WTN: Bocce and Wine

My recollection on wines tasted with the Great Western North America Bocce Tournament held recently in my garden.

My recollection (without notes):

2009 Domaine de la Moutonniere Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine - Light colour, apple noseclean acidity and a dry finish. Very pleasant.

2003 Château de Chamboureau Savennières Cuvée d'Avant - Light gold colour, with a very nice chenin nose of almonds and stone fruit. The acidity was well under control and it finished clean and dry.

2009 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé - light pink with strawberry fruit nose that carried through on palate. Tasty wine!

2010 Artazuri Garnacha Navarra Rosado - Brighter reddish colour, lots of cherry fruit, a fun wine to drink.

2006 Domaine des Amouriers Vacqueyras Signature - Dark colour with a weighty nose of dark fruit. Full and sweet/soft in the mouth. At peak.

2004 Dom. La Roquète CnduP - dark red, not much happening on the nose at first but improved with time. Seemed to be red fruit/grenache mostly. OK, but not up to the recently tasted 1998. Not sure about future.

1996 E & E Black Pepper Shiraz- what I like an Aussie shiraz to be - a little mint, dark, with good fruit and no overbearing sweetness. Holding well.

1994 Renwood Zinfandel Grandmère Vd. (Amador) - Funky rhonish nose, a tad of heat but nothing untoward, and nice extraction. Good acidity. One that didn't die with age!

1997 Turley Zinfandel Tofanelli Vd. - immediately far riper in the nose, and sweeter. Not as pale in colour as some of these get with age and most of the tannins were resolved. Pleasant.

[Jenise]

Hey, I can add to this.

2009 Domaine de la Moutonniere Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine - I brought this to go with a plate of sauvignon-blanc cured salmon with cucumber slices and toasts. I was hoping the essential muscadet crispness and minerality would offset the richness of the salmon. Not such a good choice in my opinion: muscadet usually has more character than this bottle did, and the richer two wines that follow this were both better pairings. So, a disappointment in two ways.

2003 Château de Chamboureau Savennières Cuvée d'Avant - Spot on for it's age--that is, it has developed fabulous richness, and it actually showed some lovely fruit. I've had some savvies that taste like rotting cabbage stored in dirty underwear, but this wasn't one. Delightful with the salmon.

2009 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé - This 09 Tempier has been one of my favorite roses ever, and this bottle was virtually unchanged from how the wine showed last summer. Outstanding, and the match with the salmon proved it's richer than it looks. Excellent pairing.

2010 Artazuri Garnacha Navarra Rosado - Disarmingly friendly strawberry fruit basket summer/garden/sipping wine. The kind of wine you can drink all day.

A wine you forgot: 2007 Hitching Post 'Highliner' Pinot Noir - I brought this thinking that everyone had seen Sideways but it was unlikely that any of you had ever had a wine from the restaurant that played so big a part in that movie. But not just a curiosity, these are darned good old-fashioned styled wines of the sort that traditionalists appreciate. Kosta Browne be damned, give me Hitching Post any day. And the Canadians agreed! Generously endowed attractive nose with classic Santa Barbara tomato skin/thyme/tomato leaf elements on warm cherry fruit. Is evolving nicely but drinks great now.

2006 Domaine des Amouriers Vacqueyras Signature - Nose and palate of roasted fruit, surprisingly so for an 06. I didn't have the wine earlier, but to the degree that the fruit has lost all primary character and the wine is, though drinkable, not heading anywhere good, I'd call it past peak personally.

2004 Dom. La Roquètte CnduP - Drinkable and moderately tasty, but somehow shyer (both nose and palate) than one would hope for. Flawed? Sleeping?

1996 E & E Black Pepper Shiraz- What you said.

Enjoyed the bonus round of zinfandels after the Coopers left, and can't improve on your notes. Will just add how much more I liked the Renwood; that porty sweetness in the Turley always strikes me as so unneccessary, even when standing in for dessert.

Yeah, I did miss the HP - and it was good.

I also missed posting the bocce results to protect the blood pressure of the losers..... Devin was a Holy terror!