The Enophillies celebrate a New Year

The Enophillies-a Philly area wine tasting group- recently celebrated another Millennium- this time 5000 to 4000 BC and much fun, wine drinking, good food and camaraderie ensued. Here are my tasting notes, such as they are.

1-J. Lasalle 1996 Brut. This was billed as a ‘welcome’ wine, but it delivered more than that. Light gold. Nose smelled a little older than anticipated, but lovely, apple-y. Mouth was fresh (much younger than the nose), refreshing acid bite, bread-y. All-in-all a high bar set for the evening. 92/100.

2-1995 Pol Roget Sir Winston Churchill. This, in one sniff, explained why the Lasalle was the welcome wine. Beautiful light gold. Rich, nose-filling, yeasty. Mouth filled all corners and lasted for almost 1 minute. Just beautiful! 95/100.

3-2004 Aubert Lauren Vineyard Chardonnay. Medium yellow with slight cloudiness. Rich and oaky nose. (No review recently ever mentioned the oak-it was fairly obvious, but dissipated over time in the glass.) Mouth was filling every cavity, citrus cocktail. Beautiful! 95/100

4-2004 Talley Rinon Vineyards Chardonnay. Pale yellow. Lemon zest nose. Mouth seemed light on its feet. Rich, but on the other side on the continent from the Aubert. Very good. 93/100.

5-1971 A. Anheuser Weisenheimer Rofenheuf (Rosenheuf?) Auslese. (This was supposedly Riesling, but in 71, I think they didn’t have to say on the label, so it is assumed Riesling.) Medium deep gold. Very mango in nose and taste. No obvious residual sweetness. Very nice acid presence, and another argument for 1971 being one of the best German vintages in the past 50 years. 93/100

6-2004 Hans Wirshing Weissburgunder (Franken) Pale yellow. Slightly spritzy. Light on the nose and mouth. Not bad, but outclassed by the previous. 85/100

7-1999 Zind-Humbrecht Heimbourg Gewurztraminer. Gold. Beautiful Gewurz nose of lychee/rose petal. Moderate sweetness/richness that married well with the food. A great example of Gewurz and tied with WOTN. 94/100

8-2002 Arcadian Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir. Medium red. Some ETOH on the nose. Some typical cherries in nose and mouth. Not my cup of tea, so others may chime in here. 90/100

9-2003 Termanthia. Black hole color. Rich, a touch overripe plum nose. Mouth filling, mocha, eucalyptus. Changed over time in the glass. Grew on me. 93+/100

10-1997 Castello Banfi Poggio Alle Mira Brunello di Montalcino. Medium garnet. Initial goat cheese on nose and taste. Very odd initial impression-bottle stink? But this bottle clearly won the most changeable award as it continued to progress throughout the evening. Nice overall impression, mellow mouth feel. Very good. 94/100

11-2002 Torbreck Run Rig. Near black hole in color. Nose of blueberries, medium weight. Overall, the impression was balance (NOT one of the OZ ooze monsters). Mouth had some pepper/blueberries/mint. Great. 96/100

12-2002 Sloan Cabernet Sauvignon. Garnet. Amazingly balanced in nose and taste. (NOT what one was expecting from a Parker 100 pointer.) Rich nose and mouth feel, some eucalyptus/blackberries. I was amazed at the balance demonstrated here. Great. 97/100

13-1999 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon. Garnet. Nose was classic HSS-I swear I could pick this blind on nose alone. Mouth was a touch thinner than promised by the nose. (Suggesting a weaker vintage.) Others liked this better than I, being won over by the nose-and who is going to complain? 93/100 Tied for WOTN.

14- 2000 Francois Baur Pinot Gris SGN. Red gold. Moderately sweet. Nose was a mélange of muted tropical fruits/mangoes. Nice, but somehow an SGN in my mind should be sweeter than an Auslese on the German scale. 92/100

15-1989 Neckerauer Weisenheimer Holde TBA Scheurebe. Brown gold. Rich nose, but medium sweet. Nice, but again a TBA should be richer, IMO. 91/100

16-2002 Karlsmuhle Lorenzhofer Eiswein. (Riesling?) Gold. Young nose, medium sweet. Acid here, but balanced. Nice. 93/100

All in all, one of the more balanced wine evenings, where all but one wine showed well. The dinner was held at A Little Café in Voorhees. Absolutely delish, and how refreshing to eat in a restaurant where the chef TASTED her food. Happy New Year!

[Jenise]

Harry, it's great to see a TN from you. Looks like a terrific batch of wines.

Are your notes in the order the wines were served? Not to be defensive (hey, it wasn't my wine but I'm a fan), knowing only from the 01 Arcadian Pisoni, I can't imagine how the 02, if it's similarly in need of a LOT more time, could show well sandwiched between a big Gewurz and a Termanthia.

Jenise-HNY! I wasn't the "host" so the order was decided by others. The food had some input in the order also. Also, the German 1971 was the Winzenheimer Rosenheck Riesling Auslese. Trying to read German script with a little alcohol on board is difficult! Be that as it may, I didn't think the Pinot Noir showed all that well. Also, one of the "themes" of the evening was "NO EXCUSES" meaning that whatever you needed to do to show the wine you brought at its best-DO IT! I proposed this theme as a tweek to the Burg/pinot lovers who always seem to have an excuse about why the wine didn't show well. I think you may have proved the point.

[Jenise]

Reisling? On your list, the wine preceding the Arcadian was a ZH Gewurz. But no matter, with that theme (good one), you're absolutely right that this was the wrong wine to bring.

There's a real art to picking what you're going to take to an offline/tasting, isn't there? Took me a few years to figure out how to choose not just my idea of a great wine but a showy wine, and/or a wine that I wouldn't despair over seeing get shot into oblivion, which can also happen when there are so many good wines or a bottle isn't showing at its best.

Jenise, agree 100%. Pinot isn't usually an offline showy wine. But when it is good, slowly over a meal is the best way to enjoy.

Whilst Torbrecks pricing is ambitious across the full range, the two tastings I've had of RunRig have both been extremely positive - it's one very good wine.

[Robin Garr]

The Enophillies-a Philly area wine tasting group- recently celebrated another Millennium- this time 5000 to 4000 BC

Nice to hear from the Enophillies, Harry, and welcome back! I couldn't help smiling about the Brunello ... I love Brunello, but it must have really been the odd man out in that remarkable lineup as the only dry, Old World red unless I overlooked another. I wonder how much context affected the impression it made. (I know, I know, NO EXCUSES ... )

Robin, there was enough time to get a decent snapshot of a wine at this dinner. This Brunello opened and changed over 2 hours or so. I think Jenise's comments are correct, in a free-for-all wine tasting, the more 'pensive' wines usually get lost in the suffle. This one didn't. The Pinot was just good, not great-and I don't think it would have shone in another venue. Harry C. PS-I lurk on most boards lately due to a job change and a general laziness with regard to write-ups!

Harry,

Thanks for the excellent tasting notes. I had the privilege of tasting at Pol Roget with Christian Pol-Roget. The '95 Cuvee Winston Churchill was the star of that tasting. It was very entertaining. I'd always heard about the rivalry between Rheims and Epernay, but this was the first time I'd seen it in action. Rheims was derided as a bunch of German chemists whose wine has no soul, and it was pointed out that in World War I, Rheims fell rather promptly to the German invaders, but they never took Epernay.

I happen to adore Krug, so I'll beg to differ with Monsieur Pol-Roget on this particular matter. But I'll never say no to Cuvee Winston Churchill.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Harry,

Sooner or later you guys are going to get me to move to the Philly area!

Beth told me about the dinner when we visited last week. It sounded great from her memory, and even better in your notes. In fact, Beth described the food options and Laura would have been happy! Now that's a shocker!

Reisling? On your list, the wine preceding the Arcadian was a ZH Gewurz. But no matter, with that theme (good one), you're absolutely right that this was the wrong wine to bring.

There's a real art to picking what you're going to take to an offline/tasting, isn't there? Took me a few years to figure out how to choose not just my idea of a great wine but a showy wine, and/or a wine that I wouldn't despair over seeing get shot into oblivion, which can also happen when there are so many good wines or a bottle isn't showing at its best.

Hi Jenise, Mishy is here in town and we have a get-together tonite with 6 of us!! Prosecco and a Chateauneuf from my cellar alto` not really an offline naturally!

[Jenise]

How fun! Tell her hello from me.