too "light", to which I replied, Yes, it has fresh acidity. But then we all have our own skewed palates don't we.
I was now ready for the 2006 Hiedler Grüner Veltliner Löss which was a lovely dollop of rich fruit. At first it seemed a bit short. But with air and into the second bottle it had some lovely length and enough interest to more than justify the lowly price point.
Again the crowd was divided over the 2005 Breton Bourgueil Nuits D'Ivresse. The intelligent ones found it alive and thrilling, while the mentally-challenged ones thought something was wrong with the wine. Those are the people you just can't trust.
The first bottle of 2005 Montevertine Pian del Ciampolo didn't have much focus and left me underwhelmed, but by the second bottle I could appreciate the delicate feather of fruit that managed to maintain itself and walk the line of gentle fragility while still being vibrant. Very tasty.
Very primary was the 2006 Oupia Minervois, hard for me to dig after the Pian del Ciampolo, but lovers of fruit had their wine here.
Instead, I cracked the 2006 Pépière Clos des Briords, which everyone knows and loves. And had just enough intensity and sparkle to liven the palate for the Basil Hayden Kentucky Bourbon, which was a fragrant pleasure to drink and made the Knob Creek 9 year Bourbon seem clumsy.
Good times.
The 05 Brezeme sounds like the kind of wine I crave these days.