Wade Hostler, who some might remember from an ex-forum, was in Finland after a four year break so we met up to drink some wine and eat some Raclette:
Tarlant Champagne La Vigne d'Antan Blanc de Blancs NV
From ungrafted vines. A really lovely, bready aroma, lovely minerality; very crisp but in a friendly way, very moreish. Lovely.
Crushpad Töövi Roussanne Saralee's Vineyard 2010 - Russian River Valley, California
Quite closed. Some herbaceous aromas; good acidity for the grape. Clean and focused style so it's a shame that even several hours of air didn't really open this up.
Domaine Loew Pinot Gris Grand Cru Engelberg 2007
Indice de sucrosité 1/10. Right after opening, this was very expressively aromatic with an almost sweet wine profile so the bone dry palate was a bit of a shock. Revisiting this slightly later, the nose had calmed down and the palate had improved. It is perhaps in a slightly inexpressive stage (apart from the first five minutes after opening), but I thought it was a pretty awesome dry PG with much extract but much structure. Lovely. I slightly preferred this dry one to the Bruderbach below.
Domaine Loew Pinot Gris Bruderbach Clos Marienberg 2007
Indice de sucrosité 3/10. For a slightly sweet PG this is notably elegant. Slightly spicy red fruit; crisp and acidic palate that the slight RS ameliorates. Beautifully balanced and lovely.
L'Ostal Cazes Minervois-La Livinière 2009
70% Syrah + Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre. Weird and stinky at first with too much aromas of sweat and reduction to be enjoyable. It did somewhat improve during the evening, but it never became enjoyable. Sweet fruit, supremely alcoholic (14,5% on the label but I've had Islay whisky at 40% that tastes more balanced). Not much fun to drink.
Crushpad St. Töppö 2009 - Bordeaux
Merlot-Cab Franc, c.14% abv. The hot year is obvious in this wine: it is big, sweet, sunny and very ripe. But it also smells of Cabernet Franc and Merlot in such a way that I can't imagine it coming from anywhere else where a right bank blend is made. Rich and sweet but properly structured, very concentrated but fresh. It needs time. Though moderate for Bordeaux, the oak still does obfuscate the wine quite a bit and I prefer to see the wine clearly.
Ch. Musar Rouge 1972
Not as good as our previous bottle four years ago. But this is most certainly not due to this having gone downhill since then! This was almost absurdly youthful: primary fruit aromas (peaches or some such stone fruit); sweet palate that took four hours double decanted to really come together. Initially the acidity lagged behind the fruit and so the palate seemed disjointed but we managed to keep our hands off of this for long enough for this to correct itself. Great wine, but not as good as the previous bottle. But as we all know, there are no great young wines, only great young bottles.
Ch. Musar Rouge 1977
Finally one more bottle that isn't corked! I have had terrible luck with this vintage: of a dozen bottles this is only the second one to not be corked. My other non-corked bottle was one of those rare fuck-me-this-is-good wines. This bottle wasn't as good. The aromas actually seemed a bit over the hill with some rye-bread/malt aromas. The palate was really lovely however, lifted, energetic, lively and as typical as can be for this property. Very good but not great.
Zind-Humbrecht Clos Windsbuhl VT Pinot Gris 1994
12% abv. Special thanks must be given to Charles Morgan who gave this bottle to Wade some years ago! And it was extraordinarily generous of Wade to carry it from California to Finland! Thanks to these two awesome winos!
A lovely botrytised wine. Spicy and exotic fruit; rich and sweet but perfectly wonderful amounts of acidity to keep this from being cloying. I must confess that Z-H hasn't usually been to my taste, but this was one of the few wines of theirs that make me understand why they are held in such esteem. No hurry with this. Drink and hold.