Dinner at my place, served all the wines blind.
Daniel Vollenweider Riesling Spätlese Gold Capsule #09 Wolfer Goldgrube 2004
Retains a bright, youthful colour and a touch of CO2. Nice veggies and sweet apple with a touch of blackcurrant, good “vanilla” slate minerality, lovely ripeness and sweetness (almost as of an Auslese), round acidity. Slatier with airing, showing nice depth. Rating: 91(+?)
Donnafugata Corvo Mille E Una Notte 1995
Faintly plummy-pruney ruby-black colour, medium-plus gloss, pristine bottle. Ruby-black, slight pruney-purple hue. Graphite, stony minerality, freshly nutty oak (no longer overpowering at all, on the contrary, very well integrated), crystallized fruit, nice acids. Strongest showing of this wine yet. Fruitier, more rubbery, more candied, more horsey-animal with airing, closing down a little, as this remains young and crisp. “Italian and extraordinarily concentrated”, is what Daniel said. “A bit like a Pavie, certainly not Tuscan”, Christian said. “Sweet tannins”, Remo said. Undeniably hard to guess, to me reminiscent, if anything, of Loire Cabernet Franc. A touch hot the following day, but the strong, graphite-tinged minerality, firm black cherry and blackberry fruit and half-fermented tobacco leaf notes are fascinating. Relatively stable with airing, perhaps fractionally oxidized after 18 hours, with the dried blood orange acidity and nicely hard and crisply black tea like tannin more noticeable. Rating: 92(-?)
Charvin Côtes-du-Rhône 2007
What I used to braise the veal cheeks in, that is, a couple of glasses’ worth (pointless not to use good wine, the veal cheeks cost a fortune, but they were utterly delicious...), so I thought it a fun idea to serve this blind, too, and show everyone what a truly great QPR buy is. Medium purple-ruby-black. Aged beef, Kirsch Schnaps, raspberry, bright roasted Provençal herbs, redcurrant. A suggestion of sweat I had not noticed in earlier samples. Ripe yet refreshing, focused, what a vintage for affordable CdRs. Nice, lively acids. Quite long. Quickly recognized as Rhône or Rhône Ranger, someone even suggested Beaucastel 1998 (goes a long way to show how good this is). Drinking well from the open bottle for a whole week. Rating: 88+/89?
Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Columbia Valley 2005
A blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot. Virtually opaque plummy ruby-black. “Superripe and slightly superficial Syrah from Australia, strong vanilla barrique” is what my guests guessed (Dani was not convinced, and indeed, I thought the Cabernet typical enough). Blackcurrant and blackberry, ripe and pure, oily bacon fat, a touch of black olive. Fruity and modernistic, slightly artificial acidity, new-oaky tannin. The 14.5% alcohol is reasonably well integrated. Plumper, sweeter, more cassis liqueur like with airing. Cinnamon touch to the oak. Fairly lively wine despite, if not because of its slight artificiality, stable with airing until a couple of days later. Not bad in a modern, approachable, easy-to-interpret, gastronomical (albeit expensive) way, lacking in minerality, complexity and depth, and, needless to mention, character or soul. Rating: 89(+/-?)
Château Saint Domingue St. Emilion 1998
A pristine bottle bought at subscription. Apparently Clément Fayat’s (of Château La Dominique) answer to Neipperg’s La Mondotte, the first vintage, no more than 455 cases were produced. I will never forget how, when I first brought a bottle to an offline at release, everyone mistook it for “the greatest Chilean wine” they ever tasted. Full ruby-red. So nutty-oaky and exotically barnyardy-bretty at first, we wondered if the wine was cork-tainted in addition. In fact, this was so weird, we ended up not drinking it that night – which was a good thing, as this showed much better the following two days. Lovely sweet mocha (a bit as of a Heitz Martha’s Vineyard from the seventies), complex tobacco, thick, a bit Port-like fruit subtlety and that horsey-sweaty sweetness on the finish that most definitely reminded me of Cordier wines of the past. Lemony tannin and nicely soft acidity. Rich, round and smooth finish. Nutty-sweet red fruit subtlety on the aftertaste. As lovely as this proved with extended, it is hardly for everyone, seemingly autumnal-evolved (albeit not upon closer inspection, fruit and tannic backbone are perfectly fine for what ultimately is a modern-, not really a throwback to old style wine) and undeniably (albeit sweetly!) sweaty-bretty. Delicious and great fun, if ultimately impossible to recommend with conviction. Rating: 91(-?)
Château Cheval Blanc St. Emilion 1998
Thanks to Christian. A blend of 52% Merlot and 48% Cabernet Franc. Virtually opaque lightly pruney ruby colour, black reflections. Lactic but noble tobacco, nicely leafy Cabernet Franc typicity, complex and deep on the nose. Soft spice, relatively tight, moderately high tannin with a minty freshness underneath. Well-concentrated wine the at needs to sit in the glass for a while (even if decanted an hour or two in advance, as here). Cleaner and purer than the 1990 we retasted last year, but a less powerful vintage and style. Love the youthful subtlety here, even if, as Christian noted, this really deserves more bottle age. Balanced, finesseful and long on the finish, even the more so with airing. More complete than the Ausone, with greater (as well as much more obvious) potential harmony, if not as plush as the finest Pomerols in this vintage. The kind of wine one needs to pay attention to get most out of it (but then I wonder if this is not true of all wines that are truly worth having), classy rather than obvious. Rating: 94+/95(+?)
István Szepsy Tokaji Aszúessencia Mádi-Király Szölészet 1993
The finest bottle of this wine I have had since release, if not the finest ever. The truth is, we (István Szepsy included) started to think this rare (only 380 half-litre bottles were made) wine may be problematic for two reasons: it was made from 100% Hárslevelü (a softly floral, low-acid grape variety normally used in blends) and from (at the time recently replanted) young vines. Amber orange-golden colour. No staleness or tobacco ash dryness in this bottle at all, and no more than the freshest little orangey rancio top note. Almost a bit primary again. Sweet pipe tobacco, soft dried mace, white chocolate, honey, sugar candy, candied date, a little apricot, pretty soft spice. Rich, viscous, thick and glyceric. Great lemon rind flavoured acidity for an all Hárslevelü. Faint quincy bitter note. Extremely long on the finish. Rating: 97
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti