Had Doug and Jason over for dinner - Northern Rhones with various meats - and we ate and drank very, very well.
Started with the 2002 AJ Adam Dhronhofberger Tholey Riesling (Mosel) with pheasant terrine and crackers
His 'harmoniously dry' bottling, have experienced some bottle variation with these thanks to the incredibly dry corks but this one showed very nicely after the long struggle to actually get to the wine. Rich pear and apple fruit, an interesting candle-wax note with some developed smoky and burnished accents to the fruit, nice acidity and good balance.
First course was crispy skin duck leg confit with cauliflower, accompanied by the 2007 Jacques Puffeney Pinot Noir Arbois which I'd been raving to Doug about.
This is why I've cut back on buying Burgs - really delicious red and dark fruits with a rusty, ferric earthy character underneath, fresh herbal notes accenting the fruit and a really nice acid spine that keeps it very fresh and precise.
Onto the older Rhones, accompanied by a wild boar roast (that came out a bit too dry) and potatoes roasted in duck fat.
1983 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas
Pretty much on its last legs; red fruits and plums, very autumnal forest floor and herbaceous elements, coming across rather frail and tired.
1981 E. Guigal Hermitage
Starts out smelling as if someone slipped a piece of bacon into the bottle. Really meaty and gamey combining bright red fruits and olives, pork broth and leathery notes, with time other herbal and forestal elements emerge to add even more complexity. Drinking wonderfully right now, finessed and elegant with tannins fully resolved and a gentle, silky mouthfeel.
Verset time, with a pork tenderloin seasoned with a little jerk spice and wrapped in bacon.
1997 Noël Verset Cornas
Not the knockout showing I had from another bottle of this a month or two ago, but really lovely, green olives, red fruits and herbs with the classic Verset pork and saline elements that emerge with some air. Very light on its feet, with most of the structure here coming from the acidity and nice back end presence. Lovely... but blown away by the
1999 Noël Verset Cornas
Oh holy god is this amazing. Black olives, other Syrah fruits and some forestal earthy notes wrapped in bacon. Or proscuitto. I don't know, but the cured meat flavours in this are so vivid and intense it's hard to really put into words. Power, depth, finesse, length - just an amazing bottle of wine. Wow.
Dessert was a flan with green cardamom and saffron, accompanied by the 2009 Kruger-Rumpf Münsterer Pittersberg Riesling Auslese
Another wow here, this one just explodes with all sorts of bright, primary Riesling fruit and an incredible stony and saline minerality. What's striking is how clean this is - barely a hint of botrytis, just really intense apple, peach and other orchard fruits with fantastic acidity that keeps it very vibrant and fresh. Stunning wine that I will have to buy more of.
