Friends dropped over last weekend with a (liter) bottle of the 2010 Berger Gruner Veltliner, that delicious little everyday slurpmeister that everyone can love. The '10's as good as any bottle has ever been. Another friend brought a bottle of 2006 Three Blondes Gewurztraminer, I think it was a Washington wine. All the winos regarded the silly name and label with fear, and then good manners prevailed and we opened it. It was oxidized! You've never seen a bunch of people more relieved in your life--no desperate search for nice words, no well-intentioned damning with faint praise, we didn't have to drink it at all! Bub-bye!
As that day wore on we got into the more serious stuff. Out of my cellar came a 2001 Karl Lawrence cabernet, a 2001 Dehlinger Syrah, and a 2005 Dunham Artist Label Merlot (Dunham's artist labels are small lots and winery-sales only). The Karl was a stunner, and it truly impressed this crowd of Europhiles. It's aging beautifully but still has a lot of primary flavors. If you own them, this is a good time to drink one but there's no rush. The Dehlinger is very dry and got mixed marks from the crowd. It's black and strange like unsweetened licorice, perhaps even a bit green beyond green olives, which it definitely shows, drinkable but aloof. It's the antithesis of what people complain about in California syrah which goes too far in the other direction. Which is no change from the last bottle we opened a few years ago. I have one remaining bottle. Think I'll schedule it out for 2015. Then came the Dunham. Dense, concentrated, lavish, lovely and rather like the Karl in that it's not openly spoofulated but takes full advantage of all it's native, black and blue fruit charms. It's kind of like taking a ride in a Rolls Royce Corniche--you'd never buy one, it's ridiculously expensive, it's ostentatious, but darn do you feel pampered. This is the best domestic merlot I've ever had--thank god not everybody in Washington gave up merlot for syrah.
A few nights later some friends came to dinner. It was Anne's birthday and I wanted to cook for her. They brought a 2008 Fenton Herriott Syrah from El Dorado County where I did not expect them to bring any wine at all, so I ditched the champagne I'd planned to open with and went right to the white I'd planned for the artichoke/green olive crostini, a 2007 Fortia Chateneuf-du-Pape Blanc. I loved the wine when I bought it two years ago, and though this was good now I think I should have drunk them younger. It's lost the fresh, floral puff of wind off the top and now relies on it's excellent body and lemon-mineral flavors. After that, with a fresh crab bisque made from Dungeness we catch in our bay, I served a 2010 Fontsainte Gris de Gris rose from the Languedoc. A Kermit Lynch import, this is one of my favorite new (to me) roses of this summer. Rose petals, limestone and a touch of sweet cream give a lot of lift and body to a very dry wine. Only 12.5% alcohol, too. With the roast pork main course, I paired a 2009 Domaine Gramenon Cotes du Rhone Sierra du Sud with the Anne's Fenton Herriott. The Gramenon is 100% syrah, and at $29.99 is a bit spendy for a Cotes du Rhone but only if you think of Cotes du Rhone as being lesser wines. For what's in the bottle, however, it's great value. Mouthfilling flavors of blueberry, boysenberry, tar, and red apple skin, medium-to-full body, with good acidity and tannins. Must buy more. The Fenton Herriott also represented it's origins well. Darker and sweeter than the Gramenon, natch, with blueberry pie and licorice. Not as in-your-face as many of the syrahs of this region can be, but the 14.6% alcohol and odd iodine note tell the rest of the story. Strange, that iodine: I find that often enough in lower/mid-state California pinots, but in a syrah this is new.