Last month, a few of the guys stopped by Zach’s place to watch some football, eat some pizza and sip on a few wines while griping about our fantasy football teams. Some notes from the wines drunk that afternoon:
2005 Domaine Tollot-Beaut Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Vercots. There’s a nice sort of old world nose to this wine—with fine aromas of wilted red flowers, dried red berries, dusty earth, warm brick and fireplace ash combining nicely. In the mouth, I find it slightly elevated in the acidity department, with a crunchy, almost autumnal feel to the cherry, strawberry and dried leaf elements. It is medium-weighted at most but does seem to turn creamier and put on some weight toward the back of the palate before finishing with a touch of youthful tannin. I enjoyed it but might suggest giving it a bit of time.
2005 Domaine de la Vougeraie Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Marconnets. This bouquet is quite different but also very nice in its own way. This one is sappy and full of sweet berry and cedar dust aromas to go with earthier scents of tobacco leaf and a bit of stemminess. In the mouth, it has a grippy, sappy texture to it, with a lot more body and glycerin quality to it than the previous wine. It is smooth and easy-flowing, with sweet-tinged and generous purple berry fruit delivering solid enjoyment. It does seem to dry out from a bit too much oak on the finish after a while, though, so while it has solid pleasure to give now, I’d again wait a short while on this one.
2006 Joseph Drouhin Chorey-Les-Beaune. This is the palest-looking wine in the line-up. The nose sort of splits the difference between the two previous wines—showing aromatic notes of crunchy leaves, spiced berries, road tar and pencil shavings. It is not quite as expressive as two bottles I had earlier in the summer. In the mouth, it comes across as rather dry and taut, with a bright cherry and red berry fruit profile hemmed in a bit by some moderately sharp edges and tangy citrus overtones. It has a nice sense of control and tone, but not a whole ton of charm at this stage of the game.
2005 Kutch Pinot Noir Russian River Valley. This is a whole different kettle of fish. Here we find a wine that smells full-blown and wide-open for business—putting out voluminous but pleasantly cohesive aromas of smoked cherries, rhubarb pie, blueberry cobbler, sweet vanilla extract and Christmas baking spices. In the mouth, it is pretty much the same and probably more so. It is full, flashy, juicy and exotically-spiced, with rich blue and purple berry and black cherry fruit pumping all the way through across the palate journey. Some toasty oak isn’t shy, either, it seems. However, the wine is very creamy and smooth-textured, almost velvety at times. It is bold and direct and I don’t see it being in any danger of going anywhere soon. I’ll hold my other bottle another 2-3 years at least.
1990 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. I had a very hard time with this bottle. It smells oddly swampy and decidedly reduced to me, maybe even bretty at times—with blunt aromas of roasted cherries, stewed plums, black soot and sweaty socks that I just can’t find much pleasure in. It is better on the palate, where one finds pasty red fruit and grippy tannins in a wine of solid density. There are some attractive cherry paste and red berry fruit flavors to go along with some milk chocolate notes that I like. But the longer I stay with it, the more the alcohol starts to poke through and mar the experience. In the end, I just gave up, as it certainly seems like a (variously) flawed bottle to me.
-Michael