...and stops my mind from wandering where it will go.
With apologies to the Beatles, some brief tasting notes from a recent dinner with the in-laws:
NV Veuve du Vernay Brut Rose. Dark salmon in color, this opens with a big whiff of sulfur and smoke, followed by funky strawberry and pink grapefruit notes that are blunt and perhaps a bit dirty. In the mouth, it is fairly big-framed, with simple flavors of slightly sweet cherry and raspberry fruit and graphite. There really aren’t any elements of interest or nuance here, I’m afraid.
2000 Maison Alex Gambal Fixin Blanc. The nose here is interesting and layered but a bit advanced at this stage of the game—featuring aromas of praline, nuts, peach pit, lemon rind and minerals. In the mouth, it is right on the edge of going around the bend, I think—showing faint tinny oxidative notes on the one hand but leesy apple, pear and white currant fruit on the other. It manages to marry the two on the slightly sweet-tinged finish of white peach and citrus, but my advice is definitely to drink up.
2003 Fritz Haag Riesling Brauneberger Juffur-Sonnenuhr Spatlese. This was a perfect pairing with a curried butternut squash soup. It features lovely aromas of blue slate, petrol, chalk, apple, white peach and white flowers that are full-blown, rich and full of sweet character. In the mouth, it is absolutely fully-flavored and seamless but quite even-keeled and not at all overly big, either. Rich flavors of pear, apple juice and sweet peach are sweet but not as sweet as I was expecting given the vintage. In fact, this wine is wonderfully-balanced and really fans out when encountering the food pairing. The finish isn’t quite as long as I think it will be in the future, so while I think it is drinking great right now, there could be upside to further cellaring.
1996 Domaine Philippe Naddef Fixin. This wine is showing some browning at the rim but I really like the old-fashioned bouquet it puts forth--with its earthy and woodsy aromas of dirt, leather, leaves, beets, chestnuts, pencil shavings, sour cherry and cranberry. Like the 2000 Fixin blanc, it is definitely on the downslope in the mouth, however. While there’s plenty of sour cherry fruit and interesting earth, black tea and mushroom notes in the flavor profile, the acidity is just really aggressive and puckeringly tart at times. The end result feels firm and a bit austere despite some of the fine old-fashioned notes that are just too fleeting to carry the day. It is time to drink up.
2004 Frederic Magnien Cote de Nuits Villages Croix Viollette. This is a much more overtly-fruited nose, with oak definitely in play, as well. But there’s also nice purple berry and dark cherry aromas that offset the strong vein of toasty barrel spices. Over time, some interesting notes of birch and sassafras wind their way into the consciousness, along with an unusually piney edge that I haven’t encountered in previous bottles of this. In the mouth, it is fairly open-knit and not all that structured—with a ton of sweet purple berry fruit flavor riding atop vanilla and toasted oak spice elements. It is easy and plush, with a sweet berry core, a liberal use of oak and no discernible greenies—though it seems to be advancing fairly rapidly vis a vis a bottle tasted a year ago.
-Michael
