WTN: Bottle of Angst dinner

Last night 11 of us from our tasting group got together at Jed's home in northern CT for a 'Bottle of Angst' dinner - where each person opened a really prized bottle (or in some cases quite a few of them) and brought an accompanying dish along. We ended up having a lot of food and some truly amazing wines.

1988 Henriot Champagne Cuvée des Enchanteleurs Brut
Really fun way to kick things off with a combination of toffee, vanilla cream, brioche, toasted almonds and hazelnuts carried on a silken, slightly creamy frame. Delicious stuff and I would have spent more time with this if Jed had not been decanting the

1961 Château Palmer
The bottle and cork smelled like something from a morgue at first with dead, decaying aromas - but the wine itself (once decanted) had a lot more to offer. Hypnotizing aromatics - old leather, violets, briary berry fruit, faint meaty hints and a savoury earthiness all combining into one incredible scent. Very light in the mouth with drying fruit, leather and a dusty character suggesting its best years are past and fading a little on the back end- but what an experience!

1999 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese (AP 19-00, regular bottling)
Freaking insane nose, as exotic as it gets with aromas of spearmint, guava, strawberries and minerals accented by smoky, spicy and faint petrol notes that emerge with some air. And then gets even more amazing in the mouth, as all the flavours come together seamlessly with such amazing precision and lightness; power without any sense of weight and tremendous persistence.

1990 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Auslese (AP 14-91)
Oh my. Amazing depth and breadth of flavour here with red fruits, spices, pear, minerals and developed smoky/burnished flavour elements; rich in the mouth but with an incredibly polished, glossy texture and fantastic length. (And the combination with the cardamom chicken curry - wow!)

1998 Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste. Catherine L'Inédit
Very enjoyable with ripe white fruits dusted with honey, spice and faint caramel notes suggesting a fair bit of botrytis - though I found this a little heavy and perhaps suffering from comparison with the truly amazing Hermannshöhle and Scharzhofberger.

1997 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares
The Portuguese menace shows up again. Yay for romance.

1968 Monte Real Bodegas Riojanas Rioja Gran Reserva
Beautiful stuff, bright raspberry and cherry flavours layered with developed leathery, truffle and forestal notes, drinking beautifully with tannins resolved and a gentle, silken elegance.

1990 Château Pape Clement
Knockout aromatics, smells as you're inside a humidor with the most vivid expression of cigar smoke and tobacco leaf I've ever experienced in a wine, and layers of cassis, gravel and even more smoky tobacco underneath. Fantastic richness and depth, tannic structure suggesting this still has plenty of time ahead and a long finish that's all cigar smoke and gravel.

1976 Dervieux-Thaize Côte-Rôtie La Viaillere
In its autumnal phase with mature black tea, dried meat, forestal elements and slightly tart red berries carried by bright acids, very light and silken although fading a little on the back end. Really enjoyable though with the meat lasagne.

1986 Gentaz-Dervieux Côte-Rôtie Cuvée Réservée Côte Brune
A real treat to taste a Gentaz! A truly kaleidoscopic flavour profile combining still-youthful red fruited flavours with smoke, ash, leather, bloody and meaty elements and a gravelly earthiness underneath, finishing long and meaty. Phenomenal.

1981 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
Initially a littly woody, but with a little air bright plum and blackcurrant flavours stand out with developed leather and tobacco notes, and some green pepper and herbal accents giving the fruit a high-toned, fresh feel. Yummy, but overshadowed by the

1983 Château Lafite-Rothschild
Mmm, this is fantastic. Such amazing aromatics combining graphite, cigar smoke, fresh herbs, leather, cassis and red fruits into one incredible scent - I could have kept smelling this through most of the evening if it didn't taste as great with a sense of power and finesse in the mouth and fantastic length.

1989 Château Lynch Bages
Incredibly youthful with a core of dark blackcurrant and plummy fruit surrounded by graphite, earthy and smoky nuances. The tannins are still quite firm and prominent on the back end; this is really built for the long haul.

2001 Château Lafite-Rothschild
Really tight and unyielding initially, but with some air this opens out out beautifully to offer youthful dark fruited flavours over a frame of graphite and cedar, with intriguing perfumed sandalwood and smoky aromatics developing with more time. Still very young, but already fantastic.

2002 Phelps Insignia
Huge stuff (especially following the older Bordeaux) with waves of ripe black fruits, toast, tar and vanilla; expansive and mouthcoating with tremendous power and richness but still very well balanced with chewy tannins and a long finish.

2001 Owen Roe Syrah DuBrul Vineyard
Others liked this a lot more than I did - I found this too extracted and goopy for my liking with too much oak and heat.

2004 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard
Blueberry concentrate with some dark chocolate, vanilla, cedar and toasty flavour elements making it a little more interesting. Enjoyable with a small pour, but not something I'd want to drink a lot of.

2004 Dain Wines Dandy Brousseau Vineyard
I can't remember if this was Pinot Noir or Syrah, but it tastes nothing like what I would expect/want from either with the fruit incredibly extracted and alcoholic.

1997 Château Mouton Rothschild
Really gorgeous stuff - blackberries, currants, truffle and cedar accented with some fresh green herbs and touches of soy over a frame that's rich but kept relatively light on its feet and very precise with bright acids and grainy tannins underneath.

2001 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Eiswein 'Junior'
Fantastic stuff that woke my palate up after the heavier young reds. Packed with bright peach, pear, apple, apricot and honeyed flavours over a solid base of slate and rocks. Very rich and sweet, but there's really bright acidity underneath that keeps it really precise and fresh and makes it so drinkable that a second pour was irresistable.

With my focus more on the Eiswein and the 97 Mouton by this time, I missed the 1983 Cockburn Vintage Port and only had a small pour of the 1985 Duckhorn Vineyards Merlot that Jed pulled late as an extra, with still fresh plum and red fruited flavours but a rather strong green streak of capsicum and herbs to round the night off (well, before one last sip of the Eiswein).

A really amazing evening with great company, food and some truly incredible wines - thanks to all for their generosity and to Jed for hosting all of us in his basement for an incredible time.

Wow, well f'ing done! And fantastic notes, thanks Salil.

It must have been a heck of a Riesling line-up when a bottle of L'Inedit from any vintage is outshone so dramatically.

Still waiting to taste my first 1961 Bordeaux--Palmer sounds like a decent place to start! And I envy you the '68 Riojanas and '83 Lafite (though I am opening an '83 Latour for my b-day in a few months!)

I like the Dain American Beauty PN but the two Dandy PN's I've had have both been as you described--alcoholic and in my opinion too intensely black-fruited for pinot--disappointing.

Keep up the good work...

-Michael

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for putting together the notes Salil.

I enjoyed but was not bowled over by the Henriot. I ended up drinking the Weinbach prior to the Muller and Donnhoff, so it was more impressive for me. I especially liked the richness of texture in the Weinbach.

The Muller and Donnhoff were two magnificent expressions of Riesling in totally different veins. The Muller was all precision and focused fruit, while the Donnhoff was equally focused but somehow expansive in its broader palate of aromatics/flavors. That's likely just a time issue, as the Muller was showing extremely young. My slight preference for the Donnhoff was mostly related to its sheer length on the palate. No stopwatch needed, more like a calendar.

Salil captured the essence of the Palmer. It was a joy to smell, but there was no way it could live up to it on the palate. That said, for a very low shoulder fill bottle it was a stunning aromatic experience once we got it out of the bottle!

I am always amazed at how youthful those old Rioja Grand Reservas show. The Riojanas was not exception, and despite being one of hte most elegant reds of the evening it was also one that really captured my attention with its mix of fruit and myriad aged aromas. I ended up sipping on some of it while eating a helping of the cardamom chicken (dish of the night by the way), and the combinaiton was nearly as good as it was with the Donnhoff.

The Pape Clement was showing very well. I enjoyed it more on the nose than the palate where i found it a bit muddy. The Lynch Bages was anything but, and still had enough tannin to cause actual pain. The two Lafites were a real treat, with the '83 very supple and the '01 a bit oaky, but just hinting at what it has in store for the future. The '97 Mouton was the surprise red of the night, as it showed great class and that Mouton exoticism in spades. I last had the '97 about 3 years ago & it did not show nearly as well.

The two Cote Roties (Salil - apparently we missed a shot at a third later) were good, but did not wow me. I was looking for more meaty character, but I would never turn away a glass of either.

The Montelena was the clear class of the American wines, with the Insignia a bruiser to say the least. The Owen Roe, Dain & Quilcedas were all too monolithically candy/fruity for my taste.

The '83 Cockburn Port was very good, well integrated and with plenty of red cherry/licorice/leather character and plenty of gas in the tank.

The Selbach Eiswein was fantastic.

Doesn't look like there was too much angst at that dinner

Nice lineup.

What a hedonistic evening you guys had!!!

Almost makes one want to move to Connecticut .

I'm particularly jealous of the 1961 Palmer. I've been forutunate enough to taste the 47 Cheval Blanc, but have never, ever had the 61 Palmer, which is what the Queen of England was served when the royal yacht docked in Bordeaux...
People I know who have had the wine within the past 5 years say that this is monumental, which leads me to believe that your bottle may not have been in tip-top condition for one reason or another.

Who brought such a wine to your tasting? Surely he/she is aware of its market value?

All the best,
Alex R.

[David M. Bueker]

Alex,

Agreed that the Palmer was not in absolutely top form, yet given the glories of the aromatics I cannot even imagine what a pristine bottle would be like. This one had a very low shoulder fill. I don't know what's "normal" for almost 50 year old wine.

It was provided by our consistently generous host, who acquired it from passive storage for something like a song compared to its market value. That said, the bottle had an awful smell, like moldy concrete, but thankfully the cork came out in one piece and the wine was unaffected by it.