Jud and Lisa hosted our regular group tasting at their house in July, with a theme of white Burgundy. We sat out on the screened porch, watched a gorgeous sunset over the ocean and drank beautiful wines with a series of delightful potluck dishes prepared by the hosts and guests.
2004 Chateau de Fuisse Pouilly-Fuisse Vieilles Vignes. Aromas of acacia, peaches, chalk and lime are fresh and lively on the nose of this wine. It is nicely-flavored in the mouth, but has a less textured feel and lighter presence than those that come after it. Although it lacks much in the way of complexity, it is cool and citrusy--with stones, lemon peel and light peach flavors that are perfectly pleasant.
2004 Domaine William Fevre Chablis 1er Cru Montee de Tonnerre. The nose here is tight and crisply mineral-driven, with tightly-contained notes of slate, graphite, sweet chalk and lemon peel. It seems clean, but light and not particulary expressive to me at this point. In the mouth, it is extremely tangy, with a rather sour edge all the way through it. In fact, the tartness is physically mouthpuckering to me. Otherwise, it feels fairly airy and light, with a crystalline laciness to the flavors of lemon sourball, sea foam and mixed citrus fruits. It leaves a moderately lasting impression, but it is just too tart for my taste.
2004 Verget Chablis 1er Cru Les Forets. Served from a screw-capped bottle, the color is a darker yellow than the previous wine. The aromas also seem much brighter and more richly woven—with scents of hazelnut, peach pit, oak spices and green pixie stick dust combining in a complex arrangement that still seems to be holding something back for further development. In the mouth, it displays more weight, but is again on the rather sour fruit side of things. It is not as mouthpuckering as the Fevre, but is in the same vein generally. There is also more oak evident here, though it is not overly distracting when all is said and done. It has plenty of fruit, a good deal of give to it, and a nice flavor profile of wet stones, peach pit, lemon, green apple and seashells that expands from the center outwards pretty nicely. It finishes with good persistence, but again I find myself wishing it was a bit better balanced and clean, without that sour acid edging so aggressively in play.
2005 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Blanc. There is an absolutely lovely bouquet to this wine. It displays loads of lemon cream, cherry, candied peach, soft wood and fine mineral aromas that just seem to draw one back in for additional sniffs, even as it tightens up a bit with time in the glass. In the mouth, the fine lemon cream character continues a theme, bringing along pretty baking spices for the ride. It has a nice richness to it through the mid-palate, with a delightful mouthfeel and a sense of easy weight. There is great balance here, a decidedly holistic seamlessness and a very lengthy finish—just a delightful drink. My co-WOTN.
2006 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Boudriotte. This wine smells smoky and oily, like a smoked salmon or smoked bluefish pate or something. It also folds in aromas of macadamia nut, vanilla, pear, peach, tangerine and powdery graphite. In the mouth, this is definitely one of the richest wines of the night—feeling totally creamy, full-bodied, languid and lush. There are flamboyant flavors galore of lemon cream and white peach and also a boatload of sexy nutmeg and clove spices that are overt, exotic and still a bit youthfully woody--though all in fine balance. Despite the extremes that some might object to, my take is that it offers impressive and fun-filled drinking right now and solid promise for additional development.
2004 Bouchard Pere et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrieres. There’s a pretty bouquet to this wine—featuring peaches and cream, apricot, white gravel stones, sweet chalk dust and a bit of honeysuckle florality. In the mouth, it is earthy and rock-bound on the entry, carrying along green herb, smoked wood, white peach and tangy citrus flavors into the mid-weight mid-palate. There, it shows a bit more languid character, but still with lots of minerals and earth tones. It finishes stuctured and focused.
2006 Pierre Matrot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrieres. This wine is darker in color than the Bouchard. It shows off a strong streak of petrol aromas, along with some skunky forest bits, minerals, spiced pears, peaches and tangerines. On the palate, this is a big and boisterous wine, with lots of limpid body and a generously-spiced flavor profile featuring super-creamy yet high-toned yellow fruit and butterscotch. It is a relatively thick, low-acid wine but it shows off a nice little tartness at just the right moments, and all that spicy character keeps it lively. This is nice.
2006 Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Garenne Domaine du Duc de Magenta. This wine shows off my favorite bouquet of the evening—with all kinds of overt aromas of peaches, petrol, smoke, limes, orange blossoms, spiced pears, butter biscuits and citronella combining beautifully in a rich, exotic cornucopia. In the mouth, this is big and ripe and totally delicious. It pumps out the fruit flavors with ease and hangs together really nicely. It is creamy goodness all the way through the palate journey, with perfect accents of spice and acidity to help it along. Complex tree and tropical fruits combine with rocky qualities to bring a dynamic feel to the wine and the volume of the whole package is impressive. My co-WOTN.
1999 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. This one is really earthy and rock-bound, with a little twinge of sulfur leading the way, as well. It is broad and classy, as it folds in fine notes of creamy lemon, chalk and white flowers. It is thick and rather oily-textured in the mouth, with a lot going on, including notes of diesel, peach pit, tangerine, flowers and rocks. It is still pretty young and ought to get even better down the road.
Some after-hours wines supplied by our host:
2001 Arcadian Pinot Noir Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands. This is a super-spicy Pinot on the nose, featuring aromas of dark cherry, cranberry, sarsparilla and salami. It is creamy and seamless in the mouth, with again a whole lot of spice to go with dried cherries and cranberries. It has a woodsy, animalistic character at times, with a zesty, stemmy quality giving it a bit of a raw feel--suggesting it is still drinking darned youthfully.
2004 Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino. This smells of dark cherry, plum, fig, chocolate pudding skin and exotic spices in a sexy, luscious package. In the mouth, is is rich and full-blown, with full body and unctuous texture—coming across as extremely chocolaty, dense and grounded. Woody tannins give the finish a tough, clipped feel after the velvety mid-palate experience. Spiced cherries galore provide a ton of flavor, but the tannins are just so dry and overt right now, that my advice is to stash it away for a while.
2002 Dry River Riesling Late Harvest Craighall Martinborough. I only had a brief time with this wine before my wife and I had to leave prematurely, but my notes mention aromas of petrol, peach and honey on the nose and a palate that is rich, unctuous and sweet up front, but drier and more controlled on the finish. An interesting wine that I’d like to try again some time.
-Michael