These are tasting notes from a fairly recent poker game at Blair’s house, with wines supplied by the previous game's winner, Philip. All wines in the formal line-up were served double blind.
Flight One:
2001 Domaine William Fevre Chablis Valmur Grand Cru. The first wine of the day shows strong scents of lemon, pineapple, guava and sweet chalk dust that don’t really have me thinking Chablis at all. In the mouth, it is a bit waxy in texture, with kind of a soft, open-knit texture and not a whole lot of acidity—more of a plush and honeyed sensibility to it. The finish is nice and persistent, though. It is almost like I got this wine reversed with the next one, but I double-checked just to be sure.
2000 P. Dubreuil-Fontaine Pere et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. The nose here is pretty dense and rich, with strong cologne odors allied to lemon peel, chalk and yellow fruit aromas. In the mouth, it is again dense and viscous in feel, with a darker yellow fruit profile. There is a strong bitter mineral streak running through all of that, though, which detracts from the full-bodied sour citrus notes. This is a somewhat unusual wine that I’m not altogether high on.
Flight Two:
1981 Chateau Gruaud Larose St. Julien. This wine sports a classic Old World bouquet that is definitely full of funky qualities like tilled earth, horse, suede leather, tobacco leaf, tomato paste, white pepper, toasted orange peel, faint green pepper and a little hint of musty attic. It is really interesting and definitely appeals to my sensibilities. It is throwing a lot of sediment and definitely has an aged fruit profile that is mellow, earthy and gently tangy with red currant and dried cherry flavors accented by streaks of white pepper, bacon fat and a pinch of cocoa. It has a solid and tangy finish with a fine, dry character that displays a lot of personality. I like this a real lot.
1989 Chateau Sociando-Mallet Haut Medoc. This is a darker-colored wine and is also clearly Old World--though this is much more tightly-coiled and densely-packed with aromas of black cherry, mixed currant, mossy earth, leather and menthol showing some fine nascent complexity in its tightly-woven fabric. It is rather toothsome in the mouth, with plenty of body and a cool freshening streak of acidity running all the way through it in support of pasty red currant, dry cherry and tobacco-tinged flavors. It is medium-weighted, but solidly-structured, with mature tannins and a lifted finish. A glass later in the evening shows the fruit just a bit more roasted in quality, so I might suggest not letting this sit too long once it is opened. Overall, though, a great flight, IMO.
Flight Three:
1992 Ferrari-Carano Reserve Sonoma County. Here we have a dark, dense nose with a little exotic twist of incense, burnt embers and vanilla bean to go along with soft wood and ropy black and blue fruit aromas. It is somewhat heavy-bodied in the mouth, with a more modern and creamy mouthfeel than the previous two wines. It displays a fair amount of volume but is hardly over the top or anything. There are some nice things to like here, but the tannins are definitely a factor, as they support the fudgy black currant fruit at first, but get to be a bit aggressive the longer one stays with the wine.
1996 Tua Rita Giusto di Notri Toscana IGT. This has a very nice bouquet to it, with more fleshy fruit and floral notes to it than anything that has come before. Aromas of raspberries, red currants, saddle leather, bacon fat, foresty undergrowth and coffee grounds have good push and liveliness but also some fine layering and gently aging notes that work quite nicely together. In the mouth, it is creamy-textured and delivers a strong push of nicely-aged dried cherry and black raspberry flavor all the way through the palate journey. Some tannins that seem younger than the rest of the wine sneak in late, but the wine still manages to drink quite well throughout the time I spend with. This is tasty and drinking nicely at this stage.
Flight Four:
1998 Domaine Monpertuis Chateauneuf du Pape. This is definitely a lighter, more transparent color than the wines in the previous flight. It features aromas of rawhide leather, smoke, mushrooms, forest greens, toasted orange peel, red licorice rope and gentle kirsch. It feels sappy and grippy on the tongue, with fresh red fruit, minerals and tingly acidity the most obvious components. Overall, it is pretty nice stuff drinking well now, but with the structure and fine tannins for some additional aging.
1998 Le Clos du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape Domaine du Caillou. This is a much more old-fashioned wine than its flight-mate. It features all kinds of horse barn (leather, fur, sweat, turned earth) and tobacco aromas to go with red licorice and red currant notes that meld into a really appealing overall bouquet for me. On the palate, it is sweeter-fruited than I expected—featuring a core of chewy red cherry and raspberry fruit that shows solid density but is supported by attractive and airy soft spice and soft funk notes. This is very tasty, fresh and fun.
Flight Five:
1998 Clark-Claudon Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Napa Valley. This flight is a bit of an adjustment, with this first wine coming across as rather big-boned and boisterous on the nose—as aromas of burnt embers and toasted stems meld with stylized bits of rich blueberry fruit, mocha and vanilla paste in a lush package. In the mouth, it is lush and plush and languid—a bit unctuous but not overdone. The blue and black fruits are creamy and much more California in style, but I like this just fine as it manages to hold the line pretty well and deliver a lot of fruity flavor
2001 Clark-Claudon Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Napa Valley. This companion wine is just too young, though, and I much prefer the previous offering in the flight. Here we find a much more heavy-fruited profile on the nose, with a lot more briery plushness to the fruit but also more green stem and bramble bush sorts of elements. It is more obviously fruit-forward all the way in the mouth, with a soft pillowy structure and a rather pliant mouthfeel. It has a lot of blue fruit stuffing, a fair does of sweet oak treatment and not a whole lot of acidic cut. Give me the 1998 over this any time.
Sweet wine:
1980 Warre Vintage Porto. There is a little burn to the nose of this wine, with its bright, tangy and fuzzy aromas of cherry paste, toasted orange, baking spices and fruitcake. It is a lot better-balanced on the palate, with soft tendrils of raspberry liqueur, spiced black cherries and fruitcake flavors in a nicely luxuriant and spicy frame. There is good acidity here, too, and a youthfully fresh finish that is very nice and contains and integrates the alcoholic warmth quite well. Overall, it is not a favorite on the nose, but there’s a whole lot to really like on the palate. I may even suggest cellaring it a while longer.
After hours (not blind, courtesy of our host):
2006 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Vieille Vigne. One finds a fresh and youthful nose here, with a lot of crisp red fruit, raw leather, mushroom stalk, soft spice and cool mineral aromas in play. It is very fresh and tangy in the mouth, with a nice flavor profile of bright cherries, minerals and iron. It is balanced, crunchy, finely-grained and prettily red-fruited—drinking pretty young but boding well for a few years from now.
2008 Domaine des Chezeaux Gevrey-Chambertin. This one is kind of tight and tensile on the nose but sort of fun, as well—with its interesting aromas of dusty cherry and raspberry fruit, downy earth and twists of red grapefruit and other dark citrus bits from time to time. The acidity is more aggressive here, and the wine has a lot of cut and chisel, but also feels a bit overly tannic at this youthful stage of its development. There are lots of saline, ferrous and chalk tones to go with the red berry fruit, but it is wrapped up pretty tight right now. I’d guess it needs another 2-3 years.
-Michael