WTN: Girardin, Fonterutoli, La Jota, Aalto, Noval

A surfeit of white wines at this blind tasting lunch:

2004 Vincent Girardin Chassagne Montrachet Le Cailleret – loight colour, nose with lemon and a tropical hint, slightly high acidity, medium body and medium concentration. Decent.

2004 Ch. Haut Bergey – this white Bordeaux wasn’t showing much nose – maybe a bit of lime, and was clean and fresh. Bit cold.

2004 Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte – very slight mustiness quickly went away and left a very pleasant wine with citrus nose, elegant balanced and tasty.

1998 Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico – black cherry in the nose and a hint of cinnamon, medium weight, a tad lean, still some tannins, decent length and a dry finish.

1995 Ch de Cruzeau – this little Bordeaux had been excellent for years but is now fading, with the frist bottle corked and the second showing pleasant but sliding.

1999 Ceretto Monsordo – a blend of cab, merlot, syrah and Nebbiolo from Piemonte , this was from my cellar and a bit of a disappointment. Dark, with a cocoa nose, sweet entry and medium tannin, decent balance and a graphite hint at the end, it was ultimately unsatisfying and lacked geographic context.

2000 Vergelegen Estate wine – this si always good quality, 100% cabernet with a nice, slightly funky warm fruit nose with a hint of leather, good stuffing lots of acid and tannin and a dry finish.

1994 La Jota Howell Mountain Cab – I wouldn’t have believed that this would be ready for drinking, but it was very good. Deep red, nicely scented with a bit of mushroom and blackberry, it was actually fairly soft and drinkable now!


2004 Cayuse Camaspelo (Walla Walla) – 70% cab, 20% merlot, 10% cab franc. Excellent sweet cherry nose, soft and supple on palate with very good length. Ready now and delicious.

2003 Tormaresca Masseria Maime (Apulia) – dark purple wine with nice nose with some spice, a bit hot, good body and slightly bitter finish. Quite good.

2000 Aalto Ribera del Duero – dark wine, still tannic, with a beef and vanilla nose, with a hint of salt, and some pluminess. Full bodied and juicy with a future ahead.

1991 Quinta do Noval Port – medium red colour, hot ripe nose, this was quite light on palate and hot and spicy but lacked the fruit to convince me it was a vintage Port . Browning a bit. Time to drink this.

[Jenise]

Funny, but between the two wines we brought I'd have bet Tammy Faye's college fund on you naming the Cayuse, not the Girardin, in your subject line.

2004 Vincent Girardin Chassagne Montrachet Le Cailleret – lemon marmalade nose, but not much else but for unbalanced and unduly heavy acidity. Big disappointment: the 04 white Girardins have been excellent up until now. Hopefully this is just bottle variation and the rest of my 04's haven't all jumped off the cliff.

2004 Ch. Haut Bergey and 2004 Smith Haut Lafitte – In spite of the cold I found the Bergey offered more nose--it was floral and pretty, but not big--than the SHL it was paired with, but the SHL had more heft and semillon-related waxy richness and mouthfeel.

1998 Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico – Good mature traditional sangiovese, very good.

1995 Ch de Cruzeau – Pleasant but not exceptional.

1999 Ceretto Monsordo – With a bottle that looked like it had been designed by Brittany Spears, it would have been surprising and disappointing if this wine had been anything but international and soul-less. Only within that context could you say that it did not disappoint. Eh.

2000 Vergelegen Estate – The Monsordo was a great set-up for this stunner, though. An exceptional, exuberant wine opened on one of the best days in its life--love when that happens!--it was old world in style with the power of new world fruit buoyed by terrific acidity and a relaxed finish. South African wine at its best.

1994 La Jota Howell Mountain Cab – Sweet black cherry and plum fruit made California an easy guess, but the perfumed Margaux-like nose confused us in a good way. On the palate, forest-floor and shitake mushroom notes gave superb complexity. Excellent.

2004 Cayuse Camaspelo (Walla Walla) – 70% cab, 20% merlot, 10% cab franc. Oh my, a third cab blend which I know to be the wine I brought (because the sommelier tells us so) but how different it is than the other two. No less excellent, but voluptuously aromatic and it comes out of the bottle like a Snuggy--seductively warm and sensual. The finish goes on and on. More resolved than I would expect for an 04 Washingtonian but damn it's all to the good in this case--glad I didn't hold it any further. My first experience with a Cayuse cabernet.

2003 Tormaresca Masseria Maime (Apulia) – what you said.

2000 Aalto Ribera del Duero – Black fruit and raw beef on the nose with spice and black fruit. Full bodied and dense. In which lies it's charms: really not quite ready to drink now, this should continue to improve into 2020 and beyond.

1991 Quinta do Noval Port – I enjoyed this a lot, but agree with you that it's time to drink. A bit fat and lacking the nerve typical of vintage port, though: would not have been surprised if this had turned out to be a California wannabe.