Brief comments on some recent wines (no notes taken at the time):
1997 Montrose, St. Estephe, Bordeaux: Some wines are like ballerinas, they may be lighter but that only means they can leap higher, and this may be one. This medium-red wine is at peak, and it never had the body or potential of a great vintage like '90, but as it is right now it outperforms every other wine I had from this vintage with thrillingly spicy, complex aromatics that make your heart race from several feet away. Delicious, and should hold here for another year or three. Otto would have loved it.
2005 Dr. Burklin-Wolf Riesling, Pfalz, "Estate", "Old Vine": I was amused by the English on this bottle, something I would normally think suspiciously inauthentic and pandering, but when this ended up in a remainder bin at essentially $12.50 (from $21), I bit, and I'm glad I did. This was one of the richest, fullest-bodied young rieslings I've ever had, and but for the complexity I might have suspected it of being Californian. Excellent accompaniament for rich and sweet Alaskan scallops on warm spinach salad.
1993 Gunderloch Auslese: Such a nice impression did the wine above make that when I prepared some chinese dumplings in a lightly sweet spicy ginger sauce last night, I chose this wine which has been in my cellar forever and, I worried, might have been too long in the tooth. Should've asked David first--not long in the tooth at all, it was gorgeous. Deep golden color typical for its age, with all the right flavors and superb balance. Does Gunderloch ever make a bad wine?
2000 Domaine Francois Legros "Les Bousselots" Premier Cru, Nuits St. George: Nice Burgundy wine but slightly off it's game from about two years ago--asleep or going bye bye? I have absolutely no idea. We drank it anyway.
2005 Mongeard-Mugneret Bourgogne: I purchased this for $15 with the thought that with a year like 2005 and realistically low expectations, I couldn't go too far wrong for so little. So, did I? Well, it was even simpler than expected, but the nose being better than the palate, we corked the rest for the next day where we found it only a little improved and very boring. Two thumbs down.
). Though you say it is at peak, I might slightly disagree: drinking well, but I would mind a few more years to get a bit more secondary character in there.