One of my local tasting groups hit the bottles again last night, most of the guys are ITB. The topic was "champagne", otherwise no rules. The wines were served blind, served one at a time and revealed after each bottle to further help us bond with what we liked and what we didn't think so much of. None of the wines hit the level of Outstanding achieved last year by the '90 Cristal, but several were Excellent or Excellent Plus.
1) Light mousse, straw-gold color, biscuit and almond nose, tastes aged, lemon rind finish, very dry and elegant with an odd (for so dry a wine) but not unattractive canned peach aftertaste. It's a NV Henri Abele Soirees Parisienne (Tim's bottle). Killer at $20 retail (Cordata Food Co-Op). Very good.
2) White peach, creamy, only lightly yeasty, RS on the finish, definitely not Champagne. Turns out to be one of mine brought to test whether or not it could 'pass'--which obviously it didn't: 2004 Graham Peck Reserve, South Africa. Just 'okay' for me.
3) Brioche, yeast, baked apple, caramel, lemon curd, light honeysuckle, citrus finish, lovely in every way and it improved every time we went back to it. At the end of the night, one of the most impressive and loved wines on the table. Another one that I brought: Jacquesson Cuvee 729 NV, disgorged 2004. (The current "vintage" available is 733, if anyone cares.) Pretty much the #2 wine of the night with two others sharing first place. Excellent.
4) Sweet and toasty nose, pale yellow, fruity in a good way, "creme" with the brulee. Nice in that there's nothing wrong with it, but just 'eh' after the Jacquesson. Shockingly, it's a twin of wine #1--an NV Henri Abele Soirees Parisienne--but this is Vic's bottle and it came from a different case (though same shipment presumably, purchased on a distributor close-out like the other) the downtown Food Co-Op (Vic and Tim are the wine consultants at each of those stores). Note that the wines were visibly different, it wasn't just about taste: clearly an entirely different lot/tank/or source. Good, but.
5) Bright light yellow here. Normandy pear cider nose, ripeness, good, "broad" per Brian referring to the fact that there was a lot of flavor here but without any component jumping out at you, "Californian" per Gabe, easy to misread as simple at first then, though it developed well in the glass showing yeast, green apple, and richness. NV Bollinger Special Cuvee. Very good.
6) Straw colored. "Raw yeast" and "Jones Dry Orange soda" were my first reactions. Tim added "Play-Doh". Brian guessed "zero dosage". Very dry with lots of character. We all liked it a lot: NV Voquette et Sorbee "Fidele" Extra Brut. Very good.
(7) Here's a rose. Young, strawberryish, playful, one-dimensional, not memorable. A brunch wine. NV Paul Bara Grand Rose (France). Just okay for me.
(8) Back to whites. Wow, outstanding nose: yeast, lime (all agreed on this, defnitely not lemon or orange but lime), baked apple, pear, lemon rind, sarsparilla root, earthy. Very complete. 02 NV Marcel Moineaux Grand Cru Millisime. WOTN for me and many others. Excellent plus.
(9) Watermelon reddish pink color, faint yeast, quite tasty. The most interesting thing about it was how dry it was and how little you expected that based on that much skin contact. NV R Dumont Rose. Good plus.
(10) Cornbread nose (corn meal, butter, baking powder--it was all there) and white peaches. Developed and interesting, complex minerality, slight RS on the finish (in a blind tasting, always a demerit from me). Older? Kruggish looking bottle but nothing Kruggish on the palate. 99 Bellavista GC Franciacorte. Very good.
(11) Back to pink: another of my wines which even though this was a blind/random order I'd kept track of and held for last. Pale pearl pink, fantastic aged nose, leathery, rose petals, well developed, at peak. '98 Henriot Brut Rose Millisime. Gabe's WOTN. Excellent plus.
And Tim brought this interesting little thing non-sparkly dessert wine in a half bottle for a finale: brown color. On the nose Madeira, fig newton, blood orange, coffee, toffee. None of which prepares you for the big tangy orange burst and exemplary acidity on the palate that quickly fades into a clever coffee-flavored finish. Resembles nothing I've ever had before, and I liked it a lot. 2002 Mathilde "Six Puttonyos", Signal Hill, South Africa. Tim shared that the producer's wines are considered overall mediocre and strange, but this one thing he makes is the exception.