N/V Bellevista, Franciacorta Brut:
12.5% alcohol; steady bead, clean and bright in the mouth with a hint of fruit sweetness and a fairly compact delivery. A pleasant bubbly but overpriced at $42, unless you’re really enamored of this style.
1999 Hamacher, Pinot Noir:
While I am a huge fan of wines that impress as being “from their place,” I have no problem with a wine that tastes like it came from Chambolle-Musigny, even if it didn’t. This bottle smelled and tasted like a good vintage of Chambolle-Musigny from Mugnier; feminine, vibrant, harmonious, complex and the perfect balance of tannin, acidity and intense flavors with plenty of red fruit, some dark fruit, a hint of milk chocolate and great purity on the finish. Heavenly today, but no rush to drink. Bordering on profound. 13%.
1999 St. Innocent, Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vnyd.:
Big wine and somewhat disjointed; lots of intense fruit but a not so pleasant tartness and a lack of integration and complexity; perhaps I opened this too young – we’ll leave this to tomorrow and see what happens. 13.6%.
Day two: more together but this is just huge; it doesn’t go past ‘pinot’ but it pushes the limits. Requires strongly flavored food.
2006 Overnoy, Arbois-Pupillin:
Day in, day out, my favorite wine in the cellar; pomegranate color, scents and flavors, spice, earthiness, underbrush and something vaguely animale; translucent, original, filled with character and easy to drink; 12.5% alcohol. My idea of what wine should be and, this house does it in every/any vintage.
2005 Vissoux, Moulin à Vent Les Deux Roches:
An embarrassment of riches – after the fine preceding wine, I am undone; 13% alcohol; fresh, black-raspberry and face powder nose with accents of stone; rich, deep and almost sumptuous in the mouth, lots of dark fruit, a red fruit edge, a complex and considerable mineral element, and, perfect balance; a wash of mineral flavors and impressions on the finish. As close to the perfect MaV as one can come and a joy to drink. Drinks well now and will keep for years.
Best, Jim