Recently, my wife and I hosted a little dinner party at our house with another couple, who thankfully don’t seem to ever mind putting up with me having my tasting notebook on the table and scribbling notes in it while we catch up and enjoy the meal.
N.V. Deutz Champagne Brut Classic. When I put my nose into the glass, I am greeted by a lively, bright and pretty bouquet featuring aromas of toast, graphite, lemon rind, chalk and mild touches of sulphur smoke. In the mouth, it is a very good combination of bright citrus, apple and faint red fruit flavors to go along with toast, cream and powdery mineral accents. It shows solid verve and drive, with a nice tanginess on the finish. It may be more fresh and bright than elegant and complex, but it is fun, friendly and quite tasty.
2008 Varner Chardonnay Spring Ridge Vineyard Home Block Santa Cruz Mountains. This wine is a bright golden-tinged color, with some pea green tints to it. The nose seems to me to be very tight and only moderately expressive—to the point of being somewhat disappointing. My wife and my guests really liked it, but I just keep waiting for more aromatic heights than the wine seems ready to deliver at this time. Yes, there are some limestone, crystallized lemon, spun sugar, pear flesh, white flower and faint butterscotch notes that one can pick up from time to time, but nothing that really seems distinctive, exciting or beguiling. It also comes across as shy and taut on the palate, where one finds tons of crystalline mineral sensations riding atop a creamier-textured core. As it warms, it gets more rounded and glycerol-laden, but the pear, orange blossom, lemon ball and soft oak flavors only seem to be hinting at future bounties. Moreover, the acidity seems to be outpacing the fruit right now--which is just not at all what I was expecting—so I will hold another 18 months or so before testing again.
1983 Chateau Latour Pauillac. This was decanted about 2 hours. The nose opens up with some old chest of drawers aromas but aggressive swirling quickly pulls in scents of cedar shingle, wintergreen and other piney notes that support the core aromatics of currant, fig and fruitcake. It gets better and better the longer we stay with it, too. On the palate, the acidity is fresh and even a bit overly bracing at times, though there is plenty of fleshy-textured and toothsome currant, cassis and blacker fruit present. The streak of piney, foresty character never really abates much, but does seem to integrate better the longer one sips it. It is not quite as large-framed or immediately rewarding a wine as from a bottle tasted one year earlier, but is still a lovely wine when all is said and done.
2000 Peter Lehmann Semillon Botrytis Barossa Valley. From 375 ml bottle. This wine presents a bouquet of liquid caramel, light toffee, toasted walnuts, dark honey, dark citrus and a little pretty top note of rosewater. In the mouth, it has a nice citrus snap on the entry that leads to flavors of toasted nuts and caramel. It isn’t overly unctuous or even all that full-bodied—showing brighter and more citrus-infused than I expected. It tastes pretty nice and is actually kind of cleansing in a way—a nice topper to the evening.
-Michael