Notes from a typical King Fung II free-for-all dinner and wine tasting a little while back…
N.V. Paul Bara Champagne Brut Grand Cru Rosé. The first wine of the evening sports a fun nose of struck match, flint and toasted bread, with strawberry and raspberry fruit welling up from beneath. In the mouth, it shows a lot of energy, with a solid burst of abundant but tightly-controlled berry and cherry fruit that is totally clean, fresh and crunchy. Minerality and taut yet juicy acidity drive this medium-weighted sparkler right along—a nice marriage of restraint and juiciness that works quite well.
N.V. Bollinger Champagne Special Cuvée Brut. The nose here is rich with honey, apple, steeped lemon and bits of graphite aromas. It feels rich and a bit honeyed in the mouth with lots of apple and pear fruit in a fairly full-bodied package. A solid sparkler, pretty much as always.
1997 Dinstlgut Loiben Grüner Veltliner Halbtrocken Loibenberg "L". Here one finds light and airy aromas of lime rind, white flowers, limestone and a remote hint of diesel fuel that grows ever more distinctive with time in the glass. It comes across as perhaps a bit aloof and removed on the palate and I never really seem to “connect” with it the way I want to. It plays it cool and taut with the grapefruit and lemon-lime fruit, even though the texture is pretty smooth and pliant most of the time. It is certainly an interesting wine to taste, but still fairly reserved.
2005 Nicolas Joly Savennières Les Clos Sacrés. This wine is very pale in appearance but offers up a robust and unique bouquet full of honeycomb, wax candy, lemon peel, toasted nut, mossy earth, tree bark and faint tropical citrus elements that I very much enjoy. In the mouth, it is a bit waxy and wooly—giving it a fascinating texture to consider while enjoying the medium-weighted flavors of bergamot, lemon ball candy, butterscotch and minerals that are controlled but pedigreed and finely-layered. There is a bit of funkiness hiding way down below the roasted nut and saline bits, but the current result is a lovely but fairly mild drinking experience by Joly standards. I really like the way this is drinking right now.
1999 Henri Bourgeois Sancerre Jadis. This Sancerre is a surprisingly dark yellow color and puts forth scents of crushed stones, lemon sour ball, chopped herbs, hay and creamy vanilla. It comes across as having a rounded feel in the mouth, though with some steely character below the creamy top notes. Fairly lush flavors of lemon meringue, grapefruit and melon are finely-woven and fleshy, with just enough tang to keep it feeling fresh, especially on the stonier finish that displays good length.
1998 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. This was served from a 375 ml bottle. It is a lovely gold color, with a vibrant sheen to it. It features a gorgeous nostril-stretching bouquet of strong petrol notes allied to peach pit, apricot, clementine, lime rind, star fruit and jasmine aromas that are rich, deep and just intoxicating. In the mouth, it is excellent but doesn’t quite match the intensity of the bouquet—coming across as actually a bit soft and less structured than many other vintages of this cuvee. Still, it is full of honeyed yellow fruit, lime pith, graphite and stone flavors surrounding a core of acidity that I wish was just a tad racier. It does manage a rather long and lasting finish and I would say this particular vintage in this format is ready to go right now.
2004 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault. Here we have a wine that features an expansive yet moderately crisp nose full of lemon peel, crushed gravel, chalk, lime zest, baked apple and spiced pear aromas. In the mouth, it is kind of woodsy and woody to my taste, with lots of spiced apple and pear flavors to go along with notes of oak, vanilla, coconut and lemon rind in a fleshy, matte-textured package with gentle acidity. It easily fills the mouth and fans out extensively through the mid-palate where it could use a bit of time to more fully integrate the wood, I think.
1981 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvée WD Sonoma County. This wine is definitely browning at the rim and overall gives off a rather cloudy, unfiltered appearance. It certainly smells a bit funky--with lots of rawhide leather, sweaty horse, turned earth and at times vegetal aromas melding together with bits of prune and spicecake and caramel scents. It is really complex and certainly unique, if not always pretty—sort of teetering between exciting and weird. In the mouth, it is generally cool and dark, with a lot of acidic crunch, but it also continually morphs and changes--with fleeting bits of violet, berries, plums, dirt, tobacco, tomato plant, mint, jalapeno and scorched earth all making appearances at various times. It is more of a thought-provoker than a wine of pleasure or finesse, but it is quite neat to drink.
2003 Domaine Weinbach Pinot Noir Alsace. People really seemed to fall for this wine, but to my tastes it is still rather youthfully taut and angular, with a somewhat dry edge of austerity to it. The nose is young and tight, but very Old World in its aromatic profile of pencil shavings, tobacco leaf, jalapeno, clean earth and purple fruit. In the mouth, it is finely earthy and decidedly acidic, but features a juicy dark berry-driven mid-palate that fights through the black tea, leather and tobacco elements to give this rather structured and dry wine some emergent charm that would seem to have very good potential. It is a unique treat to drink, but my advice is to hold off on this another 4-5 years.
2006 Jacques Puffeney Poulsard Arbois "M". This wine is super-light, almost transparent red in color. That belies the strength of the bouquet, which is really quite lovely—featuring aromas of rose petals, crushed strawberry and raspberry fruit, gravel stones, light cedar, menthol leaf and old dried leather that have a nice second gear to them, as well. In the mouth, it is pretty but also grippy, juicy and succulent. It marries light, airy top notes of red berry and cherry fruit to earthier bottom notes. The acidic structure and the sneaky tannins take a while to make their presence felt, and the wine ends up a bit taut and compacted on the finish, so I am tempted to suggest that it would be even nicer in another 2-3 years.
1996 Domaine Robert Chevillon Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots. Oh boy, this is one dark, musky and manly Burgundy—with a wonderfully old-fashioned bouquet of leather, mushrooms, musk, tobacco, persimmon and murky dark red cherry and rhubarb fruit that I really like. It is also quite nice to drink right now—providing a dark, leathery, meaty and powerful palate full of black cherry, currant, chalk, leather and mineral flavors in a dry, mildly tannic but finely-structured package. I think a few more years are warranted here, but there’s a whole lot to like for current drinking, as well.
1995 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée. This wine has a lovely nose full of aromas of red flowers, hot bricks, black raspberry fruit, tobacco leaf, pounded leather and warm baking spices. The palate is larger-scaled than the pretty bouquet—with lots of volume to the spiced plum, kirsch and toasted orange peel flavors. It shows fine balance and excellent flow despite its size and should provide many more years of excellent drinking pleasure going forward. A no-brainer excellent wine.
1998 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence. There is a darker and denser color to this wine and the nose is also much deeper and dense, with mysterious aromas of black cherry, blackberry, garrigue, toasted earth, forest floor and toasted orange peel slowly emerging from the glass with aggressive aeration. In the mouth, it is super-smoothly polished and just loaded from stem to stern with powerful flavors of raspberries, dark cherries, game and earth. Tannins are definitely in play, but they are well-rounded and classy. The wine is very long and absolutely stuffed with flavor but perhaps a bit less food-friendly at this point in its evolution. It has many, many years ahead of it.
1999 Forman Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This was an impressive showing, featuring an old-fashioned and very appealing bouquet of black currants, plums, cool dark earth, white pepper and tomato plant. In the mouth, it is dense and chewy but easy-flowing and accessible despite the obvious structure and solid tannic character. Flavors of black currant, anise and tobacco are supported by fine acids, and the wine displays excellent overall balance and grounding that make it very appealing to drink now or to feel good about cellaring for years to come.
2005 Freiherr Langwerth von Simmern Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Spätlese Rheingau. Although I don’t think it was unanimous, I was a fan of this wine. To me, it has a lovely nose of diesel fuel, blue slate, white flowers, honey, citrus peel, honeysuckle and exotic mixed fruit that is lush and layered. In the mouth, it is exuberant yet fleshy and features all kinds of peach, apricot pit and sweet pineapple flavors that are luscious and rich, but perhaps a bit raw in sweetness at times—especially on the finish. It is darned tasty now, but will probably be better with a few more years of cellar age.
2001 Gottelman Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling Spätlese Nahe. This wine has a fantastic nose of blue slate, petrol, apple, peach, chalk dust, sweet melon and wildflowers. It displays great focus and verve on the palate, with fabulous structure and pinpoint balance to the beautiful mixture of pineapple, lemon, guava, cherry pit and cidery applesauce flavors and bright acids. It is a seamless and effortlessly delicious Riesling that is seemingly drinking at peak right now. One of the clear wines of the night.
1997 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Mosel Saar Ruwer. Here one finds the classic Prum nose of blue slate, peach, diesel fuel, smoke and sulfur aromas, accented by undertones of grapefruit, lime pith and chalk. In the mouth, it has a crisp entry that fleshes out through the middle with flavors of honey, apple, spiced pear, peach, flint and smoke slowly gaining in richness the longer one stays with it. It is neither quite as rich nor as precise as the previous wine, with perhaps a more open-knit texture to it that nonetheless is able to yield a very tasty wine for current consumption.
2005 Shadow Canyon Cellars Late Harvest Pinot Blanc Paeonia Bien Nacido Vineyard Santa Maria Valley. Served from 375 ml bottle. This is a very dark yellow color and offers up a dense and rather rich and unctuous bouquet of sweet-smelling caramel, crème brulee, dried pineapple and apricot fruit cubes, peach pit and botrytis types of spices. In the mouth, it is full-bodied, rich and unctuous, with a real sweet core of caramel, apricot preserve, vanilla and yellow raisin flavor. The residual sugar seems quite high and the acids pretty low, as this is mouth-coatingly viscous and concentrated with sweet fruit. For all that, it is darned easy to enjoy as it just sort of washes over you to cap off a delightful evening of wine excess.
-Michael
