Blair hosted the poker gang back in late October and served a really interesting line-up of wines in our usual double blind format.
1999 Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay. Aromatically, I like this wine a whole lot. It features aromas of aged leather, sweet dried cherries, dried red flowers, clove, birch and chalk dust in a complex and appealing package. On the palate, though, I find the wine to be rather dry and austere at this stage of its evolution. Flavors of dried cherries, dirt, dried flowers and leather are medium-bodied, masculine and a bit stand-offish to my taste. There are no real tannins to worry about, but there is a leathery and tough shell that needs to come down before it can be fully enjoyed.
2002 Domaine Christian Clerget Chambolle-Musigny. This wine is also pretty pleasant to sniff, though it smells darker and juicier--with aromas of cherry syrup, tar, horsehair and fresh mint. In the mouth, this wine is even drier than the previous wine, with the acidity front and center (and everywhere else). Flavors of sour cherries, cranberries and sweet tart candies have good vibrancy and energy but leave the mouth puckered.
2001 Maison Champy Clos Vougeot Grand Cru. There is a sour edging to the aromas of this wine, but otherwise it features complex notes of brambly berries, weedy tobacco, muddy baseballs, birch beer, mint and rusty iron. In the mouth, it continues the trend of rather dry wines. However, this wine is creamier-textured, more structured and generally better balanced than those that came before it. The flavors of dried red fruit, loamy soil, leather, birch beer, black tea leaves and smoke are buttressed by chalky tannins tannins on the finish and may be a bit pinched at this stage.
2001 Domaine Daniel Rion Echezeaux Grand Cru. This appealing wine smells of smoke, blackberries, weedy raspberries, pounded leather, black tea, grilled green pepper, foresty plants and stripped evergreen branch. On the palate, it is more ripely-fruited and rounded than the first set of wines, though it is still earthy-flavored more than anything. Strawberries, warm red cherries, earth and stem flavors combine in a nice medium-weighted package with good class and fine balance. This is drinking well at the moment and can be held without much concern, I should think. This was my favorite among the Burgundies.
2003 Domaine Rossignol-Trapet Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru. The intriguing nose here is all about moist forest floor, dusty mint, sasafrass and toasty oak spices. It is round and gentle in the mouth, with a creamy texture and fullness of red cherry flavor that is welcoming and engaging. It is generous, giving and full, yet structured and well-balanced for future development. Just give it a bit of time.
1992 Viader Proprietary Red Napa Valley. Oh boy, this is weedy and stinky, with a cooked, nasty set of aromas revolving around stewed prunes, compost and skunk fern. In the mouth, it is more of the same, though maybe not quite as overtly stewed. It tastes of prunes, cooked cherries and fig paste, with a tough acidity running beneath. Not pleasant—I have to assume it is a bad bottle.
1993 La Jota Cabernet Sauvignon 12th Anniversary Release Howell Mountain Napa Valley. This smells like a young but classic California Cabernet, with fairly deep and moderately sweet aromas of cassis, creamed cherries, fine mint, mincemeat and pretty red flowers. In the mouth, it features flavors of black currants, juicy black cherries, tar, earth and smoke that have very nice lift and freshness. The wine has a sinewy and structured feel to it, yet is very smoothly-textured despite some youthful tannin on the finish. It will benefit from more time, but is still very tasty right now. Needless to say, I was surprised when it was revealed that this wine is 17 years old—I had it pegged for about a third of that. This is undoubtedly an impressive ager and was my WOTN.
1999 Beaulieu Vineyard Tapestry Reserve Napa Valley. This wine sports a fairly exotic but focused nose redolent of blackberry extract, wild blueberries, eucalyptus and peppermint dust. It is rich, dark and slinky on the palate, with a notable sense of dry extract, a fair pasting of tannin and a mildly chewy texture. For all the sort of mildly awkward elements in play, the dark and rich fruit and the tasty earth tones manage to carry the day. It has some impressive stuffing, but I’d like to see it smooth out with a few more years in the cellar.
2001 Chateau Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon Stuhlmuller Vineyard Alexander Valley. My notes refer to smoke, tar, black currant, blackberry, cocoa powder and soft oak aromas on the nose of this wine. In the mouth, it is solidly concentrated with fruit, rather smooth-textured and generally quite well-constructed. I wouldn’t call it particularly complex, but it is tasty right now with its fleshy black currant and black cherry flavors that flow along with ease. This is drinking well right now.
2003 Switchback Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Peterson Family Vineyard Napa Valley. This wine offers up a rather sweet and full-blown bouquet of chocolate covered cherries, sweet raspberry jam and strawberry roll-ups. On the palate, it is seamless and smooth, with a lot of up-front fruit goodness, but not the sense of overly-done fruit I was expecting based on the bouquet. Instead, it actually has pretty decent acidity and carry and not much sense of alcohol for such a large-scaled and intensely fruity wine as this. It has a big, lasting finish but leaves no sense of being over-weight. I admit this gives me some hope for the 2005 Switchback Ridge Cabernet buried in my cellar.
After the official blind tasting, a series of after-hours bottles were opened by our host and a few other folks (as is often the custom).
2005 Joseph Drouhin Chorey-les-Beaune. The bouquet here is almost crunchy with aromas of minerals, cool rocks, chalk, red flowers, strawberries and cranberries. It is similar in the mouth, with stony flavors of light cherry and red berries and a nice little inner-mouth florality. Mild but ever-growing tannins are an issue after a while, but otherwise this is a lighter-bodied, pure and airy wine with good acidic zip and a clean feel all around.
2007 Chappellet Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Signature Napa Valley. In comparison, the nose of this wine is rather rich, sexy and at times overtly oaked—featuring big aromas of spicecake, blackberry jam and allspice. In the mouth, it is big, dark and jammy, with an obvious fullness of fruit packed into a tautly-structured frame. It is not overtly tannic, but a lot of wood is showing at this stage of the game. There is a ton to work with here, but it needs to be put away for awhile.
2007 Snowden Cabernet Sauvignon The Ranch Napa Valley. This wine is a lot better choice for early consumption. It smells of mixed briery berries, cassis, meat ragu, rusty nail and clean earth and is again fairly young-seeming. However, it is drinking a lot better right now than the Chapellet on the palate. It exhibits a nice matte texture, soft chalky tannin and a nice freshening crunch of acidity. The flavors of black currant, dark earth, melted chocolate and charcoal are cool and dark and a bit fudgy, but have that good lift and clean finish provided by the fresh acidity. This is a very nice drink to my tastes.
1989 L’Etoile Banyuls Select Vieux. The nose here is very sweet with aromas of dried figs, spiced prunes, cherry paste, dark chocolate, caramel, dried nuts, ashes and warm spirits. In the mouth, it is black and yellow raisins all the way, with some macerated dates and caramel flavors along for the ride, as well. It is really smooth, with no hard edges and a sense of resolved alcohol for the most part. It is not overtly heavy, more medium-bodied, and with just enough acidity for a clean finish. All said, it is pretty tasty and I find myself enjoying it at the end of a long day of tasting.
-Michael
I'm fascinated. What's it like?