One of our recent poker games was held at Zach’s house, with wines supplied by the previous month’s winner, Kyle. It was a really fun line-up and I actually played pretty decently for a change—so it was good all around! All wines were served blind except the 1999 Laurel Glen.
Starters:
2001 Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered Napa Valley. A very large-framed and boisterous bouquet blasts up out of the glass of this wine--with aromas of meringue, hazelnuts, vanilla bean, nutmeg, toasty oak and butterscotch on full display. In the mouth, it is extremely creamy-textured, lusciously full-bodied and richly-flavored with lemon oil, butterscotch and poached pears. But it’s also lashed heavily with new oak notes and oak barrel spices that in the end are distracting. My guess was that this was a very young California Chardonnay, so I was really shocked to see that this was a 10-year old wine. So, while it is aging impressively, it has not yet really integrated the wood the way one might hope.
2010 Jean-Luc Colombo Cape Bleue Rose Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence. Very pale-colored, this wine smells of graphite, wilting flowers, cantaloupe and strawberries in a very light and airy package. It is quite similar on the palate, giving some simple pleasure in the form of light strawberry, honeydew melon, talc and citrus flavors that are rather tangy. I find the minerality on the finish a bit bitter at times, but the length is good, so I might sit on this and try again next summer out on the deck.
1999 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Mountain. This was not served blind. I believe Zach had opened the bottle two nights earlier and had only drunk a glass of it, so we had a pretty full bottle of this wine to enjoy. It is a deep purple color, with a pasty bouquet of plum, fine herb, dusty cedar and earth aromas that still seem pretty primary, really. In the mouth, it is more expansive and elastic, though, with a more open-knit texture than one might expect, and lots of really appealing dark berry, plum and currant fruit flavors allied to cedar and chalky earth notes. It still has a long way to go, I suspect.
Main line-up:
2005 R. Dubois et Fils Savigny les Beaune 1er Cru Les Narbantons. This wine smells of smoky cherries, toasted herbs and bright citrus notes. It is a bit ashy at times, too, but is otherwise rather transparent, clean and youthfully linear. Over time, some pencil shaving aromas and some more savory bits pop in to add to the intrigue, but it is clear this is a pretty young Pinot Noir just starting to stretch its wings. In the mouth, it is very crisp, fresh and red-fruited all the way—with a solid laser beam of fun sour cherry, cranberry and licorice rope flavors carried along by bright acids. My advice is to give this a few more years.
2009 Domaine Ganevat Pinot Noir Cotes du Jura Sous la Roche Cuvee Julien. There’s kind of a candy-apple red color to this next wine. The nose on it I like a whole lot—with its lovely aromas of high-toned raspberry and red cherry fruit surrounded by accenting notes of suede leather and mocha powder. In the mouth, it is rather dry and earthy, with an old-style feel to it. It has a taut structure to it and is brightly tangy-fruited atop that earthy base. I like the sappy, ropy texture it sports already and I think this is probably poised to be something even more special in like 5 years’ time. Overall, it is a really intriguing wine and among my three favorites of the afternoon.
1989 Chateau Giscours Margaux. I really love the aromas of this wine—they are collectively right in my wheelhouse. I get aromas of old leather books, tobacco leaf, road tar, toasted orange peel, black fruit, classy earth and fine spices in a beautifully aged package. In the mouth, it is blackberry and black currant-fruited, with fine green pepper, ash and leather bottom notes that lend it a cool class. It is medium to full-bodied and just carries itself with distinction. It is just extremely enjoyable and my wine of the day.
1998 Chateau Leoville Barton St. Julien. This is another outstanding bouquet, but in a whole different spectrum of the aroma wheel—with lovely and lifted scents of cassis and kirsch, cherry paste, and a little sliver of jalapeno pepper. In the mouth, it is obviously a fair bit younger than the previous wine—with a pushy red-fruited profile supported by a solid cut of acidity. There’s more density and tightly-woven structure to this wine, and the tannins are much more of a factor. It has a lot of character and while I certainly like it enough to rank it as my fourth-favorite wine of the day, I think it will be better in a few years’ time once those tannins have a chance to integrate.
1999 Chateau Leoville Barton St. Julien. This wine has a big, bold and powerful nose to it—hitting the nostrils with large-scaled aromas of cedar, eucalyptus and toasty barrel spices wrapped around an absolutely intense core of sweet cherry paste. In the mouth, it delivers a lot of velvety-textured purple fruit that packs a lot of flavor. There are also fudgy tannins to contend with at first, though those tend to abate over time. The main thing here is the impressive energy and drive that the wine exhibits, all the while delivering that big core of velvety-textured flavor. When it was revealed, I was definitely surprised—as the last time I drank this a few years back, it was all structure, tannin and promise. The promise is certainly still there, but the fruit is much more forward now and I’m rather curious now to see where this goes in another 3-5 years.
2001 Chateau Monbousquet St. Emilion. The aromas of dark cassis, black cherry and cedar dust in this wine are again large-scaled and expansive but don’t seem as interesting to me as in the previous set of wines. In the mouth, it is thicker-textured all around, with notes of rambunctious but chunky blueberries, roast coffee and baking spices that actually have decent underlying acidity. I know a lot of people really liked this one, but I just never really connected with it the way some others did—it just seems too outsized or something to me.
2002 Chateau Leoville Barton St. Julien. This wine is black, wiry, sinewy, slick and slinky on the nose, with focused aromas of creosote, black leather jacket, dark chocolate and toasted spices. In the mouth, it is exactly the same—like smoothly-polished gun metal. The black-hearted core of the wine delivers sweet blackberry fruit intertwined with savory bits of bacon bits, white pepper, graphite and charred meat flavors. It is not nearly as expansive or full-blown as the previous pair of wines—more contained and directed along its core trajectory. I really like it now, but a second taste later in the afternoon that displays more fudgy tannins has me thinking it will be even better in a few more years. My #2 wine of the afternoon.
2001 Fra Fulco Priorat. I really didn’t like this wine, starting with the rather sweet-fruited nose of mixed currants, cherry, cotton candy, fudge and tar trying to fight it out with raw oak, clove and charred barrel spice aromas. In the mouth, it is super-luxuriant in texture but densely packed with flavors of chocolate cupcake frosting, sweet caramel, rich mocha and coffee flavors that prove just too much for me after some of the classical stylings of the earlier set of wines.
2007 Cellar de l’Encastell Priorat Roquers de Porrera. I really don’t care too much for the nose of this wine, either, but for entirely different reasons, as here I get a big blast of tire rubber and toasted grape stem aromas that just turn me off from the start. Add in some treacled blackberry cobbler and earthy mushroom notes and I can’t be bothered. In the mouth, it is highly-stylized and rich—with a ton of chocolate and loads of boysenberry syrup and other candied flavors that are just too much. Although it is very smooth-textured, the tannins roar in and sort of shut things down, anyway. So, really, you just can’t win if trying to drink this right now, in my opinion.
2004 M. Chapoutier Cote-Rotie La Mordoree. In strong contrast to a lot of the wines this day, the aromas here are rather reserved and quiet. And I also find a number of unusual sorts of aromas that I find kind of interesting, like clay, burlap, root vegetables and savory stewing herbs. In the mouth, it is tautly-constructed and just starting to show itself, but I like what I taste--with a number of savory bits adding character to the cherry and raspberry fruit. It has a nicely-woven texture and a generous mouthfeel despite a medium-bodied and tightly-toned weight to it. This is obviously young but I find plenty of enjoyment in it.
2006 Mas Mudigliza Cotes du Roussillon Carino. The dark and coiled nose here is black raspberry-fruited and accented by aromas of pepper, leather, tar and rubber. In the mouth, it is punchy and finely-flavored with notes of black cherry, chocolate and earth, but the tannins are just extremely drying right now. I see some appealing elements to this wine, but they need to come together more cohesively with time in the cellar.
2007 Wind Gap Wines Syrah Castelli-Knight Vineyard Russian River Valley. Candy, dried herbs, funky sweat, toasted spices and boisterous sweet blueberry aromas are the order of the day for this rather new world rendition of Syrah. In the mouth, it is rather blue and purple-fruited in tone, with a velvety texture but a decent underbelly of acidity. There are interesting toasted stem, toasted oak and dried herb edges to it, too, to keep things interesting, but overall it is too sweet, too oaky and too tannic to truly enjoy now.
-Michael