This past Saturday night was supposed to be our local tasting group's annual tasting where we kick out the jams a bit more than usual. However, for a number of reasons, a lot of folks couldn't make it, so a small band of brothers pressed on with an undercard of sorts.
We started with a pair of 1996 Champagnes served in the living room of our host, along Adam's homemade hot artichoke dip, Ed’s special mushroom spread, assorted artisinal cheeses, nuts and dried fruits.
1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. This is a much paler color than the Pol Roger served alongside it. On the nose, it is tightly coiled around an elegant center of chalk, seawater, slate, ash and some lemon peel and floral aromas. For me, over the course of about an hour and 3 glasses at different temperatures, it never really deviates or grows up and out of that core base, which was a bit of a disappointment, really. In the mouth, it is rather fine with a sense of pinpoint control and texture, but again it never really reaches out and grabs me or evolves into anything extra-special. It is medium-bodied, with genteel flavors of soft apples and caramel in a narrow beam of flavor. Also, each glass seems to lose its bubbles far too quickly, and I felt like I had to rush to enjoy it while I could before it began tasting flat. Looking over at CellarTracker’s 190 notes on this, just under 5% of them are anything less than rave reviews, so maybe this was just a less-than-pristine bottle somehow? Adam’s take was that this needed more time and he’s going to forget about his remaining bottles for awhile.
1996 Pol Roger Champagne Brut. In comparison, the Pol Roger is immediately easy to like, showing a darker gold color and a large, very fresh and persistent bead. On the nose, it offers immediate gratification in its aromatics of fresh bread dough, orange rind, candied ginger, plum skins, nectarine pit and faint schist (along with a hint of burnt matchstick). It is gently mouth-filling, with notable red fruit notes draped over a masculine structure. There is also a striking bright note that helps carry a fine sense of balance all the way through the dry, persistent finish. The bright flavors of cherry, browned pears, apple skins, lime rind and caramel show some depth right now, but this probably has even more to give down the road.
We then reluctantly alighted to the dining room table. However, once there, we were able to dig into some delicious pate of foie gras and assorted crackers and breads served with a pair of late harvest Pinot Gris that could not have been more different from one another.
2005 Inman Family Pinot Gris OGV "Blonde" Late Harvest Pinot Gris. From 375 ml bottle. This offering is very pale color in comparison to its flight-mate. It offers up an elegant and lightly-scented nose of soft powdered chalk, fine minerality, rich melon, forest ferns and a distinct white peach kicker. It has a lovely creamy yet fine texture, with flavors of custard, rock candy and lots of chalky elements. Overall, it is not particularly sweet, but there is an occasional kick of sugary flavor toward the back that can surprise you. It dances lightly on top without much of a bottom note, but it stays true to itself all the way through to the elegant clean finish. I was afraid it was bound to be overwhelmed by the Zind-Humbrecht (which in some ways it was), yet both Andy and Adam elected it one of their top 3 white wines of the evening—so that is saying something!
2000 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive. I guess I am just a sucker for this style of Alsatian wine. The color here is a bright orange/dark gold. The killer nose just jumps out of the glass screaming of deep, rich dried apricots, vanilla bean paste, botrytis, fresh caramel, clementines and fresh cut flowers. It is nicely viscous in the mouth, with a moderately oily texture. It is medium-bodied and pretty sweet-tasting, but with some bitter toasted wood elements providing some counterpoint. Rich apricot, vanilla bean and spicebox flavors cascade to the finish, which is a bit tighter than the mid-palate, providing a sense that this will just get better with time in the cellar.
Next up was a fantastic salad of mixed greens, pistachios and blue cheese with a sherry-champagne vinaigrette. And the wine served was a serendipitously stupendous pairing.
1990 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile Vendange Tardive. There were concerns when the cork was first pulled that this might be corked, but thankfully it just proved to be some funky stank that blew off after just a minute or so in the glass. And then…POW! Man, this is just gorgeous. The wine is in possession of what seems like an infinitely complex, limpid and beautiful bouquet that had me scribbling like crazy to capture the notes of honeycomb, lanolin, beeswax, corn pollen, bergamots, forest greens, talc and faint kerosene. In the mouth, the wine is nearly dry, with finely-delineated and precise flavors of minerals, mealy citrus fruits and black tea. It finishes long and complete. A fabulous showing.
We paused for a quick vote on the white/sparkling wines. The winner was the 1990 Trimbach (3 first place votes, 1 second, 1 third), followed by the 1996 Pol Roger (1 first, 2 seconds, 2 thirds), the 1996 Dom (1 first, 1 third), the 2005 Inman (1 second, 1 third) and the 2000 Zind-Humbrecht (1 second).
Adam then served up a little granite of raspberry palate-cleanser to lead us into a flight of 3 vintages of Guigal Hermitage.
1978 E. Guigal Hermitage. This first wine in the line-up turned out to be terribly CORKED, what a shame!
1986 E. Guigal Hermitage. Served from 375 ml. The color of the 1986 is healthy enough, with a cloudy ruby core and some obvious bricking at the rim. The nose at first is all tobacco leaf, with some underlying elements that come and go over time—such as iron, dried blood, animal fur, mahogany wood, leather, bay leaf and iodine. None of these are especially effusive, and indeed the nose is actually pretty taut throughout all of these swirling changes. In the mouth, it has medium weight and much of the bottom bass note has gone. Instead, it is surprisingly fun, with red and darker fruits mixing with earth and leathery notes on the palate. It hangs in there for a while, but after a few hours it is pretty much shot, with the acids turning shrill and the flavors running away and hiding.
1990 E. Guigal Hermitage. In a lot of ways, the 1990 is somewhat similar to its older sibling, but everything is just done in a more complete and impressive fashion. It has a darker, more opaque color. It offers up a big, moderately open old-world bouquet of horsehide, strong tobacco leaf, loamy turned earth and gentle menthol notes. As it gains some air, it brings in mature aromas of black cherry and blueberry, but also some meat and tomato leaf notes. It is full-bodied in the mouth, yet never feels heavy, carrying along a solid spine of acidity and a finely-tuned sense of structure. There is just the faintest hint of sweetness to the black currant and dark cherry fruit and there are some chalky tannins that seem to still be able to coat the enamel of the front teeth. It picks up some spiciness on the long, chalky finish. I think this bottle was drinking better than either of the two Adam and I tried together several months earlier.
While we were contemplating the Hermitages and before we started passing ‘round the quartet of 2001 Bordeaux assembled before us, Adam went out to brave the torrential rains and howling winds to grill up some amazingly tasty lamb and beef burgers on grilled Syrian bread. The beef was laced with molasses, mustard, soy and Worcestershire, while the lamb was mixed with feta and cilantro. Both were simply delicious. The same can be said for a few of the Bordeaux, as well.
2001 Chateau Gruaud Larose St. Julien. This saw about an hour or two in the decanter before being poured. At first, the nose seems a bit Rhone-ish, with aromas of roasting meats, dried blood, camphor, bacon fat and cracked pepper. With some time in the glass, though, it changes and grows and seems to find its St. Julien center--pulling in notes of new leather, tobacco, chocolate, a good dose of loamy earth and dark berries. It is moderately rich in the mouth, with solid levels of concentration to its black currant and dark chocolate flavors. It stays cool-fruited and even a bit regally aloof right through to the finish, where chalky tannins come in late. I like this a good deal and feel it offers plenty of enjoyment in its current state.
2001 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac. The Pichon Baron has my favorite aromatic profile of the four 2001 Bordeaux assembled here. It is lovely, with scents of sweet incense, sandalwood/pencil shavings, spice cake and a sense of sweet dark fruits down beneath it all. It offers lots of cool blackberry and black currant fruits in the mouth, with good lift and acidic balance. There is a fine sense of class and structure and a spicy, mineral-tinged finish that has a great deal of energy and length to it. This hit me just right this night.
2001 Chateau Cos d’Estournel St. Estephe. In contrast, try as I might, I just couldn’t get a lot out of this wine on this night. The nose takes a very long time to open up even a little, and when it does, it reveals reticent notes of lavender and garrigue, cassis and rawhide. Coming back to it even much later only reveals added dimensions of green pepper and scorched earth. This really should have been given a long decant. In the mouth, it is a bit narrow on the entry, but then grows quite a bit through the mid-palate. There it offers black fruits and chocolate flavors to go along with big tannins and tightly controlled acidity. One can sense a lot of potential most certainly, but I just wasn’t feeling the love the way I wanted to.
2001 Chateau Leoville Poyferre St. Julien. The nose is dense with Belgian chocolate, camphor, sweet earth, kirsch, black raspberry and charred oak aromas. It is similarly dense on the palate, showing medium- to full body, a lithe texture and a tensile structure. It sports fine feathery tannins at first, but they slowly grow denser with time in the glass. Chocolate and dark fruits flow through to the chalky finish, which does show a slight hint of alcoholic warmth.
A quick straw poll revealed the favorite of the four to be the Pichon Baron (4 firsts and 1 third), followed by the Gruaud Larose (5 seconds), the Cos d'Estournel (1 first, 3 thirds) and the Poyferre (1 third).
By this time, we were pretty well stuffed with great food and lots of outstanding wine. But were we through? No way! We needed some palate pick-me-ups in the form of a trio of 2003 California Rhone Ranger selections.
2003 Saxum Cuvee Rocket Block James Berry Vineyard Paso Robles. Holy crap, talk about a wake-up call to the palate! This simply forces your brain to totally re-calibrate your palate in a very short time span. All night the palate has been coddled by old-world sensibilities and now it is being body-slammed to the mat with no mercy. Even if some of my fellow drinkers (names withheld to protect them) couldn’t make the leap, I was up for this! This wine is huge, brash, bold and exciting. The nose is huge and sweet with oodles of bright raspberry fruit, licorice rope, prune juice, scorched earth and confectioner’s sugar. There is a sense of the exotic played out in a brazen display here. In the mouth, it is absolutely mouth-filling, with intense spiciness to go with juicy red fruit coulis flavors that seem just packed to the gills. Eventually, it comes at you in waves of super-ripe, fun red fruits and chocolate flavors. The tannins are there but feel well-tamed and the finish is extremely long. It is so obviously hedonistic at this stage of the game, and you have to be in the mood for that. In retrospect, I’d love a chance to sit down with this wine solo for an extended period and see where I end up with it.
2003 Carlisle Syrah Bennet Valley. This Syrah features an earthy nose with aromas of bark, leaves and dried dirt to go with deep notes of kirsch, black cherry and tomato paste. It seems pretty packed full of meaty goodness. In the mouth, it is dark and fairly rich, with blackberry fruit and a good amount of glycerin feel to go with a streak of cleansing acidity. It is fairly heavy-bodied, but with a fine texture and well-proportioned tannins. It finishes clean, but there is a sense that this needs more time to show greater complexity on the palate. I'd give it 2-3 more years.
2003 Pax Syrah Obsidian Knights Valley. I find this wine to have a decidedly sweet edge to the nose, with almost over-ripe black raspberry cream and black cherry aromatics to go along with a big hit of road tar and some raw meat, moss and star anise notes. It is spicy and extremely tannic to my taste. It is not overly rich or thick, just very young and tight with its tannic structure dominant. This needs probably 3-5 years before approaching again.
The Saxum received 4 first place votes in this flight, while the Carlisle garnered 2 (We had 6 votes, as Adam's wife joined us for this flight when she got back from being out for the evening). The Pax had 1 second place vote and 5 thirds.
And finally, to put the bow on top, we hit 3 sweet wines to go with a selection of specialty baklava pastries and a variety of cheesecake wedges.
1992 Wittmann Albalonga Westhofener Steingrube Trockenbeerenauslese Rheinhessen. I had never before tried the Albalonga variety, so this was an exciting opportunity, and the wine did not disappoint. It has a gorgeous gold and orange sheen to it. Its bouquet displays deep aromas of candied apricots, orange blossoms, rose water, zesty orange peel and exotic spices. It has a lovely softness on the palate with a delightful level of sweetness. It shows no hard edges whatsoever and offers a solid sense of freshness and vibrancy with its citrusy flavors and crisp acidity. For the depth of orange marmalade sweetness it offers, it actually feels feathery and sophisticated on the palate. The finish is not quite as long as I might like, but it is clean and fun and well-suited to our desserts. This wine garnered 4 of the 5 first place votes for this flight.
1999 Santa Barbara Winery Sauvignon Blanc Late Harvest Lafond Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley. The color is very dark orange. The nose is extremely rich with notes of something like dark chocolate covered mandarin oranges. There is also an odd and distracting musky yet bitter note that makes me wrench my nose out of the glass from time to time. In the mouth, it has a holy-shit level of sweetness that feels like way too much. It is extremely dense and viscous and full-bodied with the essence of apricot marmalade. There is just barely enough acidity hanging around to keep it drinkable, but on the whole it is just too sugary to drink on a night like this.
2003 Chateau La Tour Blanche Sauternes. Pale gold color. Classic aromas of botrytis cream, clover honey, apricots, clove, crème brulee, butterscotch and a soft wood note. It is thick and viscous in the mouth, but avoids being cloying with faint but brassy acidity. Flavors of vanilla, apricots, honey and creamsicle carry through to a lengthy finish. A pleasure.
The Wittman was favored by 4 tasters and the La Tour Blanche by 1.
And thus ended the carnage. It was a wonderful but very late night (damned daylight savings switchover!) and I’m tired just thinking back on it. But I guess it is good practice for our extravaganza next month.
-Michael