My wife and I joined another couple for dinner at Café Mangal in Wellesley recently, where BYO is legal and encouraged and where the food and service are generally outstanding. It was a great evening and a lot of fun. Without really realizing it, the “theme” ended up being something like “Traditional Italians meet Modern Spaniards”—as we put two entirely different sorts of flights to the test to see what paired best with this style of cuisine.
Starters:
1990 Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Cuvee Rare. The nose on this first wine of the evening is surprisingly tight and quiet--offering light but pretty aromas of brioche, blanched nuts, citrus and wet stones. In the mouth, though, it is wonderfully alive and kicking. It is really expansive on the entry and mid-palate, with plenty of vinous density and excellent depth of flavor. The white peach, yellow apple, citrus and pear flavors have a gently aged character to them but are full and giving in nature. Oddly, the wine seems to fall off a bit toward the back of the palate—almost taking a brief pause—before roaring back with an impressive finishing kick. Despite the quibbles over the tight nose and the late pause, I really enjoy the wine’s flavor profile and am impressed with its fantastic energy. It is a great way to start any evening.
2002 Peter Michael Chardonnay La Carriere Knights Valley. I’ve had this wine twice in 2007 and once again in 2009 and it just seems to get more and more bohemian in nature every time I encounter it. I find it to be crazy complex on the nose, with delightfully full and lingering aromas of turkish tobacco, hazelnuts, vanilla bean, meringue, crushed white flowers, lemon oil, mint oil and funky herb tones swirling around. In the mouth, it is rather leesy in texture, with a mouth-coating thickness and generously-endowed fruit flavor heft to it. It features a whole lot of vanilla, custard, hazelnut, wood smoke, pear and tropical musky fruit flavors that are still a bit overly oak-influenced, but fun to drink nonetheless. As was the case 2 years ago, I find that the typical mineral stoniness that often comes through in this bottling from Peter Michael seems to have been overtaken now by the luscious creamy fruit and overt barrel spices. So, while I think it is funky, fun and delicious in its own way, a part of me sort of misses that overt mineral character.
Italians:
1997 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva Il Poggio. One encounters a beautiful, expressive bouquet with this wine—full of sweet black cherry fruit, lots of tar and creosote notes, and a fine assortment of dried leather, raw meat, lead pencil, horse hair and red flower aromas. I like how the meaty, leathery notes hold down the base of the bouquet while the pretty fruit and flower tones keep things light and lilting in the higher registers. In the mouth, one senses that this is a wine of solid and serious depth, with a dark, smoldering core surrounded by prettier notes of black raspberry and dark cherry fruit flavors and accented all the way through the palate journey by really interesting notes of iron filings, charred meat, leather, wood shavings and graphite. There is plenty of structure here for aging and there are also some youthful but plush tannins in play, but the wine has such solid acidity and lift that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend drinking this now.
1982 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Bricco Rocche Prapo. Slowly but surely, this wine starts revealing aromatic nuances that are focused around rose petal and other red flowers scents, but also pure strawberry fruit, Swedish gummy fish, candy cigarettes, campfire ash, crunchy minerals and rawhide leather notes that are pretty and nuanced. In the mouth, it is rather crunchy and vividly acidic at its core, with lots of dried cherry, licorice rope, earth and mineral notes all the way through. It turns sappy-textured at times, and occasionally pulls in some leathery, mushroomy notes, but it generally tends to return to the bright red fruits and crunchy mineral-led acidity that seems to be its true DNA. It is definitely ready to drink and needs food to show its best, for sure, but I find a decent amount of intrigue here and end up happy to have it on the table. Not a killer showing, but at least an interesting one.
Spanish:
2003 Bodegas y Vinedos Maurodos Toro San Roman. There could not be three more different wines to drink after the previous two than this trio of modern-styled Spanish beauties. You really have to press the re-set button and come at these with an entirely different mindset. Still, there is no denying how lusciously-flavored, textured and deep-fruited these wines are, starting with perhaps my favorite of the bunch—the 2003 San Roman. First off, it presents an absolutely super-sexified bouquet that is about as overtly slutty and compellingly seductive as one can encounter. Aromas of shaved cedar, fresh mint, bay leaf and tobacco underpin soaring notes of fleshy red cherry and cassis fruit and spicecake in an expansive and distinctive package that never quits. In the mouth, it is a bit darker-fruited, but otherwise stays on course with decadent flavors of peppermint dust, intense spices, damson, vanilla, fig and black raspberry fruit that totally kick out the jams. For all that, there isn’t even a hint of alcoholic warmth or overdone roasty notes—just pure sexy flavors and a gorgeously-textured mouthfeel. Some tannins sneak in on the finish, but otherwise this is just all velvety goodness that is a delight to drink (after the proper attitude adjustment!).
2001 Bodegas Aalto Ribera del Duero P.S. The nose here is a bit more direct, and with considerably darker aromas in play—such as tanned leather, tar, black soot, tobacco leaf, pencil shavings and sweet, inky black currant and blackberry fruit. In the mouth, it is highly-polished, feeling almost like a velvet bullet across the palate. It is full of blackberry and kirsch flavors, with strong accents of burnt embers and creosote. The tannins here are silky-smooth and the wine overall has excellent flow, cut and precision for such a big and fruity wine. The highlights for me are the woven purity of the wine’s texture and also its extremely lengthy finish. Compared to the last time I drank this, it seems to be shedding some of its baby fat and entering a more serious phase right now, while still delivering plenty of direct pleasure.
2001 Vina Sastre (Bodegas Hermanos Sastre) Ribera del Duero Regina Vides. In retrospect, these three wines should have been served in reverse order—as this is by far the earthiest wine of the bunch—perhaps serving more effectively as a bridge between the two flights. On the nose, it is a very serious, very cool customer—giving up a wonderful melange of turned earth, tobacco, tar, black currant and blackberry aromas that are somewhat introspective despite the volume of aroma present. In the mouth, it is dense, rich and layered, with a juicy citric acidity running through the flavors of blue and purple fruit and cool earth. It is certainly full-bodied, but more grown up and reserved than the previous two wines. This is a fully-realized and impressive wine that should age gracefully and without effort, in my opinion.
Sweet wine:
N.V. Pulenta Estate Cabernet Franc Tardio XII Agrelo Vineyard Mendoza. From 375 ml bottle. This is a light garnet-colored wine with a really fabulous nose that is full of funky dark strawberry fruit aromas accented with beautiful notes of botrytis cream, hardened meringue, leather, dark peach and musky dried flower petals. Over time, it also pulls in some exotic baking spices and cherry vanilla aromas that give it a really complex and fascinating personality that is like a theoretical blending of a Sauternes and a lighter-bodied Recciotto. In the mouth, it delivers on the promise of the nose, with all kinds of dark nectarine, plum and black fig flavors overlain with vanilla cream and botrytis spices. It is lighter-bodied, very fresh and extremely pretty in addition to being a lot of fun to drink. There is no heaviness to it whatsoever and it doesn’t leave you feeling weighed down at the end of the evening. This is a shockingly good wine and one that I’ll seek out more of.
-Michael