Albert organized a Dominus tasting with 8 of us at one of our favorite local Italian restaurants in Newton, where we took over the back room to taste through a really impressive set of wines from this vaunted producer. We didn’t taste the wines blind, and we had dinner served throughout the course of the tasting, so all wines were tasted with food.
Flight One:
1983 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This is controlled and earthy on the nose, with fine savory aromas of old leather, dirt pile, cedar, dried herb, black cherry, black currant and licorice demonstrating very pleasing balance all around. Tangy acidity carries this along nicely on the palate, with plenty of fruit still showing mellow grace, refined character and gentlemanly earthy tones. Dark cherry, black currant and iron ore flavors are healthy and resolved, though there are some faintly-drying tannins consistently whispering in the background. It’s a real pleasure to drink, tailing off a bit later in the evening, but not before showing off tremendous quality for the first vintage of this wine.
1984 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This leads right out with a lovely, cedar-laden bouquet that shows very pretty accents of dry dill, leather and mint aromas above a core of beautiful red currant and cassis fruit. It’s a bit more rounded than the 1983, with a warm, sexy and entirely engaging personality that I really connect with. In the mouth, there’s a tiny twinge of sourness to the ripe cherry and red currant fruit flavors that otherwise show great depth and refined richness. Its mellow texture is giving and rewarding, with nice iron and ink undertones. The finish might not be quite as long as on the 1983, but I really like the full and rounded mid-palate profile. I had this as one of my favorite wines of the night.
1985 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This opens up a bit cranky on the nose, but it really comes on strong and fans out to show off its fine bouquet of iron filings, dried blood, charred leather, crushed gravel, tobacco, menthol and dark mixed fruits after a while. It’s leafy and earthy in a fashion that appeals to me, and that’s a pleasing profile that continues onto the palate. It definitely possesses the darkest profile of the flight, giving up all kinds of savory sensations of singed iron, pen ink, dark earth and raw meat to go along with blackberry and black currant fruit and dark fudge flavors. It’s a bit more tacky-textured than the previous wines, but still feels smooth and lithe through the fine mid-palate. It finishes deadly serious and maybe a bit too astringent and austere when all is said and done.
Flight Two:
1988 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This is lifted and buoyant on the nose, with lots of peppery elements accenting the core aromas of blueberries, prunes, Frangelico, licorice and balsa wood. On the palate, it’s full of roast coffee, plum, prune, chocolate and dried fruit flavors with a bit of caramel and char around the edges. It’s a bit pasty in texture and I find the acidity a bit sharp in contrast to the dried fruit profile at times. It’s a little rough on the finish, too, and while pretty enjoyable on its own, it just feels like it’s trailing behind many of the other wines in the line-up on this night.
1989 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. Oh my, this wine possesses an absolutely lovely bouquet--with fresh and lifted, yet deep and ripe aromas of cassis, crushed raspberries, cherry paste, tobacco, leather and dusty dirt road lifting up out of the glass with great aplomb. In the mouth, it has fine weight and concentration of flavor, with an easy flow and a long, giving finish. Through the middle, it offers up plenty of licorice rope, red currant and cherry flavors riding across a beautifully-embroidered texture underpinned by giving tannin. There’s plenty of life left in this wine, but it’s truly delicious to drink now, too.
Flight Three:
1991 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This is fully-realized on the nose, showing tremendous layering to the wonderfully deep and dense aromas of black cherry, blackberry, white pepper, cooled bacon fat and menthol. It’s kicking out the jams on the palate, with lush, plush, pure and creamy flavors of baked cherries, red currants, cassis and spiced leather. It’s an effortless drink, with exceptional flow, easy texture and no hard edges. It has a lot of warmth in its character and feels like a complete wine.
1992 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. This is just a gorgeous wine from top to bottom, starting with a wonderfully Bordelais nose featuring lovely aromas of green peppercorn, menthol, tobacco leaf, leather, horse barn and black currant that really have the Cabernet Franc component coming through in a way I joyfully connect with. In the mouth, it’s totally plush and generous, but with excellent lift and a fine earthy underbelly running the length of it. The fruit is delicious and the balance is pitch-perfect, coming across as utterly classy and classic. This is exactly the kind of Dominus that makes people think about the bridge between California and Bordeaux, and I can’t think of a vintage that delivers better on that promise than this one. This was my WOTN.
1996 Dominus Estate Napa Valley. Now, this is a rather different style of wine to my way of thinking, with more obvious California overtones to the aromas of candied cherries, cassis, leather and cigarette tobacco. It’s hardly over the top, but doesn’t have the control or grace of the previous set of wines, in my opinion. In the mouth, it’s fairly tight, coming across as young and probably in need of a few more years in the cellar. The tannin levels are manageable, but the acidity is pretty high and quite forward just now, lending this a lot of vibrancy and brightness but a bit too much spikiness after all of the previously free-flowing and generous vintages. It sure is tasty-fruited and fun, but hasn’t found the refinement of the older vintages. Give it time.
Sweet Wines:
2010 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc T Noble Late Harvest. This wine has an unctuous and thick nose of peach candy, nectarine, litchi, kiwi, rose water, burnished sugar and botrytis spices. In the mouth, however, it features popping acidity to highlight the bright flavors of apple juice, candied pineapple, tangy lime and baking spices that are light but fresh and fun.
2010 Joseph Phelps Scheurebe Eisrébe Napa Valley. This has a wild, exotic twist to it on the nose, where one finds tangy-sweet aromas of orange blossoms, lemon and lime peels, funky spices and faint musk. In the mouth, it’s really appealing, showing off a deep, sweet core of lemon candy, orange gumdrop and lime zest flavors with exotic spice accents. It has a lot of class, fine balance and a bright fun finish I like a lot. After never having heard of this wine, I’ve now had about 4 vintages of it in the past 18 months, and I’ve become a fan.
1988 Château Suduiraut Sauternes. Kerosene, dried pineapple, nectarine, toasted spice, yellow Chuckle candy and peach preserve aromas rise up very nicely out of the glass here, leading to a palate that is taut and tangy, only mildly botrytized, but finely sweet with dark and toasty flavors of marmalade, baked oranges and yellow tropical fruits. It’s a treat to drink, and a really nice cap to a memorable evening.
While we were enjoying the sweet wines, we voted on top three wines from the Dominus flights. The 1991 and 1992 each received 3 first-place votes, and the 1989 received 2 first-place votes. When looking across all the voting (3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd), the 1991 outpaced the 1992 by a single point (15 pts to 14 pts), with the 1989 third (12 pts). The 1983 and 1984 tied for fourth place, with 3.5 points apiece due to some vote-splitting.
As a recap, my own personal voting was for 1992 as WOTN, then 1984 and then 1989, with 1991 close behind in 4th place. Voting aside, this was a fantastic performance across the board. Each wine had a lot to offer on its own, and even those wines made early-on from very young vines have proven to have excellent staying power. I think going in we were all expecting really good things, and Dominus delivered the goods.
-Michael