WTN: Egon Muller, Talbot, Moss Wood, Rostaing, Deiss

Dinner at Spencer's last night - nice way to spend a Monday night with the baseball on, some duck confit, potatoes and a cannellini bean stew, and some very good wines.

2009 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Kabinett
Rather closed initially, not offering much aromatically or showing the dynamic flavours and textures that made it such a breathtaking wine right on release. With air it comes around though to show a lovely floral and herbal scent over a core of bright green citrus and apple fruit and stony mineral notes. There's moderate sweetness balanced by bright acidity and a remarkable sense of polish and lightness to the flavours. I'm looking forward to seeing how this ages.

1983 Château Talbot
Drinking superbly right now, this is perfectly mature with a beautiful old Cordier fragrance of leather, warm earth, dusty red fruit, cedar and herbs that keeps building and getting more complex with air. There's still plenty of bright fruit on the palate beneath the various developed flavours, a silken texture with the tannins fully resolved and superb length. Fantastic bottle that delivers pretty much everything I look for in older Bordeaux.

1994 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie La Viallière
Still quite youthful and a bit closed right now - there's a core of red and dark fruit lightly seasoned by savoury earthy and leathery notes, but it seems to be holding a lot in reserve and has the density and structure suggesting it needs a fair bit more time.

1996 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Moss Wood Vineyard
Been a while since I've had a good, traditional Aussie red and this is a reminder that I should really look harder for these wines. Rich, dark Cabernet fruit, cedar, fresh herbs and a light minty/eucalyptus accent all conveyed with a sense of power and finesse. It's still very youthful with the fruit incredibly fresh and bright and some fine grained tannin still on the back end, but there's fantastic depth and balance here and a layered, resonant finish. Fantastic.

2000 Marcel Deiss Rotenberg
Blend of Riesling and Pinot Gris if I recall correctly. Fully mature; bright floral, peachy and baked apple flavours with a burnished, smoky overlay. There's not a great deal of acidity, but it's very pleasant to drink now - though I don't see it getting any better with time.

Fun evening, thanks again for hosting Spencer.

[Jenise]

What an interesting and varied selection. Love that Talbot. And re the Moss Wood, I was just thinking this morning that the prices on Aussie wines seem to be creeping up a bit. At least, I see that AND I'm not seeing the wholesale dumps of name brands I did a year or two ago.

Dinner at Spencer's last night - nice way to spend a Monday night with the baseball on, some duck confit, potatoes and a cannellini bean stew, and some very good wines.

2009 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Kabinett
Rather closed initially, not offering much aromatically or showing the dynamic flavours and textures that made it such a breathtaking wine right on release. With air it comes around though to show a lovely floral and herbal scent over a core of bright green citrus and apple fruit and stony mineral notes. There's moderate sweetness balanced by bright acidity and a remarkable sense of polish and lightness to the flavours. I'm looking forward to seeing how this ages.

1983 Château Talbot
Drinking superbly right now, this is perfectly mature with a beautiful old Cordier fragrance of leather, warm earth, dusty red fruit, cedar and herbs that keeps building and getting more complex with air. There's still plenty of bright fruit on the palate beneath the various developed flavours, a silken texture with the tannins fully resolved and superb length. Fantastic bottle that delivers pretty much everything I look for in older Bordeaux.

1994 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie La Viallière
Still quite youthful and a bit closed right now - there's a core of red and dark fruit lightly seasoned by savoury earthy and leathery notes, but it seems to be holding a lot in reserve and has the density and structure suggesting it needs a fair bit more time.

1996 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Moss Wood Vineyard
Been a while since I've had a good, traditional Aussie red and this is a reminder that I should really look harder for these wines. Rich, dark Cabernet fruit, cedar, fresh herbs and a light minty/eucalyptus accent all conveyed with a sense of power and finesse. It's still very youthful with the fruit incredibly fresh and bright and some fine grained tannin still on the back end, but there's fantastic depth and balance here and a layered, resonant finish. Fantastic.

2000 Marcel Deiss Rotenberg
Blend of Riesling and Pinot Gris if I recall correctly. Fully mature; bright floral, peachy and baked apple flavours with a burnished, smoky overlay. There's not a great deal of acidity, but it's very pleasant to drink now - though I don't see it getting any better with time.

Fun evening, thanks again for hosting Spencer.

Hi Salil -

Thank you for the notes again.

I've come to really love the Deiss field blends, but haven't had the Rotenberg yet. The 2000 Mambourg is the one that really started me on Deiss a couple of years ago, and made more interested in trying field blends from other producers.