Spencer had Eli & I over late yesterday for pizza and drinks. A fun, relaxed evening as always, and unsurprisingly lots of wine. Thanks for hosting us Spencer.
2004 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Honivogl
Great stuff. Vivid minerality, a spectrum of fruit ranging from the typical greener Gruner flavours to riper peachy elements, and high toned spicy, herbal and floral notes all combining seamlessly into a polished, medium weight whole. There's remarkable balance here, a sense of lightness to the flavours and amazing persistence on the finish.
2008 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Hameau de Blagny
From a bottle opened the previous day that was still holding up very well. All about freshness; a core of incredibly bright pear and lemony fruit tinged with chalky mineral notes, light floral accents and more savoury creamy elements. There's bright acidity and a sense of real freshness in the mouth, with a finish that's all streamwater and minerals.
2010 Huët Vouvray Sec Clos du Bourg
Something's really off here; smells awkward and vinyl-like and doesn't taste any better with no fruit or balance.
1989 Robert Michel Cornas La Geynale
Rather disappointing considering the apparent pedigree of this site (an old vine parcel in Reynard). It's a bit anonymous at first, showing mature red fruits and olives with some earthy overtones; with time it starts to come around and show some more leathery and meaty funk, though it's still a bit thin in the mouth and not showing a great deal of complexity.
1998 Greenock Creek Shiraz Seven Acre
Hideously flawed. A mess of TCA and volatile acidity that went down the sink.
2003 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert
Smells rather unpleasant with a roasted element and a strong plastic-like note on top of ripe dark fruited flavours. It tastes a lot better than it smells though; combining red and dark fruits and savoury earthy elements in the mouth with good balance, though the aromatics are still challenging to get by.
2010 Eminence Road Farm Winery Cabernet Franc Elizabeth's Vineyard
Fresh, high toned red fruited flavours tinged with bell pepper and green herbal notes. Fairly light in the mouth and rather one note, a pleasant sipping wine but ultimately rather uninteresting.
1978 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Ovello
Showing its age, but still really enjoyable - fully mature with the fruit in the background, and developed savoury earthy, black tea, tarry and smoky elements dominating. It's fully mature with tannins integrated and a lovely silky texture, bright acids and lovely to explore over a few hours.
2009 Domaine La Consonnière Châteauneuf-du-Pape
One of the better young CDPs I've come across; medium weight and remarkably savoury with lots of earth and herbal elements framing elegant red fruited flavours. This is refreshingly moderate in both its ripeness and weight, nicely balanced and quite easy to drink. Really nice.
2002 Château L'Evangile
Awesome. Elegant, youthful cassis and dark fruited flavours tinged with exotic floral notes, tobacco and minerally elements with a faint green herbal edge that adds complexity. While it's certainly very young there's a sense of seamlessness and real polish here, fine grained tannins and bright acidity making it very easy to drink and a bottle disappears quickly.