Dinner last night with Spencer, Scott, Jason and David at Dish in Hartford. Once we got past the hideous traffic and parking issues, it was a really fun evening with good friends and a fun mix of wines.
1999 Nikolaihof Riesling Spätlese Steiner Hund (Kamptal, Austria)
Staggering; starts out with a gorgeous scent combining all kinds of orchard fruits and flowers with nut oils, herbs, minerals and faintly sweaty/sulfur notes. The fireworks follow in the mouth; there's an tremendous freshness and purity to the fruit flavours and the rocky minerality is so intense and vivid that it feels like drinking something that came from quartz, not grapes. Power without weight, and a sense of incredible elegance and finesse. Amazing wine!
1995 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne
Great stuff, full of rich white fruited and biscuity flavours mingled with yeasty notes, touches of almond and citrus zest. Incredibly polished and elegant with a creamy, velvety texture and an expansive finish.
2004 Dönnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Spätlese trocken (Nahe, Germany)
Starts out with citrus, grapefruit and touches of peach over a bed of rocks and mineral salts, with air this develops and gains some fusel and lemon oil characteristics. While pleasant this isn't particularly interesting, certainly not showing the same depth or dynamicism as Dönnhoff's sweeter wines from Dellchen in 04 and it's completely blown away by the ethereal 99 Steiner Hund at the table.
1989 Domaine Monpertuis (Paul Jeune) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Tradition Vieilles Vignes
Corked and bretty!
1999 Noël Verset Cornas
Quite funky aromatics with plenty of bandaid and iodine notes among black olives, leather and green herbs. Silken and polished in the mouth with bright acids, grainy tannins at the back end; very enjoyable.
1995 Noël Verset Cornas
Gorgeous aromatics that keep developing and expanding over the evening, starts out as an essence of olives, meat and leather and keeps picking up more smoky, earthy and herbal nuances with air. Incredibly polished, silky and finessed in the mouth with tannins mostly resolved and a long, meaty finish. Fantastic, my favourite of the reds.
1992 Raymond Trollat St. Joseph
Surprisingly dark in colour, showing no signs of its age with youthful dark fruited and black olive flavours merging seamlessly with leather, green herbs, ashy and earthy notes. There's a sense of calm here with a lightness of touch on the palate and good acids giving the flavours plenty of freshness.
1997 Ridge York Creek Petite Sirah
Waaay too young! Incredibly primary black fruits and oak, firm tannins - David sent me home with leftovers and it'll be interesting to see if this will smooth out/integrate a little with a day of air.
1994 Turley Hayne Vineyard Petite Sirah
No notes as my palate was tiring and I was focusing mostly on the 95 Verset and the Steiner Hund by this point. David will have to chip on this and the
1999 Gottfried Gerharz Waldlaubersheimer Otterberg Kerner Beerenauslese
... where my description goes as far as the AP number (7 778106 011 00, for those interested)
