Thursday (7/14) Dinner At The Rasmussen's
I've followed KentRasmussen's wines from the very start, his Estate Pinot. I did a visit to his winery on
his vnyd down in the Carneros...way back when. With his bib overalls and bushy little beard, he reminded me
a bit of a little leprecaun sitting out in the field under a toadstool smoking some of that funny tobacco in
a little pipe. He was a very affable host to whom I took an instant liking.
I've followed his Pinots & Chards fairly closely over the yrs. What most excited me about his wines was that
he ventured out into some more obscure varietals. His was the first Calif Refosco, the first Pinotage, maybe the
first Dolcetto. He then expanded his line to include the Ramsay wines, named after his wife Celia's maiden name.
He then bought an old meat-packing plant up on the SilveradoTrail to accomadate the Ramsay line. Things perhaps
got a bit out of hand w/ the Ramsay line and the marketing, not one of Kent's favorite tasks, got to be a
challenge. The Ramsay line has been cut back, but there are fans of these wines, made from purchased grapes,
still out there. To assuage his penchant for unusual stuff, Kent now has an Esoterica label for some of his
odd-ball stuff. I've found these wines invariably quite interesting.
As I organized this trip, I contacted Kent about a visit. An invite to dinner immediately followed. So we
met Kent & Celia at their home, had a wonderfully simple meal, accompanied by some great conversation, greatly
expanded our music education, and tried some interesting wines:
1. Matthiasson Refosco dal PeduncoloRosso NapaVlly (12.4%) 2009: Med.dark color; very strong black cherry/
licorice/Refosco some earthy/mineral/dusty bit smokey/complex lovely varietally-correct nose; very tart earthy/
dusty strong black cherry/Refosco/pungent/licorice bit tannic/hard/lean some mineral/graphite flavor; long
tart/lean dusty/black cherry/licorice/Refosco some tannic/hard finish; needs several yrs yet; as it evolves
in the glass develops a slight herbal/CabFranc-like/BBQ/walnutty interesting nose; very authentic rendition
of Refosco but not as rich/lush as most Friulian ones.
2. Rasmussen NapaVlly Chard 1990: Med.dark color; rather oxidized/nutty butterscotchy/caramel old Chard
nose; tart rather oxidized somewhat bitter butterscotchy/caramel/nutty flavor; as noticible oxidation but
some interesting things are holding on in there.
3. Rasmussen NapaVlly Chard 1993: Slightly less oxidized than the '90; some spicy/nutmeg rather caramel/
butterscotchy/graham cracker/nutty some complex nose; tart some oxidized/nutty bit caramel/spicy/nutmeg flavor;
still clinging to life and not bad if you don't mind the oxidation.
4. Rasmussen NapaVlly Chard 1997: Strong spicy/nutmeg/caramel/butterscotchy/oak slight melon/Chard nose w/
slight oxidation; tart fairly rich butterscotchy/caramel/nutmeg/oak flavor w/ slight degree of oxidation.
5. Ramsay NorthCoast Nebbiolo 1992: Med.light color; lovely floral/lilacs/Nebb bit tarry/earthy/pungent
old Gattinara complex nose; tart still some tannic/hard lovely floral/Nebb light tarry/pungent slight faded
rose petal/old Gattinara complex flavor; a lovely complex old Nebb/old Gattinara nose but still rather hard/
tannic on the palate and not likely to outlive them.
6. Rasmussen Carneros PinotNoir 1988: Med.color w/ some bricking; beautiful pungent/Burgundian/smokey/
pencilly/oak quite complex slight earthy nose; tart fairly smooth/polished violets/floral rather smokey/
pungent/Burgundian/oak flavor w/ slight tannic bite in finish; a really lovely/complex old Burgundy Pinot
in remarkable shape. $22.00
7. MadronaVnyds ElDorado Zin (EB; 13.5%) 1980: Light color w/ some bricking; beautiful pencilly/cedary/
smokey/old Zin some earthy/dusty complex nose; smooth/polished bit dusty/earthy lovely cedary/pencilly/smokey/
old Zin flavor w/ light/polished tannins; a rare old Zin that has come together; no signs of being dried out/
astringent and over the hill.
8. LyttonSpringsWnry Zin SonomaCnty (13.6%) 1981: Med.color w/ slight bricking; light smokey/pungent/pencilly/
oak bit licorice/pungent somewhat corked nose; seems comprised from the corkiness.
9. Rasmussen LateHrvst NapaVlly SauvignonBlanc (13%; Good storage) 1992: Dark brown color; very intense
botrytis/peachy/apricotty slight herbal light oak complex old Sauternes nose; quite sweet soft intense botrytis/
peachy/apricotty slight herbal/SB slightly fresher light butterscotchy/pencilly/oak lovely complex old botrytis
wine flavor.
10. Rasmussen LateHrvst NapaVlly SauvignonBlanc (13%; Not Good storage) 1992: Somewhat darker color approaching
old PX wine; very strong botrytis/peachy/apricotty/old Sauternes light pencilly/oak complex nose w/ no trace
whatsoever of oxidation; slightly sweeter/richer/riper intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty light pencilly/oak
flavor; no signs of oxidation nor poor storage whatsoever.
11. Rasmussen NorthCoast SauvignonBlanc LateHrvst (SaH: 35.1%; RS: 10.2%) 1993: Dark gold color; same intense
botrytis/peachy/apricotty/canned fruit cocktail nose; seems a slight bit more overripe and coarser in the nose;
a bit sweeter on the palate w/ a touch of bitterness; not quite as good as the two '92's, but still a very
good old Calif botrytis wine.
____________________
And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Refosco: The Matthiasson's have probably what is the only authentic planting of Refosco dal PeduncoloRosso
in the US. According to DarrellCorti, there are a whole family of Refoschi in Friuli, with the Refosco dal
PeduncoloRosso (red peduncle) generally regarded as the best. For many yrs, it was believed in Calif that
Refosco and Mondeuse were the same variety. But DNA has shown this not to be the case and (all?) of the
Refosco that existed is actually MondeuseNoir (not really a bad thing), bastard uncle of the Syrah.
I thought this Matthiasson version, their first one, was very varietally correct annd spoke of Refosco.
Because that's there style, it was somewhat leaner and not as big/rich/lush as many of the Friulian version
I have tried. I think this wine shows a lot of potential for the variety in Calif.
____________
2. Chards: Kent very rarely pulls out any of his old Chards, so we was delighted to do so when I expressed an
interest in trying some. His early Chards were sometimes on the reductive side (much like the Ravenswoods
were) and had what I called the "Rasmussen stench". But that seemed to go w/ aging. His Chards were usually
pretty rich, but always had a lot of acid in them.
Of these three, they were pretty linear in their level of oxidation. The '90 was the most, but still drinkable
and not nearly as bad as some old Calif Chards I've had. The '97 was clearly in the best shape and still showed
some life to it. I guess I was expecting them to be a bit more alive than they were.
____________
3. SauvBlanc '92: As I was getting ready to travel, I went into my archives to see what I had in the way of Kent's
older wines. I'd recalled that I'd had a hlf btl of this that I'd left in my study somewhere, standing upright,
uncontrolled temperatures, from the middle '90's. So I retrieved that, but was certain it would be badly
compromised. As I was digging out the '88 Pinot, I spied a familiar capsule w/ my dessert wines hlf btls.
Lo & behold, it was the very same '92 LateHrvst, plus the '93 right next to it. So this was an ideal experiment;
a hlf btl of botrytis SauvBlanc that had been stored under uncontrolled temps, upright, vs. one that had seen
(better than) ideal storage conditions.
The poor storage btl showed a somewhat darker color. The good storage showed (maybe) a tiny bit more freshness
in the nose; but the differences betwixt the two was very difficult to distinguish. Both were very good examples
of old complex Calif botrytis wine.
I seem to recall that a few of Kent's distillates showed up on the table after the SauvBlancs, but my memory was
starting to get a bit foggy this late in the evening. But it was a splendid evening of wine, food, and great,
wide-ranging, conversations over the table. Just like it should be.
Tom