These are just some random notes from wines drunk casually at home over the past few months.
Whites and sparklers:
N.V. Pierre Moncuit Champagne Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos Blanc de Blancs Brut Grand Cru. This is a really nice Champagne for sniffing, showing a lot of different facets to its personality. One finds fine, but full and effusive aromas of brioche, creamy apple and chalkboard, but also graphite, recently struck match, herbs and steeped lemon peel. In the mouth, it has a great verve to it, showing lots of life due to a nice acidic twang that marries real well with the tropical and tree fruit flavors. It is also well-structured and has an appealing mouthfilling quality without being heavy or soft and frothy. This was gone in a flash.
2002 Agrapart & Fils Champagne Mineral Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut. The bouquet of this wine is a bit taut, but offers up fairly pleasing scents of yellow apple, pear, orange peel, smoke, ginger and brioche. However, it does not feature the intense minerality experienced in a terrific bottle from last summer. In the mouth, though, there is a lot of granite stoniness to this that anchors a big, expansive, mouth-filling wine that has a lot of creamy quality well balanced by a distinct briny edge. Pear, apple, cream and sea foam flavors are full through the middle, though the finish is a bit tighter and distinctly more dry and smoky. I think I will wait on my other bottle for another year or so before trying again.
2006 Guy Bossard Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Expression de Granite Domaine De L'Ecu. The nose here is still pretty tight, but does offer up some scents of chalk, seashells, lime zest, lemograss and minerals. In the mouth, it is cool, crisp and stony, with a tense, flinty character. Over time, it does begin to flesh out a bit and broaden the flavors of lemon, stone and saline elements a bit wider, fanning out just a bit on the mineral-laden finish—working pretty well with a limoncello shrimp dish. In many ways, though, I’d like to age this a bit and see what happens.
2008 Jean-Pierre Ellevin Chablis. There is a light touch to the crisp, taut nose of this wine, with the aromas of wet stone, lemon slice and crushed shells coming across as airy but a bit simple. It is a bit more overt in the mouth, where one finds clean, classic flavors of lemon candy, green apple, chalk and pebbles playing out across drying sour acidity. It finishes with an odd sort of vinyl coating feel on the teeth, which is kind of weird. Overall, it may have been drunk too young, but I am still not overly enthused about the wine.
2002 DuMOL Chardonnay Russian River Valley. This is kind of a flat yellow color with tints of pea green to it. The nose immediately evokes impressions of sweet oak and vanilla, followed by rich pears, fine herbs, brown spices and hazelnuts. In the mouth, it is extremely luscious and creamy. There is a strong taste of vanilla bean paste running up and down the center of the wine, married to the sweet pear, apple and hazelnut flavors. I like the weight and texture of this wine and the spice-laden finish is impressively long. It is not cloying, nor overly buttery, but there is just too much direct and ancillary oak influence overall for me to really fall for it.
2005 Failla Chardonnay Keefer Ranch Russian River Valley. The nose of this wine is wonderfully effusive in a big-boned, full-profile sort of fashion. At different times over the course of the evening, it smells of honey, lemon ball, spiced pear, fig, chutney, light caramel, soft oak, sweet herbs, graphite and white gravel. There’s a lot going on. In the mouth, it is rounded and fairly voluminous, with a full-on flavor profile featuring tastes of baked apple, pear tart, fig and honey accented by judicious oak. There is a lot of glycerin here and the wine feels languid and luscious—especially on the fanned out and extremely persistent finish. It could use a bit more cut, but there is just such high-quality fruit here that I’m happy to drink it just as it is.
2005 Toni Jost Riesling Kabinett Bacharacher Hahn Mittelrhein. There’s a pleasant, medium-intense nose here of slate, peach, orange hard candy and kerosene. On the palate, it seems a bit disjointed at times, with the acidity and the sweet fruit not always on the same page or moving to the same music. After a few hours, though, it definitely seems to find a groove that allows the moderately sweet core of pineapple, peach pit and brown spices to come on strong through the somewhat oily-textured mid-palate. It has a pleasing intensity and certain sense of density that works well with the rest of the profile. Still, I would wait on this a bit to five it a chance to better integrate all around.
2005 Huët Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Mont. There is solid density but no ponderous weight to the compact yet classy bouquet of this young wine, which features aromas of beeswax, clover honey, pine resin and lime pith. It shows off a mild but delightfully balanced residual sweetness in the mouth. The acidity is milder than I would have expected, but an impressive structure keeps this fresh and finely-flowing despite the limpid, almost waxy weight of the wine. It is real approachable right now and drinking surprisingly well. This delicious wine really wowed our guests who have no real experience with this style of wine.
Reds:
2005 Maison Alex Gambal Bourgogne Cuvée Les Deux Papis. This wine smells and tastes like sour cherries, licorice and bark. It has a nice tang all the way through and feels pure and easy. It has a fine weight and fullness of flavor for a Bourgogne and features a clean and moderate length finish. It is a nice drink for right now and was tasty with lamb out on the deck.
2004 Domaine de Nizas Coteaux du Languedoc. This is 60% Syrah, 35% Mourvedre and 5% Grenache. It starts out meaty and dense on the nose, but over a short bit of time begins to find a more elegant vein of wild cherries, mocha, black pepper powder and a strong bay leaf note. In the mouth, it is really smooth and polished, with a tight core of sweet cherry and blackberry fruit again tinged by bay leaf and a little grind of pepper. It delivers a solid dose of flavor in a moderately full but easy-flowing package. I bet it can improve with some cellar time, too. This was a nice surprise and a good pairing with osso bucco.
2007 Domaine du Dragon Côtes de Provence Hautes Vignes. This opens up with a decent whiff of sweaty horse and stable muck, followed by cooled bacon fat, scorched earth and eventually a good dose of blueberry and blackberry fruit. My wife describes it as “bacon and blueberry cobbler on the farm”. It shows off a good deal of body on the palate, with plenty of gobby blackcurrant and blueberry jam and dark chocolate flavors, but also juicy acidity and some mildly bitter smoke overtones. The mid-palate is relatively easy, but the finish is fairly rough and tumble, with a drying quality to it. Overall, it is a bit of a roller coaster ride between the sweet fruit dominating one minute and the bitter smoke and drying tannins taking center stage the next. My advice is to give it some rest and try again in 2-3 years.
1998 Domaine de Beaurenard (Paul Coulon et Fils) Côtes du Rhône. This bottle was not in great shape. The nose is really dirty and funky, throwing out some volatile acidity on top of torrefacted fruit that smells roasted and caramelized. This same trend continues in the mouth, where the fruit is roasty, with a good deal of funky earth in there, too. The texture is leathery and rough and the acidity is way out of whack. The composite cork looked pristine, but this wine was DOA.
1998 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône. This is better, with a cleaner nose that still shows a bit of caramel and slightly roasty fruit, but also a fresher vein of sweet red fruit and an interesting tickle of menthol. In the mouth, it is rather open-knit and easy-going through the middle, giving some good pleasure. But, the finish is a bit tough-edged and dried out, where the texture also turns a bit chewier—so I would opt to drink up, for sure.
1999 Domaine Brusset Gigondas Tradition Le Grand Montmirail. This wine features a nice meaty nose of iron, iodine, pan drippings, leather, green cedar and cracked black pepper. It turns ever more savory and dark with time, gaining in complexity and interest as it folds in notes of cigar ash and frozen persimmon to black cherry and black raspberry fruit aromas. In the mouth, it tastes like it must be drinking very close to peak, as the tannins that at first seem fairly strong quickly recede and soften with aeration. It drinks really well, featuring a core of sweet cherry and raspberry fruit offset by rustic leather around the edges and a fine tangy acidity that provides a fresh, crunchy finish.
1998 Domaine Brusset Gigondas Tradition Le Grand Montmirail. The cork on this is pristine and the nose smells delightfully fresh--with lifted aromas of mixed red fruits, raw leather, cracked pepper, steeped orange peel and a tiny sliver of earthy musk really doing it for me. Although I think this still has a good life ahead, it has to be drinking at peak right now, as the juicy round tannins seem in perfect synch with the fruit, acids and texture of the wine. It is soft and caressing, but with good lift and a nice grip toward the back of the palate. The bright red cherry and red currant fruit, fine earth and soft spices are just lovely-tasting right now and everything just seems in harmony. Although I like them both, this is clearly a step above the 1999 that was drunk a few weeks earlier.
2001 Cuvée du Vatican Châteauneuf du Pape. This opens up with fine aromas of clean earth, forest greens, tobacco and black tea, but slowly starts to let some cool cranberry and black cherry fruit drift forward while also folding in a pretty floral element over time. In the mouth, it is ready to go—feeling totally approachable and smooth, if a bit compacted on the entry. It is a bit more giving through the middle, where it fleshes out some and begins to broaden with time and air. It has a nice lifted feel from cool, toned acidity and the mixed berry fruit and leafy bits seem fresh and light more so than deep or heavy. It is a fine and pleasant wine to savor with food but probably ought to be drunk up soon.
2006 Luca Syrah Laborde Double Select Uco Valley Mendoza. There’s a lovely bouquet here of black currant, plum, rich espresso roast and much more of a mint and eucalyptus overtone than in any of the previous three bottles tasted over the past few years. On the palate, it is giving and velvety-textured, with the plum and espresso notes again leading the way. A touch unctuous at times and more full-bodied and Syrah-like than I recall, it is still a really nice drink and can go for a while yet.
2007 Celler de Capçanes Montsant Mas Donís Barrica. This wine is 85% Garnacha and 15% Syrah. The nose is rather gooey and warm, with a monolithic density to the plum, cherry cough drop, cedar and charcoal aromas that manage to rise above the obvious oak treatment. In the mouth, it is all monolithic fruit, mouth-splintering oak and overbearing alcohol for about the first 30 minutes. Slowly, though, it finds just enough nuance and freshness to make it at least gluggable with some pizza. It is chewy, large-framed and full-bodied, with a boatload of wild berry, boysenberry and warm cherry compote flavors. I guess I could see it being a bit of a crowd pleaser, but to me it is just a lot of everything and no nuance or focus. Try giving it a few years and see what happens.
1978 Château Brane-Cantenac Margaux. Very badly CORKED. Replaced with the 1988 Calon-Segur below.
1988 Château Calon-Ségur St. Estèphe. This is just a true wine lovers wine. It features beautiful aromatics that are at once masculine, cool and fairly serious in tone, but also have a luxuriant, layered and inviting quality to them. One senses strong yet classy bits of belt leather, dark earth, tobacco leaf, meat, iron ore, dried blood and rich black currants that are quite simply fantastic and quintesentially St. Estephe to my experience. In the mouth, it totally delivers the goods. It features dark cherry fruit, juicy cool acidity and some soft but stoic tannins. It is medium-bodied, with a giving and pliant texture. At times, it does reveal some slight leatheriness around the edges, but is otherwise wonderfully smooth and fleshy—leaving behind a clean and lengthy aftertaste. It is a wine of great poise and classic old world character that is seemingly drinking right at its top plateau right now.
-Michael