A little while back, 9 of us met at Peach Farm in Chinatown to dine on many, many crazy dishes and drink many, many crazy-good wines. As usual, there was no theme, no blind flights, and no drinking order, just good times.
2002 Gaston Chiquet Champagne Millésime Or. A blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, this bottle was disgorged in February of 2010. It has a fine, stony bouquet featuring aromas of graphite, chalk, crushed shells, yellow apple, and lemon that are lively and pointed, but also giving and inviting. In the mouth, it’s just great—powerful, driven, and showing off great acidic focus and crunchy mineral underpinnings but loads of refreshing apple, pear and citrus fruit flavors. It’s a well put-together wine that’s highly enjoyable for my tastes.
2004 Bonnaire Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Grand Cru. This is young and taut all around, just beginning to show its true colors, I suspect. The nose is exceedingly bright--with tons of smoke, sulfur, lemon sour ball and quartz-like mineral aromas that are zippy and just seemingly wound very tightly at this stage of the game. In the mouth, it’s light and zesty, with a sour-tinged acidity to go with the airy top-notes of bright lemon oil, apple and pear. It foams up quite a bit and offers a fine blanc de blancs mouthfeel, but again it’s just a bit early to be drinking this, I’d say.
2002 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. This Chablis is a bit yellow-gold in color, with a sort of thick and pasty bouquet to it that features aromas of smoke, peach pit, steeped lemon, and copper penny notes that lend it an oxidized character that’s not to everyone’s liking. In the mouth, it’s a bit austere in the coppery tastes it leads out with, but there’s also a moderately rich and giving underbelly of lemon cream, white peach and pear tart sorts of flavors to consider through the middle. It’s mouth filling and fanned out, but awfully soft and open-knit already compared to the 2000 version of this cuvee, so I’d proceed with caution all around in holding it any longer.
2007 Michel Gahier Chardonnay Arbois La Fauquette. This is also a fairly dark yellow color, but the nose is wonderfully individualistic and fascinatingly complex in its aromas of candied lemon, candied peach, clover honey, yellow pixie stick dust, cherry pit, pineapple, wild meadow flowers and intriguingly bohemian funk tones. It’s quite similar on the palate—coming across as rather sappy and gripping in texture, with a powerful undertow of sweet-toned tropical fruit, light caramel, mineral and citrus flavors that are elevated and distinctive, yet rounded and flowing. I like this a whole lot.
2001 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett Nahe. This is a finely-layered treat to sniff—with all kinds of lime zest, apple juice, slate, kerosene, pineapple and funky fruit rind aromas coming right up out of the glass with ease. In the mouth, it’s loaded with beautiful flavors of tangy lemon sour ball, cherry, dried pineapple and grapefruit that are impeccably pure, gently sweet, deeply-pitched and effortlessly free-flowing. For my tastes, it’s a winner.
2010 Domaine Ganevat Côtes du Jura Cuvée de l'enfant terrible. This wine looks like strawberry Kool-Aid in color and follows that up with light and airy aromas of tea leaves, strawberries, ash, light spices, sheepskin leather and gentle funk. It shows more pop and life on the palate, with airy but kicking flavors of wild strawberries, cherries and pink citrus. It’s elegant and light, but driven and fully-flavored. I find it to be a fun drink with a high geek-appeal but able to deliver plenty of early-drinking pleasure, too.
1999 Gros Frère et Sœur Vosne-Romanée. This wine presents a dark and earthy-- though not especially deep--bouquet of black cherry fruit, crunchy autumn leaves, sous bois, black tea, iron, smoke, mushrooms, sassafras and birch aromas. It’s leafy and earthy on the palate, as well, showing flavors of clay, mushrooms, tea leaves, leather and savory earth to go with twists of smoked cherry fruit. It’s mid-weight, resolved of tannin, and admirably springy with its acidity, but still quite earth-bound, leafy and difficult to connect with or find a lot of charm from, in my opinion.
1997 Faiveley Nuits St. Georges Les Argillats. This is pretty tight and reserved on the nose, with compact aromas of tobacco leaf, old baseballs and dark cherry fruit tones. It’s a bit more expressive on the palate, with gripping flavors of smoked cherries, cranberries, mushrooms and earth that are cool, old-fashioned and restrained. My guess is that it needs to unwind with a few more years in the cellar.
1976 Domaine des Chesnaies Bourgueil Cuvée Prestige. This wine was a really pleasant surprise all around. It opens up right away with an exceptionally expressive bouquet that is very healthy and vivid, delivering loads of green pepper, tobacco leaf, leather and fine earth aromas to go with undertones of pine sap and rosemary before the lovely blue and black berry fruit elements begin to emerge and take more prominent roles with time and air. In the mouth, it shows surprising depth and concentration of juicy black and blue fruit to go along with very nice tobacco and earth flavors. It has great old-world character but tons of drive and life, too. I think everyone was really impressed with just how good a showing this gave us.
1986 Giuseppe Quintarelli Cà del Merlo Veneto IGT. Here one finds a warm, inviting nose that pulls you right in--tantalizing you with creamy aromas of black cherry, dark chocolate, caramel, old leather and cigar ash. In the mouth, it’s warm, smooth and full-bodied, with some aged, oxidized notes of caramelized fruit, but also plenty of licorice rope, chocolate, cherry and earth flavors that are tasty and full of character. I like the refinement and warmly inviting tones, but worry that it’s on the downslide if this bottle is any true indicator.
1998 Le Clos du Caillou Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine du Caillou. This wine smells old-fashioned and resolved, delivering gentle aromas of pounded leather, dusty dry earth, campfire smoke, soft oak and dried cherries and strawberries. In the mouth, it displays plenty of cassis, cherry pie, licorice rope, orange peel and occasional blacker fruited flavors that are warm and sweet-toned, with full resolution of tannin. It’s easy, warm and fun to drink now, even if at times it may seem even a bit too sun-baked in tone. Drink now.
1998 Domaine Clavel Coteaux du Languedoc La Méjanelle Copa Santa. There’s a fair bit going on here, but primarily it smells of savory soy sauce, beef broth, mushroom soup, leather and black raspberry. It’s concentrated, fleshy and toothsome on the palate, with deep flavors of black cherry and black raspberry fruit, smoke and meat to go along with enough sticky tannins to suggest this can go a while yet.
1995 Castello Banfi Sant' Antimo Summus. This wine presents a Cabernet Sauvignon-driven nose of sweet black currants, black cherries and dark earth. It’s a big and mouth-filling wine that’s still pretty chewy and tannic, but full of ropy black currant, cherry and dark chocolate flavors. The stuffing is certainly there, but I think it could use a bit more layering or nuance, so I’m inclined to suggest giving it a few more years in the cellar.
1999 Éric Texier Hermitage. The nose here is meaty and manly, making no apologies for its decidedly direct and savory aromatics of beef blood, iodine, pen ink, rawhide leather, muddy earth, black beans and blackberries. In the mouth, it features smooth and finely-honed flavors of bacon fat, white pepper, blackberry and cool earth tones supported by a lithe frame and polished but rigid tannins. I like the fine juicy finish and have to say it’s starting to drink really nicely, especially since the first two times I drank it back in 2008.
2004 Alain Voge Cornas Vieilles Vignes. This wine delivers wonderful dark Syrah aromas right out of the gate, coating the nose with beautiful scents of white pepper, creamy black cherries, dark mocha, black licorice, hung meat and tobacco leaf. In the mouth, it’s absolutely delicious. It’s generous and creamy-textured, and fully-loaded with cherry, chocolate and blackberry flavors that are smooth and luscious. It’s totally drinkable for such a young Cornas, but there’s also great structure, polished tannins and excellent inner strength here for those who wish to age the wine. I happen to think it is delicious now, especially compared to the much more rigid and old-fashioned 2005 that will need a long time to come around in my opinion.
2001 Meßmer Burrweiler Altenforst Gewürztraminer Spätlese Pfalz. This is pretty wild stuff on the nose, featuring many aromatic facets including rosewater, lavender, peach pit, nectarine, malt and honey. It delivers flavors of lychee, peach, pistachio nut, honey and baking spices on the palate that also features a bit of a wild side. It has good length and volume, a nice even level of sweetness throughout, and lots of swirling funky dimensions that keep it interesting and fun.
1989 Château Rieussec Sauternes. This is wonderfully lively and overt on the nose, giving up all kinds of baked apricot, peach preserve, caramel, crème brulee topping, toasted orange peel and botrytis spice aromas that are just so nice. On the palate, it’s delightfully exotic in its flavor profile of baked apricot, toasted orange peel, cream and botrytis spices. It’s deliciously mouth-filling, luscious, outgoing and sexy all the way through.
1979 Bürgerspital zum hl. Geist Würzburger Stein-harfe Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese Franken. This wine comes in a 71 ml Almaden-shaped bottle. It pours a dark brown, almost black color, but immediately unveils a huge bouquet redolent of prunes, raisins, blackberries, fig and dark spices that’s just fun and full of life. In the mouth, it’s deep, dark and unctuously sweet with roasted caramel, raisin and fig flavors that are offset by a good dose of juicy acidity. And for a wine that claims to be 23% abv, there’s absolutely no heat or other signs of the alcohol levels. It’s a real treat in every way.
There was also supposedly a 2007 Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Altenbourg VT that was opened, but I managed to miss it. All in all, it was the usual excess and all-around good time!
-Michael
