Monthly lunch notes:
2010 Guillemot-Michel ‘Quintaine’ Macon – only showing a bit of colour, and a nose of ripe tropical fruit – pineapple apricot? Finishes softly. Very pleasant wine. Not what you expect from the Macon.
2003 Falesco Montiano – this Merlot from Lazio was dark, had a fairly big nose of dark fruit, vanilla and cocoa, and was full bodied and with good acidity. No one but me thought it was Italian, given the otherwise new world framework it showed, but the acidity headed me for Italy.
1995 Gallo Barrelli Creek Cabernet – I bought the first premium vintage dated Gallo wine – the 1991 Estate wine, and fooled a lot of people with it (think I still have one bottle somewhere) as no one thinks of Gallo. After I got that, though, I didn’t pay much attention to their other later efforts, of which this was one. Medium dark with bricking edges, a slightly green tinted cab based nose, a tad short on fruit, but decent showing for a cab that is nearing the end of its useful life.
2013 Bela Vida Syrah – this was something I had brought to show the group. Dwight Sick is the winemaker at a BC winery called Stag’s Hollow. As a personal project, he bought himself a good French oak barrel, and every year tries to find grapes to make wine as a project. For 2013, he found some old (as far as BC goes, probably less than 20 years) Syrah at Amalia Vineyard but the owner refused to sell them. He said that his wife’s 50th birthday was coming up, and that he’d give Dwight the grapes if he made the wine and gave half of it to the grower. So there are only about 25 cases of this, only half og which ever made it into the hands of anyone but the grower. The first thing people commented on was that the colour was not as deep as many BC Syrahs are. The second thing was that it had a very different nose with elements of blood/iron and dark plumy fruit. It was quite tasty and was well balanced. Hopefully it will encourage the winery to do more with Syrah in the future.
2000 Chasse Spleen – this Moulis is usually a pretty hard wine for years, but this one is showing very well at 15 years of age. Good claret nose, some nice cassis and tobacco, and good fruit levels and soft tannins. Not complex, but quite enjoyable.
2005 Joseph Swan Pinot Noir Saralee’s Vineyard – a really good fruity pinot nose here, good berry/cherry fruit on palate and a smooth seductive wine. Nice.
1998 Dom. Santa Duc Gigondas – this is the regular wine, not the Hautes Garrigues. It has the very ripe nose that this vintage has always shown from this producer, and while the fruit was adequate, I had to agree that it was getting to the low side and gave the impression that the wine was over the hill. I popped another cork on one later on for dinner and found a much better presentation in terms of fruit, but everything else as noted here. Time to drink but individual bottles can show well. And hopefully the others are in the minority.
2001 Karl Lawrence Cabernet – sweet cherry nose, with a bit of oak, and on palate good fruit and a smooth medium finish. At drinking peak now.
1999 Tua Rita Giusti di Notri – this cabernet based wine showed lots of interesting herbal/spice notes in the nose, but was new world on palate with big dark fruit and medium length. Quite good. Ready.
2004 Kongsgaard Syrah Hudson Vineyard – loved the nose on this one, as we even got some Rhone bacon fat coming into it, and dark berries, and on palate a sweet ripe presentation with soft tannins. I have a hard time pegging this one for where it is at – does it need more time, or is it heading for the final round up? I just don’t know.
2007 Boekenhoutskloof Syrah – this South African wine didn’t immediately jump out at us as being from the Cape, but it was fun to try and track it down in our minds. Clearly a classy wine, with a smoky dark plum nose with coconut hints that later seemed to switch to primarily cassis, quite attractive, and on palate a medium to full body with lots of juicy acidity and good length. Very good!